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The Multifaceted Discipline of
Psychology: Exploring Behavior,
Cognition, and Applications
Introduction to Psychology
Understanding Psychology
The word "psychology" is derived from the Greek words "psyche" (meaning "soul") and "logos" (meaning "discourse"). Literally, psychology is the study of the structure and elements of the mind.
Structuralism
The philosopher Wilhelm Wundt explained psychology as the study of the structure and elements of the mind.
Functionalism
This philosophy explains psychology as the study of the function of consciousness.
Behaviorism
Behaviorist philosophers observed psychology as the study of observable behavior. However, Baron defined "psychology as the science of behavior and cognitive process." According to Baron, "psychology is a science because it involves observation and experimentation to build theories."
Overall, psychology is the scientific study of human or animal behavior and cognitive or mental processes, encompassing not just what they do but also their activities, feelings, thoughts, emotions, perception, etc., and developing theories to guide behavior.
Goals of Psychology
The goals of psychology are:
Description : Observing behavior and noting everything about it, including what is happening, when it happens, to whom, and under what circumstances. It deals with both abnormal and healthy behavior using methods like observation and case studies.
Explanation : Identifying the causes of what, when, to whom, or under what circumstances a behavior occurs. It seeks to answer why
something is happening, conducting experiments and developing theories to explain behavior.
Prediction : Determining future activities or behaviors based on description and explanation.
Control : Changing and modifying behavior, though there is some conflict between psychologists on the extent of control, as some view it as "brainwashing." Controlling, however, refers to changing undesirable behavior to desirable behavior.
Perspectives in Psychology
Psychology has several perspectives that offer different outlooks and emphasize different factors in explaining, predicting, and controlling human behavior.
Behavioral Perspective
John B. Watson, the first American psychologist to advocate this perspective, explained that the study of psychology should focus on observable behavior rather than consciousness or experience. He conducted experiments on animals and humans, arguing that one can gain a complete understanding of human behavior by changing and modifying the environment in which they operate. He established the stimulus-response relationship to determine behavior, as explained by Pavlov. Skinner, another American psychologist, argued that inner states cannot be studied scientifically and that psychology should focus on the study of overt behavior.
Cognitive Perspective
Behaviorism rejected the subjective study of "mental life" in psychology. Gestalt psychologists, a notable group, supported the study of "mental processes" and developed a new perspective. The cognitive perspective deals with psychology as a science of behavior and mental processes, focusing on emotions, intelligence, perception, learning, language, and how people feel, think, and understand.
Biological Perspective
Also called the physiological perspective, it states that the biological basis of behavior and mental processes, such as genetic influences, hormones, and brain chemicals, influence human behavior and mental processes. It studies neurotransmitters, the chemical substances in the brain that determine normal or abnormal behavior, and the effects of drugs on neurotransmission and behavior. It also examines the effects of genes and environment on human personalities.
New Trends in Psychology
Psychology and Diversity : Traditionally, psychology has been viewed as having a "psychic unity," where the principles of psychology are applied across all cultures and ethnic diversities. Researchers have now developed different perspectives, such as cross-cultural psychology and indigenous psychology, arguing that this psychic unity no longer prevails. They focus on the importance of cultural and ethnic diversity as human heritage and advocate that this diversity has an impact on understanding human behavior. The study of cultural and ethnic diversity is not only useful for conducting research but also important for counseling communities.
Evolutionary Perspective : The evolutionary perspective applies the principles of evolutionary biology, as articulated by Charles Darwin, to the study of the human mind and behavior. It suggests that human beings are subject to the process of evolution and possess many evolved psychological mechanisms that influence our behavior, such as mate selection and the universal fear of snakes.
Exportation of Psychology : Traditionally, psychology was limited to the study of human behavior and the human mind. Nowadays, the application of psychological principles has expanded beyond experiments and the prediction and control of human behavior, extending to diverse fields such as selection and training for police departments, criminal investigation, and improving community awareness.
Applications of Psychology in Everyday Life
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes, and its applications extend beyond the study of behavior and the mind. The applications of psychology can be summarized as follows:
Counseling : Counseling refers to guiding, advising, and providing suggestions to others to solve problems. Counseling psychology is a new branch of psychology related to personal, emotional, educational, and vocational problems. Individuals suffering from mild neurotic problems, such as drug addiction, depression, and juvenile delinquency, can benefit from counseling. Educational psychology helps students develop self-understanding, self-control, and explore their hidden talents, while vocational psychology assists individuals in selecting appropriate careers and achieving job satisfaction.
