PROLOGUE

psychology is connected to both the social sciences, such as history or economics, and the natural sciences, such as biology and chemistry. As a social science, psychology explores the influences of society on individual behavior and group relationships. As a natural science, psychology looks for biological explanations for human behavior.
THE EARLIEST EXPERIMENT IN PSYCHOLOGY IN SEVENTH CENTURY BC

A most unusual man, Psamtik I, King of Egypt. During his long reign, in the latter half of the seventh century B.C., he not only drove out the Assyrians, revived Egyptian art and architecture, and brought about general prosperity, but found time to conceive of and conduct historys first recorded experiment in psychology. The Egyptians had long believed that they were the most ancient race on earth, and Psamtik, driven by intellectual curiosity, wanted to prove that flattering belief. Like a good psychologist, he began with a hypothesis: If children had no opportunity to learn a language from older people around them,they would spontaneously speak the primal, inborn language of humankindthe natural language of its most ancient peoplewhich, he expected to show, was Egyptian. To test his hypothesis, Psamtik commandeered two infants of a lower-class mother and turned them over to a herdsman to bring up in a remote area. They were to be kept in a sequestered cottage, properly fed and cared for, but were never to hear anyone speak so much as a word. The Greek historian Herodotus, who tracked the story down and learned what he calls the real facts from priests of Hephaestus in Memphis, says that Psamtiks goal was to know, after the indistinct babblings of infancy were over, what word they would first articulate. The experiment, he tells us, worked. One day, when the children were two years old, they ran up to the herdsman as he opened the door of their cottage and cried out Becos! Since this meant nothing to him, he paid no attention, but when it happened repeatedly, he sent word to Psamtik, who at once ordered the children brought to him. When he too heard them say it, Psamtik made inquiries and learned that becos was the Phrygian word for bread. He concluded that, disappointingly, the Phrygians were an older race than the Egyptians. Psamtiks hypothesis rested on an invalid assumption, and he apparently mistook a babbled sound for an actual word. Yet we must admire him for trying to prove his hypothesis and for having the highly original notion that thoughts arise in the mind through internal processes that can be investigated

Why do people act and think the way they do? Why do people act differently in groups than they do when they are alone? How do we know what behavior is normal and abnormal?

Studying psychology will help you understand your own behavior. You will learn that you share behaviors with others. You will also learn that human behavior is very complex. Your behavior is unique to you. No one else behaves exactly like you do.

Physical needs such as food and sleep are known as physiological needs. Cognitive needs cannot be seen. They are needs that take place in our minds. Cognitive needs may be just as strong as physical needs. These two types of needs motivate human behavior.

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior. Psychologists study both human and animal behavior. Some psychologists study only behaviors that can be observed. Others study behavior that cannot be observed such as feelings, thoughts, and motives.

Aristotle (c 384-322 BC), a student of Plato, distinguished three functions of the soul-the vegetative,concerned with basic maintenance of life; the appetitive,concerned with motives and desires; and the rational, the governing function located in the heart. The brain merely performs minor mechanical processes as a gland.

PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology is a fascinating and diverse field of study. There are one hundred and ninety-three species of monkeys and apes. One-hundred and ninety-two of them are covered with hair. The exception is the naked ape self-named, homo-sapiens. Desmond Morris
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Human beings, the homo sapiens, are the most developed organisms among all creatures on this earth. Their ability to walk upright, larger brain size relative to body weight, and the proportion of specialized brain tissues make them distinct from other species. These features have evolved through millions of years and have enabled them to engage in several complex behaviors. Scientists have attempted to study the relationship of complex human behavior with the processes of the nervous system, particularly of the brain. They have tried to discover the neural basis of thoughts, feelings, and actions. By understanding the biological aspects of human beings, you will be able to appreciate how brain, environment and behavior interact to generate unique forms of behavior.

