Human Behaviour - Introduction

Front 1

1) What is psychology?

2) Scientific enquiry?

3) Mental processes?

4) Behaviour?

Back 1

1) Is defined as the scientific investigation of mental processes and behaviour.

2) Testing theories

3) Thoughts and feelings (unobservable)

4) Actions (observable)

Front 2

To understand an individual, you are required to have an understanding of their what?

(3)

Back 2

1) Biology (Brain): gives capacity and sets the limits of human behaviour

2) Psychological experience (Interpretation): interprets biological and cultural influences

3) Cultural context (Group values, beliefs and norms): gives meaning to behaviour

(1) Micro Level ---------> Macro Level (3)

Front 3

What do psychologist do?

1) Counselling and Clinical psychologists

2) Counselling psychologists

3) Clinical psychologists

4) Academic psychologists

5) Applied psychologists

Back 3

1) Administer and interpret psychological tests.

2) Provide therapy to help people deal with issues that naturally arise during the course of life.

3) Provide therapy to help those with mental health problems.

4) Conduct research and Teach.

5) Improve product and procedure.

Front 4

Psychologists are not the same as:

Back 4

Psychiatrists, Social workers, Human service workers, psychiatric nurses, or counsellors

Front 5

The history of psychology

What are the philosophical issues?

(8)

Back 5

1) Free will vs. determinism

2) Nature vs. nurture debate

3) Rationalism versus empiricism

4) Reason vs. emotion

5) Continuity vs. discontinuity with other animals

6) Individualism vs. collectivism

7) Conscious vs. unconscious

8) Mind-body problem

Front 6

What are the psychological questions for the following philosophical issues?

1) Free will vs. determinism

2) Nature vs. nurture debate

3) Rationalism versus empiricism

Back 6

1) Do people make free choices or are their actions determined by forces outside their control?

2) To what extent do psychological processes reflect biological or environmental influences?

3) To what extent does knowledge about the world come from logic and reasoning or from observation and experience?

Front 7

Cont.

4) Reason vs. emotion

5) Continuity vs. discontinuity with other animals

6) Individualism vs. collectivism

Back 7

4) To what extent are people guided by their knowledge or by their feelings (and to what extent should they be)?

5) To what extent is human psychology similar to the psychology of other animals?

6) To what extent are humans fundamentally self-interested or oriented towards relating to and helping other people?

Front 8

Cont.

7) Conscious vs. unconscious

8) Mind-body problem

Back 8

7) To what extent are people conscious of the contents of their mind and the causes of their behaviour?

8) To what extent can we understand psychological events without understanding biological functioning?

Front 9

The history of psychology

Important names in psychology

(2)

Back 9

Wilhelm Wundt

Edward Titchener

Front 10

The history of psychology: Wilhelm Wundt

1) Who is he?

2) What did he do?

3) How did he explore consciousness?

4) What is that method?

5) What was it move towards?

Back 10

1) 'Father of psychology'

2) Created the first psychology lab in 1879

3) Through controlled introspection

4) Introspection: the process of paying attention to, and reflecting on one's thoughts and feelings.

5) Structuralism

4)

Front 11

The history of psychology: Edward Titchener

1) Who is he?

2) What did he do?

3) Could the researchers check whether the psychological phenomena reported was actually occurring?

Back 11

1) Founder of structuralism

2) Advocated for the sole use of experimentation to explore the psychological phenomena.

3) Yes.

Front 12

What did Structuralism argue?

Back 12

1) There are basic elements of consciousness. (The total experience of human consciousness is reducible to smaller units (e.g. emotions, memories, thoughts, feelings, sensations etc.)

2) They can be isolated to particular parts of (or structure) of the brain. (E.g. Amygdala involved in emostional processing; hypothalamus involved in encoding memories)

Front 13

1) What does functionalism argue?

2) What do psychologist rely on now?

Back 13

1) Consciousness is not reducible to smaller units because the units on their own, have no purpose.

2) Structuralism and Functionalism

Front 14

What are the main theoretical perspectives in psychology?

(5)

Back 14

1) Psychodynamics

2) Behaviourism

3) Humanism

4) Cognitive psychology

5) Evolutionary psychology

Front 15

Psychodynamic

1) Key people

2) Key theory

3) Implications

Back 15

1) Freud and Jung.

2) Because people’s thoughts, feelings and wishes can conflict with one another, they are often outside conscious awareness.

3) Unconscious thoughts, feelings and wishes can be inferred from verbalised thoughts and feelings, and observable behaviours.

Front 16

Cont.

4) Main contribution

5) Main weakness

Back 16

4) That some mental processes are unconscious.

5) Subjective: Cannot scientifically test the inferences a psychoanalyst makes about another person’s unconscious thoughts, feelings, and wishes.

Front 17

Behaviourism

1) Key people

2) Key theory

3) Implications

Back 17

1) Watson, Pavlov, and Skinner

2) Behaviour is determined by our learning (or environmental) experiences.

3) Behaviour can be understood without reference to internal mental states (mind: ‘black box’).

Front 18

Cont.

4) Main contribution

5) Main weakness

Back 18

4) The consequences that follow our behaviour shape our behaviour in the future. Behaviour can (and should) be systemically investigated through experimentation.

5) Overlooks the role of mental processes (thoughts and feelings).

Front 19

Humanism

1) Key people

2) Key theory

3) Implications

Back 19

1) Rogers and Maslow

2) People are unique, innately good, and strive to self-actualise.

3) Self-actualisation: People have an innate (inborn) tendency to strive to reach one’s fullest potential regardless of disadvantages in the environment.

Front 20

Cont.

4) Main contribution

5) Main weakness

Back 20

4) The use of ‘person-centred’ empathy, warmth and respect can help people set and reach their goals, including the highest goal of self-actualisation.

5) Fails to account for structural inequalities. Fails to account for the fact that not all people act in a way that is ‘good’.

Front 21

Cognitive psychology

1) Key people

2) Key theory

3) Implications

Back 21

1) Descartes, Bandura, Chomsky, and Tversky

2) Behaviour is the product of information processing.

3) Behaviour is not just determined by the consequences that follow them (learning; behaviourism), but how we interpret and remember those consequences. Knowledge can be generated by thinking, not just experience.

Front 22

Cont.

4) Main contribution

Back 22

4) Scientific experimentation can be used to infer mental processes such as thoughts, feelings, memories, logic, reasoning and decision making.

Front 23

Evolutionary psychology

1) Key people

2) Key theory

3) Implications

Back 23

1) Darwin

2) Some behaviours are biologically pre-wired (innate; instinctual) because they are crucial for the species to survive and reproduce.

3) Because some behaviours are instinctual, we have less control over our behaviour than we may realise or acknowledge.

Front 24

Cont.

4) Main contribution

5) Main weakness

Back 24

4) Human behaviour has evolved in ways that helped them adapt to their environment.

5) Deductive methodology: Explains human behaviour after it has occurred (‘post-hoc’).