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Welcome
to
GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY
COURSE (PSYC 1011)
By: Mr. Teshome K. (Ph.D. Candidate)

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 Contents
• Essence of Psychology
• Sensation and Perception
• Learning and Theories of Learning
• Memory and Forgetting
• Motivations and Emotions
• Personality
• Psychological Disorders
• Introduction of life skills
• Intra-Personal Skills
• Academics Skills
• Social Skills 3
 UNIT ONE
Essence of Psychology

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Meaning and Definition of Psychology
• The word “Psychology "comes from the two Greek
words. These are:
 psyche, which translates as “soul” or “sprit”, ”mind”
and
 logos, which means the study, knowledge or
discourse.
“ the study of the mind/soul/sprit”
represented by the Greek letter ᴪ (psi) which is read
as("sy")
psychology is a scientific study of behavior and its
underlying mental process of human beings and animals. 5
 Key words in the definition
Science
 Follow scientific procedures and use empirical data to study
behavior and mental processes.
 Psychology does not rely on common sense or speculation
Behavior
 All of our out ward or overt actions and reactions ,such as
talking, facial expressions, movement ,etc.
 There is also covert behavior which is hidden, non-
observable and generally considered as a mental process
Mental processes
 Refer to all the internal, covert activities of our minds, such
as thinking, feeling, remembering, etc.
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 Goals of Psychology

Description: what is happening?

Explanation: why it is happening?
Prediction: When will it happen again?
 Controlling: How can it be changed?

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 Description
 it involves observing the behavior and noticing
everything about it.
 Every behaviour has its own way of occurring
 In describing behaviour, a psychologist focuses
on how behaviour occurs.
 It is a search for answers for questions like
 What is happening? Where does it happen? To
whom does it happen?‘ And under what
circumstances does it seem to happen?.
 Explanation
 In explanation of behaviour, a psychologist
becomes concerned about why behaviour occurs
as it does
 Every behaviour has its own causes. No behaviour
occurs without a cause.
 It is about trying to find reasons for the observed
behavior.
 This helps in the process of forming theories of
behavior (A theory is a general explanation of a
set of observations or facts).
 Prediction
 Prediction is about determining what will
happen in the future
 involves forecasting the likelihood of a behaviour
under certain circumstances.
 Prediction of behaviours is possible through the
use of theories or principles

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 Control (Modification)
 How can it be changed? Control or modify or
change the behavior from undesirable one to a
desirable one).
 involves changing a behaviour which is anti social or
unacceptable.
 For healthy functioning of society and the individual,
these kind of negative (maladaptive ) behaviours
should be avoided
 In psychology, there are psychological techniques to
help an individual avoid a maladaptive behaviour.
 Historical Roots of Psychology
• Psychology has its roots in philosophy and physiology
• Psychology is a relatively new field in the realm of the
sciences, only about 125 years old.
• It began as a science of its own in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany,
with the establishment of a psychology laboratory in the
University of Leipzig by Wilhelm Wundt.
• Wundt developed the technique of objective introspection
to scientifically examine mental experiences.
• Wundt as its founder or "father of modern psychology.
• Once psychology begun to use the scientific method, it then
went through successive developments in which different
schools of thought emerged at different times. 12
 Schools of Thought
Early Schools of Psychology
Structuralism
• developed by Edward Bradford Titchener.
• Wilhelm Wundt, who established the first scientific
laboratory of psychology in Leipzig in 1879, and believed that
human mind could be scientifically studied. 
• Task of Psychology
– is to identify the basic elements of consciousness (image,
feelings & sensation)
– to find out the units or elements, which make up the mind
• Methods: Introspection (looking in ward into our
consciousness)
Functionalism
• founded by William James (1848-1910) which proposed
that, the function of the mind, not the structure.
Task of Psychology
is to investigate the function, or purpose, of
consciousness rather than its structure
psychological processes are adaptive. They allow
humans to survive and to adapt successfully to their
surroundings.
Method
questionnaires, mental tests and objective descriptions
of behavior
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 Gestalt psychology
- Founders of this schools of thought are
 Max Wertheimer (1880-1943)
Task of Psychology
mind should be thought of as resulting from the whole pattern
Psychology as a study of the whole mind
Argued that the mind is not made up of combinations of
elements.
The mind should be thought of as a result of the whole pattern of
sensory activity and the relationships and organizations within
their pattern
Methods
are Naïve Introspection and experimentation
 Behaviorism
- Founder-John B. Watson (1878-1958)
Task of psychology
Behaviorists view psychology as a study of
observable and measurable behaviors.
Three important characteristics; conditioned
response, learned rather than unlearned
behaviors, and focus on animal behavior
Methods
- are Observation and Experimentation
Psychoanalysis
• founded by a Viennese physician Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).
Task of Psychology
 psychology studies about the components of the unconscious
part of the human mind.
The unconscious which is the subject matter of psychoanalys is
contains hidden wishes, passions, guilty secrets, unspeakable
yearnings, and conflict between desire and duty.
Methods
- free association, dream interpretation, analysis of slip of
tongue, jokes, and Transference