FIVE CATEGORIES OF HUMAN NATURE

Consciousness. What place is given in the theory to the fact that human beings are aware ? Plainly any author who takes the view that human freedom is real will give a central place to consciousness, whereas theorists who emphasise the determining role of society or biology may either downplay individual awareness or try to show that a particular personal outlook is the result of societal or biological processes and is not to be regarded as primary. The self. The importance of identity, selfhood, or the person's awareness of his or her own characteristics is a second key question. Many social theorists regard selfhood as merely a product of the individual's place within the multifaceted structure of their society. Indeed, it is often argued that cultures vary in whether the self has much meaning at all in the face of the whole collectivity. A different line of argument is that, in coming to an awareness of self, we begin to have access to some degree of choice of what kind of person we wish to be. The body. Biological science can be expected to stress the body as the place where various causal factors interact and lead the person to act and think in the way they do. Yet there is a sociology of the body, and theories may very well stress the way in which social and historical circumstances come to dictate the person's view of their own body. Maybe, then, the body is best thought of as a social construction rather than that definite object which biological scientists claim to be describing. Other people. We will find that, at many points on the spectrum between biological science and social theory, authors try to express the inseparability of the individual and the collectivity. Biologists note that human evolution has always been in the context of an ecology which includes, as a major part, other people. So the individual's developing mental life 'presupposes' other people. Sociologists take the individual to be an intrinsic part of the culture, with the result that the person owes their 'individual psychology' to the influence of other members of the collectivity. The physical world. Perhaps less obvious than the earlier questions, but equally important, is the issue of how the person's relation to the physical world is theorised. For Skinner, the person has no distinct reality and must be viewed as just one element in the web of causes and effects which constitutes the objective world as a whole. At the other extreme, the 'objective world' is itself a human construction. In other cultures (or simply in other people's mental life, as a result of their biography) the world is a very different place.

Three Levels of Analysis in Psychology

The areas we might explore to answer questions about some ones successhis coordination and focus, his beliefs and attitudes, his relationships with his parents and his audiencecan be understood in terms of three types of events, each of which provides a field for analysis. In humans, the mechanism is the brain and all of the biological factors that affect it. At this level of the brain, psychologists consider not only the activity of the brain but also the structure and properties of the organ itselfbrain cells and their connections, the chemical soup in which they exist (including the hormones that alter the way the brain operates), and the genes that give rise to them. At the next level, consider how we use the information that our brains store and process. At this level of the person, psychologists focus on the content of mental processes, not just the internal mechanics that are the focus at the level of the brain. Unlike the level of the brain, we no longer talk about the characteristics of brain areas or how they operate to process information; rather, we talk about mental con-tents such as beliefs (including ideas, explanations, expectations), desires (such as hopes, goals, needs), and feelings (fears, guilts, attractions, and the like). We all live in social environments that vary over time and space and that are populated by our friends and professors, our parents, the other viewers in a movie theater, the other drivers on a busy highway. Our lives are intertwined with other peoples lives, and from birth to old age, we take our cues from other people around us. The relationships that arise within groups make them more than simply collections of individuals. Psychologists not only study isolated individuals, but also investigate the mental processes and behavior of members of groups. Members of street gangs and political parties both have distinct identities based on shared beliefs and practices that are passed on to new members as culture, which has been defined as the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next (Henslin, 1999). Thus, at the level of the group, psychologists consider the ways that collections of people (as few as two, as many as a society) shape individual mental processes and behavior. Events that occur at every level of analysisbrain, person, and groupare intimately tied to conditions in the physical world. All our mental processes and behaviors take place within and are influenced by a specific physical environment.

AREAS OF PSYCHOLOGY

HUMANS AND ANIMAL Behavior is defined as any observable or measureable response by a person or animal. The definition of psychology includes the study of all behavior, including both animal and human behavior. HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT One of the questions psychology attempts to answer is whether behavior occurs as a result of inherited characteristics (hereditary influences) or because of some effect of learning (environmental influences). CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIUOS Behavior is often the product of a consciuos choice. Some behaviors, however, may result from motives that are below a level of awareness. Many theorists refer to these motives as unconsciuos. Both conscious and unconscious motives may lead to responses, and psychology therfore studies both. NORMAL AND ABNORMAL Psychology studies both normal and abnormal behavior. It is often difficult to decide whether a behavior or thought pattern should be classified as normal or abnormal. The criteria used to make this decision include the level of distress or disability being experienced how maladaptive, disruptive, or harmful the behavior is for the person or for society. Decisions of this nature may depend on the specific charecteristics of the individual or the culture in which the individual resides. AGE RANGE Psychology studies behavoir over the entire life span. Indeed, because behavour may depend on hereditary charecteristics as well as learning, psychologists are concerned with the individual from the moment of conception until death.

Theoretical perspectives of psychology

There are many disciplines that study human nature. Psychology is one. Within psychology, the biological, behavioral, psychoanalytic, cognitive and social- cultural perspectives are complementary. Each has its own purposes, questions, and limits; together they provide a fuller understanding of mind and behavior. We are all interested in how people act. Not only do we want to know what is happening; quite frequently we want to know why. Although these questions often are answered in a rather loose or undisciplined fashion, a more rigorous body of knowledge concerning behavior has developed. This body of knowledge is called PSYCHOLOGY. There is a vast field of knowledge in the realm of psychology. The knowledge of imagination and of imagination turning into thought, the knowledge of feeling and of feeling turning into emotion, the knowledge of passion and of passion turning into expression, the knowledge of impulse and its outlet, the knowledge of attraction and its contrary effect, the knowledge of the origin and source of sympathy and antipathy all these belong to psychology. Thus psychology is a knowledge of perceptible things, yet not of solid things that one can touch, and that is why it is more difficult to explain the laws of psychology in words than the laws of material science.

