This document provides an overview of psychology as a field of study. It begins by outlining the key concepts and goals of psychology that students will learn. It then describes the history and origins of psychology as a science. The document discusses several historical and modern approaches within psychology, including structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, Gestalt, psychoanalysis, and more. It also outlines various methods used in psychology and how psychology relates to other fields of study. Finally, it describes the biological basis of behavior, focusing on the structure and function of neurons and the nervous system.

2. At the end of unit the student will be able to
• define psychology and behavior
• explain goals of psychology
• describe history and origin of science of psychology
• Explain Modern approaches and Historical approaches of
psychology
• Discuss Methods of psychology, relevance to nursing,
relation to other field of study
• Describe biological basis of behavior and experiences

3.  Psychology derived from the Greek words psyche
and logos, meaning soul and study,
 Literally psychology mean the study of souls but
now it is study of mind.
What is psychology?
Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the
human behavior of living organism, with special
attention to human behavior.
• Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour
and mental processes.

4.  Behavior is refers to actions or activities of
the individual.

5. I
 Overt : Action, activities and behavior that
are seen by others.
 Covert : Hidden or those actions, activities
and behavior not visible to the naked eye.
II
 Conscious : Acts within the level of one’s
awareness.
 Unconscious : Acts that deeply embedded in
one’s subconscious, unaware actions.

6. III
 Simple: Behavior that involves only few
neurons.
 Complex :Complicated and involves more
number of neurons.
IV
 Rational : Exercised with reason.
 Irrational: Committed for no apparent
reason or explanation.

7. .
V
 Voluntary: Done with full volition, will and
control
 Involuntary: Processes within our body that
go even while we asleep or awake without our
control and manipulation.

8.  Human behavior follows an orderly pattern. Change in a
person’s life has a degree of order and regularity in its
nature.
 Human behavior can be known. Human behavior can be
observed.
 Knowledge of human behavior is tentative but superior
to ignorance. We must pursue knowledge to be able to
improve human conditions.
 Natural phenomena have natural causes. Science rejects
the beliefs in supernatural forces to cause events.
 Knowledge is derived from the acquisition of
experiences. Knowledge is a product of experiences.

9.  To explain or understand why organism
behave in certain ways.
 To predict how organism will behave in the
future.
 To control behavior

10.  Psychology did not only emerge from
philosophy, but has roots in natural science
of biology and physiology as well (Benjamin,
1999).
 Charles Darwin, proposed psychology as
science in his book On the origin of spices.
 Modern psychology was born in December
1879 at the University Leipzig, Germany,
with the work of Wilhelm Wundt.

12.  Was developed in Germany in the 19th century.
 Its main leaders were Wilhelm Wundt and later,
Edward Bradford Titchener.
 The structuralist, were primarily concerned with
discovering the structure of the mind.
 They believed that the mind is made up of building
blocks in the various types of sensation and
perception and that these building blocks could be
discovered through introspection or looking into
one’s own mind.
 Introspection, which required subjects to look
inward and observe and report on the working of
their mind.

13.  John Dewey, William James, James Rowland and Harvey
Carr were the chief exponents of this school of thought.
 They held the view that it is not the “structure” that
should be of prime importance but the “function”.
 Functionalism was the study of the function, use and
adaptability of the mind in changing environment.

14. BEHAVIORISM ( 1913 – present)
 Was founded by John B. Watson.
 He rejected introspection as psychological
technique because its results could not be
scientifically verified by other psychologist.
 Held the concept that the subject matter of
psychology should be the “objective
observable actions of the organism”

15.  Max Wertheimer founded the
Gestalt school which maintained
that psychology should study the
whole pattern of behavior or
experience or the perception of
organized configuration.
 Emphasized that perception is
more than the sum of its parts and
studied how sensations are
assembled into meaning perceptual
experiences

16.  Sigmund Freud, a famous physician and
psychiatrist attempted to find the cause and
cure of personality disorder.
 Psychoanalytic theory stressed the role of
motives and cravings, often hidden and
repressed in the subconscious mind, which result
in abnormal behavior.
 Freud asserted that the sex urges in the
unconscious constitute the main human drive,
this is known as the libido theory

17.  Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow emphasized
the unique qualities of humans, especially
their freedom of choice and decision making,
as well as their potential for personal
growth.

18.  Jean Piaget, Noam Chomsky and Herbert
Simon focused on thought and mental
processes.
 Cognitive psychology analyzing how people
acquire , store and process information.

