Psychology for Physiotherapists Dibyendunarayan Bid, Thangamani Ramalingam A
INDEX
×
Chapter Notes

Save Clear


Introduction to PsychologyCHAPTER 1

 
PSYCHOLOGY
The word psychology was derived from two Greek words, namely Psyche and Logos. Psyche means soul and Logos means study or science so the literal meaning of the term psychology is the study of soul.
According to American Professor Walter Bowers Pillsbury Psychology is defined as the science of human behaviour.
NL Munn says, “Psychology is a science and the properly trained psychologist is a scientist, or at least a practitioner who uses scientific methods and information resulting from scientific investigation.”
 
Some Definitions
Psychology is defined as
  • “The study of soul”
  • “The science of soul”
  • “The science of mind”
  • “The science of study of concious experience”—(Wilhelm Wunt, 1879)
  • “What the psychologists are interested in”—(Woodworth and Marquis, 1947)
  • “The study of objective behaviour by subjective experience.”—(School of introspectionism)
  • “The science of human behaviour.”
  • “The science of the activities of the individual”—(Woodworth and Marquis)
  • “The science of experience and behaviour.”—(Munn).2
All the above definitions are vague and not more tangible to the subject and what it deals actually. The definitions seem to be more comprehensive. Today most psychologists include both behaviour and mind.
Psychology means “scientific study of behaviour and mental processes and they are affected by the organism's physical and mental states and external environment.”
According to CT Morgan “psychology is the science of human and animal behaviour, and it includes the application of this science to human problems.”
 
Psychology as a Science
A science is a body of systematized knowledge that is gathered by carefully observing and measuring the events. As the psychology uses experiments and observations, which others can repeat, this also can be considered as a science.
 
Application of Psychology
It is often used to solve the “Real-Life” problems.
 
What it Means—Study of Behaviour
Behaviour includes anything a person or animal does that can be observed in some way, unlike mind or thoughts or feelings. Behaviour is the avenue through which internal mental events can be studied.
 
Goals of Psychology
The goals of psychology are as follows:
  • To describe behaviour and mental processes
  • To understand behaviour and mental processes
  • To predict behaviour and mental processes
  • To control or modify behaviour and mental processes.3
 
Scope of Psychology
Psychology has its own scope. Indeed the scope of psychology is as wide and varied as human activities are. But it can be seen from the number of branches of psychology, the work of psychologist and how the principles are applied for the benefit of man.
 
BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY
Following are the different branches of psychology:
  • Clinical psychology
  • Counseling psychology
  • School and Educational psychology
  • Experimental and physiological psychology
  • Industrial and organizational psychology
  • Social psychology
  • Developmental psychology
  • Community psychology
Some applied fields of psychology are as follows:
  • Psychology applied to Crime
  • Psychology applied to Military Affairs
  • Psychology in Law
  • Psychology in Administration
  • Psychology in Mental Health.
 
Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychologists are also doctors who diagnose psychological disorders and treat them by means of psychotherapy. Many people are confused about the differences between clinical psychologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.
  • Clinical psychologist - Ph.D or Psy. D (or Doctor of Psychology)
  • Psychiatrist - MD (or Doctor of Medicine)4
  • Psychoanalyst - MD degree (They use the techniques, which originated with Freud and his followers).
The clinical psychologist are better trained in doing research and involved in systematically studying better ways of diagnosing, treating and preventing behavioural disorder. But they can't prescribe drugs like psychiatrist what seldom needed by the patients.
So clinical psychology is very useful to relieve the symptoms of psychological disorders and to help people understand the reasons for their problems (Diagnosis and Treatment).
 
Counseling Psychology
The work of counseling psychologist is quite similar to that of clinical psychologist, but they work with people who have milder emotional and personal problems. They may use psychotherapy and tests to measure aptitudes, interests and personality characteristics.
 
School and Educational Psychology
School psychologist deals with the learning difficulties of students and trying to remedy them. The school psychologist collects information from students and his/her parents. Some other school psychologists are involved in vocational and other forms of counseling. They are the school counsellors.
Educational psychology may include school psychology, deals with more general, less immediate problems. The educational psychologists are concerned with increasing the efficiency of learning in school by applying psychological knowledge.
 
