Contents

Unit Page

One Introduction to Psychology 2

Two Schools of Thought in Psychology 6

Three Educational Psychology8

Theories of LearningLearning According to Behaviourist Perspective

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Unit One

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

Definition

Psychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental functions and behavior.

Psychology is a science which concerns itself with the study of behavior, both human and animal.

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. The discipline of psychology embraces all aspects of the human experience — from the functions of the brain to the environments in which humans and other animals develop; from child development to aging. Psychology is a science based on a large body of social science and behavioral science research and which is expanding its boundaries to overlap with neuroscience and health science. Psychologists study two critical relationships: one between brain function and behavior, and one between the environment and behavior. As scientists, psychologists follow scientific methods, using careful observation experimentation and analysis to learn more about the world in which we live and its inhabitants.

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APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY IN SOCIETY

Psychologists make hypotheses and conduct studies in diverse areas, including how people develop, perceive, learn and think, what kind of personality we have, and how we interact socially with other people.

Psychologists work in educational settings.

Psychologists also work in human service setting such as hospitals, clinics and independent practice.

Psychologists further work as personnel consultants or human factors expertise in a variety of areas including sports psychology where they help athletes to develop their full potential, rehabilitation psychology, where they help injured people to regain their physical and mental functions.

Finally, psychologists use their expertise in the area of industrial and organisational psychology, where they help corporations to select and train their workers more effectively.

Branches of Psychology

Parapsychology

Parapsychology is the study of mental awareness or influence of external objects without interaction from known physical means. Many argue that it is not a real science.

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Abnormal psychology deals with behaviour disorders and disturbed individuals. For example, researchers might investigate the causes of violent or self-destructive behaviour or the effectiveness of procedures used in treating an emotional disturbance.

Clinical psychology uses the understandings derived from developmental and abnormal psychology to diagnose and treat mental disorders and adjustment problems. Some clinical psychologists work to develop programmes for the prevention of emotional illness or conduct basic research on how individuals can better cope with the problems of daily life.

Comparative psychology explores the differences and similarities in the behaviour of animals of different species. Psychologists in this field make systematic studies of the abilities, needs, and activities of various animal species as compared with human beings. 

Developmental psychology studies the emotional, intellectual, and social changes that occur across the life span of human beings. Many developmental psychologists specialize in the study of children or adolescents. 

Industrial and Organizational psychology is concerned with people at work. Industrial psychologists investigate such matters as how to make jobs more rewarding or how to improve workers' performance. They also study personnel selection, leadership, and management. Organizational psychology is a closely related field

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Biological Psychology

Biological psychology is the scientific study of the biological bases of behavior and mental states.

Neuropsychology

Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relate to specific psychological processes.

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology is the school of psychology that examines internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory, and language.

Personality Psychology

Personality psychology studies enduring psychological patterns of behavior, thought and emotion, commonly called an individual's personality.

Social Psychology

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Social psychology is the study of the nature and causes of human social behavior, with an emphasis on how people think towards each other and how they relate to each other.

Applied Psychology

Applied psychology encompasses both psychological research that is designed to help individuals overcome practical problems and the application of this research in applied settings. Much of applied psychology research is utilized in other fields, such as business management, product design, ergonomics, nutrition, and clinical medicine. Applied psychology includes the areas of clinical psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, human factors, forensic psychology, health psychology, school psychology and others.

Counseling Psychology

Counseling psychology as a psychological specialty facilitates personal and interpersonal functioning across the life span with a focus on emotional, social, vocational, educational, health-related, developmental, and organizational concerns. Counseling psychology differs from clinical psychology in that it is focused more on normal developmental issues and everyday stress as opposed to severe mental disorders. Counseling psychologists are employed in a variety of settings, including universities, private practice, businesses, and community mental health centers.

Health Psychology

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Health psychology is the application of psychological theory and research to health, illness and health care. Health psychology is concerned with the psychology of a much wider range of health-related behavior including healthy eating, the doctor-patient relationship, a patient's understanding of health information, and beliefs about illness.

Human Factors Psychology

Human factors psychology is the study of how cognitive and psychological processes affect our interaction with tools and objects in the environment. The goal of research in human factors psychology is to better design objects by taking into account the limitations and biases of human mental processes and behavior.

School Psychology

School psychology is the area of discipline in order to help children and youth succeed academically, socially, and emotionally. School psychologists collaborate with educators, parents, and other professionals to create safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments for all students that strengthen connections between home and school.

Experimental Psychology

The majority of psychological research is conducted in the laboratory under controlled conditions. This method of research relies completely on the scientific method to determine the basis of behavior.

