Chapter 1: What is Psychology?

Summary

This chapter introduces the foundations of psychology, exploring its definition, history, and different approaches, including biological, behavioral, and cognitive perspectives. The video highlights how psychology examines both extraordinary and everyday human behaviors, using scientific methods to study behavior and mental processes. It delves into early philosophical influences, the rise of various psychological theories, and modern-day applications. The chapter also discusses career opportunities in psychology, emphasizing roles in research, therapy, and specialized fields like forensic and health psychology. Lastly, it touches on the connection between mind and body, as well as the positive psychology movement.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes, using the scientific method to observe and draw conclusions.
• 🔬 The core attitudes of psychology include critical thinking, skepticism, objectivity, and curiosity, promoting a scientific approach to studying human behavior.
• 📺 Media often inaccurately portrays psychologists, but psychology extends far beyond disorders to include everyday human behavior.
• 📜 Psychology has historical roots in philosophy, biology, and physiology, with early philosophers and scientists like Socrates, Aristotle, and William Blount contributing to its development.
• 🌿 Freud pioneered the psychodynamic approach, emphasizing unconscious thoughts and early experiences, but positive psychology focuses on human strengths and well-being.
• 🧬 The biological approach examines the role of the brain and nervous system in behavior, while the behavioral approach focuses on observable actions influenced by the environment.
• 🌀 Evolutionary psychology explains behavior through adaptation and survival, influenced by ideas like natural selection from Charles Darwin.
• 🌍 The socio-cultural approach explores how social and cultural contexts influence human behavior, becoming more prominent with cultural diversity in research.
• 💼 Psychology offers various career paths, including clinical psychology, industrial-organizational psychology, forensic psychology, and school psychology, often requiring advanced degrees.
• 🤝 The connection between mind and body is crucial, with mental states influencing physical health and vice versa, as seen in emotions, exercise, and chronic pain.

Q & A

What is psychology, according to the script?

Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes, focusing on both observable behaviors and internal thoughts, feelings, and motives.

What are the four core attitudes at the heart of psychology's scientific approach?

The four core attitudes are critical thinking, skepticism, objectivity, and curiosity.

What is the difference between behavior and mental processes in psychology?

Behavior refers to actions that can be directly observed, while mental processes are internal thoughts, feelings, and motives that cannot be seen.

How does psychology differ from pseudoscience?

Psychology uses empirical, structured scientific methods to study human behavior, while pseudoscience presents information as scientific without sound scientific research to back it up.

What are the goals of psychology?

The goals of psychology are to describe, predict, and explain behavior through scientific observation and research.

What was Freud’s contribution to psychology?

Freud founded the psychodynamic approach, emphasizing unconscious thought, the conflict between biological instincts and societal demands, and early family experiences as major influences on personality.

What is positive psychology and why did it emerge?

Positive psychology focuses on the positive aspects of human behavior, such as love, work, and civic values. It emerged as a pushback against the field's focus on negative aspects like disorders.

How does the biological approach differ from the behavioral approach in psychology?

The biological approach focuses on the brain and nervous system to understand behavior, while the behavioral approach emphasizes the study of observable responses and their environmental determinants.

What is the evolutionary approach in psychology?

The evolutionary approach explains human behaviors through adaptation, reproduction, and survival of the fittest, suggesting that behaviors evolve to improve survival chances.

How does the mind-body connection play a role in psychology?

Psychology explores how thoughts and emotions can impact physical health and how the state of the body (e.g., exercise, pain) can influence mental states.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Psychology

This section introduces psychology by explaining its definition, approaches, history, and relevance in health and wellness. It emphasizes that psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes, focusing on observable behaviors and internal thoughts. The core of psychology involves critical thinking, skepticism, objectivity, and curiosity. It also distinguishes psychology from other sciences, noting how psychologists study both extraordinary and everyday human behavior. Popular media often misrepresents the field, contributing to misconceptions. The goals of psychology include describing, predicting, and explaining behavior using empirical methods.

05:02

😊 Positive Psychology and Social Media Influence

This paragraph discusses the rise of positive psychology, which focuses on the positive aspects of human behavior, such as traits associated with love, work, and civic values. It highlights how social media impacts well-being, distinguishing between active users who post regularly and passive users who only scroll. Studies suggest that active posters experience more positive emotions, while passive users may feel envious or dissatisfied. The history of psychology is also briefly touched upon, referencing early philosophical debates on human behavior and the mind-body connection.

