FOUNDATIONS OF

PSYCHOLOGY
LECTURES BY
MRIDULA KULKARNI
 UNIT-01: INTRODUCTION
TO PSYCHOLOGY

• Psychology: Emergence and Development; Definition and Goals of Psychology Understanding,

Describing, Predicting and Control of Behaviour.

• Key Perspectives: Psychodynamic, Behavioural, Humanistic, Biological and Cognitive

• General, Bio–Physiological, Social, Child, Developmental, Abnormal and Cognitive Psychology.

• Psychology as Applied Science: Introspection, Observation, Experimental, Clinical And

Questionnaire Method.
PSYCHOLOGY!

WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

 PSYCHOLOGY

DEFINITION
The word psychology was formed by combining the Greek psychē (meaning “breath, principle
of life, life, soul,”) with –logia (which comes from the Greek logos, meaning “speech, word,
reason”). An early use appears in Nicholas Culpeper’s mid-17th century translation of
Simeon Partliz’s A New Method of Physick, in which it is stated that “Psychologie is the
knowledg of the Soul.” Today, psychology is concerned with the science or study of the mind
and behavior. Many branches of psychology are differentiated by the specific field to which
they belong, such as animal psychology, child psychology, and sports psychology.
—
HISTORY OF
PSYCHOLOGY
GOALS OF
PSYCHOLOGY
 GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY

UNDERSTANDING DESCRIBING
One of the first goals of psychology is simply to describe As you might imagine, in addition to merely describing it,
behavior. Through describing the behavior of humans and psychologists are also interested in explaining behavior.
other animals, we are better able to understand it and gain a Why do people do the things they do? What factors
better perspective on what is considered normal and contribute to development, personality, social behavior,
abnormal. and mental health problems?

PREDICTING CONTROLLING
Not surprisingly, another primary goal of psychology is to Finally, and perhaps most importantly, psychology
make predictions about how we think and act. Once we strives to change, influence, or control behavior to
understand more about what happens and why it happens, we make constructive and lasting changes in people's
can use that information to make predictions about when, lives.
why, and how it might happen again in the future.
BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY

Theoretical psychology relates to the philosophical and theoretical aspects of all

of the subdivisions of psychology; social, political, historical, developmental,
economic, personality, cognitive, neurological, perceptual, evolutionary,
biological, and critical psychology amongst others.

Theoretical psychology focuses on combining and integrating existing theories

and developing non-experimental psychology. It was in existence before
experimental or empirical psychology.

Theoretical psychology was originated from the philosophy of science, logic,

and rationality that were the basis of every new idea.

Now, theoretical psychology has become an interdisciplinary field with a broad

scope of the study, in which psychologists are specializing in different types of
psychological branches.
 THEORETICAL BRANCHES

General
Bio–Physiological Social Psychology
Psychology.

Abnormal and
Child Developmental
Cognitive
Psychology Psychology
Psychology
 01

General psychology deals with the study of the general principles

of human behavior as a whole, influencing all the surrounding

GENERAL
natural and cultural stimuli, as well as trying to reach the general
psychological foundations of human behavior that generally,
apply to all individuals.

PSYCHOLOGY
The subject of general psychology is human: conscious, thinking,
remembering, imaginative and passive.
The general psychology is the main source of specialization in the
field of psychology.
Therefore, every human being who wishes to study psychology
must start with the study of general psychology before studying
the other branches which are considered more advanced and
specialized than general psychology.
 02

Psychophysiology (Physiological psychology) studies

subjects related to organ functions, especially those that
affect human behavior, such as the nervous system, its
structure, and the functions it performs. It is the organ
that connects humans to the outside world.

BIO-PHYSIOLOGI
CAL PSYCHOLOGY
Therefore, Psychophysiology deals with the nervous
system, sensory organs, and endocrine systems and its
relation to our life ideas.
For example, it attempts to determine how sensation
occurs, how the nerve current moves in the neurons, and
how the brain controls feeling and behavior.
 03

Social psychology is a science that conducts the scientific study of

the behavior of the living organism in a society with its peers
interacting with them and affecting them and influencing them -

SOCIAL
that is affected by their behavior and affects their behavior.
Social psychology is concerned with the study of man in the
context of society. The behavior of individuals is always
influenced by the social environment that surrounds them, and
man by virtue of the nature of his composition is originally a
social individual, since he is born dependent on his living and
managing his affairs on others.The people act as triggers for thier
responses, and they are also the object and focus of the
responses.The manner in which social psychology deals with
them determines the quality of behavior and actions and
determines the nature and quality of feelings.
 04

CHILD
Child psychology is one of the many
branches of psychology. This particular
branch focuses on the mind and behavior
of children from prenatal development
through adolescence. Child psychology
deals not only with how children grow
physically, but with their mental,
emotional, and social development as
well.
 05

Developmental psychology is concerned with the study

of different stages of growth during pregnancy, birth,
the period of breastfeeding, weaning, early childhood,
middle, late, puberty, adolescence, youth, masculinity

DEVELOPMENTAL
and old age, and the characteristics of each age and
developmental aspects of the physical, motor, sensory,

PSYCHOLOGY mental, psychological, emotional and social aspects.