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Unit Two

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN PSYCHOLOGY

Rationalism

This school of thought takes on various philosophical positions that rely on the function of reason when searching for truth.

When psychology was first established as a science separate from biology and philosophy, the debate over how to describe and explain the human mind and behavior began. The first school of thought, structuralism, was advocated by the founder of the first psychology lab, Wilhelm Wundt. Almost immediately, other theories began to emerge and vie for dominance in psychology.

The following are some of the major schools of thought that have influenced our knowledge and understanding of psychology:

Structuralism vs. Functionalism:

Structuralism was the first school of psychology, and focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components. Major structuralists’ thinkers include Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener.

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Functionalism formed as a reaction to the theories of the structuralist school of thought and was heavily influenced by the work of William James. Major functionalist thinkers included John Dewey and Harvey Carr.

Behaviorism:

Behaviorism became the dominant school of thought during the 1950s. Based upon the work of thinkers such as John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, and B. F. Skinner, behaviorism holds that all behavior can be explained by environmental causes, rather than by internal forces. Behaviorism is focused on observable behavior. Theories of learning including classical conditioning and operant conditioning were the focus of a great deal of research.

Psychoanalysis:

Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychodynamic approach. This school of thought emphasizes the influence of the unconscious mind on behavior. Freud believed that the human mind was composed of three elements: the id, the ego, and the superego. Other major psychodynamic thinkers include Anna Freud, Carl Jung, and Erik Erikson.

Humanistic Psychology:

Humanistic psychology developed as a response to psychoanalysis and behaviorism. Humanistic psychology instead focused on individual free will, personal growth, and self-actualization. Major humanist thinkers included Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.

Gestalt Psychology:

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Gestalt psychology is based upon the idea that we experience things as unified wholes. This approach to psychology began in Germany and Austria during the late 19th century in response to the molecular approach of structuralism. Rather that breaking down thoughts and behavior to their smallest element, the gestalt psychologists believed that you must look at the whole of experience. According to the gestalt thinkers, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Cognitive Psychology:

Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember, and learn. As part of the larger field of cognitive science, this branch of psychology is related to other disciplines including neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics.

Unit Three

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Quoting Zanden and Pace (1984:6), Mwamwenda states that educational psychology is concerned with the creation of a body of effective classroom instruction. It identifies conditions conducive to learning and how teaching can bring about effective learning. The major principle underlying educational psychology is that there are certain strategies, which are likely to be effective in the interaction between teachers and students.

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Educational psychology attempts to improve teaching methods and materials, to solve learning problems, and to measure learning ability and educational progress. Researchers in this field may devise achievement tests, develop and evaluate teaching methods, or investigate how children learn at different ages.

RATIONALE FOR STUDYING EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Studying educational psychology places a teacher in a position to understand and appreciate the principles involved in the processes of learning and teaching, which of course are vital in a school setting.

Educational psychology contributes to the theories of child and adolescent development in a number of ways. It enables a teacher to identify the stages of growth and development and what kind of teaching is likely to be effective at each stage and to understand the roles played by heredity and environment in the development on a child or person.

The branch contributes to effective learning by providing teachers with information about how learning is acquired, the circumstances necessary for learning on an individual pupil and society as a whole.

Educational psychology contributes to our understanding of individual differences as a result of research into the areas of intelligence, learning style, creativity and gifted and slow learners. Such information makes it possible to prepare lessons suited to particular students on the basis of their characteristics. Alternatively, such information can assist the teacher to help

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students to attain the achievement expected of them by modifying the teaching approach.

Helps teachers to know about people in terms of how they behave as they do, and what initiates and sustains their behaviour.

Educational psychology identifies conditions conducive to learning and how teaching can bring about effective learning. The major principle underlying educational psychology is that there are certain strategies, which are likely to be effective in the interactions between teachers and students.

Study of perceptual processes aids the teacher on how they can structure their material for easy processing by the learner

Learning

Learning According To Behaviourist Psychologists

Introduction

Behaviourist theories of learning seek scientific, demonstrable explanations for simple behaviors. For these reasons, and since humans are considered to resemble machines, behaviorist explanations tend to be somewhat mechanical in nature. They make use of one or both of two principal

classes of explanations for learning: those based on contiguity (simultaneity of stimulus and response events) andthose based on the effects of behavior(reinforcement and punishment)

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(Lefrancois 1988:29).