Exploring Diversity : Diversity refers to heterogeneity. The study of cultural and ethnic diversity is not only useful for conducting research but also important for counseling communities and understanding human behavior.
Diversity and Psychology
Heterogeneity in Races, Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender
Such heterogeneity in terms of races, religion, ethnicity, and gender can create problems or misunderstandings in human behavior. Psychology has contributed to the development of different newer fields or branches, such as:
Cultural psychology Cross-cultural psychology Indigenous psychology Women's psychology
These fields explain the differences based on diversity. The study of psychological principles helps to explore such diversity and manage unity among the diversity.
Industrial Applications of Psychology
The study of psychology has great applications in the industrial field. Initially, psychological principles were applied only in selecting and placing human resources, using intelligence and aptitude tests. Nowadays, the application of psychological principles has extended to different areas, such as:
Career orientation Motivation Training Performance evaluation Equipment designing
Establishing Human Relationships
Psychology plays a crucial role in establishing cordial relationships between people in society, organizations, and families. It enables each person to understand their internal strengths and weaknesses, and provides knowledge about how others perceive them. This helps to reduce misunderstandings, discrimination, and prejudice, thereby establishing good relationships between parents, friends, and other community members.
Care for Abnormal Diseases
Abnormal diseases refer to mental problems created by somatic complaints or disorders, such as those generated by stress, blood pressure, heart attacks, diabetes, etc. In such cases, physical treatment alone may not be adequate, and psychological treatment of the patient is required.
insights gained from the study to improve the understanding of people in general.
Surveys
Surveys are a method in which people are chosen from a larger population and asked a series of questions about their behavior, thoughts, or attitudes. Surveys can be conducted through interviews, telephone, the internet, or with questionnaires. They provide a good way to formulate hypotheses and yield a lot of information, but they can also be subject to biases, such as intentional lying, wishful thinking, and failure to understand the questions.
Correlation
Correlation is a measure of the relationship between two or more variables. It reveals how closely two variables vary together and how well one predicts the other. Correlation coefficients can be positive or negative, and the strength of the relationship is determined by the range of the correlation coefficient.
Experimental Method
The experimental method is considered the most scientific and objective method of studying human behavior. In an experiment, the researcher manipulates an independent variable (the cause) and measures the effect on a dependent variable, while controlling for extraneous variables. The experimental method has the following elements:
Identifying the Problem
The researcher identifies the causes of behavior or problems and asks questions about why people act as they do or why students show odd behavior.
Hypothesis Formulation
Hypotheses are assumptions made to test the problem. They can be positive or negative based on the available information and may be proved or disproved.
Variables
The experiment involves the use of two or more variables: independent, dependent, and intervening or extraneous variables. The researcher must develop operational definitions for these variables.
Experimental and Control Groups
The experiment requires two groups: an experimental group that receives a special treatment and a control group that receives no treatment or a placebo.
Bias in Research
Common types of bias in experiments include sampling bias, experimenter bias, and placebo effect. Techniques like the double-blind procedure and single-blind experiments can help to reduce these biases.
Perception
According to Robbins and others, "Perception can be defined as the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impression in order to give meaning to their environment." According to Fred Luthans, "Perception is a complex cognitive process that yields a picture of the world, a picture that is quite different from reality." We can safely conclude the perception as the psychological, subjective and intellectual process through which a person collects, selects data from environment, organizes, interprets, experience it obtains meaning from it. It is based on people thoughts, beliefs, emotion or mood, expectations or feelings. However, perception is different from reality where the perceptual world may real, close to reality or some time abstract.
Factors Influencing Perception
Perception is a complex cognitive or psychological process that yields a unique picture of the world, a picture which is different from reality. Perception is influenced by nature and nurture. Nature is related to heredity and nurture is related to environment. Perceptual mechanism of individuals is affected by following factors.
Internal Factors
Internal factors are the factor related to the perceiver and are personal characteristics of individuals. The major internal factors influencing perception are:
i) Needs and Motives: Individuals' perception is determined by their inner needs and motives. They take the same thing differently according to their needs and motives. Similarly people select different item to meet their needs than addressing reality. Further, people with satisfied needs perceive the object entirely different from those whose needs are not satisfied. This means people will perceive only those items which suit their wishful thinking.
ii) Self-Concept: Self-concept means understanding oneself or self- understanding. Perception is guided by the notion that beauty lays in
vi) Contrast: It refers that object which does not blend in environment An external stimuli which is contrasted with other stimulus catches more attention than those stimulus which blend in the environment. For example: out of 5 persons in a group ,4 persons walking normally and 1 is crutching the person who crutches catches more attention than others.
vii) Novelty and familiarity: An external object which is novel or new or more familiar than other attracts more attention of perceiver. For example; when delivering two different classes, one is using traditional method where other is using overhead projector, the later method will catch more attention than former one.
viii) Situation: It refers to the time and place. Individuals perceive the same thing in different manner based on the time and situation. For example, when a manager sees his/her sub-ordinate is talking with his/her enemy the manager will perceive sub-ordinate negatively. However, if the same a manager sees that sub-ordinate is talking with minister the manager will perceive sub-ordinate positively.
