Introduction to Psychology

www.ssc.uwo.ca/psychology/undergraduate/psych020-002/PSY20Class1web.ppt
Psychology: The Science of
Behaviour

Chapter 1
© McGraw-Hill Ryerson 2005
 What is Psychology?
• Science of behaviour and factors that influence it
• What is behaviour?
• 2 components:
– directly observable actions
– mental events/ internal processes
• not observable: e.g. thoughts, feelings

3
What questions and behaviours
do you think psychologists are
interested in studying?

4
Psychologists are interested in many issues and
aspects of behaviour:
• Memory
• Thinking
• Biological basis of behaviour
• Causes and treatment of mental disorders/addiction
• Child development and parenting styles
• Function of sleep
• Personality
• Culture
• Animal behaviour
• Etc.!!! 5
 Psychology as a Science
• Looks for causes of behaviour using rigorous
systematic method of hypothesis testing and
theory building
• When possible use controlled experiments
• Research is the foundation of psychology

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 Types of Research
• Basic research “curiosity driven”
– Seeks knowledge purely for it’s own sake
– Describe behaviour
– Find factors that influence or cause it
Ex/ I wonder how babies learn to talk?
• Applied research
– Solve specific practical problems
Ex/ What medication works best to relieve Parkinson’s
disease symptoms?
Note – basic research feeds applied 7
 Basic and Applied Research
• Robber’s Cave Study (see document “Aggression: Robbers Cave”)
• Basic research findings:
– Competition breeds hostility
– Conflict decreased by increasing group
interdependence

• Jigsaw Classrooms (Aronson et al., 1978)

– Cooperation between multiethnic groups was achieved

8
 4 Goals of Psychology
• To describe how people behave

• To explain and understand its causes

• To predict how people will behave under

certain conditions

• Influence or control behaviour by controlling

the causes
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• When examining the causes of behaviour
– Biological
– Psychological
– Environmental

– Different researchers study each of these

causes

10
 What caused Whitman to kill?
• Case of Charles Whitman
• Killed his mom, wife and shot many others
• Tumor in area involved in aggression (Biological)
• Irrational thoughts/ violent impulses (Psychological)
• Abusive father; rifles – rewarded (Environmental)

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 Which answer is correct?
All can be correct.
Different levels of analysis.
The same behaviour viewed from different
perspectives.

12
 What do you see?

Similarly, researchers from different perspective see

different causes of the same behaviour. 13
 Psychological Perspectives
• Perspective = vantage point from which you analyze
behaviour and its causes

• The perspective a psychologist studies from influences

which questions they ask, which aspects of behaviour
he/she considers important, the type of research
methods, etc.

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 6 Perspectives on Behaviour
• Biological • Humanistic

• Cognitive • Behavioural

• Psychodynamic • Sociocultural

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 Biological Perspective
• What is psychological is first physiological
• Roles of:
–Brain structures & function
–Biochemical processes
–Genetic factors
–Evolution
Ex/ tumor in amygdala

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 Cognitive Perspective
• Views human as problem solvers and information
processors
• Roles of:
– Mental processes ex/ attention
– Information stored and retrieved
– Memory
Ex/ abnormal thought patterns

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 Psychodynamic Perspective
• Behaviour caused by unconcious processes
• Roles of:
– Unconcious forces
– Unresolved conflict from past
– Hypnosis & ink blots

Ex/ unconcious aggressive impulses

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 Behavioural Perspective
• External environment shapes behaviour
• Roles of:
– Past experience in forming habits
– Reward and Punishment
– Associations
– Stimuli in environment evokes response
– Observational learning

Ex/ rifle play rewarded

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 Humanistic Perspective
• Internal factors such as innate tendency toward
individual growth and self fulfillment
• Roles of:
– Concious motives
– Free will

Ex/ discharged from army

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 Sociocultural Perspective
• External environment determines behaviour
through influence of one’s culture
• Roles of:
– Culture = enduring values, behaviours, traditions
shared by a large group of people and passed on from
one generation to the next
– Social influences

Ex/ violence on TV and videogames

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 6 Perspectives on Behaviour
• Biological • Humanistic

• Cognitive • Behavioural

• Psychodynamic • Sociocultural

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