Psychology - Introduction Basic concepts /Fundamentals Evolution & Approaches Psychology in Indian Perspectives

1. Introduction to Psychology
Unit – 1(XI & XII)
In accordance to NCERT Syllabus
Pavithra Lakshmi Narasimhan
M.Sc., (Psychology),M.A(Sociology), B.Ed

2. Unit – 1
What is Psychology ?
• Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behaviour.
• The word “psychology” comes from the Greek words “psyche,” meaning life,
and “logos,” meaning explanation.

3. Nature of Psychology
• Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior, according to the
American Psychological Association.
• Psychology is a multifaceted discipline and includes many sub-fields of study
such areas as human development, sports, health, clinical, social behavior and
cognitive processes.

4. Emergence of Psychology as a discipline
• Psychology did not emerge as a separate discipline until the late 1800s, its earliest
history can be traced back to the time of the early Greeks. During the 17th-century,
the French philosopher Rene Descartes introduced the idea of dualism, which
asserted that the mind and body were two entities that interact to form the human
experience.
• During the mid-1800s, a German physiologist named Wilhelm Wundt used
scientific research methods to investigate reaction times. His book published in
1873, "Principles of Physiological Psychology," outlined many of the major
connections between the science of physiology and the study of human thought
and behavior

5. Schools of thought(thinking)
• A school of thought is the perspective of a group of people who share common opinion
or outlook basis some factors and thereby categorize their understanding. This
approach led to the famous schools of thought in psychology.
• Structuralism.
• Functionalism.
• Behaviorism. it should be an objective science.
• Humanistic. focused on ways that the environment can nurture or limit our personal growth
potential.
• Cognitive Psychology.
• Gestalt.
• Existential.
• Psychoanalysis

6. Psychology as a social science
• Psychology studies individual in relation to his social world.
• It studies the behaviour ,keeping in mind individualistic factors such as Personality, Attitude ,
Intelligence , Motivation , Emotions etc,.
• Psychology as a branch of social sciences explains the behaviour/ action as an interplay of
genetic factors, social factors, cultural factors .Thus , involves a multi-disciplinary approach
• Psychology provides a great scope to conduct various researches and studies just like other
subject matters of humanities. These researches and reviews can be divided into facts,
observations, logic, conclusion, and hypothesis. Those reviews can be used for further
developmental studies of psychology.

7. Structuralism
• structuralism is the first official psychological school of thought. Wundt and
his student, Edward B. Titchener advocated this thought.
• Structuralism aimed to investigate the structure of the mind. They study the
basic elements of the conscious mind and do so scientifically through the
technique of “Introspection”. Wundt approached this goal by utilizing the
tool of introspection, which “involves looking inwards; reflecting on,
analyzing and trying to make sense of our own internal experiences as they
occur”.

8. Functionalism
• William James, an American psychologist propounded this school.
• In contrary to the structuralist, Functionalist aimed at studying the function
of the mind. Function refers to how the mind operates and how mental
processes take place.
• Functionalists were focused on why certain mental process occur and they
approached their experiments by using introspection physiological measures.

9. Psychoanalysis
• Pychologists under the psychoanalytic school of thought believed in studying the
unconscious. The leader of this school of thought was Sigmund Freud.
• They focused on studying all the elements of the unconscious, which contrasted to
the work that the structuralists and functionalists did for the conscious part of the
mind. Freud believed that most “factors that influence our thoughts and actions lie
outside of conscious awareness and operate entirely in our unconscious” .
• He compared the human mind to that of an iceberg, where only part of it is seen by
others while the rest lives and thrives beneath the surface of awareness.

10. Behaviorism
• John B. Watson advocated behaviourism, a school of thought concentrated
on studying the mind objectively through the examination of stimuli (events
in the environment) and responses (observable behavior) .
• In its simplest form, behaviourism is the study of observable behaviour.
• Adding on to Watson’s work,
• behaviorist B.F. Skinner promoted the idea of human behavior being
examined through “reinforcement and punishment — observable,
environmental factors — with no need to consider inner mental processes”

11. Gestalt
• Max Wertheimer is a gestalt psychologist who studied cognition, perception,
problem-solving, and thinking
• The term “gestalt” signifies “form, pattern, or whole.” These psychologists believed
in studying the mind and human experiences as a whole rather than breaking down
elements.
• Gestalt psychologists are known for their saying: “the whole is greater than the sum
of its parts”.
• This emphasizes their view on how meaning is lost when ideas are broken down; it’s
only when pieces are analyzed as a whole body that one can understand the true
meaning of human experiences..