An Introduction to Classical (Respondent) Conditioning

Classical conditioning was accidentally discovered around the beginning of the 20th century by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov was studying digestive process in dogs when he discovered that the dogs salivated before they received their food. In fact, after repeated pairing of the lab attendant and the food, the dogs started to salivate at the sight of the lab assistants. Pavlov coined this phenomena “psychic secretions." He noted that dogs were not only responding to a biological need (hunger), but also a need developed by learning. Pavlov spent the rest of life researching why this associate learning occurred, which is now called classical conditioning.

To experiment on classical conditioning, Pavlov utilized a tuning fork and meat powder. He hit the tuning fork and followed the sound with the meat powder. Pavlov presented the sound (tuning fork) with the meat powder at the exact same time increments. In the beginning, the dog salivated only to the meat powder, but after this was repeated, salivated at the sound of the tuning fork. Even when Pavlov took away the meat powder, the dog continued to salivate at the sound of the tuning fork.

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONINGIn classical conditioning, an organism learns to associate one stimulus with another. The organism learns that the first stimulus is a cue for the second stimulus. In Pavlov’s experiment above, the tuning fork cued the dogs that food might be coming. Following is an example of classical conditioning.

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In technical terms, the food is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the salivation is the unconditioned response (UCR). The bell is a neutral stimulus until the dog learns to associate the bell with food. Then the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) which produces the conditioned response (CR) of salivation after repeated pairings between the bell and food.

KEY CONCEPTS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) A stimulus that elicits a response without conditioning

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Unconditioned Response (UCR) Automatic response elicited by the unconditioned stimulus

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) A neutral stimulus that when paired with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) elicits a similar response

Conditioned Response (CR) A response that is learned by pairing the originally neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) with theunconditioned stimulus (UCS)

Acquisition The acquisition phase is the consistent parings of the CS (bell) and the UCS (food) that produces a CR (salivation). In the example above, this phase occurs when the dog begins to salivate at the sound of the bell. Conditioning occurs more rapidly when the food follows the bell by a half a second.

Extinction The extinction phase is when the conditioned response no longer occurs after repeated pairings without the unconditioned stimulus. The dog’s response to the bell can be extinguished by repeatedly presenting the bell (CS) without the food (UCS). The dog has not completely forgotten the association between the bell and the food. If the experimenter waits a day, the dog may have a spontaneous recovery of the conditioned response and salivate again to the bell.

Generalization Occurs when there is a small difference in the presented stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus. If Pavlov’s dog heard a bell of a similar tone, the dog would still salivate.

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Discrimination The opposite of generalization, discrimination happens when a conditioned response does not occur when there is a difference between the presented stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus. If Pavlov’s dog heard a bell with a different tone and was not awarded the unconditioned stimulus (food), the dog would learn not to salivate to the second tone.

General Applications of Classical Conditioning

The principles of classical conditioning have been used to help improve the human condition. Several examples of therapies involving classical conditioning are provided here.

Mowrer and Mowrer (1938) developed a treatment for enuresis, or bed-wetting. A child with this problem sleeps on a pad into which a wire mesh that is connected to a bell has been sewn. Should the child wet the bed, an electrical circuit is completed causing the bell to ring (US). This in turn awakens the child (UR). After several repetitions of this cycle, in which bed-wetting has caused him to be awakened by the bell, the child begins to associate the sensation of pressure in his bladder (a previously neutral stimulus) with waking up. In a short time, the need to urinate (now a CS) becomes sufficient in itself to awaken the child (now a CR) so he or she can get up and go to the bathroom.

 Classical conditioning has been used in predation control. Because they like to eat sheep, coyotes are a problem to sheep farmers. We could kill the coyotes, but this approach

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would probably not be appropriate. Instead, Gustavson and Gustavson (1985) described a study in which they conditioned some coyotes not to eat the sheep. They took sheep meat (CS) and sprinkled it with a chemical (US) that would produce a stomachache (UR) in the coyotes. After the coyotes ate the treated meat, they avoided the live sheep (CR). This humane application of conditioned taste aversion might be used to control other predators as well.

Classical conditioning can be used also to help people reduce fears. Counter conditioning involves pairing the stimulus (CS) that elicits fear with a stimulus (US) that elicits positive emotion (UR). For example, a person who is afraid of snakes, but loves strawberry ice cream is shown a snake and then given the ice cream. While the person is busy eating the ice cream, classical conditioning helps associate the snake with good feelings.

