Psychology
Definition: Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental process.
Mental Process:
Mental processes include all those processes and activities which are related to mental or mind or brain. For example thinking, emotions, dreams, perception, reasoning, judging and memories etc. In Psychology all these processes are studying scientifically.
Behavior:
The observable action or activity of animal or human is called behavior. Or the external outlook of a man or animal is called behavior. It include fear, anger, hunger, responses etc and also the biological functions that maintain the body.
Roots of Psychology
Structuralism:
Structuralism focuses on uncovering the fundamental mental components of consciousness, perception, thinking, emotions and other kind of mental activities and states.
Wilhelm Wundt was a structuralist of 1879; his aim was to study the building block of mind. He and some other structuralists of that time use a method of INTROSPECTION to study the mind. In this method people were subjected with a stimulus such as light green object or a sentence printed on a card and asked them to describe in their own words as in much detail as they could. Wundt argued that analyzing their reports Psychologist could come to a better understanding of structure of mind.
Wundt’s approach was great but the psychologists became increasingly dissatisfied with the assumption that Introspection could reveal the structure of mind. Also it is very difficult to express the same emotions what you feel.
Functionalism:
Functionalism focuses on what the mind does, and how behavior functions. Or we can say that what the mind thinks and then how one react.
Structuralism was replaced by functionalism. It focuses on the functions and functioning of mind rather then the components of mind. Functionalists asked that what role a behavior plays in human to adapt to the environment. What mind thinks about the environment and then what and how changes in behavior occur. For example how is the behavior of a man in normal situations and how he functions in emergency situations. How a happy mood suddenly changes into sad whenever we face sadness. So in functionalism we study how the mind set behavior how to function to a particular situation (environment).
Gestalt psychology:
It focuses on perception ie whole is different from individual. The perception of whole stimulus is more accurate then the perception of its components.
In this perspective we focus one perception. A perception of whole unit is better then the perception of individual components of that unit. How perception is made? How we identify things when our perception is organized? How people perceive different parts as one unit. Herman and Wertheimer proposed whole are different from the sum of its parts. It means that we can make a better understanding pf something when we see it as whole rather its individual elements. Gestalt psychology helped us in understanding perceptions.
Perspectives of Psychology
1 Neuroscience Perspective:
It views on behavior from the perspective of brain, nervous system and biological functions.
This perspective considers
1. How human and nonhuman function biologically?
2. What is the link between nervous cells? How they function in co-ordination.
3. How our inherited characters from parents effects of behavior?
4. How our body functions effects our mental activities i.e. Fear and hope?
5. What responses shown to strangers by babies?
These all are studied in neuroscience perspective. The study of heredity and evolution is also studied in this perspective.
2 Psychodynamic: (Inner Person)
Behavior is motivated by inner unconscious forces over which a person has little or no control.
Proponents of this perspective argue that behavior is motivated by inner forces which we can not control. They view dreams and slip of tongue as indication. The perspective view that behavior is produced by inner forces and individual neither conscious nor have control over such forces. Psychodynamic also helps in treatment of mental disorders.
3 Behavioral Perspective: (outer person)
The approach that suggests that observable, measurable behavior should be the focus of study. OR we can say that Environment determine the behavior of a person.
Neuroscience and psychodynamic look inside the organism to determine the causes of its behavior, but the approach of behavioral perspective is different. Behaviorists suggest that this field should focus on observable behavior like anger, fear, happiness etc.
“Give me a dozen healthy infants who grow in my own specified world. I guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select, doctors, engineers, robbers etc” Watson 1924.
Form these words we can conclude that John, B. Watson was a behaviorist and he considers environment to be the most powerful force which determine the behavior of a person / organism.
4 Cognitive perspectives:
It focuses on how people think, understand and know about the world. Understanding means to know the very detail of something in the world.
What people learn about the world and share their experience among them. And how our thinking about the world affects our behavior. Many psychologists, who are attached to cognitive approach, compare human thinking to the computer. Which take information, store and retrieve it at certain time. In their view thinking is an information processing.
5 Humanistic:
The approach that suggests that all individuals naturally strive to grow, develop, and be in control of their lives and behavior.
It focuses on that biological forces, unconscious states and environment do not control the behavior but it suggests that all individual naturally strive to grow, develop and the have their own control on their lives. One can do what ever he wants.
According to Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, people will strive to reach fulfillment, if the are given their own decision about their life and control behavior rather then unconscious forces, biological factors and environment do.
Psychological Research Methodologies
Psychologists use the scientific method to conduct studies and research in psychology. The basic process for conducting psychology research involves asking a question, designing a study, collecting data, analyzing results, reaching conclusions, sharing the findings.