What Makes Us Human

There are at least as many answers to this provocative and searching question as there are authors of this compendium. In the various articles you will find suggestions that include the spirit of man, referring particularly to religion, speech and not just language, imitation and mimetics, cooking, high levels of cognitive ability, causal belief, that humans are symbolic creatures, innate curiosity and the desire to know, mental time travel, and the ability to read others minds. These all have cognitive ability as a common thread and, deriving from this, high-level development of language and cultural transmission.
Genetic differences

For a biologist, who is a geneticist interested in evolution, the obvious explanation for what makes us human must lie within the genetic difference that distinguish Homo sapiens from other species, especially chimpanzees. The data now available on DNA sequences of many species, including the complete DNA sequences of humans, chimpanzees, and several other mammalian species, already are enough to place Homo sapiens in the chimpanzee family, and separated even from the other great apes.
Cognitive abilities

As It is already pointed out, a huge increase in cognitive ability is the most obvious underlying common feature to almost all the attributes that have been suggested to make us human. These include, in particular, language and speech which have enabled a considerable increase in the rate and efficiency of cultural evolution. Paleontological data clearly suggest that increasing brain size has been a major feature of the evolution of the human brain. However, it is clear that while an increase in brain size may be a necessary requirement for increase in cognitive abilities, it is not sufficient. There must be many increases in the complexity of brain function, at the level of cellular changes and interconnections, that have made the ultimate increase in cognitive abilities possible. A persuasive argument, that cooking is unique to humans, It is just one of the many consequences of increased cognitive ability. The ability to cook follows from the discovery of how to make fire. Darwin argued that The art of making fire ... is probably the greatest discovery, excepting language, ever made by man (Darwin 1871 Humans unlike other primates have a belief in physical

cause and effect which enables the acquisition of new interactions and led to technology just seems to me to be another facet of this higher level of cognitive ability in humans as compared to chimpanzees.
A matter of degree and combinations

Innate curiosity is Charles Pasternaks choice for a unique human attribute. But, as he himself admits, there is innate curiosity in animals, but not to the same extent. He suggests a combination of four inherited attributes that makes humans unique: 1. 2. 3. 4. Bipedalism freeing the hands for other uses Flexible thumb a corollary of bi-pedalism Voice box for speech Increased brain size

The appeal to an unknown phenomenon: religion and Reductionism

The complexity of the human organism and its cognitive ability, reflected in the gap between the understanding of the mind as compared to the brain, leads to a natural tendency to appeal to unknown phenomena as a form of explanation. For some, this is expressed in the form of spiritualism and religious beliefs, and the mind-brain distinction is paralleled by that between soul and body. Others may argue that some as yet unknown, but perhaps eventually knowable, phenomenon will provide the nexus between mind and brain, and so explain the nature of consciousness.

IS PSYCHOLOGY IMPORTANT? The growth of the human mind is still high adventure, in many ways the highest adventure on earth. Norman Cousins
Why psychology fascinates? One reason is that psychology is practical. It offers a vast store of information about issues that concern everyone. These issues range from broad social questions, such as how to reduce the incidence of mental illness, to highly personal questions, such as how to improve your selfcontrol. In a sense, psychology is about you and me. Its about life in our modern world. Scientific thinking is a hallmark intellectual achievement of the human species. Science involves myriad cognitive and intellectual processes, including abstract and symbolic thought; reasoning and logic; pattern recognition; planning; problem solving; creativity; hypothesis testing; mathematical, analytical, and spatial reasoning; intuitive hunches; chance associations; and the art of coherent and cogent verbal expression and persuasion, to mention but a few of its qualities. Science is first and foremost a cognitive activity of the highest order. Scientists also think and behave in social contexts; have particular talents and aptitudes; grow up in specific households with particular family structures and influences; have unique personalities that make scientific thought and behavior more rather than less likely; and are motivated by curiosity, intrinsic pleasure of discovery, and the triumph of figuring out how things work. That is, scientific behavior, interest, talent, and achievement stem from basic topics of focus in the field of psychology. Psychological principles are at work with all scientific thought and behavior. Simply put, there is a psychology behind science. The guiding assumption behind the psychology of science is that a complete understanding of scientific thought and behavior requires a psychological perspective. As one prominent psychologist of science, Dean Keith Simonton, wrote in Scientific Genius: Without the addition of a psychological dimension, I believe, it is impossible to appreciate fully the essence of the scientific imagination. And without this appreciation, the origins of science, the emergence of new ideas about natural phenomena, must escape our grasp. Psychology is mandatory if we wish to comprehend the scientific genius as the generator of science. This is what the psychology of

