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study of how and why humans act as
they do
Instead of studying how humans
function in cultures or societies,
psychology focuses on the individual,
and the personal and unique experiences
that influence how the individual acts
and thinks
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Experimental Psychology
The branch of the discipline that sets up
experiments to see how individuals act in
particular situations
Question - Would you help a complete
stranger that was being threatened with
violence from another person?
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CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY is the branch of the
discipline that develops programs for treating
individuals suffering from mental illnesses and
behavioural disorders
Eg. Psychologists treat dangerous offenders in
federal prisons in an attempt to prevent them
from reoffending on release
Like the other social sciences, psychology
has been divided into a number of schools
of thought:
Psychoanalytic Theory
Behaviouralism
Learning Theory
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The mind is divided into
two parts: the conscious
(aware of ) and the
unconscious (not aware
of)
According to
psychologists, our
unconscious mind has more
influence than our
conscious mind on our
personalities and
behaviour
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The Unconscious mind is divided
into three parts:
1.
2.
3.
Id – which encourages us to
seek physical satisfaction
Superego – prompts us to do
the moral thing, not the one
that feels best
Ego – the referee between
the two and deals with
external reality, this is our
most conscious self
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Behaviourists believe that
psychologists can predict and control
or modify human behaviour by
identifying the factors that motivate
it in the first place
Behaviourists placed particular stress
on the early childhood years, and the
rules or practices parents use to raise
their children because they believe
these methods have a huge influence
on the character of individuals even
into adulthood
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Learning Theorists agree that humans
are born with little instinct but much
learning potential
They believe that most human
behaviour is learned, especially in
childhood and youth
By controlling the way in which
humans learn behavious, society can
have a great influence on their
ultimate personalities
Believe that children who were
brought up in loving families would
grow up to become secure and loving
adults, but only if parents provided
clear and consistent expectations for
good behaviour, and swift but fair
consequences for bad behaviour
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Six Stages of Change (Behaviour Modification)
-Pre-contemplation (denial, refusal)
-Contemplation (questioning)
-Preparation (investigation)
-Action (commitment)
-Maintenance (transition)
-Termination (completion)
Positive and Negative Reinforcement
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*
*Through their studies,
social psychologists have
discovered that most
individuals desire
cognitive consistency in
their beliefs.
*This means that we want
to avoid attitudes that
conflict with each other.
*When two attitudes
conflict with each other
we experience
discomfort.
*Our desire to regain
cognitive consistency
forces us to change
one of the conflicting
attitudes.
The most favoured
theory of attitude
change is called the
cognitive dissonance
theory.
Suppose you smoke, but
you also believe that
smoking causes cancer and
other serious diseases.
You are experiencing
dissonance, meaning that
what you do conflicts with
what you think.
In your desire to regain
cognitive consistency, you
will probably try to avoid
facing the conflict. You may
avoid smoking in front of a
friend who is strongly
opposed to smoking (thereby
avoiding a lecture).
*
*What are other
options to effectively
reduce the dissonance
you feel in a situation
?
You can change your
behaviour to make it
consistent with your
attitudes-you can stop
smoking.
You can reinforce your
attitude (e.g. my grandma
was heavy smoker and lived
to be 93).
*You may fool yourself
for a while, yet as
long as you live in a
state of dissonance,
you will probably
experience anxiety
and be very
uncomfortable-even
hostile-if someone
criticizes your
behaviour.
*
*Did you ever do
something that you
knew was wrong and
ended up feeling
anger; resulting from
the dissonance
between what you do
and what you think ?
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* Precontemplation
* I don’t have a problem
* I like myself the way I am
* Contemplation
* Do you think I should do something about the problem?
* Preparation
* What is my problem doing to my health?
affect those who love me?
*
How does my problem
* Action
* I’ve got to keep doing this, or I’ll never change.
* Maintenance
* I must find alternative ways to deal with my problem. I must
avoid people who are going to drag me back into my old habits.
* Termination
* I don’t have to work at this anymore.
back to my old ways.
*
I just don’t want to go
How could the Stages of Change model be applied to drug
addiction?
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Focus on people’s behaviours
(what they do) and
attitudes (what they think)
Key Questions:
-what must people do to successfully change their
behaviours
-what factors make behaviour-modification
programs successful?
-do most people need help changing behaviour, or
can they be self changers?
Example:
Consider an individual who has been convicted three times for
driving under the influence. Is it necessary to change a person’s attitude about
drinking before he or she will stop drinking and driving?