Perceptual Organization
Concept
A notable group of psychologist of German who first worked in the field of perception and developed certain principle called Gestalt principle of perceptual organization where gestalt means whole in German. This principle is based on idea that people have natural tendency to force patterns onto whatever they see. They defined Perceptual organization is concerned with process of organizing the inputs into identifiable whole objects. A person's perceptual process organizes the incoming information into meaningful whole. In other words, assembling the selected information that is incoming into meaningful whole is called perceptual organization. So, it is a process of harnessing the stimulus and determining their shape.
1. Figure and Ground relation
We divide the world around us in to two parts figure which has definite shape and location in space and ground which has no shape, seems to continue behind the figure. This means, the meaningful and significant portion of target or external object is called figure and the insignificant or meaningless portion is called ground. There is no hard and fast formula to separate figure and ground. It is a subjective process and determined by our needs and expectation.
2. Grouping
It is a way of describing discrete stimuli together in the perceived world. It is arranging the information or inputs in the same group based on their proximity and similarity. Thus, selected information is grouped on the basis of similarity and proximity.
Similarity: It is a tendency to perceive things that looks similar as being part of the same group. For e.g. why sports team wear uniform that all are the same color because it allows people viewing the game to perceive them as one group when they are scattered around the field.
Proximity: Proximity refers nearness states that a group of stimuli that are close together will be perceived as whole pattern of parts belonging together. It states that objects or shapes that are close to one another appear to form group even the shape, size and objects are radically different. For example, in a class room to students exited together, the class teacher tends to perceive that their departure are closely related where as reality might not be so.
3. Closure
It is a tendency to see complete figure or form even a figure is incomplete. It means individuals internally make complete the incomplete information. Very often when people face with incomplete information have tendency to fill in the gap themselves. Generally, we fill in the missing parts and make it complete to derive the complete meaning, this process is called closure. For example we understand mgmt. as management.
4. Simplification
To make the information more meaningful and understandable people go through the simplification process. It is done to avoid the information overload. In the process, people just selects important and rejects less important information.
5. Continuity
It is a tendency to perceive things as simply as possible with a continuous patterns rather than with a complex broken-up pattern. It says that we perceive continuous flowing lines more easily than broken lines. Dots in lines are not simply taken as dots but continued and form a complete lines.
6. Contiguity
It is a tendency to perceive two things that happen close together in time as they being related. Usually first occurring event is seen as the cause of second event. An employee coming late and receiving a pat on the back by employer. The context is that he worked till late night for the organization. It is also called perceptual context.
Perceptual Constancy
Concept
Retinal image over perceived objects may vary from distance, angel and illumination. Despite such variation in image, people perceive objects in
physical condition includes mirages, in which we perceive something that they are not really there such as water on the dry road ahead caused by the refraction of light.
Cognitive process Illusions occur in the presence of stimulus is called cognitive illusion. It is simply misconception or misinterpretation of situation or stimulus. Sometime it is also called visual illusion where visual illusions are the physical stimuli that constantly produce errors in perception that do not reflect the physical reality of stimulus accurately. They are usually result of errors in the brain's interpretation of visual stimuli.
There countless illusions related to cognitive process, which can be broadly divided in to two categories: - Illusion of size - Illusion of shape or area
a. Illusion of size: Illusion of size occurs because perceptually distort the length of various lines. Learning also plays important roles in such illusion. Theory of misapplied constancy suggests that illusion of size occurs when we interpret certain cues and perceive some parts are farther away than others. Muller lyer illusion is one example of size illusion. It is an illusion of line length that is distorted by inward turning or outward turning corners on the end of lines, cause line of equal length to appear to be different. The symbols create illusion.
Person's Perception
Concept
Person's perception, also known as personal perception or social perception, is the process by which individuals form judgments, impressions, and make inferences about the characteristics, motives, and behaviors of other people. It is a fundamental aspect of social psychology.
Person perception is an active and subjective process that occurs within an interpersonal context. It involves the mental processes we use to form opinions and draw conclusions about others.