science is all about: to understand scientific thought and behavior we must apply the best theoretical and empirical tools available to psychologists. And what psychology has to offer the studies of science is indeed unique. For instance, only psychologists of science bring the experimental method (that is, random assignment of participants to conditions and manipulation of an independent variable) to the study of scientific thought and behavior. Also, in contrast to the history and philosophy of science and in common with the sociology of science, psychology tests hypotheses by means of statistical analysis of data. In addition to the experimental technique and hypothesis testing, psychology can borrow from historians and examine case studies and apply principles of behavior gleaned from the laboratory to the analysis of great figures in science. Consider the case history of one of the best-known and most influential scientists of all time, Charles Darwin. In The Descent of Man he wrote: I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit . . . my power to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought is very limited . . . [but] I am superior to the common run of men in noticing things which easily escape attention, and in observing them carefully. Darwins own self-evaluation of his strengths and weaknesses gives a glimpse into his own self-conceptclearly a psychological concept. Moreover, ability with abstract thought, attention, and focus on details are very much psychological in nature; cognitive psychologists among others have much to say about these aptitudes. What precisely is the association between Darwins life and personality and his science? To a psychologist of science it is obvious that scientific thought and behavior are the outcomes of a persons cognitive style and aptitudes; affective, motivational, and developmental histories and proclivities; and their unique and stable personality traits and social influences. These topics, after all, are the bread and butter of current psychological inquiry and psychological science. And given the importance and uniqueness of scientific thinking and behavior over the course of history, one would think that a large number of psychologists would have long ago systematically applied their theories and empirical methods to understanding science. I ask the questions Why do humansand no other speciesdo science? and How did we go from Australopithecus (non-homo hominid species) to early Homo (for example, habilis, erectus, and neanderthalensis) to living in a world of high-energy subatomic particle physics, sequencing the entire human genome, being able to send space craft out of our solar system, and having machines that can outplay any human in the world in chess?.

Of course, an evolutionary perspective takes us on a journey that is not specific to science and scientific thinking, but rather on a journey that explores the modern human mind in general. Symbolic, abstract thought, language, literature, art, music, and other pinnacles of human cognitive and aesthetic capacities are also unique expressions of the modern human mind. If I have done my job, then youthe readerwill come away convinced that psychological research and theory add a crucial and even necessary perspective to our understanding of the scientific mind, and that other studies of science can no longer turn a deaf ear to what psychologists of science have learned. Psychologists of science now know too much about the nature of scientific thinking, the developmental origins of theory construction, scientific personality, scientific motivation, scientific interests, and scientific creativity and achievement for these insights not to be integrated and synthesized in one place. Science is a fascinating accomplishment of the human

mind, and so, too, is the psychology of science.

DEFINITION Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes . Human or Animal Behavior is overt, manifest, obvious, and easy to study; the mental processes that help carryout these behaviors are covert, underlying, hidden, and not easy to study. Besides behavior, what causes these behaviors to occur and the mental processes involved in it is an important area of interest for a psychologist.

Psychology is the systematic, scientific study of behaviours and mental processes. Behaviour refers to observable actions or responses in both humans and animals. Behaviours include eating, speaking,laughing,running,reading,and sleeping etc., Mental Processess, which are not directly observable, refer to a wide range of complex processes, such as thinking, imagining, studying, and dreaming etc.,

Psychology essentially has two main goals.

The first is to build a body of knowledge about people. Psychologists seek to understand behavior when it happens, explain why it happens, and even predict it before it happens. Two aspects of psychology are important in achieving this goal: the conduct of psychological research and the creation of theoretical models of behavior. Research and theory go hand in hand in psychology.

Description :

(WHAT IS HAPPENING )

This is to describe the different ways that organism behaves. In a psychological study, we attempt to describe a behaviour or a phenomenon as accurately as possible. This helps in distinguishing a particular behavior from other behaviours. For example, the researcher may be interested in observing study habits among students. Study habits may consist of diverse range of behaviours, such as attending all your classes regularly, submitting assignments on time, planning your study schedule, studying according to the set schedule, revising your work on a daily basis etc. Within a particular category there may be further minute descriptions. The researcher needs to describe her/his meaning of study habits. The description requires recording of a particular behaviour which helps in its proper understanding. Explanation : ( WHY IT IS HAPPENING) After describing behavoiur, psychologists explain behavior or the causes of the behavior or to know the causal factors or determinants of behavior. Psychologists are primarily interested in knowing the factors that make behaviour occur. Also, what are the conditions under which a particular behavior does not occur. For example, what makes some children more attentive in the class? Why some children devote less time for study as compared to others? Thus, this goal is concerned with identifying the determinants or antecedent conditions (i.e. conditions that led to the particular behaviour) of the behaviour being studied so that cause-effect relationship between two variables (objects) or events could be established.

