This document provides an introduction to psychology, outlining several key topics: - Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes through objective and systematic approaches. It examines both observable and inferred private mental behaviors. - The main goals of psychology are to describe, understand, predict, control, and improve behaviors. - The major perspectives in psychology are psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, and neuroscience/biological, each focusing on different aspects of human behavior and thought.

1. Introduction to Psychology
Lecture:1
30-03-2020

2. Psychology
• Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour
and mental processes.
• The field is scientific in that psychologists
approach their studies in an orderly and
systematic way in order to obtain objective
evidence.
• Psychologists study:
– Overt or observable behaviour, as well as
– Covert behaviour : private mental processes that
cannot be directly observed or measured and must be
inferred from overt behaviour.

3. Goals of Psychology
• The primary goals of psychology are to:
– Decribe behaviour – what is the nature of this
behaviour?
– Understand and explain behaviour
– why does it occur?
– Predict behaviour: can we forecast when and under
what circumstances it will occur
– Control behaviour - what factors influence this
behaviour?
– Improve behavious- what factors influence positivity
in behaviour.

4. Major perspectives off Psychology
• 1) The Psychodynamic perspective
• 2) The Behavioral Perspective
• 3) The Cognitive Perspective
• 4) The Humanistic Perspective
• 5) The Neuroscience Perspective

5. Neuroscience/Biological Perspective
• Considers how people and nonhumans
function biologically
• how individual nerve cells are joined together,
• how the inheritance of certain characteristics
from parents influences behavior
• how body and brain create thoughts,
emotions, memory e.t.c.
• How are messages transmitted throughout
the body.

6. Psychodynamic Perspective
• Behavior is motivated by inner forces and
conflicts about which we have little
awareness.
• Emphasis on unconscious mind as director of
all behavior.
• How energy from unconscious mind motivate
our actions.

7. Behavioral Perspective
• How our behavior is shaped by learning process.
• Behaviorists suggested that the field should focus
on observable behavior that can be measured
objectively.
• John B. Watson - first major American
psychologist to advocate a behavioral approach.
Believed that it was possible to obtain any
desired type of behavior by controlling a person’s
environment.

8. Cognitive Perspective
• Focuses on how people think, understand, and
reason about the world.
• people internally realize and represent to outside
world and how our ways of thinking about the
world influence our behavior.
• Psychologists compare human thinking to the
workings of a computer, which takes in
information and transforms, stores, and retrieves
it. They look at this as information processing.

9. Humanistic Perspective
• Emphasis on human growth and potential.
• Suggests that all individuals naturally strive to
grow, develop, and be in control of their lives and
behavior.
• People will strive to reach their full potential if
they are given the opportunity to do so.
• Emphasis is based on free will, which is the ability
to freely make decisions about one’s own
behavior and life.
• How can I make myself better or best.