Psychology - Is the study of the mind, occurring partly via the study of behavior. Grounded scientific method, psychology has the immediate goal of understanding individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases, and for many it ultimately aims to benefit society. In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called psychologist, and can be classified as a social scientist, behavior scientist, or cognitive scientist. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior, while also exploring the physiological and neurobiological processes that underlie certain cognitive functions and behaviors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology
SCHOOLS OF THOUGHTS Structuralism -
German physician Wilhelm Wundt is credited with introducing psychological discovery into a laboratory setting. Known as the "father of experimental psychology", he founded the first psychological laboratory, at Leipzig University, in 1879. Wundt focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components, motivated in part by an analogy to recent advances in chemistry, and its successful investigation of the elements and structure of material.
Wilhelm Wundt
Functionalism -
Functionalism formed as a reaction to the theories of the structuralist school of thought and was heavily influenced by the work of the American philosopher, scientist, and psychologist William James. James felt that psychology should have practical value, and that psychologists should find out how the mind can function to a person's benefit. In his book, Principles of Psychology, published in 1890, he laid the foundations for many of the questions that psychologists would explore for years to come.
William James
Psychoanalysis -
From the 1890s until his death in 1939, the Austrian physician Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis, a method of investigation of the mind and the way one thinks; a systematized set of theories about human behavior; and a form of psychotherapy to treat psychological or emotional distress, especially unconscious conflict. Freud's psychoanalytic theory was largely based on interpretive methods, introspection and clinical observations. It became very well known, largely because it tackled subjects such as sexuality, repression, and the unconscious mind as general aspects of psychological development. These were largely considered taboo subjects at the time, and Freud provided a catalyst for them to be openly discussed in polite society. Clinically, Freud helped to pioneer the method of free association and a therapeutic interest in dream interpretation.
Sigmund Freud
Humanism -
Humanistic psychology was developed in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. By using phenomenology, inter subjectivity, and first-person categories, the humanistic approach sought to glimpse the whole person窶馬ot just the fragmented parts of the personality or cognitive functioning. Humanism focused on fundamentally and uniquely human issues, such as individual free will, personal growth,selfactualization, self-identity, death, aloneness, freedom, and meaning. The humanistic approach was distinguished by its emphasis on subjective meaning, rejection of determinism, and concern for positive growth rather than pathology. Some of the founders of the humanistic school of thought were American psychologists Abraham Maslow, who formulated a hierarchy of human needs, and Carl Rogers, who created and developed clientcentered therapy. Later, positive psychology opened up humanistic themes to scientific modes of exploration.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow in 1943 posited that humans have a hierarchy of needs, and it makes sense to fulfill the basic needs first (food, water etc.) before higher-order needs can be met.
Cognitive Psychology -
Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember, and learn. As part of the larger field of cognitive science, this branch of psychology is related to other disciplines including neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics.
Baddeley's model of working memory
Behaviorism -
In the United States, behaviorism became the dominant school of thought during the 1950s. Behaviorism is a discipline that was established in the early 20th century by John B. Watson, and embraced and extended by Edward Thorndike, Clark L. Hull, Edward C. Tolman, and later B.F. Skinner. Theories of learning emphasized the ways in which people might be predisposed, or conditioned, by their environments to behave in certain ways.
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Classical conditioning was an early behaviorist model. It posited that behavioral tendencies are determined by immediate associations between various environmental stimuli and the degree of pleasure or pain that follows. Behavioral patterns, then, were understood to consist of organisms' conditioned responses to the stimuli in their environment. The stimuli were held to exert influence in proportion to their prior repetition or to the previous intensity of their associated pain or pleasure. Much research consisted of laboratory-based animal experimentation, which was increasing in popularity as physiology grew more sophisticated.
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Skinner's behaviorism shared with its predecessors a philosophical inclination toward positivism and determinism. He believed that the contents of the mind were not open to scientific scrutiny and that scientific psychology should emphasize the study of observable behavior. He focused on behavior– environment relations and analyzed overt and covert (i.e., private) behavior as a function of the organism interacting with its environment. Behaviorists usually rejected or deemphasized dualistic explanations such as "mind" or "consciousness"; and, in lieu of probing an "unconscious mind" that underlies unawareness, they spoke of the "contingency-shaped behaviors" in which unawareness becomes outwardly manifest.
Gestalt -
Wolfgang Kohler, Max Wertheimer and Kurt Koffka co-founded the school of Gestalt psychology. This approach is based upon the idea that individuals experience things as unified wholes. This approach to psychology began in Germany and Austria during the late 19th century in response to the molecular approach of structuralism. Rather than breaking down thoughts and behavior to their smallest element, the Gestalt position maintains that the whole of experience is important, and the whole is different than the sum of its parts.
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Gestalt psychology should not be confused with the Gestalt therapy of Fritz Perls, which is only peripherally linked to Gestalt psychology.
