SUMMARY INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES (RUG)
CHAPTER 1
Psychology is the science of behavior and the mind. Behavior consists of the observable actons of a person or
animal. Mind refers to an individual’s sensatonss memoriess thoughtss dreamss emotons and other subjectve
experiences and to the unknown knowledge that is implemented in the brain. Science is performed in atempts
to answer questons through the systematc collecton and logical analysis of objectvely observable data.
THREE FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS FOR PSYCHOLOGY: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
There are three fundamental ideas of psychology. Briefy these are:
1) Behavior and mental experiences have physical causes that can be studied scienticallyl
2) The way people thinks behave and feel is modiied over tme by experiences in their environmentl
3) Body’s machines producing behavior/mental experiencess is product of evoluton by natural selecton.
THE IDEA OF PHYSICAL CAUSATION OF BEHAVIOR
René Descartes
Untl the 1 th century philosophy was constrained by religion. The church maintained that each human being
consists of two distnct but intmately conjoined enttess a material body and an immaterial soul – called
dualism. The body is part of the natural world and should be studied scienticallys like inanimate mater. The
soul is a supernatural entty that has its own free will and thus cannot be studied scientically.
Descartes’ dualism was diferent from the dualism that stated that things like heat in the body were caused by
the soul. Everything nonhuman did not have a soul according to hims so pets perform actons mechanical. Sos
part of us could do that toos he stated. What we haves and dogs do nots is thought which he deined as
conscious deliberaton and judgment. Descartes suggested that the soul acted on our organs at a physical
locaton (place of acton = pineal body).
Problem: how can a nonmaterial entty have a material efect/how can the body follow natural law and yet be
moved by a soul that does not? As a foundaton for psychologys the theory sets strict limitss which few
psychologists would accept todays on what can and cannot by understood by science.
Thomas Hobbes
Materialism means that the spirit / soul is a meaningless concept and that nothing exists but mater and
energy.
19th century learning about the machine
The idea that the bodys including the brains is a machines helped to promote the science of physiology. It led to
an increased understanding of refexes. Therebys it led to the concept of localizaton of functons the idea that
speciic parts of the brain serve speciic functons in the producton of mental experiences and behavior.
THE IDEA THAT THE MIND AND BEHAVIOR ARE SHAPED BY EXPERIENCE
Empiricism is the idea that human knowledge and thought derive ultmately from sensory experience (visions
hearing touchs and so forth). Our senses provide the input that allows us to acquire knowledge of the world
around uss and this knowledge allows us to think about that world and behave adaptvely within it.
John Locke
Locke viewed a child’s mind as a tabula rasas or blank slates and believed that experience serves as the chalk
that writes on and ills the slate.
Empiricist concept of associaton by contguity
Locke and other Britsh empiricists argue that thoughts are not products of free will but rather refectons of a
person’s experiences in the physical and social environment. The fundamental units of the mind are
elementary ideas that derive directly from sensory experiences and become linked together to form complex
,ideas and thoughts. A complex idea consists of a set of elementary sensatons - shapes color and taste – that
become associated in the person’s mind through experiences with that thing.
The most basic operatng principle of the mind’s machinerys according to the empiricistss is the law of
associaton by contguitys an idea originally proposed by Aristotle. Contiguity refers to closeness in space or
tmes and the law of associaton by contguity can be stated as follows: If a person experiences two
environmental events (stmulis or sensatons) at the same tme or one right afer the other (contguously)s
those two events will become associated in the person’s mind such that the thought of one event will tend to
elicit the thought of the other.
Natvism
Natvism is the view that the most basic forms of human knowledge and the basic operatng characteristcs of
the minds which provide the foundaton for human natures are natve to the human mind – that iss are inborn
and do not have to be acquired from experiences.
Immanuel Kant distnguished two kinds of knowledge:
A priori: knowledge that is built into the human brain and does not have to be learned.
Posteriori: knowledge which one gains from experience in the environment.
IDEA THAT MACHINERY OF BEHAVIOR & MIND EVOLVED THROUGH NATURAL SELECTION
Charles darwin
Darwin’s fundamental idea was that living things evolve graduallys over generatonss by a process of natural
selecton. Those individuals whose inherited characteristcs are well adapted to their local environment are
more likely to survive and reproduce than are others less well-adapted individuals. At each generaton there are
random variatons that improve the chance of survival and reproducton are passed from generaton to
generaton in increasing numbers. Darwin’s idea links humans to the rest of the biological world and explains
the origin of brain mechanisms that promote the individual’s survival and reproducton.
