Course Facilitator:
Dr. Asbah Zia
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Definition of Psychology
• The scientific study of behavior and
mental Process.(Feldman)
• Mental Processes are included thoughts,
feelings, perceptions, reasoning
processes, memories, and even the
biological activities that maintain bodily
functioning.
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What is Behavior?
• Most people use the word behavior mean to ‘conduct’
• Psychology regards behavior as any observable activity by
human being
• We know that both nature and nurture weave together to
shape our behavior.
• Individual differences almost always the result of both
nature and nurture
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What is Behavior?
• Most Human Behaviors result from a
combination of factors.
• A collection of activities influenced by culture,
attitude, emotions, values, ethics, authority,
rapport, hypnosis, persuasion and/or
coercion.
• Human Behavior is complex and it changes
by experience
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How can behaviour be observed ?
Stimulus
Consequence Response
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Goals of Psychology
Four basic goals:
• To describe how people & living being
behave (and think).
• To understand (explain) the causes of each
behavior.
• To predict how people will behave under
certain conditions.
• To control or influence behavior through
knowledge & control of its causes.
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Scope of Psychology
• With reference to daily life.
• With reference to organizations.
• With reference to Marketing.
• With reference to clinical setting.
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Sub-fields of Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Counseling
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Environmental Psychology
• Forensic Psychology
• Experimental Psychology
• Industrial/Organizational Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Sports Psychology
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Major Trends in the Development
of
Psychology
(School of
• Structuralism: Wundt Thoughts)
Father of Psychology, Introspection
• Functionalism: Darwin, James, Biological
emphasis
• Behaviorism: Thorndike, Pavlov, Watson,
Skinner
• Psychoanalysis: Freud, Influence of Unconscious
mind on behavior. Id, Ego & Superego
• Anna Freud, Carl Jung, Erik Erikson
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Major Trends in the Development
of
Psychology
(School
• Humanistic of Thoughts)
Psychology: Rogers & Maslow
Reaction against behaviorism and Psychoanalysis.
Personal Growth and Self-Actualization.
• Gestalt psychology: Wertheimer. Whole is greater
than the sum of its parts.
• Cognitive Psychology: Kosslyn. Mental processes
including thinking, perceiving, remembering and
learning. Stages of Cognitive Development Theory
proposed by Jean Piaget.
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Major Trends in the Development
of
Psychology
(Perspectives)
• Biological Perspective
• Behavioral Perspective
• Psychoanalytic perspective
• Humanistic Perspective
• Cognitive Perspective
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Biological Perspective
• The approach that views behavior from
the perspective of the brain, the nervous
system, and other biological function.
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For Example
• Depression: Abnormal changes in the
levels of neurotransmitters, which are
chemicals produced in the brain that make
possible the communication between
neurons or nerve cells.
• Face recognition: certain region in right
hemisphere
• Understanding language: Left Hemisphere
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Behavioral Perspective
• The approach that suggests that
observable behavior should be the focus
of the study.
• Eats breakfast, rides a bike, talks, runs,
blushes, laughs, and cries.
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• American psychologist John B. Watson
was the first who gave this idea in the
early 1900s, that behavior should be the
sole subject matter of Psychology.
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Psychoanalytical
Perspective
• The approach based on the belief that
behavior is motivated by unconscious
inner forces (beliefs, fears and desires)
over which the individual has little
control.
• Unconscious, Subconscious, Conscious
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Humanistic
(Phenomenological)
Perspective
• The approach that suggests that all
individuals naturally strive to grow,
develop, and be in control of their lives
and behavior. Each of us has capacity to
seek & reach fulfillment.
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• The emphasis is on ‘free will’ – the ability
to make free decisions about one’s own
behavior & life.
• Free will is opposed to determinism
which sees behavior as caused or
determined by things beyond a person’s
control.
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Cognitive Perspective
• The approach that focuses on how people think,
understand, and know about the world.
• Emphasis is on learning how people
comprehend & represent the outside world
within themselves. How our ways of thinking
about world influence our behavior.
• Modern study of cognition in concerned with
mental processes, such as perceiving,
remembering, reasoning, deciding and problem
solving.
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• The modern study of cognition is
premised on the assumptions that:
(a) Only by studying mental processes we
can fully understand what organisms
do: and
(b) We can study mental processes in an
objective fashion by focusing on
specific behaviors (like behaviorists),
but interpreting them in terms of
underlying mental processes.
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Biological Basis of Behavior
• Objectives:
1. To be familiar with the different parts of a
neuron, as well as it types and functions.
2. To be able to trace how neurons communicate
with one another.
3. To be familiar with different parts of the
nervous system and their functions
4. To identify parts of the endocrine system and
their influence in human behavior
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Neurons
• Neurons are the information-processing and
information- transmitting element of the
nervous system
• They come in different shapes
• They may also be classified according to their
major functions
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Neurons Based on their
Function
• Sensory neurons- They gather information from
the environment and transmit them to the brain
• Motor neurons - Those that accomplish
movement of the muscles
• Interneurons - Can be found in the central
nervous system; responsible for perceiving,
learning, remembering, planning, and deciding
among other important neural activities
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Flow of Neural Information
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Basic Structure of a Neuron
• Soma- Contains the nucleus and other parts that are
responsible proving the life processes of the cell.
