1. UNIT : I
INTRODUCTION
Content:
 History and origin of science of psychology
 Definitions & Scope of psychology
 Relevance to nursing
 Methods of psychology
Aashish Parihar
Nursing Tutor
College of Nursing
AIIMS, Jodhpur

2. HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Before 1870 psychology was not a separate discipline rather it
was studied under Philosophy.
Some of the contributors of psychology were as follows:-
 Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 opened first experimental
laboratory in psychology at the University of Leipzig,
Germany. He is considered as the father of
psychology.
 American Psychological Association (APA) was
established in 1892 and the founder was G. Stanley Hall.
 In 1896 John Dewey and William James supported the
functionalism in Psychology.

3.  In 1896 Sigmund Freud developed the theory of
psychoanalysis. On the basis of this therapy later on he
developed the therapy of free association and dream
analysis.
 In 1905 IQ test developed by Alfred Binet and Thiodore
Simon.
 In 1913 John B. Watson supported the behavioral aspects
of psychology.
 In 1921 Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach
devised a personality test based on patients'
interpretations of inkblots which is named as
Rorschach ink blot test
HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

4.  In 1921 First Nobel Prize for psychological research was
given to Charles Frederick Menninger.
 In 1921, Ivan Pavlov developed the theory of classical
conditioning through the experimental approach
 In 1935 Gestalt Psychology came into existence
 B.F. skinner proposed the theory of Operant
conditioning
HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

5. HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
PERSONALITIES OF PSYCHOLOGY
BF Skinner Sigmund
Freud
Ivan
Pavlov
Wilhelm Wundt
Father of
Psychology

6. ORIGIN OF SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY
“a science is the body of systematized knowledge that is
gathered carefully observing and measuring events.”
Like any other science Psychology is also based on the
observations and experiments which others can repeat and
verify.
Psychology concerns with the observation and explanations
of human behavior in single individuals or in groups.
“a science deals with a group of related facts and principles
of particular subject”
Psychology as a science deals with the motives, feelings,
emotions, thoughts action of men and women

7. like a science, psychology discover and explain the underlying
laws and principles of human behavior.
Psychology describes the laws of learning, feelings and thinking.
Like any other science, psychology collects the subject matter or
facts of behavior.
Psychology is a positive science not the normative as it describes
the facts of human behavior and its laws as they are not as they
ought to be.
Wundt was the first psychologist to measure the human behavior
accurately.
Sigmund Freud, Maslow, Rogers, Watson, Pavlov and Thichener
were all important in the development of Psychology as
science.
ORIGIN OF SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY

8. DEFINITIONOF PSYCHOLOGY
The word "psychology" comes from the Greek word psyche meaning
"breath, spirit, soul", and the Greek word logia meaning the study of
something.
Thus we can conclude that psychology is the study of soul.
There are various definitions for psychology given by the variety of
authors which are-
* “study of mind”
“descriptions and explanations of state of consciousness”
“William James”
* “study of consciousness” …. “Wilhelm Wundt ”
* “positive science of the conduct of the living creature”
“William McDougall”
* “ psychology is the science which aims to give us better understanding
and control of the behavior of the organism as a whole”
“William McDougall”

9. Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. The
discipline embraces all aspects of the human experience
— from the functions of the brain to the actions of
nations, from child development to care for the aged. In
every conceivable setting from scientific research centers
to mental healthcare services, "the understanding of
behavior" is the enterprise of psychologists.
“American Psychological Association”
DEFINITIONOF PSYCHOLOGY

10. Psychology today covers enormous range of scope
or fields.
They can be broadly classified into two groups-
 Basic psychology
 Applied psychology
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

11. Basic Psychology
It is aimed at contributing to knowledge of behavior.
College, universities, laboratories and departments
are the main employment settings of the basic
Psychology.
Basic psychology has the following subfields:-
1. Developmental psychology
2. Social psychology
3. Physiological psychology
4. Abnormal psychology
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

12. Basic Psychology
5. Experimental psychology
6. Psychometrics
7. Cognitive psychology
8. Personality psychology
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