The mind is like an iceberg in that only a small part of its

substance is visible
 Modern Perspectives in Psychology
Psychodynamic perspective

It has its origins in Freud's theory of psychoanalysis, but many

other psychodynamic theories exist.
This perspective emphasizes the unconscious dynamics within the
individual such as inner forces, conflicts or instinctual energy.
The psychodynamic approach emphasizes:
The influence of unconscious mental behavior on every day
behavior
The role of childhood experiences in shaping adult personality
The role of intrapersonal conflict in determining human behavior
•Psychodynamic perspective tries to dig below the surface of a
person's behavior to get into unconscious motives
•Psychodynamists think of themselves as archaeologists of the mind.
 Behavioral Perspective
• It emphasizes the role learning experiences play in shaping the
behavior of an organism.
• It is concerned with how the environment affects the person‘s
actions.
• Behaviorists focus on environmental conditions(e.g. rewards,
and punishments) that maintain or discourage specific behaviors.
• Also called the "black box“ approach in psychology because it
treats the mind as less useful in understanding human behavior
and focus on what goes into and out of the box, but not on the
processes that take place inside
• This means, behaviorists are only interested in the effects of the
environment (input) on behavior (output) but not in the process
inside the box.
 Humanistic Perspective

 Human behavior is not determined either by

unconscious dynamics or the environment.
 Rather it emphasizes the uniqueness of human beings
and focuses on human values and subjective
experiences.
 This perspective places greater importance on the
individual‘s free will.
 The goal of humanistic psychology was helping people
to express themselves creatively and achieve their full
potential or self- actualization (developing the human
potential to its fullest). 20
 Cognitive Perspective
•It emphasizes what goes on in people's heads; how people reason,
remember, understand language, solve problems, explain
experiences and form beliefs.
•This perspective is concerned about the mental processes.
•The most important contribution of this perspective has been to
show how people's thoughts and explanations affect their actions,
feelings, and choices.
•Techniques used to explore behavior from a cognitive perspective
include electrical recording of brain activity, electrical stimulation
and radioactive tracing of metabolic activity in the nervous system.
 Biological Perspective
• It focuses on studying how bodily events or functioning of
the body affects behavior, feelings, and thoughts.
• It holds that the brain and the various brain chemicals affect
psychological processes such as learning, performance,
perception of reality, the experience of emotions, etc.
• This perspective underscores that biology and behavior
interact in a complex way; biology affecting behavior and
behavior in turn affecting biology.
• It also emphasizes the idea that we are physical beings who
evolved over along time and that genetic heritage can
predispose us to behaving in a certain way.
Socio-cultural Perspective
• It focuses on the social and cultural factors that
affects human behavior.
• Cultural psychologists also examine how cultural
rules and values (both explicit and unspoken)
affect people's development, behavior, and
feelings.
• This perspective holds that humans are both the
products and the producers of culture, and our
behavior always occurs in some cultural contexts.
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 Branches of Psychology

Psychology is a broad field, there are many specialization under its

umbrella

Developmental Psychology

Studies how people develop overtime thorough the process of
maturation and learning.

studies age related changes through the life span

Aspects of Development( Physical, Cognitive, Social, etc)

Stages of Development (Infancy, Babyhood, childhood, adolescence,
adulthood, old age)

It attempts to examine the major developmental milestones that
occur at different stages of development.
 Cont…
Educational Psychology
• Concerned with the application of psychological
principles and theories in improving the educational
process including curriculum, teaching, and
administration of academic programs.

