Introduction to Psychology Essay examples

In order to have a personal theory regarding human behavior one must understand the different behaviors through the principals of psychology. Similar to a fingerprint, people are unique and their behaviors/personalities are all different. A person’s personality can have emotional impact in reference to the way they act, speak, react to different situations and the lives of people that they are involved with. Relationships can also be influenced by the way a person behaves and the personality they portray.

I am very interested in the School Psychology program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I have a strong educational background and a number of professional and educational experiences, which I feel have prepared me for this program. I enjoy working with children and developing strong rapport with parents and co-workers. I learned about the graduate program with great interest because I would like to offer my skills in the area of psychology to meet students’ psychological needs.

Throughout the course of the first semester we as a Psychology class learned a whole variety of different and varying concepts of Psychology. Chapter one we went over all the different ways psychologists study behaviors and mental processes. Included were the contemporary perspectives, such as behavioral, which focuses on behavior that is observed. Psychodynamic focuses on our fantasies and our hidden motives. Humanistic is all about our free will and conscious choices. Physiological is the relationships between biological processes and behavior. Cognitive perspective is our acquired knowledge, and last but not least is sociocultural, which places great value on the role of cultural and social influences on our behavior.

Psychology explores human behavior and the human mental process figuring ways to improve the thinking and attitude of an individual’s existence. Sometimes, different techniques are used and tried to properly resolve the problem within the multitude of possible behavioral issues. Moreover, Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, developed many theories, psychodynamic therapy, for clinically treating people with mental health problems through their unconscious mind; Then, Sigmund Freud’s theories or therapy, rather, diverged into other types of therapies such as Biological Psychology or Cognitive Psychology. No doubt, there are various perspectives, both strong and weak, in the field of Psychology using different techniques on different

Psychology isn’t just a phenomenon; it is a scientific study. Psychology as a science answers the question “why”, proposes a theory and sets experiment to test the hypothesis. The research is geared towards evidence-based strategies to solve problems and improve lives. As a science, it is subdivided into various groups such as clinical psychology, counselling psychology, developmental psychology, climate and environmental

To understand behaviour is very important when it comes to psychology. Behaviour is what makes psychologist understand people. Behaviour is influenced by a variety of different factors (Grieve, Van Deventer, & Mojapelo-Batka, 2005). Some of these factors are within the individual as well as in the environment. People need to be examined by lots of perspectives, or on different levels so that psychologists are able to understand why people behave the way they do (Grieve et al., 2005). Different theories have different perspectives on looking at behaviour, generally known as approaches. This essay will be looking at the following: approaches of neuroscience, psychodynamics, behaviourism, and cognition. To compare the different perspectives of which psychologists use to examine behaviour as well as mental processes.

Introspection was performed by asking people to “’look within’ to observe and record the content of our own mental lives and the sequence of our own experiences (Cognition, p. 9).” This leads us to the biggest problem of introspection, not being a scientific way of studying the human mind. Another limitation of introspection is that some thoughts that individuals have are unconscious which makes them unable to be studied (Cognition). Because of these limitations, the practice of behaviorism came about. Behaviorists took the limitation of lack of scientific study to heart and decided that the mind must be studied by observing individuals’ behaviors. Behaviorism had its own limitations as well. One such limitation is that the ways people act and feel are guided by how they interpret or understand a situation (Cognition). This led to a problem as we know that we must study the mind to understand a human’s behaviors, however we can’t study it objectively. These led to the cognitive revolution of psychology.

Environmental and social situations are more powerful to determine a person’s behavior than personality differences. Psychology is basically the study of the human mind to be able to understand a human’s actions, emotions, behaviors, reactions and attitudes. Using a scientific approach social psychologists study everyday actual problems to determine behavior and characteristics of the social situation. Social psychology was strengthened by researchers like Solomon Asch in the 1905’s who made an attempt to understand the significance of conformity pressures in social groups and how people in authority could influence by peer pressure. In today’s society social psychology has expanded in many areas and is compared to other related

Psychology is known as the science of behavior and mental process. In Greek psychology has been define as a study that will talk about the soul where, the psyche and logos is both an academic and applied discipline that involving the scientific study of mental process and behavior. In other terms, psychologies also know as a study of the thought processes and behavior of humans and other animals in their interaction with the environment. Psychologists study processes such as perception, cognition, emotion and motivations, personality, abnormal behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Its also refers to the application of knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including issues related to daily life, such as family,

Behavioral psychology is based on the concept of explaining behavior through observation. Behaviorists, psychologist that study behavior, believe a person can be understood through observing their behavior. This school of psychology assumes that we are born as a blank state and everyone is equal. However, environmental factors are what leads to us behaving differently from one another.

Study of behavior is an almost instinctual part of the human psyche. Learning how people behave and why, helps us learn what motivates us. Early behaviorists learned that they could study the overt behaviors of animals instead of trying to ask them questions to see what they were thinking (a highly unproductive

Behavior and the expression thereof is totally different in every single individual. To be able to rationalize human behavior, we need to look at the holistic person; as every individuals finger print, DNA, looks etc are all different in every scenario. Behavior is therefore the illusive part of the psychological discipline as it is the psychologist who claim to be the experts in this field.

The history of social psychology goes far back in time. “Aristotle believed that humans were naturally sociable, a necessity which allows us to live together.” (McLeod) Plato was also another influencer in social psychology by saying that “the state controlled by the individual and encouraged social responsibility through social context. (McLeod) Social psychology is the section of psychology that studies individuals in a social environment. It studies how people think and how they feel, and why they do the things they do. This field of psychology studies aggression, attitudes, group dynamics, discrimination, and perception. Being able to understand why social psychology is important and useful for many reasons. “First, we can better understand how groups impact our choices and actions.” (Cherry) Social psychology depends on scientific research to find theories of behavior. Through understanding this field of psychology, “we can better understand how groups impact our choices and actions.” (Cherry) In many cases, people behave and react differently based on the type of situation. A major factor of the reaction outcome are the “environmental and situational variables.” (Cherry) Some outside variables may include aggression, attraction, love, or altruism. Social psychology can be defined as connecting mental states alongside of human behavior in their social surroundings. Unlike a few fields of psychology, social theories are specific and centered on one topic rather than

Human behavior plays a role in one’s everyday life. Humans form an opinion about one another based upon behavior. When having a conversation with a person, it could be considered rude or thought to be hiding something if eye contact is not made. Behavior is not always the same throughout life, it can vary. Early childhood experiences, future expectations, and beliefs have the greatest impact on human behaviors.

Psychology is the science which helps to understand the human mind and behaviour. To understand properly, one needs to trust on scientific methods that would help in recognizing the aspects related to the behaviour and psychological processes going in the mind of an individual. Instead of just trusting on personal observations about the experiences that an individual faces, the process of scientific research is much more systematic as well as authentic while trying to assess the details about the field of psychology in a proper and efficient way (Armstrong, 2014). Observation is the core area that brings out a significant difference between the field of research and the field of study. The field of psychology is expanding and diversifying