LU 1: What is Psychology
The Goals of Psychologists
to understand, explain and predict behavior
practice three main area
service providers to individuals; psychotherapist, clinical psychologist, psychiatrist(medical doctor), psychiatric nurses, psychiatric and clinical social workers, psychoanalyst; counseling psychologist; forensic psychologist
service providers to organization; Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, ergonomist, school psychologist
teaching and research; developmental psychologist, cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, evolutionary psychologist, social psychologist, cross-cultural psychologist
Majoring in Psychology
It’s applicable to a wide variety of careers
as well as everyday life.
useful for those who pursue professional education in areas such as business, law or divinity
Psychology offers exciting possibilities for
improving quality of life.
Psychologist help people understand themselves and make better use of skills and talents
The field attracts talented persons from an
increasingly diverse variety of backgrounds
Psychology then and now
physician Wilhelm Wundt; established the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879.
Edward Titchener; developed the approached called structuralism
William James; wrote The Principles of
Psychology (1890), approach called functionalism
Psychophysics
Darwin; The Origin of Species(1859), The Descent of Man(1871)
Psychologists devised experiments to measure animal intelligence
The delayed-response problem
The detour problem
Pattern recognition
Francis Galton; investigated how heredity
influenced variations in cognitive abilities
Alfred Binet; devised the first useful intelligence test (1905)
Sigmund Freud’s; psychoanalytic theory proposed the existence of an “unconscious mind” rooted in our animal origins
Modern clinical psychology