introduction, scope and methods of psychology

1. INTRODUCTION TO
PSYCHOLOGY
PERCEPTION
C O G N I T I O N
EMOTION
BEHAVIOUR
SOCIAL SCIENTIST
B E H A V I O U R A L S C I E N T I S T
COGNITIVE SCIENTIST
EXPERIMENTAL
BIOLOGICAL
PERSONALITY
SOCIAL
CLINICAL
PSYCHOLOGYMIND
COUNSELING
HAPPYINESS
SARROW
CRY
ANGER
SEX
Mr. Johny Kutty Joseph, Asstt. Professor

2. What is Psychology
 Philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature
of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially
when considered as an academic discipline. It is a
theory or attitude that acts as a guiding principle for
behaviour.
 Philosophy is the mother of Psychology.
 Psychology can be defined as the scientific study
of behavior and mental process. From the word
behavior one can extract two meaning, because
there are two kind of behavior Overt and Covert
behavior.

3. History & Origin of Psychology
 From the period of philosophical speculations
based on unscientific procedure to the present
status the historical development in psychology
may be classified as
a. The Early Age of Pre Scientific Psychology.
b. The Medieval Age of Scientific Psychology.
c. The Present Age of Contemporary Psychology.

4. The Early Age of Pre Scientific
Psychology.
 The earlier attempts for explaining the cause and form
of human behavior were based on superstitions and
movement of stars.
 Contributions of Greek Philosophers:
a. Socrates: created a question-answer method to
understand behavior.
b. Plato: created distinction between mind and body.
c. Aristotle: said that mind controls activities of body.
d. Hippocrates: Opposed the role of supernatural
powers in psychology.

5. The Early Age of Pre Scientific
Psychology.
 17th Centaury during Roman Empire again
superstitions came up. In addition some theories such
as;
a. Dualism: It says that mind and body are separate
entities. Body is a machine which is controlled by
mind a free bird.
b. Critical Empiricism: It propagates that behavior is the
by-product of two sources such as the things
(external) and mind.
c. Naturalism: It insists the role of feelings and emotions
for studying behavior.

6. The Medieval Age of Scientific
Psychology.
 This was the end of unscientific era of psychology and
the beginning of scientific psychology.
 In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt established the first
psychological lab to study internal mental process and
hence he is called the father of Psychology.
(scientific).
 This period gave birth to many school of
thought/school of psychology to understand behaviour
after many experimentations.

7. The Medieval Age of Scientific
Psychology.
 Structuralism: Psychology is the science of
consciousness or experience. The experience
depends on three elements such as physical
sensation (what he see), feelings (his likes and
dislikes) and images (past memory). Eg. Banana. It
emphasize on systematic study of one’s
mind/consciousness to understand behavior.
 Functionalism: It advocates that one’s mind is
constantly weaving associations, revising experiences
for adding to one’s own functional abilities to adapt to
his environment. Eg. Formation of different habits for
adaptation to a situation.

8. The Medieval Age of Scientific
Psychology.
 Behaviorism: It says that in addition to consciousness
other factors also influence behavior such as soul,
mind, mental life images, ideas, past experiences etc.
It focus on overt/observable behavior totally.
 Gestalt Psychology: It emphasizes on perceiving
things as whole by an individual rather than mere
parts. Human behavior is not a simple stimulus-
response reaction. It is an intelligent behavior which
includes perceiving things, analyzing the situation,
assessing relationships, observing environment and
making proper decisions/reactions.

9. The Medieval Age of Scientific
Psychology.
 Psychoanalysis: Given by Sigmund Freud. It has
some concepts;
a. Human behavior contains both conscious (overt)
and unconscious behavior (desire, feeling, drives
and motives).
b. We can analyze unconscious behavior through
free association, dream analysis etc. (methods of
psychoanalysis). Conscious behavior is
observable.
c. One’s personality may be explained through Id,
Ego and Superego. (hypothetical structure)

10. Contd………..
a. Human behavior is driven by a powerful motive
called libido/sex motive.
b. Behavior changes during Human developmental
period: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latent and Genital
Stage.
 Some revisions were done to this theory at later
stages such as Individual psychology (replaced
sex with power motive) and Analytical Psychology
(replaced sex with social urge or life urge).

