What Psychologists Do Some psychologists research, others consult – or apply psychological...

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