The scope of psychology
Psychologists strive to explain mental experiences and behavior. The causes of mental experiences and
behavior are complex and can be analyzed at various levels. The term level of analysiss as used in psychology
and other sciencess refers to the level of causal process that is studied. A person’s behavior and experiences
can be examined at these levels:
Neural (brain as a cause)
Physiological (internal chemical functonss such as hormoness as cause)
Genetic (genes as cause)
Evolutionary (natural selecton as a cause)
Learning (prior experiences with the environment as cause)
Cognitive (knowledge or beliefs as cause)
Social (infuence of other people as cause)
Cultural (culture in which the person develops as cause)
Developmental (age-related changes as cause)
Explanatons that focus on biological processes
Neural explanations
One logical route to explanaton in psychology is called behavioral neurosciences which is about trying to
understand how the nervous system produces the speciic type of experience or behavior being studied. Some
,of these scientsts’ study individual neurons or small groups of neurons to determine how their characteristcs
contribute to psychological processes. Others map out and study larger brain regions that are directly involved
categories of behavior or experience.
Physiological explanations
This is also called biopsychology. They study the ways hormones and drugs act on the brain to alter behavior
and experiences either in humans or in nonhuman animals.
Genetic Explanations
Genes are the units of heredity that provide the codes for building the entre bodys including the brain.
Diferences among individuals in the genes they inherit can cause diferences in the brain ands therefores
diferences in mental experiences and behavior. The research specialty that atempts to explain psychological
diferences among individuals in terms of diferences in their genes is called behavioral genetcs.
Evolutionary Explanations
All the basic biological machinery underlying behavior and mental experience is a producton by natural
selecton. One way to explain universal human characteristcs is to explain how or why they came about during
evoluton. The research specialty concerned with this level of analysis is called evolutonary psychology.
EXPLANATIONS THAT FOCUS ON ENVIRONEMTAL EXPERIENCESs KNOWLEDGE AND
DEVELOPMENT
Learning explanations
Essentally all forms of human behavior and mental experience are modiiable by learningl that iss they can be
infuenced by prior experiences. Such experiences can afect our emotonss drivess perceptonss thoughtss skills
and habits. The psychological specialty concerned with this is called learning psychology or behavioral
psychology. For examples they might atempt to explain compulsive gambling in terms of paterns of rewards
that the person has experiences in the past while gambling.
Cognitive explanations
Cognition refers to informaton in the mind – that iss to informaton that is somehow stored and actvated by
the workings of the brain. Such informaton includes thoughtss beliefss and all forms of memories. Some
informaton is conscious (the person is aware of it) and other is unconscious. The specialty focusing on this is
called cognitve psychology.
Social explanations
Humans are social animalss that need to cooperate and get along with others of our species to survive and
reproduce. For this reasons our behavior is strongly infuencing by our perceptons of others. We use others as
models of how to behave and we ofen strives consciously or unconsciously to behave in ways that will lead
others to approve of us. The specialty focusing on this level of explanaton is called social psychology. A
popular term for all infuences is social pressure. A social psychologist interested in physical itnesss for
examples might atempt to explain how people’s willingness to exercise is infuenced by their beliefs about the
degree to which other people exercise and their beliefs about how others will react to them if they do or do not
exercise.
Cultural explanations
, We can predict some aspects of a person’s behavior by knowing about the culture in which that person grew
up. Cultures vary in language or dialects in the values and attudes they fosters and in the kinds of behaviors
and emotons they encourage or discourage. The psychological specialty that explains mental experiences and
behavior in terms of the culture in which the person developed is called cultural psychology.
Developmental explanations
The psychological specialty that documents and describes the typical age diferences that occur in the
ways that people feels think and act is called developmental psychology.
THE CONNECTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY TO OTHER CHOLARLY FIELDS
Psychology bridges the natural and social sciences and it has strong connectons to the humanites. In this
senses it lies in the center of the academic pursuits of the university.
CHAPTER 3
Adapton refers to the modiicaton as a result of changed life circumstances.
GENES
Sometmes researchers speak of genes for behavior traits. Genes afect the body’s development throughs and
only throughs their infuence on producton of protein molecules. We are what we ares biologically speakings
because of our proteins. A class of proteins called structural proteins forms the structure of every cell of the
body. Anothers much larger class called enzymes controls the rate of every chemical reacton in every cell.
Genes are components of extremely long molecules of a substance called DNA. A replica of your whole unique
set of DNA molecules exists in the nucleus of each of your body’s cellss where it serves to code for and regulate
the producton of protein molecules.
Environment
Genes work only through interacton with the environment. The environment refers to every aspect of an
individual in his or her surroundings except the genes themselves.
Genes built proteinss which form or alter the body’s physiological systems (including brain systems)s whichs in
turns produce behavior. Each step in this process involves interacton with the environment. Aspects of the
internal environment control gene actvatons and aspects of both the internal and the external environments
act on physiological systems to control behavior. Behaviors in turns can afect gene actvaton through direct
and indirect efects on the internal environment.
The world of reptles provides a fascinatng example of the role of context in gene expression. In humanss the
23rd chromosome pair is called the ‘sex chromosome’s with females having two X chromosomes (XX) and males
one X and one Y (XY).
GENOTYPE VERSUS PHENOTYPE
The term genotype is used to refer to the set of genes that the individual inherits. Phenotype refers to the
observable propertes of the body and behavioral traits. Genetc material exists in each cell in structures called
chromosomess which are usually dispersed throughout the cell nucleus.
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