19.  James Olds and Rogers Sperry theorized
that much of human and animal behavior
can be explained in terms of bodily
structure and biochemical processes

20.  Founded by Martin Seligman
 Positive psychology focused on discovering
and promoting factors that allow individuals
and communities to prosper.

21.  William McDougall is the proponent of this
approach.
 He believed that objects, movements and
behavior have a definite purpose and that
the ductless glands in people produce
hormones which give them purpose.
 Purposivism placed an importance on
hormones in life.

23. Focuses on how our genes, hormones and
nervous system interact with our
environments to influence learning,
personality, memory, motivation, emotions
and coping techniques.

24.  Examines how we process, store and use
information and how this information
influences what we notice, perceive and
remember.
Behavioral Approach:
 Studies how organisms learn new behavior or
modify existing one depending on whether
events in their environments rewards or
punish these behaviors.

25. Humanistic Approach:
 Emphasizes that each individual has great
freedom in directing his or her future, a
large capacity for personal growth, a
considerable amount of intrinsic worth and
enormous potential for self-fulfillment.
Cross – Cultural Approach:
 Examines the influence of cultural and
ethnic similarities and differences on
psychological and social functioning.

26. Branches of Pure Psychology:
1.General Psychology
2.Experimental Psychology
3.Abnormal Psychology
4.Social Psychology
5.Developmental Psychology
6.Comparative Psychology
7.Physiological Psychology

27.  Presents the basic and fundamental
principles of human behavior.
 It explains How and Why of person’s behavior
from a scientific viewpoint.
Experimental psychology:
 Deals with psychological experiments
following scientific methods in laboratory
situations for the study of mental processes
and behaviour. Animals , birds and human
beings are used for experiments.

28. Abnormal psychology:
 This deals with behavioral disorders like physical
handicaps, nervous disorders, speech
impairments, mental abnormalities and others.
Social psychology:
 Social psychology deals with interrelationships
of people among themselves, likes and dislikes
of people, attitudes and interests, the
prejudices and social distances people have,
group behaviour, group cohesiveness, group
conflicts, etc.

29. Genetic or Development Psychology :
 This is a field of study regarding human
development and the inheritance and
development of traits and abilities.
Comparative Psychology :
 Deals with the behavior and mental
processes of the different species
Physiological psychology:
 Studies The functioning of the brain, nervous
system, endocrine glands and their relation
to behaviour of organism

30.  Educational psychology
 Clinical psychology
 Industrial psychology
 Counselling psychology

31.  This concerned with the application of
psychological principles to the problems of
education like teacher preparation, motivation and
teaching process, evaluation of teaching.
 This branch addresses to the problems and
improvement in teaching and learning processes.

32.  This branch deals with the therapeutic aspect
of mental disorders.
 There are many types of mental illness
requiring varied types of therapies like
chemotherapy, psychotherapy, recreational
and occupational therapies, behaviour
therapy, etc.

33.  Deals with psychological principles applied to
human problems of industry and business,
government and military service,
occupational selection and job training,
morale and placement, forms of test and
plant management.

34.  This includes the use of principles to the
task of alleviating and preventing mental
illness.
Psychometric Psychology :
 Concerned with the application of
mathematical procedures to the problems
of psychology like testing, the use of
norms, central tendencies and the like.
Legal Psychology :
 Deals with the application of psychological
knowledge in the field of law relating to
the study of human behavior.

35. In addition to the above, there are many other
applied branches like
 military psychology,
 political psychology, etc.

37. The physical structure of the body plays an
important role in the behavior of an individual.
The mechanism of human body directs the
functioning of sense organs, and the process of
growth and maturation and also influences the
complex processes such as thinking, learning and
emotional responses.
So it is important to know the mechanism of
human body for the study of human behaviour.

38.  There are two important and distinct
mechanisms have strong influence over
human behaviour.
They are
1. Nervous system
2. Ductless glands

39. Our nervous system is made up of nerve
cells.
A nerve cell with all its branches is
called as neuron.
This neuron is the structural and
functional unit of nervous system
There are 100 to 200 billion neurons in
human nervous system.

