Applied Psychology
Psychology concerned with everyday, practical problems
Behaviour
Observable reactions to stimuli, including personal thoughts. Others cannot observe them, but you can!
Behaviourism
Branch of psychology focused on stimuli-response relationships
Belief that behaviour is taught, not instinctive
Biological Psychology
Branch of psychology focused on how brain chemistry and processes influence behaviour
Clinical Psychology
Branch of psychology focused on diagnosing and treating mental disorders from a non medical perspective
Counselling Psychology
Overlaps with clinical psychology but focuses on everyday matters like family and marital life.
Culture
Set of beliefs and values shared by a society that influences behaviour
Cognition
Similar to consciousness
Thinking / conscious experience
Must be studied in order to fully understand human behaviour
Critical Thinking
Use of cognitive skills to help promote positive outcomes
Developmental Psychologist
A psychologist who studies how humans mature and change
Once focused on child development but has since expanded to the entire life span
Empiricism
The belief knowledge must be gained through observation
Evolutionary Psychology
Branch of psychology that studies the traits passed down from generations that have increased the rate of survival and reproductive success
Experimental Psychology
Traditional topics of early psychology like learning, conditioning, memory etc.
This title is misleading as all branches of psychology involve experimentation
Functionalism
Studies the function and purpose of consciousness, rather than the structure and how it works.
Supports Darwins belief that every passed down trait has a purpose
Humanism
A more positive approach to psychology that believed humans are unique from animals in the sense we have free will and a drive for personal growth.
This branch of psychology dismisses animal research since they are too underdeveloped to influence the understanding of human behaviour
Industrial/Organizational Psychologist
Psychologist who works with business to better their workplace by increasing staff morale, attitude and efficiency and running human resource etc.
Introspection
Self-observation of ones own conscious experience
Natural Selection
Traits that are passed down from generations that increase reproductive success and the rate of survival
Personality Psychology
Psychology that studies consistency in behaviour (personality)
Considers factors that influence personality
Positive Psychology
Uses research to better understand the positive, adaptive, creative and fulfilling aspects to the human existence
Psychiatry
The diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders from a medical perspective
Psychoanalytic Theory
Freuds attempts to explain personality, motivation and mental disturbances using unconscious influences on behaviour
Psychometrics
Focuses on designing tests to assess personality, intelligence and other abilities
Also works on statistical analysis
Psychology
Psyche: soul, spirit, mind
Logos: to study
Used to mean study of the mind, but now means study of behaviour and psychological cognitive processes
SQ3R
Survey (scan info)
Question (generate questions based on headings)
Read
Recite (answer questions out loud)
Review
Effective for low-mid level readers since it solidifies information in the brain
Social Psychologist
Studies interpersonal behaviour and the effect social groups have on behaviour
Focuses on attraction, attitude formation/change, conformity etc
Stimulus
Influence from the environment (sound, sight, smell etc)
Structuralism
The focus on the structure of the conscious, more than the function or purpose.
The conscious was separated into small sections and studies to see relations.
Use of introspection
Testwiseness
Knowing how to use the type of test to your advantage to score the highest mark possible
Theory
A collection of thoughts put together to explain and link together unrelated behaviour
Unconscious
Thoughts and feelings that lie beneath our conscious awareness but still influence our behaviour
Charles Darwin
Created the theory of evolution and coined natural selection
His work highly influenced functionalists
Sigmund Freud
A psychologist who attempted to help patients work through mental disturbances using psychoanalytic theory.
Freud had a big focus on the unconscious and how it influenced our behaviour, especially sexually. Repressed sexual urges came out in everyday life as mental disorders.
Psychoanalytic theory was met with skepticism since it was hard enough to study the conscious mind, let alone unconscious mind
G. Stanley Hall
Opened the first experimental psychology lab in Baltimore, Maryland
Donald Hebb
Believed behaviour happened in the brain and pushed advancements in neuroscience and cognition
Curated cell assembly
-repeated stimulation leads to development
-resemble cognitive units that facilitate behaviour
William James
Leader of functionalism
Wrote ‘Principles of Psychology’ (most influential psychology text of all time)
Used Darwins theories to explain psychology
Believed psychology had many cultural and intellectual influences
Carl Rogers
Founder of humanism
Argued that behaviour is influenced by our sense of self and mental disturbances sprout from suppressing human needs
Martin Seligman
Founder of positive psychology movement
Realized the psychology field was unnecessarily negative and could be improved
B.F. Skinner
Studied behaviourism
Believed behaviour was influenced by environmental stimulus
Redefined internal thoughts as private events and deemed them unnecessary to study in order to understand behaviour
Believed that behaviour that created a positive outcome was repeated, while behaviour that brought on a negative or neutral outcome was avoided
John B. Watson
Founder of behaviourism
Believed the study of the conscious should be abandoned since it could not be scientifically studied
Believed behaviour was taught not hereditary (Nurture, not nature)
Wilhelm Wudnt
Wanted psychology to be dependent from its parents (philosophy and physiology)
Established first psychological journal focusing on research
Gestalt Psychologists
Believed psychology should study only consciousness, not observable behaviour
Six Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives
- behavioural
-environment affects observable behaviour
-stimulus-response relationships can be scientifically studied - psychoanalytic
-unconscious mind influences behaviour
unidentified unconscious disturbances cause personality/mental disorders - humanistic
-humans are unique in the sense of free will and the drive for personal growth - cognitive
-behaviour can’t be understood until we understand how people acquire, store and process information - biological
-behaviour can be explained using brain chemistry and body processes - evolutionary
-behaviour has been taught to solve problems
-natural selection favours behaviour that promotes positive outcomes
Psychology’s Development in Canada
James Mark Baldwin opened first lab in Canada
Dalhousie offered the first psych course
McGill established the first psych department
CPA established in 1939
List 4 specialities within applied psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Counselling Psychology
- Educational/School Psychology
- Industrial/Business Psychology
Multifactoral Causation of Behaviour
Behaviour is complex and cannot be explained with a single cause.