What Psychologists Do  Some psychologists research, others consult – or apply psychological knowledge in therapy, and others teach  Clinical Psychologists –  Largest group of psychologists  Help people with psychological problems  Work in hospitals, prisons, universities and private practices  NOT PSYCHIATRISTS  Psychiatrist is a medical doctor and can prescribe medication

What Psychologists Do  Counseling Psychologists  Treat those with adjustment problems  Employed by businesses, colleges and universities  School Psychologists  Identify students with problems that interfere with learning (peer group, family, psychological, or learning issues)  How do school psychologists operate?  Student placement is a major responsibility

What Psychologists Do  Educational Psychologists  Focus on course planning and methods for a school system  Research how learning is affected by psychological, cultural, economic and instructional factors  Developmental Psychologists  Study the changes throughout a persons life  Include physical, emotional, cognitive, and social  Attempt to sort heredity and environmental influences

What Psychologists Do  Personality Psychologists  Identify characteristics or traits  Share an interest in origins of problems with clinical psych  Focus on anxiety, aggress, gender roles, etc.  Social Psychologists  Focus on behaviors in social situations  Examples?

What Psychologists Do  Experimental Psychologists  Research basic processes (such as nerve function, sensation, perception)  Some focus on relationship between biological changes and psychological events – called biological psychologists  Engage in basic research – research that has no immediate application and is done for its own sake

Psychologists: Other Specialties  Industrial and Organizational  Focus on people and work  Environmental  Focus on how people influence and are influenced by their environment  Consumer  Study the behavior of shoppers to predict behavior

Psychologists: Other Specialties  Forensic  Work in the criminal justice system  Testify about competence, problems that may cause criminal behavior, select officers, help officers cope with job stresses  Health  Examine how behavior and mental processes relate to physical health

A History of Psychology Chapter 1 Section 3

Roots from Ancient Greece  “Know thyself” – Socrates  Introspection – “looking within”  How we examine thoughts and feelings  Associationism – a learned connection between two ideas or events  Ancient Greeks theorized about various problems such as confusion and bizarre behavior  Hippocrates suggested odd behavior was caused by abnormalities in the brain

Middle Ages  Believed behavior was caused by demonic possession  Believed possession was punishment for sins or dealing with the devil  Used tests to determine if a person was possessed  Float test

Birth of Modern Science  Modern psychology was born in the 1800’s  1879 – beginning of psychology as a modern lab science  Wilhelm Wundt  Structuralism – concerned with discovering the basic elements of consciousness  Objective sensations and subjective feelings

Modern Science  William James  Functionalism – concerned with how mental processes help us adapt  Principles of Psychology – first psych text book, 1890  Include behavioral observation  Functional vs. structuralism

Modern Science  John B. Watson  Behaviorism – scientific study of observable behavior  If you reward, behavior is learned  B.F. Skinner  Used reinforcement (if you reward for an action, the action will be repeated)

Modern Science  Gestalt School – emphasize the tendency to organize perceptions into meaningful wholes  Reject the idea that experience can be broken down into parts  Reject the idea that psychologists should concentrate only on observable behavior  Believe learning is active and purposeful

Modern Science  Sigmund Freud  Psychoanalysis – emphasizes the importance of unconscious motives and internal conflicts  Psychodynamic thinking – assumed most of what exists in the mind is unconscious and consists of conflicting impulses, urges and wishes

Contemporary Perspectives Chapter 1 Section 4

Biological Perspective  Emphasizes influence of biology on behavior  Assume mental processes are made possible by the nervous system  Use CAT and PET scans to show what parts of the brain go with which mental process  Interested in influence of genes and hormones

Evolutionary Perspective  Focuses on evolution of behavior and mental processes  Suggest many behavior patterns have a hereditary basis  Focus more on inherited tendencies than environmental influences

Cognitive Perspective  Emphasizes role of thoughts in determining behavior  Rooted in “Know thyself”, along with structuralism, functionalism, Gestalt  Also view the mind as a computer  Believe behavior is influenced by values, perceptions and choices

Humanistic Perspective  Stresses self-fulfillment, consciousness, self- awareness, and capacity to make choices  What is considered most important?  Personal experiences  Friction between humanistic and behaviorists

Psychoanalytical Perspectives  Stresses influence of unconscious forces on behavior  Dominated in the 40s and 50s  (example – a person that intentionally bumps into you may be venting unconscious anger toward parents)

Learning Perspective  Emphasizes the effects of experience on behavior  Learning has different meanings in psychology  Behaviorists are concerned with what an organism does, not what it knows. Focused on learning habits though repetition and reinforcement  Social-learning theory suggests people can change their environments

Social-Learning Theory  People can learn intentionally by observing others  Conscious observational learning provides a storehouse of responses to situations  People can choose to do what they have learned  Have a cognitive leaning – believe people act in a way only when they recognize the situation calls for it

Sociocultural Perspective  Studies influences of ethnicity, gender, culture and socioeconomic status  Ethnicity  Includes study of bilingualism  Vulnerability to health problems  Prejudice  Gender, the state of being male or female