41. 1. Dendrites
1. ​root like parts of the cell
2. stretch out from the cell body
3. ​​grow to make synaptic connections with other
neurons
2. ​Cell body (soma)
1. ​contains the nucleus and other parts of the cell
necessary for its life
3. ​Axon
1. ​wire like structure ending in the terminal buttons
2. extend from the cell body
4. ​Myelin sheath
1. ​a fatty covering around the axon of some neurons
that speeds neural impulses

42. 1. ​Terminal buttons
1. ​end buttons, terminal branches of axon, synaptic
knobs
2. branched end of the axon
3. contains neurotransmitters
2. ​Neurotransmitters
1. ​chemicals contained in terminal buttons that
enable neurons to communicate

43. Sensory neurons:
 collect messages from environment and body and carry
them to spinal cord and brain.
 These neurons help in the process of sensation and
perception
Motor neurons:
 Carry messages from brain and spinal cord to the muscles
and glands.
 These neurons are responsible for physical movements and
activation of glands.
Inter neurons:
carry messages from one neuron to another. Carry signals in
the form of memories and thoughts to add reflex or
automatic activities.

44. The nervous system also contains glial cells, or
glia, which:
 Hold neurons in place, provide nourishment, and
remove waste
 Prevent harmful substances from passing from
the bloodstream into the brain
 Form the myelin sheath

48. The nervous system has two parts:
 The central nervous system (CNS)
 the brain and spinal cord
 The peripheral nervous system (PNS)
 linking all of the body's parts to the CNS

51.  Physically, the brain has three more or less
distinct areas:
 The central core
 The limbic system
 The cerebrum
 Hindbrain
 Medulla: Controls breathing, heart rate, blood
pressure
 Pons: Regulation of sleep/wake cycle
 Cerebellum: Involved in balance and coordination of
movement
 Midbrain
 The relay point for hearing and vision
 One of the places pain is registered
 Brain structures found in midbrain: superior
colliculus, inferior colliculus, substantia nigra

52.  Forebrain structures
 Thalamus: Sensory switchboard
 Hypothalamus: Governs motivational (hunger,
thirst, sex, sleep, and temperature control) and
emotional responses
 Reticular formation
 A network of neurons in the hindbrain, midbrain,
and part of the forebrain
 The primary function of this network is to alert
and arouse the higher parts of the brain

54.  Frontal lobes
 Voluntary movement, Attention, Goal-directed
behavior
 Parietal lobes
 Sensations of touch and bodily position
 Primary somatosensory cortex: Registers and processes
body sensations
 Primary motor cortex: Controls voluntary muscle
movement
 Temporal lobes: Processes information
concerning hearing, smell, balance and
equilibrium
 Occipital lobes: Processes information for the
sense of vision

55.  The structures
listed below are
often considered to
constitute the
limbic system.
 This system is
involved in
olfaction,
emotions, learning,
and memory.

56.  Cerebrum has two separate cerebral
hemispheres
 Connected by the corpus callosum
 Left hemisphere
 Right hand touch and movement
 Speech
 Language
 Writing for right handers
 Right hemisphere
 Left hand touch and movement
 Spatial construction
 Face recognition
 Nonverbal imagery
 Writing for left handers

59.  The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular
bundle of nervous tissue and support
cells that extends from the medulla
oblongata in the brain stem to
the lumbar region of the vertebral column.
 The brain and spinal cord together make up
the central nervous system.
 It works as a channel of communication and
an organ for effective reflex action.

61.  The peripheral nervous system (PNS) contains
two types of neurons:
 afferent neurons
 efferent neurons
 The PNS is divided into two subsystems
1. Somatic nervous system
 Has neurons involved in making voluntary
movements of the skeletal muscles
2. Autonomic nervous system
 Has neurons involved in governing the actions of
internal organs

62.  The autonomic nervous system is divided into
two parts:
 the sympathetic division, which acts primarily to
arouse the body when it is faced with threat, and
 the parasympathetic division, which acts to calm the
body down, restoring it to normal levels of arousal
 Sympathetic division
 Dilates pupils
 No effect on tear glands
 Weak stimulation of salivary flow
 Accelerates heart, constricts arterioles
 Dilates bronchi
 Inhibits stomach motility and secretions

63.  Parasympathetic division
 Constricts pupils
 Stimulates tear glands
 Strong stimulation of salivary flow
 Inhibits heart, dilates arterioles
 Constricts bronchi
 Stimulates stomach motility & secretion

64.  Endocrine Glands:
 Tissues that produce and release hormones
 Hormones:
 Chemical substances released by glands that help
regulate bodily activities

65.  Pituitary gland
 Pineal gland
 Thyroid gland
 Parathyroids
 Pancreas
 Adrenal glands
 Adrenal cortex
 Adrenal medulla
 Gonads

67.  In this way, psychology has broadened its
scope today and gaining more and more
importance. It may be expected that in days to
come, there cannot be any field of life without
the application of psychological principles.
 Particularly in the field of medicine, for
doctors and nurses the knowledge of
psychology is very useful and also essential.