11. The Present Age of Contemporary
Psychology.
The present age of psychology still considers the
concepts of Behaviorism and Psychoanalysis as the
main forces of human behavior. Some new concepts
were also propagated during this periods such as
 Humanistic Psychology (1950). It emphasized the
individuals' unique potential for psychological growth.
Human beings are purposeful being having capacity to
adapt to any situation. It talks about self determination,
free will, self actualization, and choice of human
behavior. Carl Rogers who developed Client centered
therapy and Abraham Maslow who explained the
concept of need hierarchy which became founder

12. The Present Age of Contemporary
Psychology.
 Transpersonal Psychology: It is based on the need
hierarchy theory. It focuses on study of personal
experiences that seem to transcend (beyond the range
of limits ) ordinary existence. This can be explained in
terms of realization or self actualization. It helps to
recognizes the enormous power of human mind. This
may be achieved through deep meditation, some
drugs, religion, Yoga etc.
 Cognitive Psychology: It studies man’s ability of
thinking, memory, language, development, perception
and other mental processes. It explains human
behavior in terms of intellectualization.

13. Introduction
 Psychology derives from two Greek words,
“Psyche and Logos”
 Psyche means soul and logos means study
 Literally psychology mean the study of souls
but now it is study of mind.
 Psychology primarily studies WHO and WHAT
we are, WHY we act and think in a particular
manner and what is our potential as an
individual.
 Study of psychology is concerned with specific
study of behavior and mental process.

14. Defining Psychology & Behavior
 Psychology can be defined as the scientific study of
behavior and mental process. From the word behavior
one can extract two meaning, because there are two
kind of behavior Overt and Covert behavior.
 Overt behavior are those which is visible to other in
other word seen behaviors, Example: The way we Talk,
Walk, Dress, Eat and so on… in short these are the
action we see and observe in individual and group
around us..
 Covert behavior are those which is not obvious to the
people around us. Simply they are unseen behavior. For
example, Feeling such as anger, jealousy, kindness, pity,
happiness and sad. In fact, covert can be deduced from
the overt.
 Behavior is defined as the aggregate of the overt and
covert responses that an organism makes to various

15. Psychology as a Science ?
 Psychology is a positive science as it studies facts and
describes it scientifically.
 A science deals with a group of related facts and
principles of a particular subject. It emphasize the
search of truth. It use objective methods but also
develop theory to explain the facts. It can predict the
behavior according to circumstances.
 Psychology as a science deals with systematically with
human behavior with the motives, feelings, emotions,
thoughts and actions of men and women.
 Like science It also explains the underlying laws and
principles of behavior. It explains laws of learning,

16. Psychology as a Science ?
 It also collects the subject matter or facts by means
of scientific methods such as experimentation and
observation.
 Like science it can also predict behavior given
under certain circumstances. We can predict and
control behavior to certain extent. Eg. The Patient
may react with anger if some restrictions are
imposed on the ward routine.
 These all aspects contribute to the concept that
Psychology is a science.

17. Relation of Psychology to other
Sciences
 Psychology and Biology: Psychology is a science
of the experience and behaviour. However
experience cannot be adequately explained without
the concomitant physiological processes. The
environment acts on the mind through the sense-
organs; and the mind reacts to the environment
through the muscles. The sense-organs and
muscles are organs of the body. So mental
processes are closely related to bodily processes.
 Psychology and Philosophy: Psychology is
interested in the individuals mind, whereas
philosophy is interested in a universal mind and in
formulating some ultimate or universal principles.

18. Relation of Psychology to other
Sciences
 Psychology and Sociology: Psychology deals with
the behaviour pattern of an individual in relation to the
environment which is physical (light, sound , smell etc)
as well as social (parents, friends, enemies etc.).
Sociology deals with the nature, origin, and
development of society. It investigates into manners,
customs and institutions of a society in all its stages of
development from the savage to the civilized state.
Hence, psychology is intimately related to sociology.
 Psychology and Psychiatry: Psychiatry is a medical
speciality. It concentrates on diagnosis and treatment
mental illness. These diagnosis and treatments are set
up on the basis of clinical psychology.