- Archival Research:
The research in which existing data such as census documents, college records, and newspaper clipping are examined to test a hypothesis.
Explanation with Example: An archive is a way of sorting and organizing older documents, whether it be digitally (photographs online, E-mails, etc.) or manually (putting it in folders, photo albums, etc.) Archival research is a inexpensive means of testing a hypothesis because someone else has already collected the basic data and also it saves times i.e. the time of collection of data which will used for archival research. Suppose we have a problem of less profit in a firm. So we will search about the existing data if someone else has been collected. Upon the study of these data we can understand and solve the problem of low profit in a firm. Archival research has many drawbacks the data may be incomplete for certain things or it lacks something what we looking for, or it could have been collected in hurry.
- Naturalistic Observation:
A kind of research in which an investigator simply observes some naturally occurring behavior and does not make any change in the situation.
Explanation with example: In this type of research an investigator simple observes the natural habits in a particular situation. He simple records what is goin on despite of any modification in the environment. Suppose we have a firm in competition which is earning more then us. So an investigator will go there and will notice the management, how the staff is working, what method they use for productions etc. then he will derive some result after this investigation.
Naturalistic research has the draw back that the investigator cannot control the situation. He has to wait for the situation to come. Also their may be some naturally occurring instances that we would be unavailable to draw any conclusion. And if people notice that they are being watched they may alter their reactions and produce different reactions.
- Survey Research:
Research in which people chosen to represent a larger population are asked a series of questions about their behavior, thoughts or attitudes.
In archival and naturalistic reseach there always some biggers chances of mistakes. Finding out people thinks by just observing them is quite hard and gives no result often, but upong askng them one can get more information and his result become more accurate.
For instance a sample of just few thousands voters is sufficient to predict with in one or two percentage points who will win a presidential election. For example if someone is interested to know secretes of the large profit of a firm, he will make a questionnaire about it, distribute it in the staff and asked them to fill. At some time later he will predict the result. And it is obvious that he may reach to the main point.
- The Case Study:
An in-depth, intensive investigation of an individual or small group of people is called case study.
Suppose a person in a firm is thought that he is the only person related with the hufe loss of the company. In such situation case study is taken. It is just like survey but here an individual or a very small group is taken to investigate. Also it is not common like survey research but case studies are in-depth and intensive investigation. It often includes psychological testing which is usually a test of personality.
The important drawback of this study is that some people are very expert and it is impossible to retrieve the information which are in their minds.
- Co-relational Research:
A research in which the relationship between two sets of variable is examined whether they are associated or co-related.
In co-relational research two variables are focused to study and do research on it, to show whether they do have some relation or not. Or we can say to test they are mutually dependable on one another or not.
Co-relational research may be positive and negative.
Positive co-relation:
It includes that as the value of one variable increases we can predict that the value of other variable also increases. In other words we can say that if the variable affects the other one positively then it is positive co-relation and vice versa. For example in business when we increase advertisements then profit increases. Here ads and profit are our focus in co-relational research.
Negative co-relation:
it tells us that when the value of one variable increases the value of other decrease and vice versa. Or we can say that if one variable affects the other inversely then it is called negative co-relation.
For example when the production of certain goods decreases its demand increases. This will be negative co-relation. Here the two variable production and demand as they are co-related are our focus in research.
Gestalt Laws of organization:
The series of principles that focus on the ways we organize bits and peaces of information into meaningful whole.
These laws were founded by German psychologists Wertheimer and Kurt Kofka etc. According to Gestalt psychology the whole is different from its parts. We can perceive a stimulus more accurately and sharply if we see it as a whole. For example we can not recognize a red scrap, but if we see a red car as whole then we recognize it very quickly.
There are some principles (Laws) in Gestalt psychology which explain perceptual organization.
1. Law of similarity:
In this principle we generally group those items which are similar in color or shape i.e. appearance. In the following figure we group the circles and boxes alone. How ever both are part of one figure.
2. Law of Proximity:
Those objects which are near to each other are grouped together generally. E.g. in the following we see two sets of boxes but we group the 1st three separately because they are near to each other as compared to the other four.
3. Law of Closure:
Those objects which are grouped are taken as one whole generally. In the following figure we tend to ignore the spaces between the lines and take it as a triangle however NO triangle is present here they are just 3 objects which are drawn in such way.
4. Law of simplicity:
In this law when we see a pattern we perceive it in the most basic straightforward manner that we can. For example most of us will perceive these as just three lines. But actually it is the letter H. but because as it is not simple in structure hence is perceived as three lines.
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