Psychology Lesson 2

Reminder of the 4 Goals of Psychology

1. To describe what people do2. To explain why people think, feel and

act the way they do3. To predict what, when and how they

will do it4. To change the parts of human

behavior that cause us painGoals taken from:The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Psychology

Last time…..

We talked about how psychology isn’t an exact science and describing what people do isn’t always easy

Now let’s look at the second goal of psychology

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

“Psychologists look for connections between things that happen and how people respond”(Johnston,5).

“People often seek therapy to make sense out of a painful situation. Even if we can’t change what has happened to us, understanding the reason it happened gives us a sense that maybe we can prevent it from happening again” (Johnston, 5).

Goal 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 doesn’t always follow theory.

Finally……. Goal 4: Change behaviors that cause

pain

Psychologists want to help people to control behavior so they can run their lives more effectively.

Example: stop drinking, communicate more effectively, cope with memories of a painful childhood etc.

Homework

Read section 1 in your textbook and define the vocabulary words for the chapter.

Pop Quiz!

On vocabulary from section 1.

Terms to know

Psychology: “It’s 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 Idiot’s Guide to Psychology

What does that mean to you?

Think of a picture that you think represents the term psychology.

Now draw it! On a note card that I pass out to you. First, write the term and the definition Then turn your card over and draw a

picture of what you think represents the term.

Example: On one side you will have a picture and of Psychology and on the other side you will write the actual word “psychology” and define it.

Now do the same with the following words from section 1: Behavior: Any action that you can see or measure Cognitive Activities: Mental processes. Ex: dreams,

thoughts, memories Psychological Constructs: something we cannot

observe. Someone needs to TELL us about the way they feel in order to make psychological constructs to help us talk about things we cannot see.

Theory: A statement that tries to explain why things happen

Principle: A rule or law that is believed to be true. Psychology: observing and trying to understand

people.

Pick a partner And go through all of the terms to

quiz each other 1. One person holds up the picture

so the other can see 2. Then READ the description of the

term 3. The other person (the one

looking at the picture) guesses what the term is.

Now let’s play! Pictionary! Your table is your team. Each team will take a turn sending one member up to

the board to draw. ONLY the members of the team drawing can guess. I will show them a term and they will have to draw what

they think it looks like. The team will guess what they think the term is (30 sec)

and if they get it right, they get a point! If they don’t know, the other teams may have a guess.

The first person to raise their hand gets to guess. Then the next team will come up.

Today we are going to learn a bit more about psychology

By looking at a few different perspectives or ideas about psychology.

Reminder of the 4 Goals of Psychology

1. To describe what people do2. To explain why people think, feel and

act the way they do3. To predict what, when and how they

will do it4. To change the parts of human

behavior that cause us painGoals taken from:The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Psychology

So, How do Psychologists reach the 4 goals?

There are a lot of different views on that.

Contemporary Perspectives of Psychology

There are 7 main psychological perspectives that are used to try to help us to understand the way people think and act…….

Different perspectives

The human mind is really complicated. So, psychologists have a lot of different ideas about why people act and think the way they do.

The next slide lists the 7 most popular perspectives today. In practice, psychologist apply the perspective that best deals with the problem at hand.

7 Perspectives

1. Biological Perspective 2. Psychoanalytic Perspective 3. Learning Perspective 4. Humanist Perspective 5. Cognitive Perspective 6. Sociocultural Perspective 7. Evolutionary Perspective

What do these perspectives mean?

You will be assigned to make a poster about 2 or 3 of the perspectives with your group, explain the main idea of the perspectives to the class, and think of a problem that would be addressed using this perspective.

Group 1: The Evolutionary Perspective, and the Biological Perspective

Group 2: The Cognitive Perspective and the Humanistic Perspective

Group 3: The Psychoanalytic Perspective, The Learning Perspective, and the Sociocultural Perspective.

Use your book!

Look over section 4 in chapter 1 in your psychology textbook to get information on the perspectives your group will be working on.

Let’s share!

Each group will share their poster while we all learn and take notes. Make sure you have a good understanding of each of the perspectives.

Homework: Read Chapter 1 section 4 Make picture flashcards for the following

terms: Biological Perspective Evolutionary Perspective Cognitive Perspective Humanistic Perspective Psychoanalytic Perspective Learning Perspective Sociocultural Perspective