19. Scope of Psychology
 The scope of psychology is so wide as it can be
viewed from various angles and is described into
two categories;
1. Fields of Psychology
2. Applied Psychology

20. Fields of Psychology
1. General Psychology: deals with basic principles and
explains universal characteristics like perception,
motivation, emotion, personality etc.
2. Animal Psychology: behaviour of animal and other
species.
3. Developmental Psychology: studies behaviour
across life span (intra individual and inter individual
aspects.)
4. Abnormal Psychology: studies psychopathology of
abnormal behaviour like depression, anxiety, OCD
etc.

21. Applied Psychology
 Clinical Psychology: it is the scientific study,
diagnosis and treatment of people who have
psychological problems and have difficulty in coping.
Clinical psychologists deal with normal and abnormal
behaviour.
 Counselling: focus on helping individual to resolve
personal and social issues related to work, school,
family. This address developmental issues and daily
stresses.
 Educational Psychology: it understands the teaching
learning process and devise methods to improve it.
Also understand teacher-child-parent relations and

22. Applied Psychology
 Crime Psychology: studies the behaviour of criminals
in relation to the situations and causes leading to
their criminal behaviour.
 Child Psychology: studies the behaviour of children
along with their growth and development.
 Para Psychology: It tries to explore such behaviour
related to telepathy, extra sensory perception, rebirth
etc. It tries to understand how a person guess and
visualize the coming events or tell stories about
previous births.
 Industrial Psychology: study of human behaviour in
relation to the industrial environment. This helps to

23. Importance of Psychology in
Nursing
Psychology will enable the nurses to understand
herself. Eg. Understand own motives, desires,
emotions and ambitions.
It will help her understand other people like
colleagues, authorities, patients, family members.
The study of psychology will help her gain better
understanding of the communication. Understand
therapeutic and non therapeutic communication
techniques.

24. Importance of Psychology in
Nursing
Nurses attitude towards her work affects the nurse-
patient relationship and illness. Positive attitude
improves healing and brings progress.
The study of psychology will help her appreciate
the need to change the environment. The
environment decides the modification and progress
of behaviour.
Help to identify the factors which affect the coping
with illness, pain, loss.
Understand importance of healthy lifestyle like
exercise and avoid factors like smoking.

25. Psychological principles of
Nursing
The principle of nursing the whole patient.
The principle of correct psychological approach to
the individual patient. Eg. Warmth, rapport,
empathy etc.
The principle of an adequate and sympathetic
understanding of patients.
The principle of effective health teaching.
Understanding the learning principles, motivation
factors, importance of different aids, confidence
and goodwill.
Adjustments that have to be made by a nurse in

26. Methods of Psychology
The Introspection Method: intro mean within and
spection means looking. it is the self observation or
inner perception.
Merits:
it is simple and available.
Understanding of covert experiences are possible.
Demerits:
Continuous change in mental process cannot be
observed.
Lack of reliability and validity.

27. Methods of Psychology
 The observational Method: it is done by a second
person. Collected data is reported. It may be formal,
informal, participant or non-participant observation.
Merits:
Used to understand the behaviour of children.
It is economical.
Nurse can use it for her patients.
Demerits:
Consent is not possible.
Data depends on the attitude and experience of the
observer.

28. Methods of Psychology
 The experimental Method: in this method independent
variable (stimulus) are manipulated by the experimenter
to determine their effects on the dependent variable (what
is measured). It is the observation under controlled
conditions.
Merits:
More reliable, definite and precise.
Can be replicated and Less bias.
Demerits:
Complexity of the behaviour does not permit perfect control
conditions and hence it is difficult.
Inclusion of artificiality; behaviour is natural. Situations may

29. Methods of Psychology
The clinical/Case History Method: it is an in depth
study of a person. It helps to understand cause and
source of peoples' fear, anxiety, obsessions etc. Eg.
Case history.
Advantages:
In depth information.
Exploratory research methods are used.
Disadvantages:
Cannot generalize the finding.
Time consuming.

30. Methods of Psychology
The Survey Method: gathering data using interview,
questionnaire from a selected sample.
Merits:
Easy to administer.
Short time required.
Demerits:
Validity of tool.
Sample selection criteria
Cooperation from public.

31. Methods of Psychology
The Genetic/Developmental Method: Study of
human behaviour through the life span. Usually
starts at childhood. It is a very rare method.
Testing Method: Use of Psychometric tests.