PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES

Psychological processes constitute fundamental elements in the study of psychology.

They are the processes that allow the person to become aware of themselves and their environment,
they are at the origin of any behavioral manifestation and make possible the adjustment of behavior
to environmental conditions and demands, describing cognitive processes (attention, perception,
learning, memory, thinking and language) and activating processes (motivation and emotion). Finally,
its integrated functioning is analyzed in relation to other more general processes (intelligence,
personality and normal behavior as opposed to deviant or abnormal behavior).
They are divided into:
Basics
Perception: In the field of Psychology, the process of perception, on many occasions, is approached
as one of the simplest concepts within the basic psychological processes, but it can become one of
the most complex. It is located as a First step (the reception and subsequent interpretation of an
external stimulus) to have any psychological experience, the perception process can be defined as
the way in which the stimuli that are received from the outside, through the senses, are interpreted .
The perceptual process largely consists of deciding which of the different interpretations of a certain
stimulus is the most appropriate in each specific case, thereby illustrating that not only the concept
itself is complex, but also the complexity that exists in reaching a single definition. , since this
depends on the theoretical position of the human being (empiricist approach, Gestalt approach,
behaviorist approach, cognitive approaches such as information processing and computational
[specifically David Marr's position], the Gibsonian approach, as well as the psychoanalytic vision)
Type of Perceptions
 Visual perception.
 Perception of shape, distance and size.
 Smell perception.
 Auditory perception.
 Perception of tone and volume.
 Flavor perception.
 Tactile perception.

Attention: There are so many stimuli that are received at the same time that a selection necessarily
needs to be made. Attention is “the selective process of the necessary information, the consolidation
of eligible action programs and the maintenance of permanent control over their course”, it has a
strong relationship with other processes and consists of a kind of selection and organization of
information that comes from different sources. So, despite being done automatically (we are not
completely aware of it), the attentional process is very complex and is always in interrelation with
other basic and higher processes, but it also presents itself as a kind of information filter.
Attention not only works as a filter, there are authors who claim that attention also works as an aid to
respond much more effectively and quickly to the stimuli that are presented daily. In this way,
attention protects from an “overload” of information, since as we discussed the capacity is limited, but
it also prepares for action, and if it prepares for action, then attention becomes a mechanism where
cognition also acts. Therefore, attention is a cognitive selection process that prepares you to respond
to what is presented, giving priority to one or other stimuli and always in connection with other
processes.
Types of care
 Voluntary attention.
 Involuntary attention.
 Usual care.
Memory: Remember, forget, memorize, all of these are very common words in our everyday
language.
From the historical-cultural perspective, it is considered as a process constituted through social
relationships and practices, where language and communication play an essential role; It is a process
and product of meanings shared by the joint action of human beings in a historical context, it is also
conceived as an important part in the constitution of a subject, of its identity, so it also functions as a
means to position oneself differently and find new spaces from which to act.
For cognitive postures1 (authors such as Piaget), memory is strongly linked to the genetic
development of the subject, evolving towards a form of balance of the individual, related to the
development of their cognitive functions. Memory depends on the forms of organization of mental
activity (motor, intellectual, affective, personal and social aspects). Piaget defines memory as: “the
conservation of everything acquired in the past through learning and perception converted into a
scheme, the scheme is formed with habits and higher operations.
For behavioral postures, memory is linked to the encoding, retention and retrieval of information (in
this case of stimuli) and can be defined as: “structures and processes that allow the entry of
information, encoding, conservation and maintenance of experiences.” for later recovery
For Psychoanalysis, memory is a field of construction, it is always linked to fiction, since when
narrating the events that occurred, an interpretation of what was experienced is already being given.

Memory phases
Coding. “Process by which information is transformed from a physical form into a memory
representation. The encoded information is called memory code.
Retention. “Process by which information occupies a place in the system; In this way, any information
can be lost, making it easier to forget.
Recovery. “It has to do with access to the information that has been stored. Which will depend on the
order and storage strategies to access it.
Sensory memory
1
R. González, H. Mendoza, R. Arzate and N. Cabrera, Memory, p. twenty-one.
The general function of sensory memories is to give the brain a little more time to analyze the
stimulus. Since everything that reaches the receptors remains there briefly, it is said that the capacity
of sensory memories is unlimited. On the other hand, sensory memory functions as a means of transit
to short-term memory.2 Sensory memories have been divided into iconic memories (related to
images) and echoic memories (related to sounds), which function as specific memory stores.
Working memory, also called short-term memory, working memory is “the set of active symbols at a
given moment to which we are paying attention and which, therefore, we can manipulate under
voluntary control.”3
Working memory has a strong connection with the sensory system, as well as with the information it
takes directly from long-term memory. In this way, working memory acquires its contents directly from
sensations and memories stored long ago. These contents are manipulated directly by the subject at
will. To address the main functions of working memory, it is necessary to establish what type of
content we are referring to. Short-term memory has been found to be made up of visual and auditory
information (images and words).
Long-term memory is no longer a simple store of information, but is connected to other more complex
processes, and beyond this storage function, it is also responsible for acquiring information (which
implies a whole process in itself). itself) and represent it mentally (visually, auditory, olfactory, tactile,
gustatory, kinesthetic), to later be integrated into a coherent whole.4
Long-term memory is connected to short-term memory, transferring information from one side to the
other. In this way, the transfer of information is important in this process, but also its retrieval.

