Name: Enrea D.

Casquejo
Course & Section: BSPSY 2-2-1
Instructor: Miss Gingie Laude Alducente

PSY 079 (Introduction to Psychology)

STUDENT ACTIVITY SHEET BS PSYCHOLOGY / SECOND YEAR
Session # 1

Materials:
LESSON TITLE: INTRODUCTION TO Book, pen and notebook, index card/class list
PSYCHOLOGY LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Upon successful completion of this lesson, the psychology
student can:

1. Define what psychology is from a scientific standpoint; References:

2. Explain the goals of psychology Feist, G. J., & Rosenberg, E. L. (2019).
3. Differentiate the subdisciplines of psychology from Psychology: Perspectives and connections.
one another; and McGraw Hill Education.
4. Learn the brief history of psychology; and
5. Discuss the different perspectives used in explaining Plotnik, R., & Kouyoumdjian, H. (2010).
human behavior. Introduction to psychology. Cengage Learning.

SUBJECT ORIENTATION (10 minutes)

Your classroom instructor for this subject, Introduction to Psychology, is . Listed
below are the additional information vital in orientation:

1. The calendar of activities for major examinations

2. Classroom rules and regulations
3. Computation of grades for this subject.
4. The essence and significance in grade computation of these modules.
5. Election for block officers if needed.
6. Other reminders

MAIN LESSON (50 minutes)

Do you believe that in one sense, you have been a psychologist for most of your life? Every time you ponder why you
think, feel, and behave in particular ways, you are thinking psychologically – like a psychologist. Whenever you try to
explain what someone else is doing – and why they are doing it – you are thinking psychologically. You do it when you
say your friend dominates conversation because he is self-absorbed. Or when someone is so demanding unreasonably
and say they are entitled. You also do it when you conclude that your elder brother is bossy because he is older and
always gets what he wants. On the contrary, you also do it when you conclude that your youngest sister is spoiled and
gets all the attention she needs because she is the youngest member of the family. See, we think and live psychology
every day. However, since we really do not know what psychology really is, let us first define it on scientific standpoint.

Psychology
▪ It is the scientific study of thought and behavior.
▪ The root word psyche is a Greek word for “mind,” but modern psychology is as likely to study the brain and
behavior as it is the “mind.”
▪ This is both a clinical practice and a science. The clinical practice side encompasses the services provided in
therapists’ offices, schools, hospitals, and businesses.
Goals of Psychology

1. Describe the different ways that organism behave.

2. Explain the causes of behavior.
 3. Predict how organisms will behave in certain situations
4. Control an organism’s behavior positively, or negatively.

Subdisciplines of Psychology
As a science and a practice, psychology is divided into various areas of investigation. Like this course, divided into
chapters or sessions – technically, all that we will discuss here are encompassing the different areas of psychology. The
field of psychology is divided into more than 25 distinct, but increasingly interrelated, subdisciplines (Feist & Rosenberg,
2019). For this discussion, we will focus only on the most prominent subdisciplines so we can better understand how each
field is unique from one another.

▪ Cognitive Psychology
o It is the study of how we perceive information, how we learn and remember, how we acquire and use
language, and how we solve problems.
o For instance, a researcher who is concerned with how people remember their new mobile number is
studying cognitive psychology.

▪ Experimental Psychology
o Deals with research studies on cognition and learning because experiments are conducted in laboratory
to address their research questions.

▪ Developmental Psychology
o It explores how thought and behavior change and show stability across the lifespan. It allows us to
appreciate that organisms – human or otherwise – change and grow.
o Developmental psychologists ask questions like: How do our reasoning skills or emotional skills change
as we age? Does old age bring wisdom?

▪ Biological Psychology
o It includes research on all areas of connection between bodily systems and chemicals and their
relationship to behavior and thought.
o Research about stress and health, studying the effects of stress on hormones and behavior is an
example of research in this field.
o It is an older term that is being replaced by behavioral neuroscience in contemporary psychology.

▪ Personality Psychology
o It considers what makes people unique, as well as the consistencies in people’s behavior across time
and situations.
o A question from this area, for example, might be whether the tendency to be friendly, anxious, or hostile
affects one’s health, career choice, or interpersonal relationships.

▪ Social Psychology
o It considers how real or imagined presence of others influences thought, feeling, and behavior.
o Social psychologists ask questions like: How does the presence of other people change an individual’s
thoughts, feelings, or perceptions? Why are we attracted to particular kinds of people?

▪ Clinical Psychology
o It focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders and ways to
promote psychological health.
o Clinical psychologists also conduct research and teach, and they work in universities, medical settings, or
private practice.

