2. Psychology
Definitions
o From Greek word “psyche” to “talk about the self”
o The science of behavior and mental processes research
to obtain knowledge about the human mind
o Explains mental functions and underlying processes
• What is behavior?
3. Branches of Psychology
Clinical
o Assessment and treatment individuals with chronic mental
disorders or psychological crises (OCD, PTSD, grief)
o Can focus on specific group to treat (autistic children), or
more generally (addiction, relationship issues, and anxiety)
o Licensing and APA-sanctioned internship required to
practice
Developmental
o Study of how we develop intellectually, emotionally, and
how we change and grow over the lifespan
4. Branches of Psychology
Industrial/Organizational
o Explore relationships between individuals and their work
environment
o Leadership trust, increase productivity, involved in
staffing/personnel selection
Social
o Individual and group behavior, attitudes, addiction,
persuasion, gender issues, self-esteem, motivation, personality,
market research, etc.
Cognitive/Experimental
o Study learning, memory, sensation/perception
5. Psychology
• Scientific psychology = Empirical research studies
o “Basic research” to build psychology’s knowledge base
o Cognitive, developmental, abnormal, social psychology
• Applied psychology = “Real world” psychology
o Clinical, sport, or industrial/organizational psychology,
market research…
7. Clinical Psychology
• Psychiatry = branch of medicine concerned with mental
disorders; psychiatrists are medical doctors
who prescribe medication
• Psychotherapy = a form of treatment emphasizing
communication
• Psychoanalysis = Freudian theories/techniques
emphasizing unconscious conflict
8. Psychology
What makes psychology scientific?
• Like all science, psychology follows the empirical method
• Data + theory = knowledge
• Empiricism = Observation, objectivity, precision,
experimentation, etc.
9. Psychology
History
• Origins of psychology are rooted in philosophy
o Free will vs. Determinism
• Plato vs. Aristotle (Ancient Greece)
o Plato – Personality/characteristics inherited
o Aristotle – Nothing in the mind that does not originate from
external world via the senses
• Locke vs. Descartes (1600s)
o Locke – Mind blank slate at birth; knowledge comes via senses
o Descartes – Knowledge not dependent on sense experiences
10. History
• James (1875)
o American physician
o Wrote classic psychological text Principles of Psychology
• Wundt (1879)
o German physician
o Empiricism: science flourishes via observation/experimentation
• Watson (1900s)
o Founder of Behaviorist movement
o Behaviorism: Ignore mental states and focus only on what
is observable (behavior); the mind as a “black box”
11. History
• Psychoanalysis
o Freud (1890s)
• Emphasized unconscious drives (sex and aggression) as root of all
behavior
• Humanistic Psychology
o Rogers/Maslow (1950s-1960s)
• Emphasized free will; the ‘great reservoir’ of human potential
• Focused on optimal development rather than negatives
• Cognitive Revolution (1960s)
o Focused on perception, processing, retrieval of information, how memory
works, decision making, “the mind as a computer”, human cognition