13. Basic Psychology
1. Developmental psychology –
 It studies the human development, physical,
emotional, social, moral emotional and personality
development across the life span
 Developmental psychology primarily focused on
the child development.
 But today devotes a great deal of research to
adolescence, adult and old age group.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

14. Basic Psychology
2. Social psychology-
 It deals with interpersonal behavior and the role of
social forces in governing behavior.
 It primarily focuses on attitude formation, attitude
change, prejudice, leadership, conformity,
attraction, aggression, intimate relationships and
behavior in groups.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

15. Basic Psychology
3. Physiological Psychology-
 It examines the influence of genetic factors on
behavior.
 It also deals with the brain, nervous system,
endocrine system and bodily chemicals like the
neurotransmitters in the regulation of behavior.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

16. Basic Psychology
4. Abnormal psychology
 It is also known as psychopathology.
 It studies the models, causes, classification,
diagnosis and the treatment of individuals with
psychological disorders.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

17. Basic Psychology
5. Experimental psychology-
 Experimental psychologists restricts themselves
chiefly to laboratory research on basic
psychological processes, including perception,
learning memory, thinking, motivation and
emotions.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

18. Basic Psychology
6. Psychometrics-
 It is concerned with the measurements of behavior
and capacities usually through the development of
psychological tests.
 Psychometrics is involved with the design of tests
to assess personality, intelligence, and a wide range
of abilities.
 It is also involved with the development of new
techniques for statistical analysis.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

19. Basic Psychology
7. Cognitive psychology-
 Focuses on higher mental processes such as
memory, thinking, reasoning, information
processing, language, problem solving, decision
making, creativity and artificial intelligence.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

20. Basic Psychology
8. Personality psychology-
 It describes and explains the individual consistency
in behavior which represents their personality.
 The area of interest is also concerned with the
factors that determine personality and personality
assessment.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

21. Applied Psychology
Applied psychology uses the various fields of basic psychology to
improve the quality of life of the human being in various fields like
school, industry, hospital, consultancy and community.
Applied psychology has the following subfields-
1. Clinical psychology
2. Counseling psychology
3. Organizational psychology
4. Educational psychology
5. Health psychology
6. Environmental psychology
7. Forensic psychology
8. Sports and exercise psychology
9. Psychology of woman
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

22. Applied Psychology
1. Clinical psychology-
 It deals with the evaluation, diagnosis and
treatment of individual psychological disorders.
 Principal activities include interviewing the client,
psychological testing, and providing group or
individual psychotherapy.
 NIMHANS, Bangaluru, central institute of
Psychiatry, Ranchi provide the training in clinical
psychology.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

23. Applied Psychology
2. Counseling Psychology-
 it usually works with a somewhat different clients,
providing assistance to people struggling with
everyday problem of moderate severity. Thus they
often engage in family, marital and career
counseling.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

24. Applied Psychology
3. Organizational Psychology
 It is an outgrowth of industrial psychology and also
known as organizational behavior .
 It tries to study and solve the different
organizational problems exist in the school,
hospitals, university, military, companies etc.
 Here it tries to solve the problems of leadership,
group conflicts, conflicts, different levels of
organization, organization culture, organization
development etc.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

25. Applied Psychology
4. Educational Psychology
 Educational psychology is mainly devoted to an
understanding of the different aspects of the
teaching-learning process.
 It is concerned with the application of the
principles, techniques and methods of psychology
to the teaching-learning process.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

26. Applied Psychology
5. Health Psychology
 Health psychology is the field that studies the role
of the psychological factors in the promotion of
health and the prevention of illness.
 It has the interest in relationship between stress and
illness.
 It describes the interaction of biological,
psychological and social factors.
 This model is known as Biopsychosocial model.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

27. Applied Psychology
6. Environmental Psychology
 Environmental psychologists work in school,
industrial and governmental settings.
 They design work environment and study the
effects of crowding, noise and air pollution on
behavior
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

28. Applied Psychology
7. Forensic Psychology
 Forensic psychology applies psychology to the
legal system.
 They include jury deliberation process and the best
ways to select jurors.
 Some forensic psychologists train police to handle
domestic disputes, negotiates, negotiate with
hostage takers.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