Prediction :

(WILL IT HAPPEN AGAIN)

Being able to describe and explain behavior psychologists then are able to predict behavior. If you are able to understand and describe the behavior accurately, you come to know the relationship of a particular behaviour with other types of behaviours, events, or phenomena. You can then forecast that

under certain conditions this particular behaviour may occur within a certain margin of error. For example, on the basis of study, a researcher is able to establish a positive relationship between the amount of study time and achievement in different subjects. Later, if you come to know that a particular child devotes more time for study, you can predict that the child is likely to get good marks in the examination. Prediction becomes more accurate with the increase in the number of persons observed Control : (HOW CAN IT BE CHANGED) Psychologists can predict behavior, then theyoften control behavior. If you are able to explain why a particular behaviour occurs, you can control that behaviour by making changes in its antecedent conditions. Control refers to three things: making a particular behaviour happen, reducing it, or enhancing it. For example, you can allow the number of hours devoted to study to be the same, or you can reduce them or there may be an increase in the study hours. The change brought about in behaviour by psychological treatment in terms of therapy in persons, is a good example of control. However, the idea of control has both positive and negative sides. The positive side is that psychologists can help people learn to control undesirable behaviours by teaching better methods of self-control and ways to deal with situations and relationships. The negative side is the concern that psychologists might control peoples behaviours without their knowledge or consent. Because many behaviours, are enormously complex, psychologists use a combination of different approaches to reach these goals of describe, explain, predicting, and controlling behavior.

The second goal of psychology involves taking that body of knowledge and applying it to intervene in peoples lives, hopefully to make those lives better. Psychologists perform various important roles in pursuit of this goal: as therapists for individuals, families, and groups; as counselors in schools, universities, churches, and other community organizations; as trainers in businesses and work organizations; and as consultants for police, lawyers, courts, sport organizations, athletes, and teams. Psychologists work on the front lines, dealing directly with people to affect their lives in a positive fashion. The two goals of psychologycreating a body of knowledge and applying that knowledgeare not mutually exclusive. They share a close relationship, as well they should. Psychologists who are on the front lines do not work in a vacuum; they take what psychology as a field has collectively learned about human behavior and use that knowledge as a basis for their applications and interventions. This learning initially comes in the form of academic training of counselors, therapists, and consultants as they achieve academic degrees .

Application : The final goal of the scientific enquiry is to bring out positive changes in the lives of people. Psychological research is conducted to solve problems in various settings. Because of these efforts the quality of life of people is a major concern of psychologists.

APPROACHES OF PSYCHOLOGY

An approach refers to a focus or perspective, which may use a particular research method or technique. There are SEVEN approaches recognized to understanding behavior 1. BIOLOGICAL This approach focuses on how our genes, hormones, and nervous system interact with our environments to influence learning, personality, memory, motivation, emotions, and coping techniques. 2. COGNITIVE This approach examines how we process, store, and use information and how this information influences what we attend to, perceive, learn, remember, behave,and feel. 3. BEHAVIOURAL This approach studies how organism learn new behaviours or modify existing ones,depending on whether events in their environments reward or punish these behaviours. 4. PSYCHOANALYTIC This approach stresses the influence of unconscious fears, desires, and motivations on thoughts, behaviours, and the development of personality traits and psychological problems later in life. 5. HUMANISTIC Emphasizes that each individual has great freedom in directing his or her future, a large capacity for personal growth, a considerable amount of intrinsic worth, and enormous potential for self-fulfillment 6. CROSS-CULTURAL Examines the influence of cultural and ethnic similarities and differences on the psychologica and social functioning of a cultures members. 7. THE EVOLUTIONARY The most recent modern approach to psychology emerges out of evolutionary theory and is called the evolutionary approach. It Studies how evolutionary ideas, such as adaptatio and natural selection, explain human behaviors and mental processes. Although the evolutionary approach is relatively new, research has already examined how evolution influences a variety of behaviors and mental processes, such as aggression, mate selection, fears, depression, and decision making.

BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY

Various fields of specialisation in psychology have emerged over the years. Some of these are discussed in this section. Cognitive Psychology
Whats the best way to learn new information? Do men and women think differently?

