Both are important factors of the makeup of an individual.

Nature ~ the inborn nature / self of the individual. A type of instinct or genetic makeup.

Nurture ~ how the environmental influences the individual. Example growing up in a loving home.

Major perspectives in Psychology

Biological Perspective

o   The study of the physical bases of human and animal behavior, including the nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, and genetics.

§  Neuroscience ~ study of the nervous system/brain.

Psychodynamic Perspective

o   unconscious influences, early life experiences, and interpersonal relationships in explaining the underlying dynamics of behavior or in treating people

Behavioral Perspective

o   How behavior is acquired or modified by environmental causes.

Humanistic Perspective

o   Motivation of people to grow psychologically, the influence of interpersonal relationships on a person self-concept, and the importance of choice and sel-direction in striving to reach one’s potential.

 Positive Psychology Perspective

Developing therapeutic techniques that increase personal well-being rather than just alleviating the trouble of the disorder. Personal happiness, optimism, creativity, resilience, wisdom

Cognitive Perspective

[image]How people process and remember information, develop language, solve problems and think.

o   Gastalt Psychology: our brain is self-organizing, having innate mental laws. Principle maintains that the human eye sees objects in their entirety before perceiving their individual parts, suggesting the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The form-generating capability of our senses, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of figures and whole forms instead of just a collection of simple lines and curves.

(old woman/young woman pic) 

Cross-Cultural Perspective

o   The diversity of human behavior in different cultural settings and countries.

o   Social striving- collectivistic cultures, people tend to work harder in a group then when alone.

Evolutionary Perspective

o   The individual member of a species compete for survival. Inherited differences, some members of a species are better adapted to their environment than are others.

§  Natural selection – the most adaptive characteristics are “selected” and perpetuated in the next generation.

Specialty areas in psychology

Ø  Biological psychology

o   The study of the physical bases of human and animal behavior, including the nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, and genetics.

o   Neuroscience ~ study of the nervous system/brain.

o   The causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of different types of behavioral and emotional disorders. Example: anxiety or eating disorders.

o   How people process and remember information, develop language, solve problems and think.

o   The form-generating capability of our senses, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of figures and whole forms instead of just a collection of simple lines and curves.

Counseling Psychology

o   Helps to adjust, adapt, and cope with personal and interpersonal problems. Such as relationships, work, marriage, ext…

o   Physical, social, and psychological changes that occur at different ages and stages in life.

Educational psychology

o   How people of all ages learn. Developed instructional methods and materials used to train people in educational and work settings.

Experimental psychology

o   Research focused on such basic topics as sensory and perceptual processes and principles of learning, emotion, and motivation.

Forensic psychology

o   Applies psychological principles and techniques to legal issues, such as assessment and treatment of offenders, mental competency to stand trial, child custody, jury selection, and eyewitness testimony.

Health psychology

o   Focuses on development, prevention, treatment of illness.

 Industrial/Organizational psychology

o   Concerns between people and work. As well as job analysis, personnel selection and training, leadership, group behavior within organizations.

 Personality psychology

o   Studies the nature of human personality, individual differenced, characteristics that make each person unique, and how those characteristics originated and developed.

Rehabilitation psychology

o   Applies psychological knowledge to helping people with chronic and disabling health conditions. Example: accident or stroke victims

Social psychology

o   How people are affected by their social environments, including how people think about and influence others.

 Sports psychology

o   Uses psychological theory and knowledge to enhance athletic motivation, performance, and consistency.

Goals of Psychology

(example is for stress)

Ø  Describe

o   Experience and effects of stress. The sequence of responses that occur during stressful experiences, looking for patterns in thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

Ø  Explain

o   Studies how thoughts about stressful events evoke unpleasant emotions and physical changes.

Ø  Predict

o   Investigates responses to different kinds of challenging events, hoping to be able to predict the kinds of events that are most likely to evoke a stress response.

Ø  Control or Influence

o   Help those coping strategies to better control their reactions to stressful events.

Steps in the scientific method

Ø  Formulate a specific question that can be tested – Develop hypotheses

Ø  Design a study to collect relevant data – experimental – descriptive

Ø  Analyze the data to arrive at conclusions – use of statistical procedures

Ø  Report the result – Publication - Replication

defines the variable in very specific terms as to how it will be measured, manipulated, or changed.

A complete set of something – people, nonhuman animals, objects, or events.

In an experiment, the group of participants who are exposed to all experimental conditions, including the independent variable.

Placebo group - In an experiment, the group of participants who are exposed to all experimental conditions, except they are given a sugar pill; the group against which changes in the experimental group are compared.

In an experiment, the group of participants who are exposed to all experimental conditions, except the independent variable; the group against which changes in the experimental group are compared.

An experimental control in which neither the participants no the researchers interaction with the participants are aware of the group or condition to which the participants have been assigned.

– psychological research conducted in the US is subject to ethical guidelines developed by the APA.

·         Informed consent and voluntary participation – participant must be informed of the test and any possible outcomes good and bad. Participant may withdraw for research at any time.

·         Students as research participants – a course requirement or an opportunity for extra credit. Student must be given the choice of an alternative activity to fulfill the course requirement or earn extra credit.

·         The use of deception – psychologists can use deceptive techniques as part of the study only when two conditions have been met: (1) It is not feasible to use alternatives to do not involve deception, (2) the potential findings justify the use of deception because of their scientific, educational, or applied value.

·         Confidentiality of information – In their writing, lectures, or other public forums, psychologists may not disclose personally identifiable information about research participants.

·         Information about the study and debriefing – participants must be provided with the opportunity to obtain information about the nature, results, and conclusion of the research. Psychologists are also obligated to debrief the participants and to correct any misconceptions that participants may have had about the research.

·         Descriptive research methods

o   Scientific procedures that involve systematically observing behavior in order to describe the relationship among behaviors and events.

·         Experimental method

o   A method of investigation used to demonstrate cause-and-effect relationships by purposely manipulating one factor thought to produce change in another.

Fathers of psychology and their field of expertise

[image]Abraham Maslow ~ Theory of psychological growth.