▪ Counseling Psychology
o It deals with less severe psychological disorders.
o Counseling psychologists treat and assess relatively healthy people and assist them with career and
vocational interest.

▪ Health Psychology
o It examines the role of psychological factors in physical health and illness.
o Topics in this area range from studies of how stress is linked to illness and immune function to studies on
the role of social factors in how people interact with health care professionals.
 ▪ Educational Psychology
o It studies how students learn, the effectiveness of particular teaching techniques, the social psychology
of schools, and the psychology of teaching.
o It also attempts to understand special population of students such as the academically gifted and those
with special needs.

▪ Industrial/Organizational (IO) Psychology

o It is an applied science that involves understanding real-world rather than laboratory behavior (Aamodt,
2010).
o Industrial side: involves matching employees to their jobs and uses psychological principles and methods
to select employees and evaluate job performance.
o Organizational side: aims to make workers more productive and satisfied by considering how work
environments and management styles influence work motivation, satisfaction, and productivity.

▪ Sports Psychology
o It examines the psychological factors that affect performance and participation in sports and exercise
(Weinberg & Goul, 2007).
o For instance, sports psychologists might focus on improving athletic performance through techniques as
relaxation and visualization.

▪ Forensic Psychology
o It is a blend of psychology, criminal justice, and the law (Adler, 2004).
o Forensic psychologists make legal evaluations of a person’s mental competency to stand trial, the state
of mind of a defendant at the time of a crime, the fitness of a parent to have custody of children, and
allegations of child abuse.
o Occasionally, they also do criminal profiling to identified who might have committed a particular crime.

Brief History of Psychology

Prehistoric views this is the period where humans tried to cure one another. People in this culture have shamans,
their “doctors” and they believe that a person with mental illness is possessed by evil spirits that’s why they perform
exorcisms. Trephination is also one of the methods employed in this period which involves drilling a small hole in a
person’ skull (Alt et al., 1997; Weber & Wahl, 2006).

Ancient views the period where people moved away from supernatural explanations to natural and physiological
explanations (Tseng, 1973). They made connections between a person’s bodily organs and emotions. The heart housed
the mind; the liver for the spiritual soul; the lung for the animal soul; the spleen for ideas and intelligence; and the kidneys
for will and vitality.

Medieval views again attributed the psychological disorders to natural causes as people were thought to be
possessed by demons, spirits, and the devil – not by physical disorders. In this period, asylums were established to
house the mentally ill.

Modern views consider psychological disorders as illness and that they should be treated as medical conditions, with
appropriate diagnosis and therapy. This is the period when Emil Kraepelin, a German psychiatrist collected data on
various kinds of psychological disorders and began systematically classifying and diagnosing them (Shepard, 1995).
Other views of psychological disorders and psychotherapy approaches have emerged in this period namely:
psychoanalysis, drug therapy, and modern criteria for diagnosing mental disorders.

Brief History of Scientific Psychology

▪ Philosophy of Empiricism
o It is the view that all knowledge and thoughts come from experience.
o John Locke, an English philosopher argued that the mind begins as a tabula rasa, or blank slate, onto
which experience writes the contents of the mind (Locke, 1690/1959)

▪ Psychophysics of Human Perception

o The study of how people experience physical stimuli such as sound, light, waves, and touch.
 o One important principle here is that the perception of physical properties is not the same as the physical
properties themselves.

▪ Structuralism (Wilhelm Wundt)

o Breaking down experience into its elemental parts offered the best way to understand thought and
behavior.
o Structuralists believed that a detailed analysis of experience as it happened provided the most accurate
glimpse into the workings of the human mid.
o Introspection – a method they use to look into one’s own mind for the information about the nature of
consciousness and experience.

▪ Functionalism (William James)

o Argued that it was better to look at why the mind works the way it does that to describe its parts.
o Also relied on introspection as a primary method of understanding how the mind worked.

▪ Behaviorism (John Watson)

o Psychology can be a true science only if it examines observable behavior, not ideas, thoughts, feelings,
or motives.

▪ Humanistic and Positive Psychology (Martin Seligman & Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)

o Humanistic psychology is a theory of psychology that focuses on personal growth and meaning as a way
of reaching one’s highest potential.
o Positive psychology is a scientific approach to studying, understanding, and promoting healthy and
positive psychological functioning.

▪ Gestalt Psychology (Max Wertheimer)

o Perception occurs in unified wholes, where the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

▪ Behavioral Genetics, Behavioral Neuroscience, and Evolutionary Psychology

o Who we are and what we do and think are very much influenced by genetic factors, and brain activity,
with a long evolutionary past.