HOW DO PEOPLE KNOW THINGS? If these questions interest you, think about being a cognitive psychologist. Cognitive psychology involves how we process, store, and retrieve information and how cognitive processes influence our behaviors. Cognitive research includes memory, thinking, language, creativity, and decision making. Earlier we discussed a relatively new area that combines cognitive and biological approaches and is called cognitive neuroscience. Cognitive Psychology investigates mental processes involved in acquisition, storage, manipulation, and transformation of information received from the environment along with its use and communication. The major cognitive processes are attention, perception, memory, reasoning, problem solving, decision-making and language. In order to study these cognitive processes, psychologists conduct experiments in laboratory settings. Some of them also follow an ecological approach, i.e. an approach which focuses on the environmental factors, to study cognitive processes in a natural setting. Cognitive psychologists often collaborate with neuroscientists and computer scientists. Biological Psychology
How do brain cells change during Alzhei mers disease? How do genes affect your intelligence?

Biological Psychology focuses on the relationship between behaviour and the physical system, including the brain and the rest of the nervous system, the immune system, and genetics. Biological psychologists often collaborate with neuroscientists, zoologists, and anthropologists. Biological psychology or

psychobiology involves research on the physical and chemical changes that occur during stress, learning, and emotions, as well as how our genetic makeup, brain, and nervous system interact with our environments and influence our behaviors. Physiological psychologists or psychobiologists study the biological basis of learning and memory; the effects of brain damage; the causes of sleep and wakefulness; the basis of hunger, thirst, and sex; the effects of stress on the body; and the ways in which drugs influence behavior. Neuropsychology has emerged as a field of research where psychologists and neuroscientists are working together. Researchers are studying the role of neurotransmitters or chemical substances which are responsible for neural communication in different areas of the brain and therefore in associated mental functions. They do their research on people with normal functioning brain as well as on people with damaged brain by following advanced technologies like EEG, PET and fMRI, etc. about which you will study later. Experimental
Why does an animal press a bar to obtain food? Can learning principles be used to discipline children?

Tese kinds of questions interest experimental psychologists. Experimental psychology includes the areas of sensation, perception, learning, human performance, motivation, and emotion. Developmental Psychology
Why do some babies cry more than others? What happens to our sex drive as we age? Developmental pschology examines moral, social, emotional, and cognitive development throughout a persons entire life.

Developmental psychology studies the physical, social and psychological changes that occur at different ages and stages over a life-span, from conception to old age. The primary concern of developmental psychologists is how we become what we are. For many years the major emphasis was on child and adolescent development. However today an increasing number of developmental psychologists show strong interest in adult development and ageing. They focus on the biological, socio-cultural and environmental factors that influence psychological characteristics such as intelligence, cognition, emotion, temperament, morality, and social relationship. Developmental psychologists collaborate with anthropologists, educationists, neurologists, social workers, counsellors and almost every branch of knowledge where there is a concern for growth and development of a human being.

Social Psychology
How does being in a group affect ones behavior? How can people make a good impression on others? Social psychology involves the study of social interactions, stereotypes, prejudices, attitudes, conformity, group behaviors, aggression, and attraction.

Social psychology explores how people are affected by their social environments, how people think about and influence others. Social psychologists are interested in such topics as attitudes, conformity and obedience to authority, interpersonal attraction, helpful behaviour, prejudice, aggression, social motivation, inter-group relations and so on. Cross-cultural and Cultural Psychology examines the role of culture in understanding behaviour, thought, and emotion. It assumes that human behaviour is not only a reflection of human-biological potential but also a product of culture. Therefore behaviour should be studied in its socio-cultural context. As you will be studying in different chapters of this book, culture influences human behaviour in many ways and in varying degrees. Environmental Psychology studies the interaction of physical factors such as temperature, humidity, pollution, and natural disasters on human behaviour. The influence of physical arrangement of the workplace on health, the emotional state, and interpersonal relations are also investigated. Current topics of research in this field are the extent to which, disposal of waste, population explosion, conservation of energy, efficient use of community resources are associated with and are functions of human behaviour. Health Psychology focuses on the role of psychological factors (for example, stress, anxiety) in the development, prevention and treatment of illness. Areas of interest for a health psychologist are stress and coping, the relationship between psychological factors and health, patient-doctor relationship and ways of promoting health enhancing factors.

Industrial/Organisational Psychology
How can we increase the productivity of workers? How can we select employees who will be successful?

If you have an interest in psychology and business, you may wish to consider becoming an industrial/organizational psychologist. Industrial/organizational psychology examines the relationships of people and their work environments. Industrial/Organisational Psychology deals with workplace behaviour, focusing on both the workers and the organisations that employ them. Industrial/organisational psychologists are concerned with training employees, improving work conditions, and developing criteria for selecting employees. For example, an organisational psychologist might recommend that a company may adopt a new management structure that would increase communication between managers and staff. The background of industrial and organisational psychologists often includes training in cognitive and social psychology. Clinical and Counselling Psychology
Which type of therapy is most effective? How do people develop phobias?

