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Mohammed Kheidher University of Biskra

Faculty of Arabic Language Arts and Literature & Foreign Languages

Department of Foreign Languages

Branch of English Studies

(Class) Freshman (Option) Sciences of Language

(Module) Social Sciences & Humanities (Instructor) Dr. Bashar, A

Introduction to Psychology

Outcomes of the lecture : By the end of this lecture, you will be able to :

1. Define psychology ;
2. Point out its subfields and Psychology has a long past but a short
scope of study ; history
3. Identify its methods of Herman Ebbinghaus
research ;
4. Learn about different
psychologists ;
5. undertake psychological readings and research reporting.
Food-for-Thought Questions

1. What is the nature of psychological studies ?

2. Why people do the things they do ?
3. Does it seem fair to call psychology a science ?
4. To what extent does psychology account for individuals’ behavior ?
5. Is behavior related to genes or environment ?

Terminology used in the Lecture

Psychology- behavior- mind- mental processes-

interdisciplinary- structuralism- functionalism- Don't become a mere
recorder of facts, but try to
behaviorism- eclectic(ism)- unconscious mind-
penetrate the mystery of
classical conditioning-developmental psychology-
their origin." Ivan Pavlov
psycholingistics- social psychhology
(1849-1936)

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Point to ponder and wonder

It seems that Pavlov’s experiment on a dog has revolutionized psychologists’

approach to the objective study of the human mind. Pavlov came across classical
conditioning unintentionally during his research into animals' gastric systems. Whilst
measuring the salivation rates of dogs, he found that they would produce saliva when they
heard or smelt food in anticipation of feeding. This is a normal reflex response which we
would expect to happen as saliva plays a role in the digestion of food. However, the dogs
also began to salivate when events occurred which would otherwise be unrelated to feeding.
By playing sounds to the dogs prior to feeding them, Pavlov showed that they could be
conditioned to unconsciously associate neutral, unrelated events with being fed.

Introduction

Mind is an amazing apparatus ; it has fascinated Babylonians, Ancient Egyptians,

Ancient Greeks, Chinese, and Arabs. It seems that the mind is a timid faculty as it
manifests itself only through language and non-verbal means of communication. It is
also interesting to notice that the Arabs often attribute to the heart the role of mind.
Mind controls humans’ cognition and emotions and is affected by both internal and
external circumstances.

Description

The current lecture introduces you to psychology, which is generally understood to

be the scientific study of mind. It is your opportunity to explore the human mind
from different perspectives with a view of explaining individuals’ thought, learning,
and behavior.

Definition of Psychology

Psychology derives from Ancient Greek words psyche (breath, spirit, mind, life, self)
and logos (study, science, logic). Literally, psychology is the study of the mind. In his
book Psychology, Baucum (1999 : 1-2) defines psychology as ‘’the scientific study of
observable, overt behavior that we either observe directly or measure with
instruments’’. In his book Psychology : An International Perspective, Michael W.
Eysenck (2004: 3) defines psychology as follows : ‘’ ... a science in which behavioural
and other evidence is used to understand the internal processes leading to people
(and members of other species) to behave as they do’’. In his book Psychology :
Concepts & Connections, Spencer A. Rathus (2006 : 4) identifies psychology

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succinctly ‘’ Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes’’.

Therefore, psychology attempts to explore the internal/ mental processes (attention,
perceptions, thinking, memorization, etc.) and their direct impact on external
behavior of individuals (Bashar, 2015).

It should be acknowledged that psychology is interested in studying behavior and

mind in both human and nonhumn animals.

According to Rozenweig (1992), 64% of the world’s 56, 000 researchers in psychology
are Americans (Eysenck Psychology : an International Perspective: 11).

Emergence of Psychology

The German scholar Wilhelm M. Wundt (16 August 1832 – 31 August 1920) is widely
acknowledged to be the first who conducted research on mental processes in his
laboratory at Leipzig1 University. Thus, he is considered by many psychology
textbook writers to be the founding father of (experimental) psychological studies in
the western world.

Themes & Methodology in Psychology

Psychology undertakes to investigate through experimentation a myriad of issues

such as :

development
(physical/mental/emotional) Everybody should do at least two things
each day that he hates to do, just for
emotions : happiness and distress
practice.
intelligence and emotional intelligence/ William James
multiple intelligences

mind

motivation

personality

unconscious/ subconscious

1
Leipzig is a town in the north east of Federal Republic of Germany.

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Language acquisition and learning

Learning difficulties : dyslexia/ autism

Ssnsation and perception/ Neuroscience

Introspection

Wilhem Wundt set up a

The greatest discovery of my generation is laboratory in an apartment in

that human beings can alter their lives by Leipzig, Germany in 1879. He
altering the attitudes of their minds trained subjects in introspection-
William James (1842-1910) the subject were require to record
accurately their cognitive
reactions to simple stimuli. He later developed his theory of structuralism, which
stipulates that the mind by combining subjective (i.e., personal) emotions and
objective (i.e., real) sensations. The American psychologist William James (1842-
1910) wrote the first textbook in psychology, The Principles of Psychology. William
James tried to examine Wundt’s structures and how they function in real life. He
eventually developed his theory that he called functionalism.

