 Definition, Importance and Goals of Psychology

 Bicol State College of Applied Science and Technology

 General Psychology

 Jed T. San Buenaventura

 TRUE or FALSE:

1. Most People with High IQ are well adjusted in other areas of their Life.

2. In romantic relationships, opposites usually attract

3. Overall, married adults are happier than adults who aren’t married.

4. In General, we only used about 10% of our brain.

5. A person who is innocent of a crime has nothing to fear from a lie detector test.

6. Person who commit suicide usually have signalled to others their intention to do so.

7. If you feel that your initial answer on a multiple-choice test is wrong, leave it alone; students
usually lose points by changing answers.

8. 70 years old person perform better than when they are 20 years old on some tasks

9. Usually, it is safe to awaken someone who is sleepwalking.

 What is Psychology?

 Psychology (Greek Word)

Psyche = Soul / Mind

Logos = Study

 Mind Cannot be directly observed / studied

 Actions, responses, or behaviours are observed

 What is Psychology?

- Scientific Study of Behaviour and mental processes

- To understand human behaviour and mental processes

 Goal of Psychology:

1. Describe – behaviour
2. Understand – cause of the behavior

3. Predict – behaviour under conditions

4. Influence – behaviour through manipulation

5. Apply – psychological knowledge for welfare

 Other Questions which Psychology tries to answer:

 What part of the brain is responsible for language?

 What crises do adolescents experience?

 Why do we forget?

 Why do we need to sleep?

 What factors influence attraction to another person?

 How can we control aggression?

 Is fear or spider normal?

 How did I learn to Study?

 HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

 Bicol State College of Applied Science and Technology

 General Psychology

 Jed T. San Buenaventura

 HOW PSYCHOLOGY STARTED?

 EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS

 Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle studied the nature of the mind, soul, body and human
experience (Myers, 1986)

 Mind-Body Dualism – mind and body is a separate entity

 Rene Descartes supported the nativist view that Ideas innate

 Mind and Body interacts through a pineal gland in the brain (Thus, remaining
the idea that the mind is still a spiritual entity and not subject to physical laws)

 HOW PSYCHOLOGY STARTED?

  Thomas Hobbes – ( Monist ) who believes that mental activities are just physical
activities in the brain

 Monism – mind and body are not separate entity. It can be measured using
physical process in the brain

 John Locke advocated the empiricist view that knowledge is acquired through
experience and interaction with the world

 Observation are more valid than reasoning.

 Charles Darwin – (Theory of Evolution) Human mind is not a spiritual entity but a
product of Biological continuity

 Wilhelm Wundt ( VILL-helm Voont )

 Father of Psychology ( made psychology as an academic discipline in 1879 )

 Established the First Psychology Laboratory at the university of Leipzig in Germany

 His studies focused on senses (esp. vision) and attention, emotion and memory

 Granville Stanley Hall

 Colleague of Wundt

 FIRST American who finished doctoral studies in psychology

 Established the FIRST Psychology Laboratory in US at Johns Hopkins University

 19th Century – School of Thoughts

 Edward Titchner ( Wundt-Trained Psychologist)

Introduced STRUCTURALISM

- Specified mental structures and analysed the basic element of mental life. (Davis &
Palladino, 1995)

INTROSPECTION (looking inside)

- a method used by Structuralist to collect date in examining one’s own emotional states
and mental processes.

 19th Century – School of Thoughts

 FUNCTIONALISM ( William James – Psychologist from Harvard University )

- Focus on the functions of the mind and behaviour to adapt to the environment ( Santrock, 2003 )
 - What do people do and Why do they do it? (Sternberg, 2003)

BEHAVIORISM ( John Watson, 1912)

- Introspection is unscientific

- Only observed behaviour should be studied.

- Classical ( Ivan Pavlov) and Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner) was developed in which
psychological phenomena are explained using the stimulus and response psychology
(Atkinson et.al., 1996)

 19th Century – School of Thoughts

 GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY ( Max Wertheimer, 1912 )

- Derived from Germany

- Gestalt means form / configuration

- Believed that the “the Whole is greater than the sum of its part”(Coon, 2003)

- Claimed that experience cannot be broken down into smaller units

- 20th Century – School of Thoughts

 PSYCHOANALYSIS

- SIGMUN FREUD: Father of Psychoanalysis.