10:03

🧠 Major Psychological Approaches

This section covers various psychological approaches, including the biological, behavioral, psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive, evolutionary, and socio-cultural perspectives. Each approach is briefly defined, with emphasis on their complementary nature. For example, the biological approach focuses on brain and nervous system functions, while the behavioral approach centers on observable behaviors. Notable figures such as Freud (psychodynamic approach) and Skinner (behavioral approach) are mentioned. The section also notes how these approaches inform different areas of research, including neuroscience, behaviorism, and social psychology.

15:04

👩‍⚕️ Careers in Psychology

This paragraph explores various career paths in psychology, ranging from clinical psychologists to forensic psychologists. Clinical psychologists often have doctoral degrees and focus on diagnosing and treating mental disorders, while psychiatrists are medical doctors who specialize in medication management. Other specialties include cross-cultural psychology, sports psychology, community psychology, and industrial-organizational psychology. These careers emphasize the importance of evidence-based practices, research, and therapy, with roles varying across industries such as academia, business, legal systems, and healthcare.

20:06

🔄 Mind-Body Connection

The final section discusses the interaction between the mind and body, emphasizing how emotions, such as anger, can affect physical health. For example, anger may increase heart rate and adrenaline. Similarly, physical conditions like chronic pain can influence mood and mental well-being. The connection between mental and physical health is central to psychology, highlighting the importance of understanding how thoughts and feelings impact overall health. The chapter concludes by summarizing key takeaways, including an understanding of psychology's definition, historical roots, and diverse approaches, as well as career opportunities within the field.

Keywords

💡Psychology

Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. The video explains that psychology aims to describe, predict, and explain human behavior, combining both observable actions and internal experiences like thoughts and feelings. It is distinct from other sciences due to its focus on human facets, making it a central theme in the video.

💡Scientific Method

The scientific method in psychology refers to the structured, empirical approach used to study human behavior. The video emphasizes that psychology rejects assumptions, instead using observation, experimentation, and data analysis to draw conclusions about behavior and mental processes. This method ensures objectivity and skepticism in psychological research.

💡Behavior

Behavior refers to the observable actions of individuals. The video highlights that psychology focuses on both the external, visible aspects of behavior and the internal mental processes that drive them. Psychologists aim to describe, predict, and explain behaviors to understand why people act the way they do.

💡Mental Processes

Mental processes are the internal thoughts, feelings, and motivations that cannot be directly observed but are central to psychological study. In the video, these processes are contrasted with behavior, and they include aspects like emotions, reasoning, and memory, which help explain why people engage in certain behaviors.

💡Critical Thinking

Critical thinking in psychology involves reflecting deeply, asking questions, and evaluating evidence. The video stresses its importance as one of the core attitudes of scientific inquiry, enabling psychologists to challenge assumptions and strive for the best understanding of complex human behavior.

💡Positive Psychology

Positive psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on studying the positive aspects of human life, such as happiness, well-being, and virtues like love and work. The video notes that this movement emerged to balance the field's previous focus on negative human traits and disorders, promoting a more holistic understanding of human behavior.

💡Neuroscience

Neuroscience, as presented in the video, is the scientific study of the brain and nervous system and their role in behavior, emotion, and thought processes. It is part of the biological approach in psychology, emphasizing that understanding the physical brain is crucial to understanding human behavior.

💡Psychodynamic Approach

The psychodynamic approach, pioneered by Sigmund Freud, focuses on unconscious thought, internal conflicts, and early family experiences. The video discusses how this approach emphasizes the influence of early life and instincts in shaping personality and behavior, making it a key theoretical framework in psychology.

💡Behavioral Approach

The behavioral approach emphasizes the study of observable behaviors and their environmental causes. The video discusses key figures like John Watson and B.F. Skinner, who focused on how external stimuli shape behavior through conditioning, a major perspective in understanding human actions.

💡Cognitive Approach

The cognitive approach studies the mental processes involved in knowing, such as perception, memory, and problem-solving. The video explains that this approach views humans as information processors, helping psychologists understand how individuals interpret and react to the world around them.

Highlights

Introduction to the definition of psychology, including the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Psychology uses the scientific method to observe, draw conclusions, and explain behavior and mental processes.

The four core attitudes of the scientific approach: critical thinking, skepticism, objectivity, and curiosity.

Psychology goes beyond disorders, covering a broad range of human behavior, including positive aspects of life like love and optimism.

Media portrayals of psychologists have often been inaccurate, focusing mostly on psychological disorders.

