INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED TO

NURSING

Prepared by
Samjhana Neupane
Introduction to psychology

Terminology used in Psychology

 Behaviour: It is an activity, anything we do is a behavior. It is also response to a

stimulus. E.g. throwing a ball

 Stimulus: an environment condition that arises from an organism.

 Stimuli: A thing or event that evokes a specific functional reaction in an organism. It is

any form of object, symbol or event that an individual is capable of seeing and
perceiving.

 Cognition: The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding

through thought, experience and senses. That is the process to think, judge and perceive.
 Conditioning: The acquiring of specific pattern of behavior in the
presence of well defined stimuli.
 Response: Reaction to something. Behavior shown by the person
towards the stimuli. E.g: answer to question
 Re-inforcement: It is act of encouragement that bring change or
modification in the behavior.
 whenever you come home wearing a baseball cap, you take your
child to the park to play. So, whenever your child sees you come
home with a baseball cap, he is excited because he has associated
your baseball cap with a trip to the park. This learning by
association is classical conditioning.
 Introduction to psychology:
 Psychology is greek word ‘psychi’ and ‘logos’. Psychi means soul
and logos mean the ‘study of’ or ‘knowledge’- study of soul.
 Psychology as a science deals systematically with human behavior,
with motives, feelings, emotions, thoughts and actions of men and
women. Like a science, it discovers and explains the underlying laws
and principle of behavior
Meaning

 Psychology is defined from two words that is psycho-mind and ology-study. So,
psychology is the study of mind. Psychology is scientific study of human
behavior and mental processes.

 Behavior: It includes all of our outward or overt actions and reactions, such as
verbal and facial expression and movements.

 Mental process: It refers to all the internal and convert activity of our mind such
as thinking, feeling, judgement, decision making and remembering. It is the
science of experience and behavior, which tells us how the mind works and
behaves.
 Definition

 Psychology is the science of the ‘inner world’ as distinguished from physical

science which study the physical phenomena.

James Sully

 Psychology is science of behavior.

J.B.Watson

 Psychology is a science which aims to give us better understanding and control

of the behavior of the organism as a whole.

William Mc Dougall 1949

 Objectives of psychology
 To describe the human behavior.
 To understand human behavior.
 To find answers to questions about the nature of human behavior.
 To explain, predict, modify and improve the lives of the people
 Branches of Psychology

Pure / Basic Psychology Applied psychology

 General Psychology  Clinical psychology
 Abnormal psychology  Industrial psychology
 Social psychology  Educational psychology
 Physiological psychology  Legal psychology
 Developmental psychology
 Experimental psychology
 Para- psychology
 Branches of Psychology

There are various branches of psychology, among them some are

explained below:
 Pure Psychology:
 It provides the framework and theory, it contents deal with the
formulation of psychological principles and theories. It suggests
various methods and techniques for the analysis, assessment,
modification and improvement of behavior.
1) General Psychology: ( Study beh of normal adult)
 It deals with the fundamental rules, principles and theories of psychology in relation
to the study of behavior of normal adult.

2)Abnormal psychology: ( who are unusal mental disorder, cause & treatment)
 It deals with the behavior of individuals who are unusual. It studies mental disorders
their causes and treatment.

3)Social psychology: (Group behavior, relationship)

 It deals with the group behavior and inter-relationship of people with other people.
It studies various types of group phenomena such as public opinion, attitudes,
beliefs and crowd behavior
4) Physiological psychology: (How body affect behavior)

 Physiological psychology investigates human behavior, emotion, thought,

perception, learning, memory and all other elements of psychology in terms of
biological structures ( different regions of the brain and organs of the endocrine
system) and physiological process.

5) Developmental psychology:

 It studies the factors that influence the growth and development of human behavior.

 This branch of psychology describes the processes of growth and development in

relation to the behavior of an individual from birth to old age.
 6) Experimental psychology

 This branch of psychology describes and explains the ways and

means of carrying out psychological experiments following
scientific methods in controlled or laboratory situation for the
study of mental processes and behavior.

 It picks up animals, birds and human beings as subjects for these

experiments.

7) Para psychology:

 Deals with extrasensory perceptions, cases of re-birth, telepathy

and
 Applied psychology (Practical)
 In applied psychology, the theory generated through pure psychology
finds its practical shape;

 Its applications of psychological rules, principles, theories and techniques

with reference to the real practical life situation.

 In simple , applied psychology is the use of psychological methods and

findings of scientific psychology to solve practical problems of human
and animal behavior and experience.
 Branches of applied psychology
1) Educational psychology

 It is that branch of applied psychology which tries to apply the psychological

principles, theories and techniques to human behavior in educational
situations.

 The subject matter of this branch covers psychological ways and means of
improving all aspects of the teaching learning process including learner,
learning material, learning environment and the teacher
 2) Clinical Psychology

 Clinical psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the assessment

and treatment of mental illness, abnormal behavior and psychiatric problems.

 Clinical psychology is the scientific study, diagnosis and treatment of people who
have psychological problem.

 This branch describes the causes of mental illness, abnormal behavior of patient
and suggests treatment and effective adjustment of the affected persons.

 Clinical psychologist provide psychotherapy, psychological testing and diagnosis

of mental illness.
3) Industrial psychology :

 Industrial psychologists apply psychological principles to assist public and

private organizations with their hiring and placement programs, the training
and supervision of their personnel and the improvement of communication
within the organization.

 They also counsel employees within the organization who need help with
their personal problems.
 4) Legal psychology
 It is that branch of applied psychology which tries to
study the behavior of the persons like clients, criminals,
witnesses etc; in their respective surroundings with the
help of the application of psychological principles.
 It contains the subject matter for improving the ways
and means of detection of crimes, false witnesses and
other complex phenomena.
 Importance of psychology in nursing profession

 Psychology has become necessary in every profession including nursing

today. A nurse will not be able to function efficiently if she does not have
knowledge of psychology.

 Good knowledge of psychology enables the nurse to understand her own

self. It helps in readjustment. She will get an insight into her motives,
desires, emotions and ambitions.
 The learning of psychology helps a nurse in the following ways:

1) It will help her to understand other people:

With scientific knowledge of human nature, she will understand them better and
thus achieve greater success in interpersonal relationships.

 She will learn why others differ from her in their likes and dislikes in their
interest and ability or in their reactions to others.
2) It helps to provide quality care to patients:

 The nurse with good knowledge of psychology can understand what fears or
anxieties the patient faces, what he feels, what he would like to know, why he
behaves in that way.

3) It helps to improve situations by helping others to solve their problems:

 A nurse trained in psychology can be an effective health educator and can help
in this kind of adjustments. The study of psychology helps the student nurse to
appreciate the necessity for changing the environment or surroundings.

 It helps to eliminate burn out syndrome to nurses.

4) It helps for effective studying. Psychology helps the nurse to understand the close
relationship between body, mind and spirit.

5) Knowledge of psychology helps in giving social support to patients during

hospitalization.

6) It helps to develop rapport with emotionally disturbed patients.

7) It helps to identify patient’s motivation, perception, emotion etc.

8) It helps to identify causes of emotional conflicts.

9) It helps to adjust patient’s behavior.

10) It helps to identify patient’s personality and to deal with effectively.