Some are called developmental psychology, formative

psychology, which is the science that studies the
development of psychological processes or their growth
in successive stages of life, using the formative way.
 06

Abnormal Psychology is the science that studies unusual

or non-normal cases, including the disabled, gifted,

ABNORMAL
retarded, visually blind, deaf and dumb.

In fact, the specialists find it difficult, and in ancient

times it was a great get rid of them. Those who have a
handicapped child go out to the open and throw it there
because it would cause a great burden.

But after science has diversified in our modern age, it

has begun to focus on them and give them all the rights
in society, just like ordinary human beings.
 07
Cognitive psychology involves the study of internal
mental processes—all of the things that go on inside
your brain, including perception, thinking, memory,
attention, language, problem-solving, and learning.
While it is a relatively young branch of psychology, it
has quickly grown to become one of the most popular

COGNITIVE
subfields.

There are numerous practical applications for this

cognitive research, such as providing help coping with
memory , increasing decision-making accuracy, finding
ways to help people recover from brain injury, treating
learning disorders, and structuring educational
cdisordersurricula to enhance learning.
 Psychology as Applied Science:

Introspection Observation Experimental

Questionnaire
Clinical
Method.
 OBSERVATION

AIDED UNAIDED
OBSERVATION OBSERVATION
Introspection
 MERITS
INTROSPECTION
TO STUDY IS USEFUL
IMPLICIT TECHNIQUE FOR
MENTAL OTHER
EXPERIENCE OBJECTIVE
METHODS

HAS
HISTORICAL UNIQUE METHOD
SIGNIFICANCE
 LIMITATIONS

Its
INTROSPECTION DO not fulfil
retrospection
IS SUBJECTIVE the scientific
and not
criteria
introspection
Applicability is Our
a problem experiences
are repressed Its unverifiable
into
unconscious
 Experimental
method
Systematic/ pre planned
observation under controlled
setting
 VARIABLES

INDEPENDENT ! DEPENDENT! EXTRANEOUS !

IS A FACTOR ABOUT VARIABLES WHICH ARE

VARIABLE THOSE WHOSE WHICH THE BEYOND AN
EFFECTS ARE STUDIED IN EXPERIMENTER MAKES A EXPERIMENTER'S
AN EXPERIMENT PREDICTION REGARDING CONTROL IN A STUDY.
THE POSSIBLE CHANGES
DUE TO MANIPULATION OF
INDEPENDENT VARIBALE
 MERITS LIMITATIONS

● MOST OBJECTIVE AND ● EXPERIMENTS CANNOT BE

IMPARTIAL POSSIBLE ALWAYS
● CONTROL ● ITS CONDUCTED IN AN
● REPLICATION ARTIFICIAL SETTING
● QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS ● WELL TRAINED PERSONNEL
● APPLICABILITY ● EXPENSIVE
● STANDARDIZATION ● VARIABLES BEYOND THE
EXPERIMENTERS CONTROL
QUESTIONNAIRE
 TYPES OF
QUESTIONNAIRE
(1) ON THE BASIS OF TYPE OF RESPONSE - (a) Open ended (b) Closed
ended

(2) ON THE BASIS OF ADMINISTRATION OF QUESTIONNAIRE- Mailed

questionnaire / face to face questionnaire

(3) ON THE BASIS OF PURPOSE OF STUDY

 MERITS AND DEMERITS

● EASY SCORING AND ANALYSIS ● CANNOT BE APPLIED TO ILLITERATES

● EASY TO ADMINISTER CHILDREN AND OLDER POPULATION.
● EASY TO RESPOND ● NOT EASY TO ADMINISTER IF
● ECONOMICAL IN TIME SOMEONE IS NOT FAMILIAR WITH
● THEY ARE SHORT AND CRISP THE LANGUAGE
EASY TO EXPRESS FEELINGS ● HIGH CARE IS REQUIRED IN
AND EMOTIONS FORMULATING THE QUESTIONNAIRE.
● RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY ARE
SOMETHING THAT'S IMPORTANT IT
TAKES SEPARATE RESEARCH.
● WASTAGE OF TIME AND MONEY IF
RESPONDENTS DON’T RETURN BACK
THE QUESTIONNAIRE
CASE STUDY METHOD/
CLINICAL METHOD

Case study is also an

important method employed
in psychological studies. Its
mostly used in clinical
situations. Its also known as
case study method
 MERITS AND DEMERITS

● ITS IN-DEPTH AND ● LESS RELIABLE ON ITS OWN

INTENSIVE STUDY. ● TENDS TO PRESENT CLOSE
● TRACES BACK THE STAGES RELATIVE IN POSITIVE LIGHT
● HELPFUL IN HANDLING / TEND TO PRESENT
BEHAVIOURAL DISORDERS ONESELF IN POSITIVE LIGHT.
● VALIDATES FACTS FROM ● ITS BASED ON MEMORY
OTHER METHODS
THANK YOU