Experimental and Physiological Psychology
Experimental psychology tries to understand the fundamental causes of behaviour. Experimental psychologists do basic 5research, studying such fundamental processes as learning and memory, thinking, sensation and perception, motivation and emotion.
Physiological psychology is considered to be a part of the broader field of neurobiology (the study of the nervous system and its function). These psychologists are concerned with relationships of the brain and other biological activity to behaviour.
 
Industrial and Organizational Psychology
It is a subfield of psychology in which psychological principles are applied to practical problems of work and commerce. The first application to the problems of industry and organization was the use of intelligence and aptitude tests in selecting employees. Nowadays they use psychology.
  • To problems of management and employee training
  • To supervision of personnel
  • To improving communication within the organization
  • To counsel employees
  • To train management and employees, in human relations skills
They may do research on consumer attitude towards the company's product.
 
Social Psychology
The primary focus of social psychology is on understanding how other people affect individuals. It includes the study of ways in which we perceive other people and how those perceptions affect our behaviour towards them. Social psychologists have developed and perfected techniques for measuring attitudes and opinions, e.g. survey of political opinions, consumer's attitudes.6
 
Developmental Psychology
It tries to understand complex behaviour by studying their beginnings and the orderly ways in which they change with time. Since changes in behaviour occur rapidly in the early years of life, child psychology, the study of children's behaviour comprises a large part of developmental psychology. But it studies the adolescence, adulthood and the old age changes also. The developmental psychologists are often concerned with children who have behaviour problems or psychological disorders.
 
Community Psychology
In general, it can be said that community psychologist applies psychological principles, ideas and points of view to solve social problems and helps individuals adapts to their work and living groups (social—problem community psychologists), e.g. Hostility among groups in the community, bad relations between the police and community members, distress due to lack of employment, etc.
 
SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY
In the history of psychology differences of opinion were represented by schools of psychology - groups of like-minded psychologist, which formed around influential teachers who argued for one viewpoint or another.
  • Early schools of psychology
  • Modern (Current) perspectives.
 
Early Schools of Psychology
The following are the different early schools of psychology:
  • Structuralism
    (Wilhelm Wunt/B. Titchener—1867-1927, Germany)7
  • Gestalt psychology
    (Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler—1912, Germany)
  • Functionalism
    (John Dewey, James Angelld Harvey—Chicago)
  • Behaviourism
    (John B. Watson—1879-1958, Hopkins University)
  • Psychoanalysis
    (Sigmund Freud—1856-1938, Austria).
 
Structuralism
The goal of the structuralism was to find the units or elements, which make up the element. They thought that first step must be a description of basis, or elementary, units of sensation, image and emotion which comprise it.
Method used: INTROSPECTION
In this method the subjects were trained to report as objectively as possible what they experienced in connection with a certain stimulus, e.g. A subject might be presented with a coloured light and asked to describe it as minutely as possible.
 
Gestalt Psychology
The German word Gestalt means Form or Configuration and the gestalt psychologist maintained that mind should be thought of as resulting from the whole pattern of sensory activity and the relationship and organization within this pattern.
zoom view
8
When we look at the dots, our mental experience is not just of the dots, but also of a square and a triangle placed on a straight line. In other terms, the mind is best understood in the ways elements are organized.
 
Functionalism
It proposed that psychology should study what mind and behaviour do. Specifically functionalist felt that mind and behaviour are adaptive—they enable an individual to adjust to a changing environment. They did experiments on functions like learning, memory, reasoning and motivation etc.
 
Behaviourism
Watson rejected mind as a subject of psychology and insisted that psychology be restricted to the study of behaviour—the observable activities of people and animals. Three characteristics of behaviourism includes:
  • Emphasis on conditioned responses as the elements or building blocks of behaviour. But these elements were conditioned responses rather than sensation, image or emotions as like structuralism.
  • Emphasis on learned rather than unlearned behaviour. It denied the existence of inborn or innate, behavioural tendencies.
  • Focus on animal behaviour—He felt that we could learn our own behaviour from the study of what animals do.
 