Psychological Perspectives: Explaining Human Behavior

Perspective Primary Assumptions Foc

us
Psychoanalyt ● first 5 years of life most shape personality unconscious thoughts
ic- ● unconscious forces are most important and motives
Psychodyna
mic
Behavioral-Learning ● only explanation for behavior is the conditions behavior, learning,
that create behavior and environmental
● learning occurs through association and conditions
consequences of the behavior
Cognitive ● thoughts, heuristics, and assumptions are the thoughts, language,
primary forces behind behavior assumptions,
memory, decision-
making strategies
Humanistic-Positive ● people strive to live meaningful, happy lives meaningful life,
● people are motivated by growth and psychological well-
psychological health being and growth
Sociocultural ● thought, behavior, and personality are mostly cultural and society
products of social and cultural conditions
● there are both similarities and differences in
thought, personality and behavior cross-culturally
Neuropsycholog ● the foundation for thought and behavior is biological brain structures,
y- Behavioral and genetic forces neurochemicals,
Genetic and genes
Evolutionary ● human thought and behavior have been shaped adaptive mechanisms
by evolutionary forces (natural and sexual
selection)
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING (20 minutes)
You will answer and rationalize this by yourself. This will be recorded as your quiz. One (1) point will be given to correct
answer and another one (1) point for the correct rationalization. Superimpositions or erasures in you
answer/rationalization is not allowed. You are given 20 minutes for this activity.

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following argued that thoughts, feelings, and motives are unimportant in understanding human behavior?
a. Behaviorists
b. Psychoanalysts
c. Functionalists
d. Gestalt psychologists
ANSWER: A.
RATIO: The behaviorism perspective argued that psychology can only be a true science if it examines observable behavior, not ideas,
thoughts, feelings, or motives. Psychoanalysts focus on unconscious thus motive is considered. Functionalists relied on introspection as
a method that cannot be quantified. Gestalt psychologists deals with perceptions where the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

2. What school of thought is considered as the contemporary version of positive psychology?

a. Functionalism
b. Structuralism
c. Humanism
d. Behaviorism
ANSWER:
C.
RATIO: Humanism focuses on personal growth and meaning as a way reaching one’s highest potential and positive psychology is a
scientific approach to study, understand, and promote healthy and positive psychological functioning. Functionalism and structuralism
focus on understanding the workings of the mind by breaking down the experience and using introspection. Behaviorism on the other
hand deals with measurable and observable behavior for a more scientific finding.

3. How we think about ourselves, other people, and the world, as well as assumptions we make and the strategies, we
use for solving problems and interacting with others are the keys to understanding differences between people. Which
of the following perspectives of psychology best fit this picture?
a. Behavioral-Learning
b. Cognitive
c. Humanistic-Positive
d. Sociocultural
ANSWER:
B.
RATIO: Cognitive perspective deals with thoughts, heuristics, and assumptions which are the forces behind behavior. Behavioral-
Learning relies on conditions that create behavior. Humanistic-Positive deals with meaning in life, motivation, and psychological health.
Sociocultural claims that thought, behavior, and personality are mostly products of social and cultural conditions.

4. Which of the following correctly describes psychology?

a. It is the scientific study of human behavior.
b. It is the scientific study of mental illness.
c. It is the scientific study of neuroses and psychoses.
d. It is the scientific study of human thought and behavior.
ANSWER: D.
RATIO: Psychology is defined as the study of both human thought and behavior and not just human behavior. It also does not just
scientifically study mental illnesses, including neuroses and psychoses, but instead, all these are just some of the aspects that it studies.
Furthermore, all these will still fall under the umbrella of human thought and behavior, specifically, the maladaptive or maladjusted
aspects.
 5. Based on what you have learned, which below would you most agree in terms of differentiating psychology from its
related filed, sociology?
a. Psychology studies groups and cultures; sociology studies human behavior.
b. Psychology studies cultures; sociology studies people.
c. Psychology studies individuals; sociology studies groups.
d. Psychology studies systems; sociology studies cultures.
ANSWER: C.
RATIO: Simply, psychology studies individuals; how a person acts, thinks, or behaves in a certain way. It has nothing to do with
groups, cultures, and systems as these are the concerns of sociology. Similarly, these components also take place in psychology
however, the focus is still the individuals in the groups, cultures, and systems, and how these influence the behavior, personality,
thinking, etc. of such individual.
 6. Dr. Fuentes, a psychologist has conducted a series of studies on which part of the brain is most active during a
memory task. Given the nature of her investigation, you can conclude the she is probably
a. a cognitive psychologist.
b. a developmental psychologist.
c. a behavioral neuroscientist.
d. an experimental psychologist.
ANSWER: C.
RATIO: Dr. Fuentes is a behavioral neuroscientist because she is studying a subject that links with the brain, mind, and behavior. In her
research, it is important to identify the part of the brain that is most active during a memory task thus, she needs noninvasive advanced
imaging techniques and electrical recordings to do such. Cognitive psychologist on the other hand studies perception, how we learn and
remember, how we acquire and use language, and how we solve problems. Developmental psychologist studies how thought and
behavior change and remain stable across the lifespan. On the other hand, an experimental psychologist does research on cognition and
learning in a laboratory setting.

