OEP 101: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY LECTURE ONE INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
OEP101: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
LECTURE ONE
INTRODUCTION
TO PSYCHOLOGY
Definition of
psychology
Psychology is the
scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Psychology uses scientific
approaches in studying behavior and mental processes.
Scientific approach is
based on empirical evidence that is obtained objectively and can be verified.
Also there is a use of
measurements. Psychology tries to use scientific approach in understanding the
nature of behavior and the function of mental processes. Explanations of
behavior based on scientific approach are more credible than those based on
more speculations. Some of questions related to education addressed by
psychology include how do children learn? Why do students differ in
performance? What are the best approaches of controlling classroom? How can we
reduce aggressive behaviors in our schools? Other disciplines like medicines,
business, health, industries and vocations have questions that are also
addressed by psychology.
The above questions imply
behavior is a very broad concept. Some behaviors are manifested externally and
can be observed directly eg. Walking, singing, writing and climbing a tree.
However, some of behaviors are internal and can only be inferred eg. Thinking,
being happy and hating an object.
MAIN
AREAS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Human behavior is very
broad with many components that are affected by many variables. So, as to
manage to understand the content of psychology, it is divided broadly into four
main areas namely physical, cognitive,
emotions and the environment.
a)
Physical
aspect – is the body of individual ie muscles, skeleton, glands and sensory
systems. This implies that biological processes have influence on our behavior
eg. hunger makes us to look for food and eat (behavior); females can bear
children while males cannot, and writing involves coordination of eyes and
muscles in the arm.
b)
Cognitive
– this
area of psychology focuses on mental activities that include memory, thinking, problem solving and
language. (You know that brain is part of the physical body, thus there is
a connection between body and cognitive processes). Cognitive component is
responsible for the understanding of us and the environment, which results in
capabilities and behaviors that we use to manipulate environment for
development.
c)
Emotions
– are
feelings that we have as our reaction to an object or event. These feelings can
either be pleasant or unpleasant. Pleasant feelings include being happy,
falling in love, laughing and unpleasant feelings include being angry, sad,
fear and unhappiness. Emotions make us human (different from machines and
innate objects) and colour our lives (happy in (our) a ceremony and sad when we
lose a loved one) and affect our behavior ( in form of reacting and acting on
our emotions). There is a direct connection between emotions and the brain and
between emotions and the physical body
d)
The
environment (physical environment) has effect on our behavior in that it
provides us with the necessities to survive like air, food and water, it limits
or enhances our behaviors and potentials (think of learning environment)
People
around us (social environment) have direct influence on us for they take care
of the young ones (who cannot look for food or fend off negative elements in
the environment, babies cannot survive without the support of the caregivers);
on the language we acquire and in shaping our behaviors through socialization
process.
These
major areas of studying psychology are interrelated and do not act in isolation
of the others. For example, the environment affect us (emotionally, mentally,
socially, physiologically and behavior wise) and we also have some influence on
the environment be it physical or social.
When
we see food we like, we salivate and decide to approach the vendor, buy the
food and then enjoy while eating. Such an act is simple and yet complex as it
affects the life of the vendor, food processing, production of food and impact
on the environment. These areas also indicate that psychology is also related
to other disciplines such as biology, sociology, economics, education,
geography, etc. However, you must be aware of the boundaries between psychology
and the other fields.
OBJECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGY
There
are four objectives of studying psychology:
·
To
describe behavior: the first objective of psychology is
to describe how behavior occurs.
·
To
understand behavior: that is to determine the causes of
behavior
·
To
predict behavior: after describing and understanding the
causes of behavior we are able to predict how one will behave under certain
conditions
·
To
control behavior: the fourth objective of psychology is
to influence the behavior of individuals.
Ø As
a teacher you should be able to describe
the cause of the behavior and predict the future of the individual
with regard to the said behavior and finally control the behavior.
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Use the above
sequence of psychology objectives to explain about a behavior of a person you
know.
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HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Issues relating to
human behavior have been of concern to human beings since the beginning of
history. There are different perspectives that underpin the history of
psychology. These theoretical perspectives indicate the way psychologists have
explained the subject matter of psychology over the time.
The perspectives have
been influenced by the way people explain their experiences based on the
realities of that period.
However, it is worth
noting that no single perspective in psychology can explain all aspects of
human behavior.
Those perspectives are
as follows:
1.
Structuralism
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a
German physician, physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one
of the founding figures of modern psychology.
The
first school of thought is called structuralism (structure of mental
processing). Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) was trying to find the element that form
conscious sensations, feelings and images. He was influenced by the advancement
in physical sciences of time (the identification of atoms in physics and cells
in biology). His main method of obtaining these elements was called introspection ie self-observation. He
trained his assistants to report verbally what they were sensing when presented
with an object. Eg. The assistant will hold a banana and report what he
experienced in term of his sensation. The main limitation of introspection was lack of objectively in
that results could not be independently verified. The trained persons on
introspection frequently gave conflicting sensations on the same object leading
to misunderstandings among themselves.
2.
Functionalism
William James was an American
philosopher and psychologist who was also trained as a physician. The first
educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, James was one of
the leading thinkers.
This
school of thought was formed in USA by William James who was influenced by
Charles Darwin’s concept of natural
selection ie survival of the fittest. He believed that psychology should
investigate the functions or purposes of consciousness and not the structure of
consciousness as advocated by Wundt.
The interest was on how peoples’ behavior functions to
3.
Psychodynamic
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian
neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating
psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.
