1 S T SEMESTER AUGUST 2013DAWN STEWART BSC, MPA, PHD

BRS 214Introduction to Psychology

Week 1/2

Introduction to Psychology

If you are like most students, you start off assuming that just about anything you read in your textbooks, on the internet and everything your professors tell you must be true.

Who has the correct answer?

None of us do, at least not always.

Even when people we trust seem very confident of their opinions, we should ask for their evidence of reasoning.

Introduction to Psychology

What is Psychology?

The term psychology derives from the greek roots

Psyche, meaning “soul” or “mind” and logos, meaning “word.

Psychology is literally the study of mind and soul.

Introduction to Psychology

Psychology is the systematic scientific study of

behaviors and mental processes.

What is important in the definition is that term

has a broad meaning.

Behaviors refer to observable actions or responses in both humans and animals.

Mental processes refer to a wide range of complex mental processes such as thinking etc.

Introduction to Psychology

Psychology goal is to:

Describe

Explain

Predict

&

Control

Introduction to Psychology

What is Health Psychology:this is devoted to understanding psychological influences on how people stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they respond when they become ill.

Health is defined by world health as “ a complete

state of physical, mental, and social well being and

not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Introduction to Psychology

The body-mind : the relationshipPhilosophers vacillated between mind and body

being a part of the same system. At the same time they believe that it is two systems.

In earliest time mind and body was one unit.Disease came from evil spiritsThey can be exorcised through treatmentAlso they believed in the supernatural explanations for illness.

Introduction to Psychology

Psychological research

Common sense beliefs

How do you define common sense belief and empirical evidence

Testing common sense beliefs:-

Introduction to Psychology

The more motivated you are the better you will do at solving a complex problem. T/F

Blind people have unusual sensitive organs to touch. T/F

Boys and girls exhibit no behavioral differences until environmental influences begin to produce

differences. T/F

Introduction to Psychology

The science of psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes by professionals who create and apply psychological knowledge utilizing scientific principles.

Common sense knowledge is often false, they often contradict scientific research.

Introduction to Psychology

Why is the field of health psychology needed?

What factors have led to the increase of health Psychology

Changing patterns in illness

20th Century main causes of illness and death were acute illness. Such as ________

Introduction to Psychology

Such as TB, Pneumonia and other infectious diseases.They are short term illnesses.

This has been replaced with chronic diseases such as hearth disease, cancer and diabetes.

Chronic diseases main contributors to disability and death.

Introduction to Psychology

Physical rehabilitation is an important aspect of chronic illness.Chronic illness leads to:

AnxietyDepressionThoughts of suicide or suicide

Measures taken to improve activity level, physical independence, and ability to manage daily task will have positive effects.

Introduction to Psychology

Physical rehabilitation of chronically ill or disabled persons involve several goals:

To learn to use one bodies as much as possibleTo learn to sense changes in the environmentTo learn new physical management skillsTo learn necessary treatment regimenTo learn how to control the expenditure of energy

Introduction to Psychology

Mental Health is critical in the success of physical rehabilitationPatients usually have problems resulting from prior injuries or participation in physical activity early in life.

Problems worsen with age

Cognitive-behavioral interventions

Introduction to Psychology

Cognitive behavioral interventions (CBI) are based on the simple principle that thinking (an internal behavior) controls overt actions (external behavior).

Therefore, through CBI programs (or curricula), persons learn new skills and new ways of thinking that can lead to changes in their behavior and actions, and ultimately affect their specific conduct.

Introduction to Psychology

Modern behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions emphasize the role of learning and adaptation to the environment both in shaping and maintaining normal life functions and in the emergence of maladaptive symptomatology.

In essence, these approaches focus on behavior as important in its own right and often seek to change instances of disordered behavior via the application of clearly articulated basic principles of learning.

Introduction to Psychology

Three basic, interrelated perspectives exist: classical conditioning, which emphasizes the

learning of associations between classes of stimuli

Operant conditioning, which emphasizes the learning of relations between behaviors and their consequences

The cognitive perspective, which emphasizes the role of idiosyncratic beliefs and misconceptions in coloring each of the two earlier perspectives.

Introduction to Psychology

Physical Rehabilitation must also tackle the very complex and serious problem of adherence to a long term medical disease.

Cognitive and behavioral interventions may be needed to help a patient adhere to a long term care situation.

Behavioral interventions can be highly effective in improving the quality of life for people who have developmental disabilities and display serious behavior problems.

Introduction to Psychology

Why have Chronic illness help spawn the field of health psychology.

- They are diseases that psychological and

social factors are implicated as causes.- People live with chronic diseases for

many years. ( Psychological issues may arise in connection with the disease.)

Introduction to Psychology

Biopsycholigst: psychologists who study how processes in the body, brain and nervous system works.Nerve cell activity is the source of all experience and behavior.All sensations, thoughts, feelings, motives, actions (behavior) and memories stem from brain activity.

Introduction to Psychology

Child development and interaction of nature (heredity) versus nurture (environment) are particular interest to psychologist. Why?

Introduction to Psychology

Heredity: a person genetic make up influences his or her temperament, susceptibility to disease, potential cognitive abilities and much more.

Environment: Factors such as parental involvement, socioeconomic situation, religion. Personal experiences, and many others are important to Childs life.

Introduction to Psychology

Heredity: a person genetic make up influences his or her temperament, susceptibility to disease, potential cognitive abilities and much more.

Some scientists think that people behave as they do according to genetic predispositions or even "animal instincts." This is known as the "nature" theory of human behavior.

Other scientists believe that people think and behave in certain ways because they are taught to do so.

This is known as the "nurture" theory of human behavior.

Introduction to Psychology

Nurture, by contrast, refers to various external or environmental factors to which an individual is exposed from conception to death. These environmental factors involve several dimensions.

For example, they include both physical environments (e.g., secondhand smoking and prenatal nutrition) and social environments (e.g., the media and peer pressure).

Introduction to Psychology

Environmental factors vary in their immediacy to the individual; they involve multiple layers of forces, ranging from most immediate (e.g., families, friends, and neighborhoods) to larger contexts (e.g., school systems and local governments) to macro factors (e.g., international politics and global warming).

To complicate matters even further, the factors in each of these layers influence and are influenced by elements within and outside of these layers. For example, the kind of peers a child is exposed to may depend on his or her parents' view of what ideal playmates are like, the local government's housing policies, and the history of race relations