PSYCHOTHERAPIES

Psychoanalysis 

Sigmund Freud’s therapeutic technique. Freud believed the patient’s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences—and the therapist’s interpretations of them— released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self - insight.

Resistance in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety- laden material.

Interpretation in psychoanalysis, the analyst’s noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight.

Transference in psychoanalysis, the patient’s transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent).

Humanistic Therapies

·         Humanistic therapists aim to boost people’s self-fulfillment by helping them grow in selfawareness and self-acceptance.

·         Promoting this growth, not curing illness, is the focus of therapy. Thus, those in therapy became “clients” or just “persons” rather than “patients” (a change many other therapists have adopted).

·         The path to growth is taking immediate responsibility for one’s feelings and actions, rather than uncovering hidden determinants.

·         Conscious thoughts are more important than the unconscious.

·         The present and future are more important than the past. The goal is to explore feelings as they occur, rather than achieve insights into the childhood origins of the feelings.

Carl Rogers (1902–1987) developed the widely used humanistic technique he called client - centered therapy, which focuses on the person’s conscious self - perceptions. In this nondirective therapy, the therapist listens, without judging or interpreting, and seeks to refrain from directing the client toward certain insights. Believing that most people possess the resources for growth, Rogers (1961, 1980) encouraged therapists to exhibit genuineness, acceptance, and empathy. When therapists drop their facades and genuinely express their true feelings, when they enable their clients to feel unconditionally accepted, and when they empathically sense and reflect their clients’ feelings, the clients may deepen their self - understanding and self- acceptance.

“Hearing” refers to Rogers’ technique of active listening—echoing, restating, and seeking clarification of what the person expresses (verbally or nonverbally) and acknowledging the expressed feelings.

Given a nonjudgmental, grace - filled environment that provides unconditional positive regard, people may accept even their worst traits and feel valued and whole. If you want to listen more actively in your own relationships, three Rogerian hints may help:

1. Paraphrase. Rather than saying “I know how you feel,” check your understandings by summarizing the person’s words in your own words.

2. Invite clarification. “What might be an example of that?” may encourage the person to say more.

3. Reflect feelings. “It sounds frustrating” might mirror what you’re sensing from the person’s body language and intensity.

LEARNING , THEORIES OF LEARNING , FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO LEARNING

Learning: 

The process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors.

Associative learning:

Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning).

Stimulus: 

Any event or situation that evokes a response.

Cognitive learning 

The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language.

THEORIES OF LEARNING

Classical Conditioning: 

In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate events. (A stimulus is any event or situation that evokes a response.) We learn that a flash of lightning signals an impending crack of thunder; when lightning flashes nearby, we start to brace ourselves. 

Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events. Behaviorism the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2).

RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY

Theory:

An explanation using an integrated  set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.

Hypothesis:

 A testable prediction, often implied by a theory.

Operational definition: 

A statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables. For example, human intelligence may be operationally defined as “what an intelligence test measures.”

Replication: 

Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances.

i.                    Case study: a technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles. Some examples: Much of our early knowledge about the brain came from case studies of individuals who suffered a particular impairment after damage to a certain brain region. Jean Piaget taught us about children’s thinking after carefully observing and questioning only a few children. Studies of only a few chimpanzees have revealed their capacity for understanding and language. Intensive case studies are sometimes very revealing. They show us what can happen, and they often suggest directions for further study.

But individual cases may mislead us if the individual is atypical. Unrepresentative information can lead to mistaken judgments and false conclusions.

FIELDS OF PSYCHOLOGY

To date, the American Psychological Association (APA) has 56 divisions.

Clinical psychologists

Clinical psychologists promote psychological health in individuals, groups, and organizations. Some clinical psychologists specialize in specific psychological disorders.

Cognitive psychologists

Cognitive psychologists study thought processes and focus on such topics as perception, language, attention, problem solving, memory, judgment and decision making, forgetting, and intelligence. Research interests include designing computer-based models of thought processes and identifying biological correlates of cognition. As a cognitive psychologist, you might work as a professor, industrial consultant, or human factors specialist in an educational or business setting.

Community psychologists

Community psychologists move beyond focusing on specific individuals or families and deal with broad problems of mental health in community settings. These psychologists believe that human behavior is powerfully influenced by the interaction between people and their physical, social, political, and economic environments. They seek to promote psychological health by enhancing environmental settings, focusing on preventive measures and crisis intervention, with special attention to the problems of underserved groups and ethnic minorities.

Basic Psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes.

PERSPECTIVES OF BASIC PSYCHOLOGY

There are various different approaches in basic psychology. An approach is a perspective (i.e. view) that involves certain assumptions (i.e. beliefs) about human behavior: the way they function, which aspects of them are worthy of study and what research methods are appropriate for undertaking this study.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism view people (and animals) as controlled by their environment and specifically that we are the result of what we have learned from our environment. Behaviorism is concerned with how environmental factors (called stimuli) affect observable behavior (called the response).

The behaviorist approach proposes two main processes whereby people learn from their environment: namely classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning involves learning by association, and operant conditioning involves learning from the consequences of behavior.

Behaviorism also believes in scientific methodology (e.g. controlled experiments), and that only observable behavior should be studies because this can be objectively measured. Behaviorism rejects the idea that people have free will, and believes that the environment determines all behavior. Behaviorism is the scientific study of observable behavior working on the basis that behavior can be reduced to learned S-R (Stimulus-Response) units.

Psychoanalytic Perspective

Freud believes that events in our childhood can have a significant impact on our behavior as adults. He also believed that people have little free will to make choices in life. Instead our behavior is determined by the unconscious mind and childhood experiences.