Counselling Psychology
• Helps individuals with less severe problems than those
treated by clinical psychologists.
 assists people on issues of personal adjustment,
vocational and career planning, family life and may
work in schools, hospitals, clinics or offices
 Cont…
Personality Psychology
It focuses on the relatively enduring traits and characteristics of
individuals.
Study topics such as self-concept, aggression, moral development,
etc.
studies individual differences in personality and their effects on
behaviour

Industrial( Organizational) Psychology

Studies human behaviour in the workplace and how behaviour
affects production
Applies psychological principles in industries and organizations to
increase the productivity of that organization.
 Cont…
Social Psychology
 It studies the role of social forces in governing
individual behaviour.
 Examines the ways in which the pattern of a
person’s feeling, thinking and acting is affected
by others
 Deals with people‘s social interactions,
relationships, social perception, and attitudes.
 Cont…
Cross-cultural Psychology
 Examines the role of culture in understanding
behavior, thought, and emotion.
 It compares the nature of psychological
processes in different cultures, with a special
interest in whether or not psychological
phenomena are universal or culture-specific.
Forensic psychology
 Applies psychological principles to improve the
legal system (police, testimony,etc..).
 Cont…
Health Psychology
 Applies psychological principles to the
prevention and treatment of physical illness
and diseases.
Clinical Psychology
 Is a field that applies psychological principles
to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of
psychological disorders.
 Research Methods in Psychology

Definition of Terms
• Scientific method- a process of testing ideas
through systematic observations,
experimentations, and statistical analysis.
• Theory-is an integrated set of principles about
observed facts that is intended to describe and
explain some aspects of experience.
• Hypotheses-is a tentative proposition about the
relationship between two or more variables or
phenomena.
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 Major types of research methods
1. Descriptive research methods
 In this type of research, the researcher simply records
what she/he has systematically observed.
 Include naturalistic observation, case studies, and
surveys.
2. Correlational research methods
 Is are search method that measures the relationship
between two or more variables
3. Experimental Research
 It is are search method that allows researchers to study
the cause and effect relationship between variables
Naturalistic Observation
• subjects are observed in their natural environment to get a
real (not artificial) picture of how behavior occurs.
• Limitations: observer effect (animals or people who know
they are being watched may behave artificially) and observer
bias (the researcher may not observe systematically or he/she
may observe behaviors he/she wants to observe and ignores
others).
Case Study
• an individual is studied in great detail. Its advantage is that it
provides tremendous amount of data about a single case or
individual.
• Disadvantage: researchers can‘t apply the results to other
similar people, which means what researchers find in one
case can‘t necessarily apply or generalize to others. 32
Survey
• used to collect data from a very large group of people. It is
useful to get information on private (covert) behaviors and
it addresses hundreds of people with the same questions at
the same time.
• Disadvantage: needs a careful selection of a representative
sample of the actual population.

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 2. Correlations
• It measures the relationship between two or more
variables.
• A variable is anything that can change or vary –scores on
a test, the temperature in a room, gender, and so on.
• It tells researchers if there is a relationship between
variables, how strong the relationship is, and in what
direction the relationship goes, it doesn‘t prove causation
(which means it doesn‘t show the cause and effect
relationship).

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 3. Experimental Method
• It study the cause and effect relationship between variables.

• In experimental research, a carefully regulated procedure in which

one or more factors believed to influence the behavior being
studied are manipulated and all other factors are held constant.
• Experiments involve at least one independent variable and one
dependent variable.
• The independent variable is the manipulated, influential,
experimental factor. The dependent variable is the factor
(behavior) that is measured in an experiment. It can change as the
independent variable is manipulated. 35
 Steps of scientific research

Step one- Defining the Problem

 Noticing something attention catching in the
surrounding for which one would like to have an
explanation.
Step two-Formulating the Hypothesis
 after having an observation on surroundings
(perceiving the problem),you might form an
educated guess about the explanation for your
observations, putting it into the form of a
statement that can be tested in someway.
 Cont..
Step three-Testing the Hypothesis
 At this step, the researcher employs appropriate research
methods and collects ample data (information) to accept or
reject the proposed statement.
Step four- Drawing Conclusions
 This is the step in which the researcher attempts to make
generalizations or draw implications from tested relationship
Step five-Reporting Results
 At this point, the researcher would want to write up exactly
whats he/he did, why she/he did, and what she/he found.
• So that, others can learn from what she/he has already
accomplished, or failed to accomplish. This allows others to
predict and modify behavior based on the findings.
See you next week…