Psychoanalysis
Freud said that what we do and think results from urges or drives, which seek expression in behaviour and thought, i.e. it is the expression of the unconscious drives which shows up in behaviour and thought. (Key idea—Unconscious motivation).9
 
Modern Perspectives
Today except for modern versions of behaviourism and psychoanalysis the old schools of psychology have disappeared. Various modern perspectives are as follows:
  • Behavioural perspective: It focuses on the observed behaviour of people and animal and not on their mental processes.
  • Biological perspective: It tries to relate behaviour and mental events (especially activity of their nervous system and glandular systems).
  • Cognitive perspective: It says behaviour and mind are to be understood in terms of the ways in which information from the environment, received through the senses, is processed.
  • Social perspective: Social Perspectives are interested in the interactions between and among people, which influence mind and behaviour.
  • Humanistic perspective: It emphasizes a person's sense of self and each individual attempts to achieve competence and self-esteem.
  • Developmental perspective: It focuses on the series of changes that occur in an orderly, predictable pattern as a result of maturation and experience.
  • Psychoanalytic perspective: It focuses on the unconscious motives and defense mechanisms, which manifest themselves in mental life and behaviour.
 
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Following are the different methods of psychology:
  • Experimental method
  • Observation method
  • Introspection method
  • Inventory method10
Others methods which are also used in psychology are as follows:
  • Case study method
  • Correlation method
  • Survey method
 
Experimental Method
In this method, the experimenter:
  • changes or varies the events which are hypothesised to have an effect
  • keeps other conditions constant
  • looks for an effect of the change or variation.
Experimental method is a research method where investigator systematically alters one or more variable in order to determine whether such changes will influence some aspects of behaviour.
 
Types of Experimental Method
There are two types of experimental method, which are as follows:
  • Laboratory experiment
  • Field experiment
Laboratory experiment: Laboratory experiment contains following components:
  • Hypothesis
  • Variables
  • Control
For example—Experiment seeking to discover the relationship between learning ability and age.
Hypothesis → the abovesaid example
Variables → Age and learning ability
  • Hypothesis: Hypothesis is a statement of a particular situation.11
  • Variable: It is an event or condition, which can have different values.
    • Dependent variable: It is the behaviour of the person or animal in the experiment
    • Independent variable: It is a condition set by an experimenter.
    zoom view
    Figure 1.1: In graphing the results of an experiment, the values of the independent variables on the horizontal axis and the values of the dependent variable on the vertical axis must be marked
  • Control: It is a very important characteristic of the experimental method. Only specified independent variable be allowed to change. Factors other than the independent variable, which might affect the dependent variable, must be held constant.
In the above example of the subject, number of hours, books given, etc. to the subject is controlled by the experimenter.
Some times the experimenter may focus only on the influence of a single condition, which can be, either present or absent. This method is called Control-group design method. In this method one group with the independent variable and the other group without the independent variable.12
Control group:
Subject → No independent variable → Behaviour measured
Experimental group:
Subject → Independent variable → Behaviour measured
Finally comparison of the behaviour of the control and experimental groups. E.g.—Experiment conducted to find out the beneficial effect of computer in learning.
Field experiment: These experiments are performed in natural settings, in the field to avoid artificiality and demand characteristics. In this dependent variables are measured usually without the subject's knowledge about their participation.
  • Limitation:
    • Bias due to the demand characteristics of the experimental situation (increased motivation)
    • Bias due to the unintentional influence of the experimenter
    • It cannot always be used, if the experiment might be dangerous to the subject
    • It uses an artificial experimental situation
  • Advantages:
    • Replication (It can be repeated and checked by anybody) or check-up ability.
 
Observation Method
It is a research method in which various aspects of behaviour are carefully observed in the settings where such behaviour naturally occurs. It studies people's reactions to the naturally occurring events in natural settings.
 
