What Is Psychology? Unit 1.

Psychology
Unit 1: Introduction to Psychology
Area of Study 1: What is Psychology?
Chapter 1: The Nature of Psychology

Defining Psychology 1. Centuries ago Psychology was defined as the study of the mind; however this definition has since been updated. What is the current widely accepted definition?
Psychology is the study of mental processes and observable behaviours. 2. Who are the main subject matter of Psychology and what does the field focus on?
Humans are the subject matter of Psychology and it focuses on Behavours and mental processes.

Behaviour and Mental Processes 3. What is behaviour? Provide three examples behaviours you undertake on a daily basis.
Behaviour is the observable actions undertaken by a person. 4. What are mental processes? Provide three examples of mental processes.
Mental Processes are the unobservable thoughts and feelings of a person. 5. Why are behaviours and mental processes interrelated?
Mental processes go into doing a behaviour as behaviours aren’t always sub-concious.
Distinction between Psychology and Psychiatry 6. What education and qualifications must a psychologist and psychiatrist undertake?
A psychologist undertakes 4 years of study and 2 years work placement, a Psychiatrist undertakes a total of 13 years study. 7. What type of treatments can a psychologist and psychiatrist provide?
Psychiatrist can perform corrective surgery on the brain and prescribe medicine.
Psychology as a Profession 8. What is the difference between basic psychology and applied psychology?
Basic psychology is undertaken purely for its own sake whereas applied psychology can be applied in a practical or relevant way. 9. What sort of people do psychologists tend to work with and what do they aim to help them achieve?
People who are mentally healthy but need assistance with a problem. 10. What are the main specialist areas in psychology? Provide a sentence summarising the focus of each area.
Community psychology: Mainly focuses on community issues helping people to achieve their goals within a community.

Clinical psychology: Focuses on the assessment, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of a wide range of mental illnesses.

Forensic psychology: applies to assessment, intervention and research in the legal system.

Health: specialises in understanding the effects of psychological factors relating to physical health and illness.

Biological: Focuses on the bodily structures, systems and activities that are associated with behaviour and mental processes.

Social: how peoples thoughts and feelings and behaviours can change in different social situations. 11. What is the APS and what does it aim to do? (See Box 1.5)
APS is an organisation created to further psychology as a science and also encourages the practice of psychology to a high standard.
Origins of Contemporary Psychology 12. What is the name of the debate that relates to how genes and our environment impact on our behaviour?
Whether we are born with our emotions, personality and mental processes or we learn them through experience and life.
Classic Perspectives and Theories in Psychology 13. What is the starting date of psychology as a science? What occurred in this year?
1879, Willhelm Wundt made his first lab. 14. What was Wilhelm Wundt specifically interested in?
Structualism.
15. What does structuralism focus on?
Human Consciousness 16. How did Wundt approach his study of conscious experience?
With scientific experiments. 17. How does William James describe consciousness?
Consciousness is a whole 18. How does James define psychology?
He defines it as the study of consciousness. 19. What does functionalism focus on?
How people adapt their behaviour to different situations. 20. What does psychoanalysis focus on?
Focuses on the unconciousmind. 21. Explain Freud’s view of the unconscious.
Our unconscious is the part of our mind below our level of consciousness. 22. From what did Freud develop his theories?
From his patients who saught his help with mental health problems. 23. What did Watson believe that psychology should be focused on?
Focused on the observation of behaviour. 24. What is behaviourism?
Is how behaviour is moulded and learnt. 25. Who did Watson conduct experiments on?
Animals in a carefully controlled laboratory. 26. What is humanism and what is the approach based on?
The idea that everyone is unique and born good and throughout their life learn bad behaviours. 27. What is Rogers’ view on free will and behaviour?
That we are free to make our own choices and act how we choose. 28. Explain Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. (See Figure 1.18 and 1.19).
To grow we need to fufill our potentials and capabilities, but to live we need to be respected, loved, safe and food/water ect.
Contemporary Theories and Perspectives in Psychology 29. What are the four prominent contemporary psychology perspectives?
Biological, behavioural, cognitive and socio-cultural. 30. What is the biological perspective and what is its major assumption?
That our bodily processes affect our mental processes and behaviours. 31. What were the three major developments that allowed growth in this perspective?
Medidcine,
32. What is the behavioural perspective and what is its major assumption?
All behaviour can be explained by learning experiences. 33. What did Skinner focus his research on and what sort of experiments did he undertake?
Carefully controlled experiments with animals. 34. What is the cognitive perspective and what is its major assumption?
Mental Processes are just as important on their own as behaviour. 35. What do cognitive psychologists compare the human brain to? Why?
A computer in the way it stores and recalls information. 36. What is the socio-cultural perspective and what is its major assumption?
That race, sex, age and income are an important influence into the way someone acts. 37. What does the socio-cultural approach highlight in terms of human beings?
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38. What does it mean to have an eclectic perspective? Do you agree with this approach?
To use multiple perspectives to get more accurate findings.
Scientific Nature of Psychology 39. What do the terms scientific method and empirical evidence refer to?
Empirical evidence is taken from an experiment.
Scientific method is a systematic way to collect data in a experimental situation.
Scientific Versus Non-Scientific Explanation 40. What is Astrology? Is Astrology a science or a pseudoscience? Justify your answer.
Astrology is the movement of stars and planets effecting a persons mood an feelings and behaviour.