Study showing the positive effects of active social media use compared to passive scrolling.

Historical foundations of psychology rooted in early philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and later developments in biology and physiology.

Introduction of William Wundt's structuralism and its focus on mental processes through introspection.

Functionalism, introduced by William James, focused on how humans adapt to the environment and the function of human thought.

Overview of contemporary approaches to psychology: biological, behavioral, psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive, evolutionary, and sociocultural.

Freud's psychodynamic approach focused on unconscious thoughts, biological instincts, and early family experiences.

The biological approach emphasizes the study of the brain and nervous system, including areas like neuroscience.

The behavioral approach, led by figures like John Watson and B.F. Skinner, focuses on observable behaviors and environmental determinants.

Overview of career opportunities in psychology, ranging from clinical practice to research and academia.

Discussion of how the mind impacts the body and vice versa, such as how emotions like anger can affect physical health and how exercise can improve mood.

Transcripts

chapter one what is psychology in this

chapter we're gonna learn about what

psychology is and break it down the

definition approaches health and

wellness history of it and careers we're

going to discuss the roots and early

scientific foundations of psychology

summarize the main themes of the

approaches evaluate the areas of

specialization and careers in psychology

and describe the connections between the

mind and the body understanding complex

behavior such as why people engage in

courageous acts is part of what

psychologists study not only do

psychologists study extraordinary

behaviors they also study everyday

experiences psychology is considered a

science but it is different from other

sciences from which students are

familiar psychology as a science focuses

on the many facets that make people who

they are so anyone know a psychologist

what they do where they come from few

people actually know a psychologist most

students learn about psychology from the

media like movies TVs TV shows and news

until the last decade media portrayals

of psychologists have been wildly

inaccurate and even derogatory at times

think about the times you've seen

psychologists played in the media the

scientific study of behavior and mental

processes scientific study is part of

psychology the goals of psychology are

to describe predict and explain behavior

and they're easily tied to the research

methods that we will be discussing in

chapter 2 behavior they look at what can

be observed and mental processes those

are your thoughts feeling

motives things that cannot be seen

psychology is defined as the scientific

study of behavior and mental processes

as a science psychology uses the

scientific method to observe human

behavior draw conclusions based on those

observations and behaviors everything

that a person does that can be directly

observed and mental processes as we said

internal thoughts feelings and motives

that cannot be so looking against at the

science of psychology it does not accept

assumptions at face value and uses a

structured empirical method to study

human behavior at the core of the

scientific approach are four attitudes

critical thinking skepticism objectivity

and curiosity critical thinking is the

process of reflecting deeply and

actively asking questions and evaluating

the evidence psychologists are skeptical

they ask questions what want to know

what people know and apply it to

everyday life to challenge assumptions

pursuit of precise information is an

additional characteristic of

psychologists they aim to have the best

understanding of a topic or issue as

possible pseudoscience is information

that is presented as if it were

scientific but it's actually not it's

not supported by sound scientific

research psychologists are objective and

they use empirical methods to evaluate

events and data and individuals as they

are not as we would like them to be and

curiosity asking questions and wondering

about things that's part of what makes

psychologists scientist so psychology

covers a plethora of topics and issues

as you most people think of

psychological disorders but if you look

at this book only two chapters are

dedicated to psychological disorders

there are a lot of things outside of

that that is covered by psychology

psychology looks at all human behavior

Freud pioneered the original perceptions

of what people knew about psychology and

since then these perceptions have been

mainstreamed into TV in the media

psychology seeks to understand the truth

of human life in all its dimensions

including people's best and worst

experiences some psychologists argue

that their field has focused too much on

the negative aspects of humanity and

neglected qualities that reflect the

best of human life the branch of

positive psychology was a push by

scholars for more emphasis on the

positive and good aspects of human

behavior they wanted to focus more on

what humans value the traits associated

with optimal capacities for love and

work and positive group and civic values

so there's a lot more to psychology then

disorders so looking at social media

it's a big part of our lives down and it

depends on how you use it there's

actually a study looking at the effects

of social media on people's mood and

what they found is that if you're an

active poster you're always posting the

things that you're doing the places you

go all your activities is different then

those who passively scroll through

looking at everything else everyone else

post about their lives so what is was

found is that the people who are posting

all the time promote more of a positive

well-being they feel better than those

who are passively scrolling because it's

more of the look what I don't have type

syndrome and feeling sorry for yourself

so how do you use social media

moving into the history of psychology

and looking at it from a historical