- Human Behaviour is influenced by unconscious thoughts, impulses, and desires –

especially those concerning sex and aggression.

 20th Century – School of Thoughts

 Recent development – Highly cognitive in orientation

- INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY (advocated by Herbert Simon)

- MODERN LINGUISTICS (Pioneered – Noam Chomsky)

- NEUROPSYCHOLOGY

- Relationship between neurobiological events and mental process

 Did you Notice?

 Definition of Psychology changed over time

 Wundt – science of mental life

  Watson – science of behaviour

 1960s – scientific study of behaviour and mental processes

 HISTORY OF PHILIPPINE PSYCHOLOGY

 Bicol State College of Applied Science and Technology

 General Psychology

 Jed T. San Buenaventura

 Did you know that…

 University of Santo Tomas (Manila) and University of San Carlos (Cebu) – Psychology was first
Taught

 First Psychology Department was established in University of the Philippines ( School of

Education )

- Headed by Agustin Alonzo, Ph D

***UST was the first Institution to Offer undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees in Psychology.

 PIONEERS:

 Sinfronso Padilla – established the 1st Psychological Clinic in the Philippines (University of the
Philippines) in 1932

 Jesus Perpinan – Set up the Far Eastern University Psychological Clinic

 Elias Bumatay – Doctorate on Educational Psychology and became the Dean of the College of
Ecuation at National University

 Estafania Aldaba-Lim – First Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and started the Philippine
Women’s University in 1948 and the Philippine Psychological Corporation

 Did you know that …

 Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP) was established by the PIONEERS except for
Ellias Bumatay and Agustin Alonzo.

 The First four President of the mentioned organization were PADILLA, LAGMAY, BULATAO AND
Aldaba-Lim

 The focus of Psychology in the Philippines before were areas of Testing, counselling, and Clinical
Psychology. At the latter part, areas focused were social psychology and industrial.

 PIONEERS:
 Alfredo Lagmay – Doctorates degree in Experimental Psychology and headed the Psychology
Department of U.P. for 22 years since 1955

 Mariano Obias – Doctorate in Comparative and Physiological Psychology and led the personnel
department of caltex

 Jaime Bulatao – Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and he established the Dept of Psychology at
Ateneo de Manila.

 Let’s us check what we’ve learned



 Quiz:1

 Who is the Father of Psychology?

 A. Sigmund Freud

 B. William James

 C. Wilhelm Wundt

 D. James Catell

 Quiz: 2

 Why John Watson believed that introspection is unscientific?

A. Because it measure observable behaviours.

B. Because it measure unobservable behaviours.

C. Because it seeks to understand why people manifest such behaviours.

D. All options are incorrect

 Quiz: 3

 What is the definition of Psychology according to Watson?

A. It is the science of mental Life.

B. It is the science of behaviour.

C. It is the science of behaviour and mental processes.

D. It is the science of neurobiological events and mental processes.

  Quiz: 4

 Person A is interpreting the Dream of Person B. What school of thought is being referred?

A. Behaviourism

B. Gestalt Psychology

C. Structuralism

D. Psychoanalysis

 Quiz: 5

 Person A is explaining how the mind operates. What school of thought being applied?

A. Gestalt Psychology

B. Behaviorism

C. Functionalism

D. Structuralism

 Quiz: 6

 Upon Seeing people rushing towards the exit door, Person A remained calmed, checked the
situation and Stayed in a safe place. What Goal of Psychology was shown by Person A?

A. Describing the behaviour and thinking of People

B. Predicting the possible outcome of the situation

C. Understand the behaviour of the people

D. All of the options are correct

 Quiz: 7

What school of thought Believes that the unconscious affects behaviour of a Person?

A. Functionalism

B. Gestalt Psychology

C. Behaviourism

D. Psychoanalysis

 Quiz: 8
Who is the proponent of the Psychoanalysis?

A. Anna Freud

B. James Catell

C. James Watson

D. Sigmund Freud

 Quiz: 9

 Why do you think INTROSPECTION was the method used to collect data in the school of
Structuralism?

A. mind can’t be observed directly.

B. Behaviours can’t be observed directly

C. The mind and Behaviour can be observed directly

D. The mind and behaviour can’t be observed directly

 Quiz: 10

 Who founded Behaviourism?

A. James Catell

B. Sigmund Freud

C. John Watson

D. Noam Chomsky