29. Applied Psychology
8. Sports and Exercise Psychology
 This field applies psychology to athletic activities
and exercise
 It considers the role of motivation, the social
aspects of sports and physiological impact of
training on muscle development.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

30. Applied Psychology
9. Women Psychology
 It discusses the psychological factors relating to
women’s behavior and development.
 It tries to explain various issues like discrimination
against women, structural differences between men
and women, the effect of hormones on behavior,
causes of violence against women and so on.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

31. Methods a psychologist uses for gathering information
or facts or data are-
 Introspection
 Descriptive research
 Experimental method
 Developmental method
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

32.  Introspection
 Introspection means looking into oneself or self
observations or self analysis.
 It involves carefully examining and reporting one’s
own behavior, thoughts, emotions, sensations and
mental notes.
 In the method of introspection one relies on his
memory, draws on his past experiences of analysis
his current behavior.
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

33.  Introspection
 It is very helpful in self observations without
depending on time.
 It does not required any device
 It is the only method by which of the experiences
can be known.
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

34.  Introspection
 They can not be verified objectively
 They cannot be confirmed by others
 Repeatability is not confirmed
 Provide little or no informations about the
experiences of infants, mentally ill person or
animals.
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

35.  Descriptive research
 Descriptive research includes the following
methods-
 Naturalistic observation
 Case study
 survey
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

36.  Descriptive research
 Naturalistic observation
“making observations into natural world”
o Subjects individuals and animals are observed in
their natural world.
o The observer remain unobtrusive
o Naturalistic observation is also used in studying the
animal behavior in natural environment and it is
called Ethology.
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

37.  Descriptive research
 Case study
“studying individual in depth”
o One individual is examined intensively to find out as
much as possible about a certain problem or a issue as it
relates to that person .
o It is most often used to investigate the abnormal
behavior.
o Biographical data, scores on psychological tests and
informations obtained in extensive interview are the
measures of the case study or case history methods.
o Overgeneralization and nonobjectivity are the
limitations of the case study methods.
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

38.  Descriptive research
 Survey
“asking for responses to interview or questionnaire”
o It collects informations about behavior, opinion, attitudes, life
experiences or personal characteristics.
o Surveys are commonly in the form of interview or
questionnaire.
o Question in survey should be clearly worded free from bias
o Due to financial constraint researcher administer survey on
sample of people who represent the target population.
o Sample for the population should be representative of entire
population.
o It is best achieved in terms of random sampling
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

39.  Experimental method
“establishing cause and effect relationship”
 Cause effect relationship can be established by
experimental method.
 In laboratory researcher controls the condition and
measures the relations among variables.
 A variable is something that can occur with different
value.
 Independent variable
 Dependent variable
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

40.  Developmental method
“observing the period of growth”
 Used in the field of developmental psychology
 Physical, social, moral, language and emotions are
observed in the children
 Developmental method uses the following
techniques-
Normative investigations
Longitudinal study
Cross sectional study
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

41.  Developmental method
 Normative investigation
o It describes something that is characteristic of
specific age
o These observation provides norms.
o Example of normative investigation is Bayley scale
of infant development.
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

42.  Developmental method
 Longitudinal study
o In this study change in the same individual or group
are studied over a long period of time.
o In it researcher observe for changes in specific
characteristic such as language, personality or
intelligence.
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

43.  Physical and mental well being of a patient depends
largely on the nurse
 A nurse should know the science of behavior for better
result to deal with the patient.
 Psychology explains the relationship between the
psychological stress and physical disorders.
 After detail study of the psychology nurse can apply the
principles of psychology in the dealing with the
patients.
 Psychology helps the nurse to accept the individual
differences in terms of likings, disliking, emotions,
response to stress etc.
RELEVANCE TO NURSING

44.  Psychology also contributes in many therapeutic
measures like- behavior therapy, play therapy,
psychoanalysis etc.
 Psychology helps to understand the concept of self
awareness, self esteem.
 It describes the coping abilities, defense mechanism
used by the patients and theis relevance to diseased
conditions.
RELEVANCE TO NURSING

45.  Psychology helps to understand herself
 Psychology helps to understand other people
 It will help her to improve situations by helping
others
 Make her to understand close relationship between
body mind and spirit.
RELEVANCE TO NURSING