WOLFGANG KOHLER
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology
Branches of Psychology Abnormal Psychology -
Abnormal psychology is the branch of psychology that looks at psychopathology and abnormal behavior. The term covers a broad range of disorders, from depression to obsession-compulsion to sexual deviation and many more. Counselors, clinical psychologists, and psychotherapists often work directly in this field.
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Deals with the study of the symptoms and etiologies of various kinds of disorders, such as personality, speech, visual, health-related, orthopedic, and mental disorders.
http://psychology.about.com/od/abnormalpsychology/Abnormal_Psychology.htm general psychology with values development lessons (4 th edition) by: Consuelo G. Sevilla, Ed.D.
Animal or Comparative Psychology People in this field investigate on the similarities and differences among the different species of animals to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the complexity of behavior of humans.
Business or Consumer Psychology Is a subfield of industrial psychology deals with the study of the behavior of consumers.
Clinical Psychology The study and treatment of personality disorders, as well as breakdown in behavior.
Computer Psychology Psychologists who specialize in this area plan the design and data analysis of experiments that require the kind of complex calculations that can only be done with ease on a computer.
Counseling Psychology Is an outgrowth of clinical psychology and deals with such problems as choosing a career, parent-child relationship, love and marriage, and others.
Developmental Psychology Also called as child psychology but it has now expanded to cover the development of the individual from conception to old age.
Educational Psychology It involves the study of development and motivational and emotional aspects of children’s behavior with the end in view of knowing how learning takes place.
Environmental Psychology This area studies the effects of the physical, temporal, and sociopsychological conditions of work on the worker.
Experimental Psychology Specializes in the investigation and experimentation of the psychological aspects of behavior, sensation, perception, learning, emotion, memory, motivation, and language and is concerned with finding the relationships of certain kinds of events with one another through precise measurements and special instruments.
Forensic Psychology This area involves work within the legal, judicial, and correctional systems in a variety of ways.
Genetic Psychology This focuses on the investigation of the mechanisms of heredity and studies how traits and characteristics transmitted from the parents to the offspring can be altered through the use of procedures developed in genetic engineering.
Health Psychology It applies principles of psychology to the understanding of health and illness.
Industrial Psychology It applies the methods, facts, and principles of psychology to people at work.
Mental Health Psychology The focus of this specialization is on mental health in the community rather than on the individual patient. It deals with the problems of the aged, drug addicts and rehabilitation, and treatment of prisoners.
Organizational psychology It studies the impact of organizational climate, such as style of leadership and amount of worker participation in organizational decision-making, on worker efficiency and productivity.
Personality or Dynamic Psychology This is concerned with examination of variables that explain how individuals develop and maintain their individual characteristic. Personality research in concerned with the personality characteristics of individuals that may lead us to understand the behavior.
Personnel Psychology This is a subfield of industrial psychology which deals with the selection and placement of the right kind of person for a particular job.
Psychometric or Mathematical Psychology This is a field that involves measurement and evaluation of individuals as well as group behavior and the application of mathematical procedures to psychology problems.
Social Psychology This field is concerned with how people in groups interact with one another. Social psychologists study ways to measure the change people’s attitude and beliefs because these can determine how people will deal with others. Likewise, they study how man relates with the family and the larger social institutions.
Sport Psychology It applies principle of psychology to the various fields of sports. general psychology with values development lessons (4 th edition) by: Consuelo G. Sevilla, Ed.D.
Importance of Psychology 1. Self-Knowledge Learning can be viewed as one purpose of life, and self-knowledge can be viewed as an important element of learning. We may not be able to fully understand ourselves simply through self-reflection. We may not be able to fully understand the causes of our own behaviors. We can gain a better understanding of who we are and the causes of our behaviors by learning about psychology findings in scholarly journals. In psychology journals, there are many randomized experiments. Because these randomized experiments allow us to make causal conclusions, we can gain insight into the true causes of our behaviors.
Moreover, a
personality test may allow one to gain knowledge of one's personality. This knowledge about personality may help to develop personal goals consistent with one's personality.
2. Learning About Others In addition to learning about oneself, the field of psychology allows us to learn about others. For example, we may gain insight into personality traits that are different from our own personality traits. It is important to gain an understanding of others to improve social relationships. We may wish to build rapport and communicate more effectively.
Also, we may need to know how to be
an effective manager or leader.
3. Solving Important Problems Theories and findings in psychology may help us to solve important problems. We may gain insight into new ways to solve important problems. Because some studies in psychology are randomized experiments, we may be able to make causal conclusions about whether certain strategies are likely to be effective.
http://www.psychologyandsociety.com/psychologyimportance.html
General Psychology (MTH 12:00-1:30)
Group 3: Leader:
Shallnie Mae Modar
Members: Karen Camille Matarum Kenneth Arvin R. Gache Jenny Bordonada
Ma. Grace Jeino Mikee Sarile Jenarose Cumpio