You would be asking these kinds of questions if you were a clinical or counseling psychologist. Clinical and counseling psychology includes the assessment and treatment of people with psychological problems, such as grief, anxiety, or stress. Clinical and counseling psychology deals with causes, treatment and prevention of different types of psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders and chronic substance abuse. A related area is counselling, which aims to improve everyday functioning by helping people solve problems in daily living and cope more effectively with challenging situations. The work of clinical psychologists does not differ from that of counselling psychologists although a counselling psychologist sometimes deals with people who have less serious problems. In many instances, counselling psychologists work with students, advising them about personal problems and career planning. Like clinical psychologists, psychiatrists also study the causes, treatment, and prevention of psychological disorders. How are clinical psychologists and psychiatrists different? A clinical psychologist has a degree in psychology, which includes intensive training in treating people with

psychological disorders. In contrast, a psychiatrist has a medical degree with years of specialised training in the treatment of psychological disorders. One important distinction is that psychiatrists can prescribe medications and give electroshock treatments whereas clinical psychologist cannot.

Educational Psychology studies how people of all ages learn. Educational psychologists primarily help develop instructional methods and materials used to train people in both educational and work settings. They are also concerned with research on issues of relevance for education, counselling and learning problems. A related field, school psychology, focuses on designing programmes that promote intellectual, social, and emotional development of children, including those with special needs. They try to apply knowledge of psychology in a school setting. Psychometrics
What do college entrance tests show? What career best fits my abilities? Tese questions introduce an area called psychometrics, which involves the construction, administration, and interpretation of psychological tests. Psychometrics focuses on the measurement of peoples abilities, skills, intelligence, personality, and abnormal behaviors.

Sports Psychology applies psychological principles to improve sports performance by enhancing their motivation. Sports psychology is a relatively new field but is gaining acceptance worldwide.

PSYCHOLOGISTS AT WORK

Psychologists today work in a variety of settings where they can apply psychological principles for teaching and training people to cope effectively with the problems of their lives. Often referred to as human service areas they include clinical counselling, community, school and organisational psychology. Clinical psychologists specialise in helping clients with behavioural problems by providing therapy for various mental disorders and in cases of anxiety or fear, or with stresses at home or at work. They work either as private practitioners or at hospitals, mental institutions, or with social agencies. They may be involved in conducting interviews and administering psychological tests to diagnose the clients problems, and use psychological methods for their treatment and rehabilitation. Job opportunities in clinical psychology attract quite a few to this field of psychology. Counselling psychologists work with persons who suffer from motivational and emotional problems. The problems of their clients are less serious than those of the clinical psychologists. A counseling psychologist may be involved in vocational rehabilitation programmes, or helping persons in making professional choices or in adjusting to new and difficult situations of life. Counselling psychologists work for public agencies such as mental health centres, hospitals, schools, colleges and universities. Community psychologists generally focus on problems related to community mental health. They work for mental health agencies, private organisations and state governments. They help the community and its institutions in addressing physical and mental health problems. In rural areas they may work to establish a mental health centre. In urban areas they may design a drug rehabilitation programme. Many community psychologists also work with special populations such as the elderly or the physically or mentally challenged. Besides the redirection and evaluation of various programmes and plans, community based rehabilitation (CBR) is of major interest to community psychologists. School psychologists work in educational systems, and their roles vary according to the levels of their training. For example, some school psychologists only administer tests, whereas others also interpret test results to help students with their problems. They also help in the formulation of school policies. They facilitate communication between parents, teachers and administrators, and also provide teachers and parents with information about the academic progress of a student.

Organisational psychologists render valuable help in dealing with problems that the executives and employees of an organisation tend to face in their respective roles. They provide organisations with consultancy services and organise skill training programmes in order to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness. Some organisational psychologists specialise in Human Resource Development (HRD), while others in Organisational Development and Change Management programmes.

Types of Psychology
Academic
Abnormal psychology Biological psychology Cognitive psychology Developmental psychology History of psychology Personality psychology Psychological Testing Social psychology

Professional
Clinical psychology Counseling psychology Educational psychology Forensic psychology

Health psychology Occupational psychology Sports psychology

Popular
Child psychology Evolutionary psychology Military psychology Paranormal psychology Political Psychology Positive psychology Prison psychology Psychology of Music Psychology of Risk Transpersonal psychology

What Psychologists Do
Clinical psychologist Administers and interprets psychological tests; provides psychotherapy. Clinical neuropsychologist Diagnoses effects of brain damage on thoughts, feelings, and behavior, and diagnoses the locus of damage. Counseling psychologist Helps people with issues that arise during everyday life (career, marriage, family, work). Developmental psychologist Researches and teaches the development of mental processes and behavior with age and experience. Cognitive psychologist Researches and teaches the nature of thinking, memory, and related aspects of mental processes. Social psychologist Researches and teaches how people think and feel about themselves and other people, and how groups function. Personality psychologist Researches and teaches individual differences in preferences and inclinations. Physiological psychologist Researches and teaches the nature of the brain and brain/body interactions. Human factors psychologist Applies psychology to improve products. Industrial/organizational psychologist Applies psychology in the workplace. Sport psychologist Applies psychology to improve athletic performance. Educational or school psychologist Applies psychology to improve cognitive, emotional, and social development of schoolchildren.