Some evidence suggests that classical conditioning may be involved in drug tolerance. After repeatedly taking a drug, it is sometimes necessary to increase the dosage to obtain the same effect. For example, after being given repeated doses of morphine to reduce pain, patients often require larger doses. Siegel and colleagues (1982) argue that cues, such as the needle used to administer the drug, elicit negative feelings that tend to work against the normal effects of the drug. Siegel also suggests that in treating drug addiction, it is necessary to reduce the positive conditioned responses associated with taking the drug. Siegal argued that drug overdose can occur when the drug is taken in a new location that doesn't have all of the associated cues, such as the

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familiar furniture in a room. Although a lower dose of the drug would have been effective, the individual may take the usual amount, resulting in an overdose.

Classical conditioning appears to be involved both in the formation and elimination of our emotional reactions. You might try to keep a list of the stimuli in your environment that elicit responses from you. Then put to work the principles of classical conditioning to help you understand how you learn the many emotions you experience.

Educational Applications of Classical ConditioningMwamwenda (1999) has the following observations to make regarding how classical conditioning can be applied:

When a teacher’s first contact with his/her learners is characterized with smiles, greetings and identify learners by name, the learners would look forward to going to the learning environment each day. This will also strengthen their relationship with their teachers and assist in developing a positive attitude towards the school curriculum, consequently improving their chances of performing successfully.

There are many reasons why learners may stay away from school. Some learners may associate school with hostility, cruelty and indifference. If children experience school as a friendly place, they would always look forward to attending lessons.

Name calling induced by students on their teacher may mainly be attributed to things that the latter does. For example your students may call you Mr. Red due to your tendency to putting on a red tie.

An Introduction to Operant (Instrumental) ConditioningSKINNER’S OPERANT CONDITIONINGBeginning in the 1930’s, Skinner started his experimentation on the

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behavior of animals. Skinner's quest was to observe the relationship between observable stimuli and response. Essentially, he wanted to know why these animals behaved the way that they do. Skinner controlled his experiments by using “Skinner boxes.” The Skinner box was a contraption that would automatically dispense food pellets and electric shocks. Skinner believed that the learning he observed in his Skinner boxes could apply to human behavior. He called this learning operant conditioning. Operant conditioning can be described as behavior adjustments as a result of greater or lesser negative or positive reinforcement and punishment. Skinner hypothesized that human behaviors were controlled by rewards and punishment and that their behaviors can be explained by principles of operant conditioning

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PRINCIPLES OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

The main principles of operant conditioning, as defined by Skinner, are reinforcement, punishment, shaping, extinction, discrimination, and generalization. 

KEY CONCEPTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

Reinforcement  The process in which a behavior is strengthened, and thus, more likely to happen again.

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Positive Reinforcement Making a behavior stronger by following the behavior with a pleasant stimulus. For example, a rat presses a lever and receives food.

Negative Reinforcement Making a behavior stronger by taking away a negative stimulus. For example, a rat presses a lever and turns off the electric shock

PunishmentThe process in which a behavior is weakened, and thus, less likely to happen again.

 Negative Punishment Reducing a behavior by removing a pleasant stimulus when the behavior occurs. If the rat was previously given food for each lever press, but now receives food consistently when not pressing the lever (and not when it presses the lever), the rat will learn to stop pressing the lever.

 Positive PunishmentReducing a behavior by presenting an unpleasant stimulus when the behavior occurs. If the rat previously pressed the lever and received food and now receives a shock, the rat will learn not to press the lever.

ExtinctionThe elimination of the behavior by stopping reinforcement of the behavior. For example, a rat who received food when pressing a bar, receives food no longer, will gradually decrease the amount of lever presses until the rat eventually stops lever pressing.

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Generalization In generalization, a behavior may be performed in more than one situation. For example, the rat who receives food by pressing one lever, may press a second lever in the cage in hopes that it will receive food.   

Discrimination

Learning that a behavior will be rewarded in one situation, but not another. For example,

the rat does not receive food from the second lever and realizes that by pressing the first

lever only, he will receive food.

ADVERSE EFFECTS OF PUNISHNENT

Punishment has its own side effects. These are:

First, punishment may affect more behaviours than intended .for example; an instructor might punish a student for hitting a playmate. This could also weaken or eliminate not only aggressive behaviour but also assertiveness, that is, standing up for ones rights and defending ones point of view in appropriate ways. As a result, the student might fail to be assertive when it is appropriate ways.

Second, a person might learn to suppress punished behaviours, but only when he/she is likely to be punished. The person might just learn to be more careful about when he or she engaged in the undesirable behaviour. A child punished for fighting might play cooperatively with other children as long as parents are present but be as aggressive as ever when the parents aren’t around.

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Third, a person who is repeatedly punished by others might conclude that the most successful way to get others to do something is by threat or use of punishment.

Fourth, punishment carries the risk of facing legal consequences.

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