The major force under this perspective was a physician called
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). His theory is based on the observations he made when
treating people with psychological disorders. He relied on interpretations he
made on the meanings of the dreams, fears and thought of his clients. He
postulated that there is interplay between mental processes and behavior, thus
the concept psychodynamics.
He asserted that most of actions are controlled by our minds as
result of the way we unconsciously think, feel and wish. Thus, the unconscious
component of us has more influence on us than the conscious component.
The main contribution of this perspective is the acknowledgement
of the importance of childhood experiences on the quality of life in later
years and the role of psychology in teaching people with psychological problems
through therapy.
4.
Behaviorism
Burrhus Frederic Skinner, commonly
known as B. F. Skinner, was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author,
inventor, and social philosopher.
This
school of thought originated in the USA and was a modification of
functionalism. The behaviorists believe that one cannot objectively observe and
verify processes that take place in the mind of a person. They rejected introspection and other methods used in
psychoanalysis as not being truly scientific. In steady they proposed that
psychology should only focus on observable behavior and the environmental
conditions that have influence on how human beings behave.
B.F.
Skinner is the best known behaviorist who observed that behavior of an organism
can be controlled by the manipulation of the environment. Behaviorists insist
that behavior is controlled by its consequences. If behavior is followed by
reinforcement then it will be repeated under the same conditions. However, if
it is followed punishment the likelihood of it to reoccur under the same
conditions decreases. Behaviorism was the major force in psychology between
1950 and 1970 and was adapted in approaches of learning and teaching. The
limitation of behaviorism is that it ignored mental processes which are also
very important in influencing behavior.
5.
Cognitive
perspective
(a) Gestalt approach
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A movement in psychology founded in Germany
in 1912, seeking to explain perceptions in terms of gestalts rather than by
analyzing their constituents.
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A gestalt image
showing how human can process mentally and come up with different images from
the whole
Gestalt
is a German word meaning “whole” or “pattern”. This perspective was postulated
by three Germans who had immigrated to USA. For them human behavior cannot
solely be explained by behavior alone or reduced into single elements as
explained by the behaviorists. They were against the notion that humans are
passive to the environment. They believed that human are rather active in
gaining experiences from the environment. Gestalt psychologists put more
emphasis on mental processes ie how we organize sensory information into
meaningful state through perception, memory and thinking. Based on a number of
experiments they proposed that brain automatically organizes sensory
information into meaningful whole.
Gestalt
perspective can be considered as one of the foundation of cognitive
perspective. Currently more psychologist holds the cognitive perspective rather
than the behavioral perspective.
Cognitive
psychologists hold that psychology should also include memory systems that have
influence on how sensory information is received, processed, stored and
retrieved or forgotten. Also believe that traits related to mental functions
such as emotions, memories, motivation and beliefs have effects on our
behaviors and learning. It is safe to say that this perspective has been
influenced by the development of computers.
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Gestalt portend that “The whole is
different from the sum of parts”
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(b) Cognitive perspective
This
perspective has evolved from structuralism and believes that most of human
behavior is rooted in the mind. They focus on people’s understanding of the
world ie how they think, understand and think about the world around them.
BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY
As
the psychology has being growing it has created many areas of specialization
within the field. There are several branches of psychology. However in this
lecture the focus will be on some few
that are closely related to education.
1.
Developmental
psychology:
Studies
the changes that occur as humans grow and develop. It describes how human body
changes and how we adapt in these changes. For example, at which level of
development do children recognize themselves, what is sequence involved in
walking and what do adolescence do in response to the physiological changes
(puberty) occurring at this stage? Also developmental psychology describes
cognitive and psychosocial changes of individual. It looks on aspects in the
environment that have effect on the individual as he/she grows. Do children
become aggressive or westernized because of watching television?
2.
Social
psychology
Looks
at the interaction of the individual and the society ie how individual’s
behavior is affected by social factors. Topics under this area include
socialization process, prejudice (Prejudice is an unjustified or
incorrect attitude (usually negative) towards an individual based solely on the
individual's membership of a social group. For example, a person may hold prejudiced views
towards a certain race or gender etc. (e.g. sexist), peer pressure, mob justice and the way people
view themselves and others.
3.
Cognitive
psychology
“Cognition”
stems from the Latin word meaning “to know”. Cognitive psychology investigates
aspects of human cognition ie all our mental ability and processes including
perceiving, learning, remembering, thinking, reasoning and understanding. It
studies how people acquire and apply knowledge or information. It is closely
related to other cognitive science and it is influenced by artificial
intelligence, computer science, philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, biology,
physics and neuroscience.
4.
School/education
psychology
Is
a branch that applies principles of psychology to the diagnosis and treatment
of children’s and adolescents’ behavioral and learning problems. School
psychologists carry out psychological and psycho-educational assessment;
counseling ; and consultation; and also in the ethical, legal and
administrative codes in the teaching profession.
5.
Experimental
psychology
Is
interested in using controlled experiments to study psychological processes. It
looks at the human mental process and behavior using scientific methods,
research, experimentation and statistics.
6.
Counseling
psychology
Focuses
on providing psychological therapy to individuals experiencing normal
emotional, social, vocational, educational and developmental problems.
Counseling psychologists are trained to have a variety of counseling skills.
7.
Clinical
psychology
Is
devoted to understanding and finding treatment to people experiencing serious
emotional, mental and behavior disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders
and psychotic disorders. Clinical psychologists specializes in a few areas of
the disorders and work in clinical setting.
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Make a list of the above branches,
then observe students in a school and relate your observations to each of
these branches.
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Based on several books make a list of
the primary topics in psychology and then relate each to specific component
of learning/teaching process.
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In your words elaborate the summary
then go through the lecture to verify your accuracy.
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