• Dendrites- Tree-like structures that serve as the
recipient of messages coming from the neighboring
neurons.
• Axon- The axon is a long slender tube, covered by a
fatty insulator called the myelin sheath, that carries
information from the cell body to the terminal
button.
• Bundles of axons constitute nerves
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The Neuron
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Basic Structure of a Neuron
• Terminal Buttons - Knob-like structures at the
end of the axon’s twigs.
• Action potential- brief electrical/ chemical
event.
• The transmission of the messages occurs in
the synapse, a junction between the terminal
buttons of the sending cell and a portion of
the somatic or dendritic membrane of the
receiving cell.
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The Synapse
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Basic Structure of a Neuron
• Terminal Buttons release chemicals known as
neurotransmitters or transmitter substances
• Neurotransmitters may be classified into two:
excitatory or inhibitory
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The Nerve Impulse
• A neuron fires an impulse when it receives signals
from sense receptors that are stimulated by
pressure, heat or light, or when it is simulated by
chemical messages from adjacent neurons
• If these signals exceed a minimum intensity,
called the threshold, they trigger an impulse.
• The impulse, called the action potential, is a brief
electrical charge the travels down to the axon.
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The Nerve Impulse
The neuron’s reaction is an all-or-none response,
meaning they either fire or not.
A stronger stimulus cannot trigger a stronger or
faster impulse, but they can trigger more neuron
to fire.
When the Action potential reaches the terminals
at an axons end, it triggers the release of
chemical messengers, called neurotransmitters,
onto the synapse – a gap between axons and
dendrites of adjacent neurons.
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The Nerve Impulse
• These neurotransmitter molecules cross the
synaptic gap and bind to the receptor site on
the dendrites of the receiving neuron.
• This allows electrically charged atoms to enter
the receiving neuron and excite or inhibit a
new action potential.
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The Nerve Impulse
• The nerve impulse can be excitatory; It
prompts the adjacent neuron to fire.
• An impulse can also be inhibitory; it prevents
the adjacent neuron to fire
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Termination of
Postsynaptic Potentials
• Reuptake - a rapid removal of
neurotransmitter from the synaptic cleft by
the terminal buttons
• Enzymatic deactivation - enzymes destroy
some neurotransmitter molecules into its
constituents
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Division of Nervous System
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The Brain’s Major Parts
MAJOR DIVISION SUBDIVISION PRINCIPAL STRUCTURE
Forebrain Telencephalon Cerebrum/ Cerebral cortex
Basal ganglia
Limbic System
Diencephalon Thalamus
Hypothalamus
Midbrain Mesencephalon Tectum/Tegmentum
Hindbrain Metencephalon Cerebellum
Pons
Myelencephalon Medulla Oblangata
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Cerebral cortex
• Two cerebral hemispheres
• Glia, cell bodies, dendrite, and interconnecting
axons of neurons called the “gray matter”
• The cerebral hemisphere can be divided into
four areas
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Cerebral cortex
Lobes Regions / Areas
Frontal Lobe Primary motor cortex, Motor association
cortex
Parietal Lobe Primary somatosensory cortex,
somatosensory association cortex
Occipital Lobe Primary visual cortex, Visual association
cortex
Temporal Lobe Primary auditory cortex, Auditory
association cortex
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Cerebral cortex
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Diencephalon
• The thalamus
• The hypothalamus
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Hypothalamus
• Controls the automatic nervous system and
the endocrine system
• Behaviors related to survival of the species,
such as fighting, feeding and mating
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The Somatic and
Autonomic Nervous System
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The Somatic and
Autonomic Nervous System
• Somatic nervous system - control movements
of the muscles and to send sensory
information from the sensory organs to the
brain
• Autonomic nervous system - control of
smooth muscles, cardiac muscles and glands
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The Endocrine System
• Endocrine glands
• Processes that happen slowly, such as cell
growth, regulation of mood
• Produces and secretes or give off chemicals -
hormones
• Communicates messages, information and
instructions to other group of cells
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The Endocrine System
Names of the Glands
• Pineal
• Pituitary
• Thyroid
• Parathyroid
• Thymus
• Adrenals
• Pancreas
• Gonads
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Hormones
• Travel through the bloodstream to target cells
(of body organs)
• Target cells have receptors that latch only
onto specific hormones
• When hormone level reach a certain normal
or necessary amount, further secretion is
controlled by important body mechanisms -
negative feedback system
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The Hypothalamus
The primary link between the endocrine and
nervous systems
Controls the pituitary gland
Releasing hormones - signal the pituitary
gland to secrete stimulating hormones
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The Pituitary Gland
• “Master gland” because it makes
hormones that control several other
endocrine glands
• Can be influenced by factors such as
emotions and seasonal changes
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Recommended Text Books
• Name: Hilgard’s Introduction to
Psychology
• Author: Rita L. Atkinson’
Richard C. Atkinson
• Edition: Twelfth Edition
• Year of Publication: 1996
• Name: Understanding Psychology
• Author: Robert. S. Feldman
• Edition: 7th Edition
• Published by: Mc Graw Hill Inc
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