WEEK – 01
H U M A N B E H AV I O U R
LECTURER – 01
BY
D R . FA I Z A S I D D I Q U I
CHAPTER – 01
INTRODUCTION
TO
PSYCHOLOGY
WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY
• Scientific study of behaviour and mental
process.
• Thoughts, emotions, perceptions, reasoning,
processes, memories and even biological
activities that maintain by mental processes.
• Psychology try to describe, predict, and
explain human behaviour and mental
processes.
SUB FIELD OF PSYCHOLOGY:
FAMILY TREE
1. Biological Foundations:
– Behavioural Neurosciences
2. Sensing, Perceiving, Learning, and Thinking
– Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
3. Sources of Change and Stability
– Development and Personality Psychology
4. Physical and Mental Health
– Health, Clinical, and Counselling Psychology
5. Social Networks
– Social and Cross-cultural Psychology
1. BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS:
• How the brain and the nervous system as well as other biological aspects of the
body, determine behaviour.
• Thus neurosciences consider how our body influences our behaviour.
• Example: how our emotion are related to psychical sensation like in disease.
2. SENSING, PERCEIVING, LEARNING, AND
THINKING
a) Experimental Psychology
– Process of sensing, perceiving, learning and thinking
about the world.
b) Cognitive Psychology
– Focuses on higher mental processes, including
thinking, ,memory, reasoning, problem solving,
judging, decision making and language.
3. SOURCES OF CHANGE AND
STABILITY
a) Development Psychology
– How people grow and change throughout their lifespan.
b) Personality Psychology
– Focus on the people’s consistency in behaviour over time and the traits that
differentiate one person to another.
4. PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH
a) Health Psychology
– Relationship between psychological factor and physical health.
– Example; Stress and bad health
b) Clinical Psychology
– Diagnosis and treat problems that range from crises of everyday life.
– Example; unhappiness due to breakup and depression
c) Counselling Psychology
– Primarily focuses on educational, social and career adjustment problems.
– Example; work-related stress and counselling
5. SOCIAL NETWORKS
a) Social Psychology
– How people’s thoughts, feelings and actions are affected by others.
– Example; aggression, liking, loving
b) Cross-cultural Psychology
– Similarities and differences among different cultural and ethnic groups.
– Example; use of punishment during child study
TODAY’S PERSPECTIVES:
FIVE MAJOR PERSPECTIVES
1. Neurosciences
– Views behaviour from the perspective of biological functioning
2. Cognitive
– Examines how people understand and think about the world
3. Behavioural
– Focuses on observable behaviour
4. Humanistic
– Contends that people can control their behaviour and that they naturally try to reach
their full potential.
5. Psychodynamics
– Believes behaviour is motivated by inner unconscious forces over which a person has
little control.
[Link] PERSPECTIVE
• Means the approach that views behaviour from the perspective of the brain, the
nervous system and other biological functions.
• Focus on the brain and its impact on behaviour and cognitive functions.
• Neuroscientists are involved in a much wider scope of fields today than before.
They study the cellular, functional, evolutionary, computational, molecular, cellular
and medical aspects of the nervous system.
2. COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE
• Is concerned with understanding. Mental processes such as memory, perception,
thinking, and. Problem solving, and how they may be related to behaviour.
• If one were to major in cognitive psychology that person would study attention
span, memory, and reasoning, along with other actions of the brain that are
considered a complex mental process.
• Example; making a judgment about something based on information you received
that your brain processes.
Example; memory, the ability to learn new information, speech, understanding of
written material
3. BEHAVIOURAL PERSPECTIVE
• Behaviourism is the theoretical perspective in which learning
and behaviour are described and explained in terms of stimulus-
response [Link] environment influences behaviour.
Behaviourists believe that people's behaviours are the result of
their interaction with the environment.
• Examples: positive and negative reinforcement and
punishment are ways to modify behaviour. Positive
reinforcement is the easy one, giving A reward for the sought
after behaviour. Punishment is to stop an unwanted behaviour.
4. HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
• The humanistic perspective is an approach to psychology that
emphasizes empathy and stresses the good in human behaviour.
In counselling and therapy, this approach allows an psychologist
to focus on ways to help improve an individual's self-image or
self-actualization - the things that make them feel worthwhile.
• Example; Family [Link] type of therapy allows families to
talk about their relationships with one another in order to
encourage and strengthen those relationships, especially when
families are going through difficult times such as periods of
substance abuse or divorce.
• Another example of the humanistic perspective is for a person
to focus on their strengths rather than their [Link]
individual is encouraged not look past his or her flaws as he or
she works toward a more satisfied, more complete life.
5. PSYCHODYNAMICS PERSPECTIVE
• Emphasizes unconscious psychological processes (for example, wishes and fears of
which we're not fully aware), and contends that childhood experiences are crucial
in shaping adult personality.
• Examples of behaviours and their explanations using psychodynamic
perspective include: obsessive hand washing could be linked to a trauma in
childhood that now causes this behaviour. Nail-biting may be caused by an anxiety
inducing childhood event.
•
1. Nature vs. Nurture (Environment) ???
2. Conscious vs. Unconscious (Determinants of Behaviour) ???
3. Observable behaviour vs. Internal Mental Processes (Mental Processes) ???
4. Free will vs. Determinism ???
5. Individual Differences vs. Universal Principles (Universal Principles) ???
KEY ISSUES AND CONTROVERSIES
1. Nature vs. Nurture (Environment)
– Family genetics, or environment, e.g. Personality?
2. Conscious vs. Unconscious (Determinants of Behaviour)
– Fully aware or not accessible to the conscious mind?
3. Observable behaviour vs. Internal Mental Processes (Mental Processes)
– Behaviour is observed or it is not in case of inside persona’s thinking?
4. Free will vs. Determinism
– Behaviour in control or control by the outside factors?
5. Individual Differences vs. Universal Principles (Universal Principles)
– Unique universal special qualities, e.g. Death?