12. Humanistic
• Humanists viewed humans as “free agents capable of controlling their own lives (as
opposed to being controlled), making their own choices, setting goals and working
to achieve them” and they took on a more positive approach to human nature and
believed that humans are inherently good.
• Carl Rogers is one of the most notable humanist psychologists who disagreed with
the deterministic (the idea that our actions are controlled by forces beyond our
control) approach which guided psychoanalysis and behaviourism.
• Another humanist is Abraham Maslow, who is most famous for creating
his Hierarchy of Needs .

13. Evolution of Psychology in India
• Indian psychology is an approach that is based on ideas and practices that developed over
thousands of years within the Indian sub-continent.
• In other words, we use the word ‘Indian’ to indicate and honour the origin of this approach
to psychology—the origin of the underlying philosophy, the conceptual framework, the
methods of enquiry, and the technology of consciousness that it uses to bring about
psychological change and transformation.

14. Structure of mind – Indian context
• Structure of the personality—relative to the western concept, is the Indian tradition of ahaṁkāra,
which stands somewhere in between the Western concepts of ego and self-concept.
• This egoic centre, belongs to the ordinary waking consciousness, the Indian tradition has also
developed a for non-egoic centres of consciousness (i.e) it has found below the surface of our
waking consciousness not only the dark ‘unconscious’ that depth psychology has explored, but a
whole range of subtle kośas or layers of consciousness, that each have their own characteristic nature.
• It has even worked out many different ways of ‘realizing’ in one’s experience (or perhaps one should
rather say, in one’s being) a Transcendent beyond all nature. It has found that all these inner layers,
types, and centres of conscious existence have their specific influences on the surface personality, and
that a direct access to them can, with sufficient training, enable levels of freedom, peace, joy,
compassion, and understanding much beyond what is possible in the ordinary waking state.

15. Concept of Self &
Cognition
• In the field of cognition, sense-based cognition, mostly described as a system of pramāṇa, or
knowledge-producing events.
• In the field of Self and Personality, the ordinary sense-based cognition was not enough for the
Indian tradition, and it developed besides a detailed understanding of intuition, inspiration,
revelation, and various other types of ‘intuitive knowledge’ for which there are not always equivalent
terms in English.
• Different schools developed somewhat different theories about these matters—and they made much
of their differences—but there is actually quite a large common base. It is noteworthy that the
philosophical school of the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, which specialised in issues of epistemology and
methodology, came to conclusions that are similar to modern thought in many respects.

16. Emotions Explained
• The major area of interest in psychology is that of emotion and motivation.
• one of the greatest discoveries of the Indian tradition—the idea that the nature of ultimate reality can
be described as an indivisible unity of Sat, Cit and Ānanda, or Existence, Consciousness, and Delight.
• While in western psychology, it is generally presumed that happiness is dependent on the satisfaction of
individual needs and desires, this theory asserts that delight is inherent in existence, even though it can
be clouded in humans by their ‘ignorance’ (avidyā).
• suffering is attributed to ego-bound deformations and limitations of the over-individualized human
consciousness. In this perspective, the satisfaction of desires may give temporary relief, but the road to
lasting and unconditional happiness and wisdom runs through detachment from the ego, and a
rediscovery of one’s knowledge of, love for, and oneness with the ultimate reality.
• With the ideal of perfect detachment and complete equanimity, a series of intriguing questions arises,
which have occupied some of the best minds in Indian history, regarding the possibility of action for
someone who has completely overcome all desire, preference and attachment. If such ‘unmotivated’
action is possible—and most schools of Indian thought agree that it is—then what kind of action can
that be?

17. Multidimensional nature of the personality
• svabhāva and svadharma—the recognition that individuals have not only their own true nature, their
own unique set of qualities, but also their own truth of action, their own rules of conduct. Both
concepts are based on the underlying sense that the individual is not just a cluster of self-concepts
and tendencies to behave according to pre-established patterns, but a spiritual being, a soul who has
taken birth for a definite purpose, a purpose which it has to find and fulfil
• In the field of child-development, psychodynamics, psychopathology and psycho-pharmacology—
there is in fact detailed theoretical knowledge available within Āyurvedic and Siddha literature.In all
four fields, the Indian tradition has paid attention to very similar social and physical factors as are
taken into account in Western psychology; but there is, besides, an additional interest in influences on
more subtle planes.

18. Branches
• Psychology is a vast discipline, comprising of an interesting range of specialties that
have emerged as the field has progressed over time.
• Fields/Branches :
• Abnormal Psychology
• Developmental Psy
• Cognitive neuroscience
• Positive Psychology etc

19. References
• https://www.verywellmind.com/a-brief-history-of-psychology-through-the-
years-2795245
• https://valentinasolci.medium.com/breakdown-on-the-different-
psychological-schools-of-thought-270c769752e3
• http://www.whatispsychology.biz/major-psychological-schools-thought
• https://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/9/9.00SC/MIT9_00SCF11_text.pdf
• Morgan and King – Psychology handbook