Emotion: Emotions are an important part of our life, every subject has felt joy, sadness, fear, etc.
Talking about the term emotion necessarily leads to thinking about feelings and the internal state of
well-being or discomfort related to them; feelings that, of course, are related to events that a subject
experiences.
Emotions represent complex psychological states, which show an index of value attributed to the
occurrence of an event. This means that the emotion, as a representative of a psychological state, is
involuntary and completely subjective. On the other hand, thinking about emotion as a representation
necessarily leads to thinking that something prior exists, that is, the emotion would be a sample of
something deeper.5
The feeling
Feelings, on the other hand, are representations of the cognitions that arise from a specific
assessment made in response to a specific experience.
What are emotions for?

2
J. Santiago, F. Tornay, E. Gomez, M. Elosúa, [Link]., p. 71.
3
2 J. Santiago, F. Tornay, E. Gomez, M. Elosúa, Basic psychological processes, p. 71.
4
J. Santiago, F. Tornay, E. Gomez, M. Elosúa, Basic Psychological Processes, p. 99.
5
J. Santiago, F. Tornay, Gómez, E. and M. Elosúa, Basic psychological processes, p. 211.
 Before Charles Darwin's theories of evolution, emotions were thought of as passions that
uncontrolled people, that did not allow them to reason and that interfered with their behavior, affecting
it. However, Darwin discovers the adaptive role of emotions and how they play an important role in
the proper functioning of human beings. Hence, an emotion can help us in specific situations, but also
in a non-functional process, an emotion can affect the subject:
Regarding the intrapersonal functions of emotions, we can highlight at least five functions:
1) They help coordinate the responses of a subject, in their subjective, physiological and behavioral
fields.
2) They help activate behaviors that are inhibited under other emotional states of the subject.
3) They help the body to face situations that require a quick response from the subject.
4) They help the subject to adapt to the different changes in their environment.
5) They help to give a specific assessment to the events that a subject experiences
Motivation: The word motivation is related to the reasons a person has to carry out certain actions. It
is said every day that a person is motivated, that their attitudes are positive; or on the contrary, that
she is unmotivated, that she has no disposition. And although these expressions are very vague, they
are effectively linked to the motives that lead a person to act in a certain way. In this way, motivation
responds to the reason for a subject's behavior.

Motivation is a kind of force or energy that “pushes” a subject to act in a certain way. If motivation is
an energy, it manifests itself in different intensities and forms, that is, it is variable. Hence we talk
about the intensity and the type or motivational quality. Regarding intensity, changes (increases and
decreases) in energy can be noticed, that is, how strong or weak the motivation is; As for the type or
quality, we speak of the direction of the action.
To understand motivation we will then have to differentiate concepts such as need, impulse, instinct
and drive.
Need:
The key to need is the lack or lack of something. There is a need for something when that something
is not present. Palmero defines it as “a term used to refer to those situations in which an organism
experiences and/or manifests a lack of some element important for its functioning.
Instinct:
If we think of the word instinct, surely an idea of natural action in the individual or animal comes to
mind. The behavior of a subject, then, will be motivated by needs to be met and by a “natural” part
that makes him defend his life.
Impulse:
If this definition is taken, the impulse would be that which is born from an emotion, that is, a certain
action is carried out on impulse when there is an emotion (strong or violent) that permeates reason.
Drive:
The drive “could be considered as the psychological manifestation of a situation of deprivation,
scarcity or biological need.”
From Psychoanalysis, drive is the “dynamic process consisting of a push (energy load, motility factor)
that makes the organism tend towards an end.”
This definition of drive makes us think of the same definition of motivation; However, it is also said of
the drive that it is “deep psychic energy that guides behavior towards a goal and is discharged when
achieving it.”
Sources of motivation
Internal sources, that the behaviors that appear derived from them can be involuntary, that is, an
external stimulus can activate an involuntary behavior of a subject. In this regard, he indicates that "in
these cases, the extent to which an individual is activated represents the extent to which he or she
feels motivated."
From this view the subject is not motivated, if he is not motivated, he is not the owner of his action.
But there are also voluntary actions, which occur with a time difference between the appearance of
the stimulus and the response that is triggered.
Palmero states: Motivated behavior can also occur in an individual as a consequence of some
internal stimuli that acquire psychological connotations, such as impulses, needs, desires. In this
case, environmental influences can configure the range of stimuli that will trigger that motivated
behavior.6

6
F. Palmero and F. Martínez, op. cit., p. 9.