Introduction to Psychology

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Introduction to Psychology

• What IS Psychology?
• Why should I care about it?

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Textbook Definition

• Psychology is the science of human nature. Its
  all about studying the human mind and behavior so
  we can figure out why people think, feel and do
  what they do - Johnston, 4, The Complete Idiots
  Guide to Psychology

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4 goals of Psychology

• To describe what people do
• To explain why people think, feel and act the way
  they do
• To predict what, when and how they will do it
• To change the parts of human behavior that cause
  us pain
• Goals taken from
• The Complete Idiots Guide to Psychology

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How do we achieve the 4 goals?
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1. Describing what people do

• Not as easy as it looks.
• Why? No matter how hard we try not to, we see
  each other through the filters of out prior
  experiences, our cultural values, and our
  beliefs The Complete Idiots Guide to Psychology.
• Example After youve been dumped

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2. Why do people think, feel and act the way they
do?

• Something has happened to them Psychologists
  look for connections between things that happen
  and how people respond(Johnston,5).

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3. Predicting what people will do

• The best predictor of future behavior is past
  behavior. Why would that be useful in everyday
  life?
• Relationships
• Problem NOT always accurate. Real life doesnt
  always follow theory.

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4. Change behaviors that cause pain

• Psychologists want to help people to control
  behavior so they can run their lives more
  effectively.
• Therapy
• Example stop drinking, communicate more
  effectively, cope with memories of a painful
  childhood etc.

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Lets start to apply some Psychology on ourselves!

• Think of the most upsetting thing thats happened
  to you in the past 6 months.
• 1. Describe what happened (think about it like it
  happened to someone else so you can be objective.
  Write down who, what, when, where and how.
• 2. Explain what happened. WHY do you think this
  happened to you? What is the relationship
  between your own behavior and the situation?

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Keep on writing!

• 3. Predict. Has this event happened before?
  Knowing yourself and those around you, how likely
  is it to happen again? How could you respond
  effectively if it did?
• 4. Control What have you learned from this
  situation? What could you do to prevent it from
  happening again? How could you respond more
  effectively if it did?
• The Complete Idiots Guide to Psychology

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We should all know the goals of Psychology by now

• Lets see how we can apply them to a job like
  Sports Psychologist!

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Football

• Place kicker Scott Norwood practiced kicking
  field goals A LOT!

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nt_a.jpg
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BUT when he had a chance to kick the game winning
field goal for the Buffalo Bills..

• He choked!

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Ask the professionals

• Scott didnt know why he couldnt kick the field
  goal after he practiced so many times.
• So he went to a Sports Psychologist to find out.

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This is how the sports psychologist applied the
goals of psychology to help Scott

• 1. Observe and describe behavior Measured
  Scotts heart rate in and out of big game
  situations.
• 2. He explained that in game situations Scott
  has increased heart rate and nervousness and has
  too much anxiety to do his best.
• 3. Then, the psychologist predicted that if Scott
  could control his anxiety he could kick better
  during games
• 4. The psychologist helped Scott to block out the
  crowd and use positive thinking to reduce his
  anxiety during the game so he can kick more field
  goals!

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So you see how athletes can benefit from
psychologist help

• Can you think of other situations where
  psychology can help someone fix a problem?

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Psychology as a science

• We have already talked about how psychology is
  NOT an exact science. BUT it IS like science in
  some ways

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.JPG
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Like scientists

• Psychologists follow steps like the ones
  scientists follow to conduct experiments, collect
  data and draw conclusions.

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ce/Year8/Pics/scientificMethod.gif
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The difference between science and psychology

• Is that psychologists concentrate on the way
  individual people think and feel.
• Thoughts and feelings are unpredictable and can
  change! Other sciences arent as unpredictable.

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Research

• Like scientists, psychologists use research to
  study things. Psychologists use research to
  study people and learn more about them.

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Psychological theories

• Theory a statement that tries to explain why
  things are the way they are and why things happen
  the way they do (Holt, 6).

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Principles

• The laws or rules of nature that psychologists
  may base theories on.
• For example
• Principle The more sleep you get, the healthier
  you are
• Theory The more sleep you get, the happier you
  will feel.

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Check up

• 1. How is psychology like science?
• 2. What is the difference between psychology and
  science?
• 3. What is the difference between a theory and
  a principle?

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What Psychologists do

• You have already learned a little bit about what
  a sports psychologist does. Today you are going
  to learn about other jobs that psychologists can
  do.

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Clinical or Counseling Psychologists

• The types of psychologists you see on t.v. are
  usually 1. clinical or 2. counseling
  psychologists.
• They listen to peoples problems in an office and
  try to fix them
• Most common type of Psychologist

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Other types of Psychologists

• There are also careers in Psychology that you may
  not be aware of. Some of them are listed on
  pages 9-15.
• HW Read Chapter 1 and choose one career in
  psychology that you are most interested in.
  Write a paragraph explaining what interests you
  about the job and be prepared to share!