Introduction to Psychology

Definition :

                        “Psychology”
comes from Greek roots meaning “the study of soul or spirit”.

Psych means self, soul or mind and logus stands
for knowledge. So psychology was dedined as knowledge of soul, mind and
consciousness.

Psychology as a Science of Soul

·        
First psychology define as
“Science of soul”.

·        
Muslim and non-Muslim both
have clear concept according to their own belief.

·        
This term as changed its
meaning with the passage of time . In primitive era it was limited to living
organisms only.

Pythagoras: He says that the body
is a prison of soul. After the death of an individual soul become free and roam
any where according to its will.

Socrates: He was first who
introduced the word Psyche. He advocated that body is greater than soul
and also that “soul is limited”.

Plato:
Plato was in opinion that soul and body are separate system. Both remain
active and functioning till last breath.

Aristotle:

·        
Aristotle
is considered as first psychologist.

·        
Book
name De Anima (considered as first book of the psychology)

·        
Def: termed  soul as living  principle in all animals being believed that
life in nothing without soul.

Psychology as a Science of Mind

Aristotle proposed as the function of body and
mental process are effected due to environmental factors. John Locke declared
that soul is religious concept and mind is psychological concept. He presented
the notion known as “Tabula Rasa” that means mind is absolutely blank sheet at
he time of birth, environmental experiences make prints on it. In 19^th  century psychology was emerging as
separate  discipline. It is defined
as  the science of  “ mental process” .

Wundt:

·        
When
Wundt established the first laboratory and evolved structuralism as a school of
thought, he defined psychology  as
science of mind.

·        
Two
types of mental process cognition and affect.

Aspects:

·        
Cognition,
conation and Affect are the three aspect of mental process.

·        
Psychology
is the science of A, B, C (Affect, Behavior and Cognation ).

·        
To
understand someone at any given time or to predict what one do next we have to
understand what he or she is feeling (A), during (B) and thinking (C).

Criticism

·        
Untouchable
and can’t be seen or observed, so experimentation will become impossible or
difficult.

·        
We
can be aware of our mental activities 
and not of others. Our knowledge is limited and subjective.

·        
Animals
kids and mental patients can’t observe their own mental processes.

·      
Mental
process is continuously changing.

Psychology as a Science of
Consciousness

Present momentary awareness is called as
consciousness. What we are experiencing now at this moment is conscious mental
process.

John Dewey

·        
American psychologist.

·        
Science of consciousness.

W . James

·        
Psychology is Science of
consciousness.

·        
Mind is flexible and fluid.

·        
Characterized by constant
chage and adaptation in response  to flow
a information. He called this flow, “a stream of consciousness”.

Attributes of Consciousness by W . James

·        
Personal

·        
Constantly changing

·        
Sensibly continuous

·        
Selective

·        
Active

Criticism

·        
Unscientific,
subjective and can’t be experienced.

·        
Small children,
patients suffering form sever problems and animals can’t describe or analyze
their conscious experiences.

·        
Can’t study other’s
conscious process directly.

·        
Psychology as science
of consciousness is quite narrow

·        
Excluded the study of
unconscious  and subconscious.

Psychology as a Science
of  Behavior

Living thing soes is generally known as
behavior  i.e Responses or Reactions to
various kind of stimuli. We have to study the behavior.

J. B. Watson:

Psychology is a study
of behavior i.e what organism do, their action, reaction responses. The
behavior of organism is observable and can be measured, criticized the concepts
like soul. Anything which can’t be experimented must be thrown out of
psychology.

Thorndike:

·        
Trial and error method for
learning.

·        
Pavlov and Skinner
introduced  the laws of conditioning
while experimenting on animal.

·        
Watson individual learns from
his environment.

Criticism

·        
Stress on obvious behavior .
Did not realized the importance of mental process.

·        
Discarded the concepts of
conscious, sub conscious and un conscious.

·        
All definition have some
flaws because none of them cover the subject matter of psychology in a complete
sense..

Comprehensive Definition

Behavior : Behavior is everything we do that can be
directly observed.