Kelly's Attribution Theory
Attribution theory, developed by Harold Kelley, explains the ways in which individuals attribute causes to the behavior of others. It suggests that people tend to explain behavior based on two types of attributions:
Internal Attributions : These are attributions made about an individual's own behavior or the behavior of others, which are based on internal factors such as personality, attitudes, motivation, emotions, beliefs, and abilities.
External Attributions : These are attributions made about an individual's behavior or the behavior of others, which are based on external factors such as the environment, situation, luck, or the actions of other people.
The theory also identifies three key factors that influence the attribution process:
Distinctiveness : The degree to which an individual's behavior varies across different situations. Consensus : The extent to which other people exhibit similar behavior in the same situation. Consistency : The degree to which an individual's behavior is the same over time.
Attribution Errors
Research on attribution theory has identified two common errors in person perception:
Fundamental Attribution Error : The tendency to overestimate the influence of internal factors and underestimate the influence of external factors when judging the behavior of others.
Self-Serving Bias : The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors (e.g., effort, ability) and their failures to external factors (e.g., luck, chance).
Impression Formation
Impression formation is the process by which individuals form an overall impression of someone's character and abilities based on available information about their traits and behaviors. This process is influenced by:
Perceptual Accentuation : The tendency to see what we want to see in others. Primacy Effect : The tendency to form a strong initial impression based on the first information received about a person. Recency Effect : The tendency to give more weight to the most recent information about a person.
Perceptual Errors and Biases
Selective Perception : The tendency to filter out most stimuli and pay attention only to the most important ones, which is influenced by personal background, self-interest, knowledge, and experience.
Halo Effect : The tendency to judge an individual's overall character based on a single dominant characteristic.
Stereotyping : The process of assigning traits to people based on their membership in a social category or group.
Contrast Effect : The tendency to evaluate a person based on a comparison with others who have recently been encountered.
Projection : The tendency to see one's own traits in other people.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Prejudice
Reduction
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
According to the cognitive dissonance theory, people want to maintain a stable or consistent state by minimizing dissonance or inconsistency. Any type of inconsistency or dissonance is uncomfortable or painful for the individual, and they want to reduce this inconsistency or contradiction to minimize the discomfort.
Individuals employ the following strategies to reduce inconsistency:
First, they try to change their behavior or action. Second, they seek new information to support their inconsistent attitude or behavior.
Prejudice
Almost all attitudes have some degree of prejudice. Prejudice refers to an unjustified, usually unfavorable, attitude towards members of a particular social group based solely on their membership in that group.
Sources of Prejudice
Direct Intergroup Conflict : A realistic conflict theory explains that prejudice stems from competition between social groups, which fosters feelings of antagonism. Social Categorization : There is a tendency to divide the social world into distinct categories of "us" and "them" based on factors like race, religion, gender, age, ethnicity, or occupation. This categorization can stimulate prejudice. Social Learning : Prejudices are learned attitudes. Children learn prejudiced views from friends, teachers, parents, and the media. Cognitive Factors : Stereotypes, which are generalized beliefs and expectations about a specific group and its members, can lead to prejudice.
Techniques to Reduce Prejudice
Learning Not to Hate : Prejudices are not innate but learned, so the best way to reduce prejudice is to discourage the transmission of negative views and encourage more positive attitudes. Direct Intergroup Contact : Increased interaction between people from different groups can reduce negative stereotyping, especially if the contact is relatively intimate, the individuals have equal status, or they must cooperate with one another. Re-categorization : Redefining the boundaries between "us" and "them" can reduce prejudice. When members of different social groups
come to see themselves as part of a single social entity, their attitudes toward the former out-group members become more positive.
Other techniques to reduce prejudice and discrimination include developing superordinate goals, using educational techniques, and making norms against prejudice.
Social Influence
Social influence is the process by which an individual or group can change the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and behaviors of others. There are three common forms of social influence: conformity, compliance, and obedience.
Conformity
Conformity refers to changing one's behavior to match that of others. It is behaving in ways that are liked and accepted by friends, societies, groups, or social norms. Conformity can be driven by descriptive norms (what most people do) or injunctive norms (what should or should not be done).
Asch's Classic Study on Conformity
Solomon Asch conducted a classic study on conformity, where participants were placed in a group with confederates (people following special instructions from the experimenter) who intentionally gave incorrect answers. On average, about one-third (32%) of the participants conformed to the clearly incorrect majority view.
Compliance
Compliance is a form of social influence in which an individual changes their behavior in response to a request or direction from others. Common strategies for gaining compliance include tactics based on liking, commitment/consistency, reciprocity, and scarcity.