Types of Observation Method
There are two types of observation method, which are as follows:
  • Indirect observation
  • Direct observation13
  • Indirect observation: Motion pictures, verbal reports and most sophisticated video pictures and audio recordings can be validated and compared with actual behaviour through observation. E.g.—Motion pictures of newborn babies reveal the details of movement patterns.
  • Direct observation:It can be of three types, which are follows:
    • Laboratory observation
    • Naturalistic observation
    • Participation observation
    • Laboratory observation:Behavioural scientist creates a standard setting, which stimulates behaviour of interest, and allows exact unbiased measurements to be made. Because subjects are exposed to the same situation, it is relatively easy to compare their responses. Participants or subjects may know the presence but they rarely know precisely why they are being studied. E.g.— Mother's behaviour towards the first and later born children.
    • Naturalistic observation: Viewing behaviour in a natural setting. E.g.—the observer sitting on a park bench pretending to be absorbed in a book can observe Peoples reactions to a beggar requesting money.
    • Participant observation: In this they join the activities that are being watched and consequently being mistaken by the subjects as member of their own group.
Advantage:
  • Close contact with the subjects.
Disadvantage:
  • Observers may unknowingly influence the subject's behaviour.
Limitation:
  • Anecdotes may take place of observers.
  • Interpretation may substitute description.14
  • The data obtained are relatively informal, subjective, biased or prejudiced and can reduce scientific value.
  • Data collected may be inadequate and incomplete.
  • The observer has to wait for a long time.
  • It is impossible to control all the variables, which determine the behaviour under study.
 
Introspection Method
It means looking within or to look into one's ownself, i.e. one's own thoughts, feelings and experiences at the time of living through the experiment in a given situation at the given time and to a given stimulus.
But unfortunately one cannot look into one's ownself and live through his experiences simultaneously. E.g.—When an individual is laughing at a joke if an attempt is made by him to observe one's own experiences, laughter disappears.
So the subject has to look back to know the experiences he had. In that case this method can be called as Retrospection. But this method is very useful; several valuable principles regarding the working of the human mind have been discovered through this method.
 
Limitations
  • Can't be used for children/animal
  • Needs memory power
  • All the experiences can't be recalled again.
 
Inventory Method (Questionnaire)
It is the most popular method and is quite useful in collecting both quantitative and qualitative information.
According to Good questionnaire refers to a device for securing answer to questions by using a form which the respondent fills himself or herself.
E.g.
  • All the personality inventories15
  • Inventories used in the fields of education are interest, aptitude, attitude and personality tests.
 
Classification
  • PV Young classification:
    • Structured questionnaire: It contains definite, concrete and preordinated questions.
    • Nonstructured questionnaire: It contains definite subject matter areas, the coverage of which is decided by the interviewer. He is free to arrange the form and timing of enquiry.
  • Georg A. Lundberg classification:
    • Questionnaire of Facts
    • Questionnaire of Opinion and Attitude
  • John Best classification:
    • Closed form Questionnaire: A short response is needed like ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
    • Open form Questionnaire: It provides for a free response in the respondent's own words.
 
Characteristics
  • The items (questions) should not be vaguely worded.
  • The items should be arranged in categories to ensure accurate responses.
  • It should provide complete and clear direction to the respondents.
  • Annoying items must be avoided.
  • It should not be too lengthy.
 
Advantages
  • It is easy to fill up.
  • Less expensive and less time consuming.
  • It is relatively objective.16
 
Limitations
  • The respondent may not reveal his true personality. So the data may be invalid.
  • It is a subjective technique and the results obtained cannot be verified.
  • It cannot be used for illiterates and children.
  • Some persons may not like to answer on controversial issues.
 
Case Study Method (Scientific Biographies)
Case study or case history is a scientific method of research in which detailed information about the individual collected or gathered either from the person, his relatives friends or associates or from any other available records to develop general principles about behaviour. Most case histories are prepared by reconstructing the biography of a person according to remembered events and records. So the use of retrospective method may result in distortions of events or oversights but it is often the only available method.
Sometimes a longitudinal study also used to collect data from individual in which an investigator observes the individual according to a plan.
Freud based his entire theory of personality on Case Study Method.
 
Survey Method
It is one of the research methods in which large number of people answer questions about aspect of their views or their behaviour attitudes. An adequate survey requires a valid and reliable questionnaire, carefully selected population sample, trained interviewers and appropriate methods of data analysis and interpretation. For example, political opinion and consumer preferences.17
 
Correlation Method
It is a scientific method that decides the relationships between two variables. A distinction between experimental and correlational methods is in order. In experimental study, one variable is systematically manipulated to determine its effect on some other variables. Similar cause-effect relationships cannot always be inferred from correlational studies.