SCHOOL AND SYSTEMS OF PSYCHOLOGY

When psychology was first established as a science
separate from biology and philosophy, the debate over how to describe and
explain the human mind and behavior began. The different schools of psychology
represent the major theories within psychology.

The first school of thought, structuralism, was
advocated by the founder of the first psychology lab, Wilhelm Wundt.

Structuralism and Functionalism

·        
One of  Wundt’s students, a man named Edward B.
Tichener, would later go on to formally establish and name structuralism,
although he broke away from many of Wundt’s ideas.

·        
Both of these
schools thought lost dominance in psychology, replaced by the rise of
behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and humanism.

Structuralism

·        
Focus on breaking down of mental processes into the most basic
components.

·        
Researchers tries to understand the basic elements of consciousness using
a method known as introspection.

·        
Structuralism did not last long beyond Tichener’s death.

Strengths of Structuralism

·        
Important because it is first school of thought in psychology.

·        
It also influence experimental psychology.

Functionalism

·        
Form a reaction to the structuralism.

·        
Explain mental  processes in a more
systematic and accurate manner.

·        
Focus on purpose of consciousness and behavior.

·        
Also emphasized individual differences.

Strengths of Functionalism

 Influenced behaviorism and
applied psychology.

Psychoanalysis

·        
Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis and the psychodynamic
approach to psychology.

·        
Emphasized the influence of the unconscious mind on behavior.

·        
Human mind composed of three elements. ID, Ego and Superego.

·        
Freud’s theories of psychosexual stages, the unconscious and dream
symbolism remain a popular topic among both psychologists and laypersons.

Criticisms of Psychoanalysis

·        
Freud’s theories overemphasized the unconscious mind.

·        
Most of Freud’s ideas were based on case studies and clinical
observation.

Humanistic Psychology

·        
Starts during 1950s.

·        
Began as a reaction to psychoanalysis and behaviorism.

·        
Psychoanalysis focused on understanding the unconscious motivations that
drove behavior.

·        
Behaviorism studied the conditioning processes that produced behavior.

·        
Humanistic Psychology focus on each individual’s potential and stressed
the importance of growth and self-actualization.

·        
People are innately good, with mental and social problems resulting from
deviations.

·        
In 1962, Abraham Maslow published Toward a psychology of Being.

·        
Describe humanistic psychology as the “third force” in psychology.

Strong point
of Humanistic Psychology

·        
Emphasized the role of individuals.

·        
Gives more credit to individual in controlling and determining their
state of mental health.

Gestalt Psychology

·        
Look at a human
mind and behavior as a whole.

·        
Gestalt Psychology form partially as a response to the structuralism of
Wilhelm Wundt.

·        
There are the wholes, the behavior of which is not determined by that of
their individual elements. But where the part-processes are themselves
determined by the internsic nature of the whole.

Gestalt Laws
of perceptual Organization

·        
Focus on how people interpret the world.

·        
Max Wertheimer noted that rapid sequences of
perceptual events.

·        
Create the illusion of motion known as phi
phenomenon.

·        
According to Gestalt Psychology whole is
different than the sum  of its parts

·        
Gestalt Psychologist develop a set of
principles to explain perceptual organization.

·        
Smaller objects are grouped to form larger
ones refers to “laws of perceptual organization”.

Cognitive
Psychology

·        
Studies mental processes including how people
think, perceive, remember.

·        
How people acquire, process and store
information.

·        
Ways to improve memory.

·        
To increase decision making.

·        
How to structure educational curricula.

·        
Began to shift against behavioral psychology
to focus.

·        
As attention memory.

·        
Problem solving.

·        
Refer to as the cognitive revolution.

Existential
Psychology

·        
Understanding people by examining their
interpersonal relationships, understanding that people have many levels of self
awareness that can be neither ignored nor put into an abstract context.

·        
Biological drive natural to humans.

·        
Social and interpersonal human relationship.

·        
Subjective phenomenological.

History of the movement

·        
Kiekgaard 

·        
Descartes’s

Biological
Prespective

·        
Focus on the physical and biological causes
of human behavior.

·        
First basic tenet  all behavior as the psychological root.

·        
Second tent a lot of human behavior patterns
are based on genetics.

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