Behavior has three aspects

Cognitive processes refer to what an individual thinks. Emotional states refer to what an individual feels. Actions refer to what an individual does. Three spheres of Psychic activity: Cognitive sphere sensation, perception, imagination, memory, attention, thinking, intellect. Emotional sphere emotional states, relations, and reactions. Motivational sphere wishes, attractions, wills, motives, action, behavior, and activity.

Know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves, otherwise we never shall. Socrates

Knowing ourselves is a very complicated process. This process starts from:

1.Sensation
Making Contact with the World around Us The Raw Materials of Understanding Have you ever wondered why certain smells trigger vivid memories? Why the moon looks larger on the horizon than when it is directly overhead? The mystery of how we sense and interpret events in our environment constitutes one of the oldest areas of study in psychology. Sensation: Input about the physical world provided by our sensory receptors. The study of sensation is concerned with the initial contact between organisms and their physical environment. It focuses on describing the relationship between various forms of sensory stimulation (including electromagnetic and sound waves and physical pressure) and how these inputs are registered by our sense organs (the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin).

2.Perception: The Focus of Our Attention The way we interpret sensations and organize them into meaningful experiences is called perception. The process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting stimuli; it includes identification, recognition, and images of the stimulus in question; previous experiences have a role to play in it.

3.States of Consciousness Do you feel more alert and energetic in the morning or in the evening? Have you ever daydreamed while another person was talking to you so that when they were finished, you had no idea what they had said? Have you ever stood in front of a mirror brushing your teeth while your thoughts were far away? If so, you already know that every day, we all experience different states of consciousnessvarying levels of awareness of our internal states and the world around us. And when we go to sleep at night (perhaps to dream) or take some drug that affects the way we feel, these changes in consciousness are even more dramatic in scope. Being familiar with these shifts, however, doesnt necessarily help us understand them. Can we really do two or more things at the same time? What happens when we fall asleep? What, precisely, are dreams, and do they have any meaning? How do various drugs affect our emotions, perceptions, and cognition?
We all experience different states of consciousness varying levels of awareness of our internal states and the world around us.

4.Learning How We are Changed by Experience Is it possible to locate precisely where learning takes place in the brain? Does watching violence on television cause children to perform violent acts? The learning process is crucial to all organisms, including people, since it helps us adapt to changing conditions in the world around us. Specifically, they define learning as any relatively permanent change in behavior, or behavior potential, produced by experience.

5. Memory Of Things Remembered . . . and Forgotten Can you remember your first day on campus? Your most recent visit to the dentist? The teachers you had in grade school? Although these events and people date back months or even years, you can probably bring vivid images of them to mind. Similarly, have you ever had problems finding your car after parking it at a shopping mall or forgotten someones name minutes after being introduced to the person? Experiences like this indicate that memoryour cognitive system for storing and retrieving informationis indeed, as the saying goes, a funny thing. It allows us to retain vivid and often accurate memories of events for months, years, or even decades. Yet just when we need it most, it seems to let us down. Because it is clearly a crucial aspect of cognition, memory has long been a topic of study in psychology. 6.Cognition Thinking, Deciding, Communicating Why is it that some people are great thinkers, while others are merely average? What happens in the brain during thought? Do animals think? These and related questions have to do with cognitiona general term used to describe thinking and many other aspects of our higher mental processes. Where cognition is concerned, thinking and reasoning are only part of the picture. Have you ever agonized over an important decision, carefully weighing the advantages and disadvantages of potential alternatives? In all probability you have, perhaps in terms of selecting a college, choosing a major, or deciding between courses of action. To make the right decision you probably thought long and hard about the various alternatives; you tried to reason your way to a conclusion about their relative merits; and finally you made some sort of decision. We perform these activities many times each day, and in a variety of contexts. Cognition: The mental activities associated with thought, knowledge, and memory. THIS IS CALLED KNOWING OURSELVES THE END

THE ABOVE MATERIAL IS PREPARED FOR THE M.A. FINAL YEAR STUDENTS OF ANDHRA UNIVERSITY (DISTANCE MODE).