perspective for thousands of years

people have been trying to answer basic

questions of human behavior such as how

do our senses perceive the world how do

we learn what is memory why does one

person grow and flourish where as

another person struggles in life the

dreams matter and can people learn to be

happier or more optimistic early

philosophers such as Socrates Plato and

Aristotle debated the nature of thought

and behavior including the possible link

between the mind and the body later

Descartes's and others argued that the

mind and body were completely separate

entities and focused their studies on

the mind psychology has its roots not

only in philosophy but also in biology

and physiology William Blount

a German philosopher and physician

founded the academic discipline of

psychology he first studied

structuralism they focused on the basic

elements or structures of mental

processes an introspection was the

method used to study these mental

structures and relies entirely on the

person's conscious reflection

individuals were asked to think about

what was occurring mentally as events

were taking place these studies focused

mainly on sensation and perception

because there were veils were the

aspects that could be broken down into

components or parts

so functionalism is concerned with the

functions and purposes of the mind in an

individual's adaptation to the

environment structuralists were looking

inside the mind while functionalist were

focused on how humans interacted with

the outside world a core question in

functionalism is why is human thought

adaptive functionalism meshed well with

other intellectual development Charles

Darwin's principle of natural selection

which considers how organisms adapt to

the environment survive and produce

offspring was one of them genes

associated with survival are more likely

passed down from one generation to the

next and species change through random

genetic mutation which explains why

members of a species are different from

one another of the same members so here

are some dates for you just kind of give

you a time frame of how everything

played out for psychology going from

philosophy biology and physiology and

then moving for what and then James who

was one of his students

and Darwin how he played into it with

evolution and the natural selection part

of looking at psychology which will be

discussed further when we look at the

approaches so here are the contemporary

approaches that we're going to be

covering for psychology and it's

important to realize that these

approaches are complementary not

necessarily contradictory and they

really represent different levels of

analysis you know biological behavioral

psychodynamic humanistic cognitive which

is listed twice in socio-cultural so

looking at the biological approach it

emphasizes the study of the body

especially the brain and the nervous

system neuroscience is the scientific

study of the structure function

development genetics and biochemistry of

the nervous system it emphasizes that

the brain and nervous system are central

to understanding behavior but

and emotion and has spread to many other

research areas including developmental

neuroscience social neuroscience and

behavioral neuroscience sciences

examples the behavioral approach also

emphasizes the scientific study of

observable behavior responses and their

environmental determinants John Watson

and Skinner were the first behaviorist

and they dominated psychological

research during the first half of the

20th century when we move into

conditioning and more of the behavioral

approach we will get into more detail on

the behaviorist Pavlov Watson and

Skinner looking at the psychodynamic

approach of course that's Freud

so the notably behaviorist that we will

look into further later on or ivan

pavlov john watson and BF Skinner

looking at the psychodynamic approach of

course you have Freud the psychodynamic

approach emphasizes unconscious thought

the conflict between biological

instincts and society's demands and

early family experiences Sigmund Freud

was the founder of the psychodynamic

approach he believed that a person's

early interactions with parents were the

major factor that shaped an individual's

personality the humanistic approach

emphasizes the person's positive

qualities the capacity for growth and

the freedom to choose any destiny

humanistic psychologists stress that

people have the ability to control their

lives and avoid being manipulated by the

environment topics such as altruism and

optimism are largely studied under this

approach the cognitive approach

emphasizes the mental processes involved

in knowing how we direct our attention

how we perceive

how we remember how we think and solve

problems other science is to adopt this

approach focus on information processing

the way the human mind interprets

information stores it and applies it to

decision-making the evolutionary

approach uses evolutionary ideas such as

adaptation reproduction and survival of

the fittest as the basis for explaining

specific human behaviors evolutionary

psychologists believe that their

approach provides an umbrella that

unifies unifies the diverse fields of

psychology one notable evolutionary

psychologist is David buss and if you're

interested you can look him up on

YouTube he has several things that you

can watch to see how he uses the

evolutionary approach to explain

behavior and a lot about mating behavior

and this picture here is of Jane Goodall

who did research with apes as you can

see chimpanzees I'm sorry socio-cultural

approach emphasizes the ways in which

the social and cultural environments

influence behavior with the rise of

cultural diversity in the United States

research on the influence of culture on

behavior has led to important findings

in the role that culture plays in our

sense of self of course in reality many

career psychologists straddle all of the

different categories that we're looking

at here in terms of careers in

psychology there are a variety of career

options for scholars in psychology some

seek employment universities where they

teach and conduct research others may