Obedience
Obedience is a change in behavior in response to a direct order from an authority figure. In the Milgram experiment, 65% of participants continued to administer what they believed were increasingly severe electric shocks to a learner, even when the learner appeared to be in distress or unconscious.
Drive and Motivation
Definition of Drive
Drive can be defined as the state of tension or arousal produced by need. For instance, when an organism is hungry and/or thirsty, the organism seeks to reduce this drive by eating and/or drinking. Drive acts as a strong
tension or arousal caused by biological or physiological needs. According to the drive reduction theory, biological needs arising within our bodies create an unpleasant state of arousal and propel the organism to satisfy the need and reduce tension and arousal. Primary drives involve survival needs of the body such as hunger and thirst, whereas acquired or secondary drives are those that are learned such as the need for money or social approval.
Arousal Theory of Motivation
Arousal theory of motivation is an alternative theory of motivation that deals with drive. This theory focuses on arousal, i.e., our general level of activation. According to this theory, arousal varies throughout the day, from low levels during sleep to higher levels when performing strenuous tasks or engaging in exciting activities. The theory suggests that individuals seek an optimal level of arousal that is best suited to their personal characteristics. If stimulation or activity levels become too high, individuals try to reduce them, and if they are too low, individuals will try to increase them by seeking stimulation.
Expectancy Theory
The Expectancy Theory of Motivation was suggested by Victor H. Vroom in
- This theory suggests that motivation is not primarily a matter of being pushed from within by various urges or drives, but rather being pulled by the expectation of desirable outcomes. The theory states that an employee's motivation is an outcome of how much an individual wants a reward (Valence), the assessment that the likelihood that the effort will lead to expected performance (Expectancy), and the belief that the performance will lead to a reward (Instrumentality).
Equity Theory
Equity Theory was developed by behavioral psychologist John Stacy Adams in the early 1960s. It is a social exchange theory of motivation that explains that employees try to maintain a balance between what they give to an organization (inputs) and what they receive (outcomes), and compare their inputs-outcomes ratio with that of their colleagues (referent). If they identify inequities in the input/output ratios, they will seek to adjust their input to reach their perceived equity.
Goal-Setting Theory
In the 1960s, Edwin Locke put forward the Goal-Setting Theory of Motivation. It states that specific and challenging goals, along with appropriate feedback, contribute to higher and better task performance. The theory can be explained through the acronym SMART-F: - Specific: Specific goals lead to greater output and better performance. - Measurable: Goals must be quantifiable in terms of measurement. - Attainable: Goals should be achievable in a given period of time. - Realistic: Goals should be realistic and challenging. - Time-bound: There should be an appropriate fixed time to
accomplish the task. - Feedback: Feedback helps employees work with more involvement and leads to greater job satisfaction.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory
Abraham Maslow expounded the Hierarchy of Needs Theory in 1943. According to Maslow, there is a hierarchy of five needs within each individual: 1. Physiological needs: Basic needs for air, water, food, sex, clothing, and shelter. 2. Safety needs: The need to be free from danger, either from people or the environment. 3. Social needs: The need to work in a cohesive group and feel a sense of belongingness. 4. Esteem needs: The desire for status, recognition, respect, and prestige. 5. Self-actualization needs: The desire for gaining more knowledge, social service, creativity, and being aesthetic. Maslow grouped these needs into two categories: Lower- order needs (physiological and safety) and Higher-order needs (social, esteem, and self-actualization). The lower-order needs are mainly satisfied externally, while the higher-order needs are generally satisfied internally.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and
McClelland's Achievement Theory
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
According to Maslow, only one level of need can be operative at a time and individuals are motivated by unsatisfied needs. As each of these needs is significantly satisfied, it drives and forces the next need to emerge. This theory involves the satisfaction-progression analysis.
McClelland's Achievement Theory
In 1961, David McClelland et al. proposed a new theory of motivation in their book 'The Achieving Society'. They advocated that an individual's specific needs are acquired over time from parents, teachers, colleagues, neighbors, etc. They described three types of motivational needs:
Achievement (nAch) : People with a high need for achievement set challenging (not impossible) goals, calculate possible risks, assume responsibility, and put sincere efforts for the attainment of goals. They avoid money as a motivator but seek opportunities for advancement and expect strong feedback of accomplishment or progress in the job. High n-ach individuals prefer work that has a moderate probability of success, ideally a 50% chance. They prefer to work alone or with other high achievers.
Affiliation (n-Aff) : People with a high need for affiliation want to maintain friendly relationships with other people and strictly avoid all sorts of conflicts and confrontations. They are team players, need to feel accepted by others, and are ready to follow the norms of their work group. People with a high need for affiliation prefer work that entails
