I like to take my introduction to psychology quite slowly. On the very first lesson I get students to think about the definition of psychology and what they actually study by doing the following activity. There is space for students to write notes on this activity in their workbooks. Show Step One: Students begin working with a partner and write as many examples of “behaviours” (i.e. observable actions) and “mental processes” as they can think of. They have two minutes. If they need to re-check what these terms mean, they can refer to the glossary in the workbook or textbook. Step Two: After this two minutes, they join another pair and make a group of four and collaborate and add to their lists from what the others have thought of. After some time to collaborate we discuss as a whole class (there is also a list on page 11 for their reference). Step Three: Students discuss in their groups of four if there are any that may not fall into a particular category, but might be hard to distinguish between an action or an internal process (e.g. emotion, depression, love, communicating). They can write these in the box provided in the workbook.
Step Four: Students come to the board and write at least one example in each category (behaviour and mental process) and perhaps some that are difficult to distinguish as one or the other. Step Five: Students then discuss in a group the guiding question for the lesson: why do psychologists study behaviour and mental processes? And write their answers in the notebook. They can read the lesson in the textbook if they need/want to. Fast finishers can watch this introductory video. (Although, do note that this is more for general interest, as it’s more of a brief history of psychology, rather than an introduction for our purposes).
The “pairs-to-fours” activity paradigm is a useful one for generating ideas from multiple students while still keep high levels of engagement. Once again credit for this goes to Paul Ginnis’s marvellous book. Pretty basic idea, but it gets students thinking. I also have found that we can’t overlook how abstract a concept “cognition” is for students. To discuss this on day one, I think, gets students thinking about what they’re actually studying in this course. History and Foundations of Psychology Aristotle: argued human behavior was subject to rules and laws Democritus: think of behavior as terms of body and mind. Behavior is influenced by external stimulation. Socrates: rely on rational thought and introspection or examination of one's own thoughts and emotions to gain self knowledge. People are social creatures and influence each other. Gustav Theodor Fechner: published book Elements of Psychophysics which showed how physical events stimulate psychological sensations and perception.  The founding of psychology as an experimental science is generally credited to a German scientist, Wilhelm Wundt. He studied mental experiences and used a method known as introspection, which is an attempt to directly study consciousness by having people report on what they are consciously experiencing. He also established the world’s first scientific laboratory dedicated to the study of psychology in Germany. Edward Titchener, Wundt's disciple, brought Wundt's ideas to the United States and the rest of the world. The school of psychology that attempts to understand the structure of the mind by breaking it down into its component parts is known as structuralism. Structuralism: attempted to break conscious experience down into objective sensations The first American to work in Wundt’s experimental laboratory was the psychologist G. Stanley Hall. Hall founded the American Psychological Association (APA). William James, recognized as the father of American psychology, founded functionalism, the school of psychology that focused on how behavior helps individuals adapt to demands placed upon them in the environment.
Charles Darwin: theory of evolution
In the early 1900s, a new force in psychology came about called behaviorism. The founder of behaviorism was the American psychologist John Broadus Watson. Behaviorism was based on the belief that psychology would advance as a science only if it turned away from the study of mental processes and limited itself to the study of observable behaviors that could be recorded and measured. Early work in the field of behavior was conducted by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov studied a form of learning behavior called a conditioned reflex, in which an animal or human produced a reflex (unconscious) response to a stimulus and, over time, was conditioned to produce the response to a different stimulus that the experimenter associated with the original stimulus. The reflex Pavlov worked with was salivation in response to the presence of food. Behaviorism became popular due to psychologist B. F. Skinner. Skinner studied how behavior is shaped by rewards and punishments. Skinner showed he could train animals, such as pigeons or rats, to perform simple behaviors by rewarding particular responses. Skinner also showed how advanced behaviors could be learned and maintained by adding the idea of rewards, which he called reinforcers. As a part of his research, Skinner developed a chamber that allowed the careful study of the principles of modifying behavior through reinforcement and punishment. This device, known as an operant conditioning chamber or more familiarly, a Skinner box. Gestalt psychology, the school of psychology that studies ways in which the brain organizes and structures our perceptions of the world was established by Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler. Wolfgang Kohler: Research with chimpanzee: Flash of Insight in other wards we rearrange the situation in order to come up with a solution to the problem. Austrian physician named Sigmund Freud, studied the region of the mind known as unconscious. Freud’s model of therapy, called psychoanalysis, is based on the belief that therapeutic change comes from uncovering and working through unconscious conflicts within the personality. Psychoanalysis: theory of personality and the method of psychotherapy. Most of our ideas are governed by unconscious ideas and impulses that originate in childhood conflicts During the early 20th century, American psychology was dominated by behaviorism and psychoanalysis. However, some psychologists were uncomfortable with what they viewed as limited perspectives being so influential to the field. Thus, humanism emerged. Humanism is a perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans. Two of the most well-known proponents of humanistic psychology are Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers By the 1950s, new disciplinary perspectives in linguistics, neuroscience, and computer science were emerging, and these areas revived interest in the mind as a focus of scientific inquiry. This particular perspective has come to be known as the cognitive revolution How psychologists view behavior and mental processes?Psychologists use different approaches in Psychology using different assumptions and theories to study and explain human behaviour and mental processes; these are behavioural, biological and psychodynamic approaches.
How are mental processes studied in psychology?Cognitive psychology is a form of experimental psychology. Cognitive psychologists use experimental methods to study the internal mental processes that play a role in behavior.
What is the study of behavior and mental processes?Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. Psychologists are actively involved in studying and understanding mental processes, brain functions, and behavior.
What does it mean to say psychology studies behavior and mental processes?Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between the natural and social sciences.
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