Gestalt /pr. geshtalt/ Psychology

Max Wertheimer (1880-1940) and other Gestalt Psychologists attempted to examine a

person’s total experience because the way the person experience is more than just
the accumulation of sensations. The development of Gestalt psychology was
influenced in part by Wertheimer's observations one day at a train station. He
purchased a toy stroboscope which displayed pictures in a rapid sequence to mimic
the appearing movement. He later proposed the concept of the Phi phenomenon in
which flashing lights in sequence can lead to what is known as apparent motion. In
other words, we perceive movement where there
is none. Movies are one example of apparent
"Education survives when what
motion. Through a sequence of still frames, the
has been learnt has been
illusion of movement is created.
forgotten."
Psychoanalysis B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
Sigmund Freud / pr. Zigmoont Froyd/ (1865-
1939) believed that to understand the human
mind, an analysis of the unconscious mind,

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which dveloped over the years through repression, through dream analysis, word
association, and other psychotherapy techniques (hypnosis and other techniques).

Behaviorism

Behaviorists such as John Watson (1878-1958), Edward Thorndike (1874-1947), and

later B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) called for the study of observable phenomena such as
behavior. Simply defined, behavior refers to all that the individual says or does. The
behaviorists tried to study the
implication of Pavlov’s (1849-1936)
When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but
Conditioning experimentations.
when I look at people I am optimistic.
Multiple Perspectives/ Eclecticism Carl Rogers

Most psychologists now consider

themselves eclectic- they draw from different perspectives.

Subfields of Psychology

By its very nature, psychology has attested itself to be interdisciplinary. Eysenck

(1994b: 15) points out that ‘’ psychology has been enriched by physiologists,
neurologists, sociologists, zoologists, anthropologists, biologists, and others’’.
Differently stated, psychology attempts to search objectively all the possible variables
that may affect the mind and behavior.

Psychololinguistics Psycholinguistics attempts to study how the mind processes

and produces language. In other words, psycholinguitics tries to investigte the
psychological and neurological factors that may empower humans yo acquire, use,
and understand language (Wikipedia). There are three theories that account for
psycholinguistics : Language Acquisition, Language Comprehension, and Language
Production.

Educational Psychology : Educational psychologists study how people learn, and they
design the methods and materials used to educate people of all ages. Many educational
psychologists work in universities, in both psychology departments and schools of
education. Some conduct basic research on topics related to the learning of reading, writing,
mathematics, and science. Others develop new methods of instruction including designing
computer software. Still others train teachers and they investigate factors that affect teachers'
performance and morale.

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Social Psychology : Social psychologists study how people interact with each other and
how they are affected by social environments. They sindividuals as well as groups,
observable behaviors, and private thoughts. Topics of interest to social psychologists include
personality theories, the formation of attitudes and attitude change, attractions between
people such as friendship and love, prejudice, group dynamics and violence and aggression.
Social psychologists might, for example, study how attitudes toward the elderly influence
the elderly person's selfconcept, or they might investigate how unwritten rules of behavior
develop in groups and how those rules regulate the conduct of group members.

Developmental Psychology : Developmental psychologists study human development (i.e.,

growth) across the life span, from newborn to aged. Developmental psychologists are
interested in the description, measurement, and explanation of age-related changes in
behavior; stages of emotional development; universal traits and individual differences and
abnormal changes in development. Many doctoral-level developmental psychologists are
employed in academic settings, teaching and doing research.2

Quiz

Task One : Are the following statements true or false ? Write T/F in the space provided.
1. ___ Psychology refers exclusively to the scientific study of human mind and behavior.
2. ___ Developmental psychologists are interested in age-related changes.
3. ___ Behaviorists disregard observable phenomena such as behavior.
4. ___ Behavior is whatever you say or do.
Task Two : Match psychologists with their theories.
Psychologists Theories
S. Freud Functionalism
B. F. Skinner Gestalt
W. James Structuralism
M. Wertheimer Behaviorism
W. Wundt Psychotherapy
Task Three : Define in your own words.
1. Psycholinguistics

2
http://www.uni.edu/walsh/subarea.html

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2. Gestalt Theory
3. Social Psychology
4. Educational psychology
Task Four : Read then answer the questions
It is generally agreed that gifted children differ from their peers in ways other than intellectual ability
alone. Evidence of this was found by the American psychologist Lewis M. Terman, who in 1921
initiated a study of more than 1,500 gifted children with IQs higher than 140. Following the study
participants as they aged, Terman observed a greater drive to achieve, along with greater mental and
social adjustment, among the gifted group as compared with nongifted children. In another early 20th-
century study, which focused on children with IQs greater than 180, psychologist Leta Hollingworth
found that individuals within this group were very sensitive to the ways in which they differed from
others and often suffered from problems such as boredom and rejection by their peers. Variability of
development is another characteristic observed in gifted children. In the late 20th century, the
term asynchrony was used to describe the developmental characteristics of gifted children; that is, their
mental, physical, emotional, and social abilities may all develop at different paces.

In theory, there are three ways of educating children who are intellectually and academically more
advanced than their peers: (1) acceleration, whereby the gifted child is allowed to learn material at a
more rapid pace or is promoted more rapidly through grades; (2) enrichment, whereby the gifted child
works through the usual grades at the usual pace but with a curriculum supplemented by a variety of
cultural activities; and (3) differentiation, whereby gifted children are accelerated or enriched within
the regular classroom.

1. What does the text speak about ?

2. Who are the psychologist who were interested in this subject maatter ?
3. What werre their contributiions ?
4. What to do to educate gifted children ?
5. Are they born gifted or nurtured ?

Task Five : In an esssay form, write about an event that has marked you psychologically and
try to explain wwhy it has.

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