7. A psychologist would be most interested in understanding what it means to be fully functioning, whereas
a psychologist would focus on what people do and not what they think or feel.
a. evolutionary; biological
b. humanistic; behavioral
c. psychoanalytic; social-learning
d. cognitive; psychoanalytic
ANSWER: B.
RATIO: Humanistic psychologists assume that people are motivated by growth and psychological health, thus, aiming to become a
fully functioning person. Behavioral psychologists give emphasis on the analyzing behaviors that can be observed objectively instead of
those that are phenomenological in nature such as psychoanalytic. Cognitivists are more on thoughts and assumptions as the primary
forces behind behavior. Evolutionary on the other hand attributes human thought and behavior to natural and sexual selection.

8. Professor De Paul is presently doing his research wherein he is aiming to confirm whether the body, the brain, and the
environment coexist. In his paper, he intends to give emphasis that what we think, feel, or do is always an interaction
between the nature, and the nurture. Given your understanding on the different perspectives of psychology, you can
say the Professor De Paul is a follower of:
a. Neuropsychological-Behavioral Genetic
b. Sociocultural Psychology
c. Evolutionary Psychology
d. Psychoanalytic-Psychodynamic
ANSWER: C.
RATIO: Evolutionary psychology emphasizes that the way we think, feel, and act is always an interaction between our biology and our
environment, hence, Prof. De Paul is a follower of evolutionary perspective. Neuropsychological-behavioral genetic covers basic
genetic, epigenetic, and neurological systems between individuals, the differences in their genotype, brain structures, and
neurochemistry. Sociocultural psychology investigates the social and cultural conditions while psychoanalytic-psychodynamic heavily
studies the unconscious and inner workings of the mind.

9. Carlo brought Amie, his new girlfriend to his favorite restaurant and ordered strawberry shortcake for dessert. While
Amie took a teaspoonful of the cake, she told Carlo that the cake is delicious, melts right away in her mouth, creamy,
and not too sweet. If you are to analyze what Amie just said about the cake, what school of thought would fit this
description?
a. Structuralism
b. Functionalism
c. Gestalt
d. Behaviorism
ANSWER:
A.
RATIO: Amie did not just describe the cake as good however, she described her experience while eating the cake hence, the answer is
structuralism. In this school of thought, breaking down of experiences into its elemental parts are the best way to understand thought
and behavior. It did not meet the school of functionalism because no reasons were identified as to why Amie described the cake as she
did. Gestalt would be incorrect because its principle, the whole is more than the sum of its parts did not play a role in the situation.
Behaviorism on the other hand examines observable behavior, and the experience or ideas of a person.

10. This field of psychology deals with the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of psychopathology.
a. Developmental Psychology
b. Counseling Psychology
c. Clinical Psychology
d. Health Psychology
ANSWER: C.
RATIO: Clinical psychology aims to promote psychological health while preventing the development or progress of psychological
disorders. Counseling psychology deals with less severe psychological disorders. Development psychology relates to how our thought
and behavior change and/or remain stable across the lifespan. Health psychology examines the roles of physical health and illness in
psychological functioning of an individual.
RATIONALIZATION ACTIVITY (THIS WILL BE DONE DURING THE FACE TO FACE INTERACTION)
The instructor will now rationalize the answers to the students. You can now ask questions and debate among yourselves.
Write the correct answer and correct/additional ratio in the space provided.
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LESSON WRAP-UP (10 minutes)

You will now mark (encircle) the session you have finished today in the tracker below. This is simply a visual to help you
track how much work you have accomplished and how much work there is left to do.

You are done with the session! Let’s track your progress.

To better gauge your understanding in this discussion, kindly answer the following questions with honesty:
1. What part of the discussion caught your interest?
2. What part of the discussion did you find confusing?

(For the next lesson, continue working on module for session #2, Conducting Research in Psychology)