work in business and industry while

still others may work in private

practice individuals who are primarily

engaged in helping others are called

practitioners of psychology they have to

be licensed at a clinical license and

they provide therapy that is considered

evidence-based practice which is

supported by empirical research this

clinical psychologist typically has a

doctoral degree in psychology while a

psychiatrist has a medical degree and

specializes more in the abnormal and

psychotherapy so in my experience your

counselors usually our master-level some

have PhDs and they usually provide your

talk therapy or behavioral therapy

different types of therapies whereas in

general most but not all but most

psychologists that I've ever known

either work in some type of field like

companies or they may work for insurance

companies things along that line whereas

you do have clinical psychologists a lot

of times the clinical psychologists

focus on testing and providing that

service and then your psychiatrist

usually do med management so you usually

see them for a few minutes tell them how

you're doing whether it's your symptoms

are increasing or decreasing and they

adjust the medications now there's

always exceptions to the rules but you

can see here there's quite a bit that

people can do with a degrees in

psychology of course they're usually

going to be higher than a bachelor's

degree so some other specializations are

cross-cultural psychology cross-cultural

psychology focuses on a cultures role in

understanding behavior thought emotion

sport psychology apply psychologies

principles to improving sport

performance and enjoying participation

forensic psychology apply psychological

concepts to the legal system and they're

often hired by legal teams to provide

input and aspects of trials such as jury

selection and to testify as experts and

trials community psychology focus on

accessible care for people with

psychological problems they may work in

community-based mental health centers

and provide outreach programs to people

in need environmental psychology is the

study of the interaction between people

in the physical environment in school

and educational psychology centrally

concerns children's learning and

adjustment in school health psychology

emphasizes health psychological factors

lifestyle and Nate

the healthcare delivery system and

clinical and counseling psychology

usually they diagnose and treat people

with psychological problems clinical

psychologists are interested in

psychopathology which is the scientific

study of psychological disorders and the

treatment of these disorders in the

development of diagnostic categories of

mental health

you also have industrial and

organizational psychology which focuses

on the workplace both the workers

themselves and the organization that

employs them the main area of industrial

psychology focus on personnel matters

and human resource management while the

main area of organizational psychology

focus is on the social influence in the

organization social psychology deals

with people social interactions

relationships social perceptions social

cognitions and attitudes and researchers

are interested in how groups or

individuals influence the behavior of

others physiological psychology focuses

on the physical processes that

underlying mental processes behavioral

neuroscience focuses on biological

processes specifically how the brain

affects behavior sensation and

perception researchers focus on both the

physical symptoms and psychological

processes that allow individuals to

experience the world learning is the

complex process by which behavior

changes in response to changing

circumstances cognitive psychology is a

broad field that includes examples such

as attention consciousness information

processing and memory researchers in

this area are often called experimental

psychologists developmental psychology

studies how individuals change both as a

result of biology and environment from

birth through death developmental

psychologists inquiries range across

biological cognitive and social domains

of life motivation focuses on how

individuals attain goals how rewards

affect the experience of motivation

emotion centers on the physiological and

brain processes that underline emotional

experiences the emotional expressions of

health and the possibility that emotions

are universal and then the psychology of

women and gender psychology of women and

gender

these psychological social and cultural

influences on women's development and

the behavioral behavior while also

addressing interest of the broader topic

of ginger and the ways our biological

sex influences our ideas of ourselves as

men and women personal personality

psychology focuses on the relatively

enduring characteristics of individuals

like traits goals motives genetics

personality development well-being etc

think about ways that your mind impacts

your body maybe on days that you're

worried or upset does it impact your

body do you feel different in your body

what about when you're angry

anger is a good one to think about

because a lot of times when people get

angry their heart rate increases and

they feel and it may be a rush of

adrenaline how about how the body

impacts the mind think about when you

exercise does that affect your mood what

about chronic pain or a time that you

had to deal with pain for a period of

time did that affect your mood so

there's kind of this back-and-forth

connection the way that you think and

feel impacts the state of your health in

your body and the way that you treat

your body affects your thinking so this

chapter and review what we're hoping

that you will be able to retain from

this is to explain that psychology is

and what it is and describe it and talk

a little bit about the positive

psychology movement be able to discuss

the roots and early scientific

foundations of psychology summarize the

main themes of the seven approaches to

psychology evaluate the areas of

specialization and careers in psychology

and describe the connections between the

mind and body I hope this was helpful

thank you and you have a wonderful day