The Secret of Rich Dad

Introductory Psychology
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 What is Psychology? (Its meaning and Definition)

Psychology is the study of cognitions, emotions, and behavior. But defining the concept of
psychology is not as such an easy task. Throughout the history of psychology there have been a
lot of controversies among psychologists themselves concerning the very nature of psychology
and about the focus of the science.
 The Meaning of the word Psychology: the word ‘psychology’ is derived/originated

from two Greek words- ‘psyche’ and ‘logos.’ While ‘psyche’ refers to mind, soul or spirit,
‘logos’ means study of, knowledge or discourse. Therefore, according to this early representation
the term ‘psychology’ simply refers to the study of the mind, soul, or spirit and it is often
represented by - the Greek letter psi (‘sy’).
 Definition of Psychology: Most psychologists today would agree that ‘Psychology’ is
the scientific study of human and other animals’ behavior (both overt and covert). This definition
of the term Psychology has three elements:
i. Psychology is a science (the scientific study of)
The scientific study implies the use of systematic methods such as observation and
experimentation to gather information about human and animal behavior. Scientific method is a
systematic and organized series of steps that scientists adopt for exploring any phenomenon in
order to obtain accurate and consistent results. These steps involve observation, description,
control, and replication. Psychology’s methods are not casual. They are carefully and precisely
planned and conducted. Psychology doesn’t accept assumptions about human nature at face
value, however reasonable they may sound. It is a rigorous discipline that tests assumptions.
Therefore, as a science psychology obtains knowledge through systematic observation and
experimental methods. It uses scientific procedure that is essential to be adopted in order to carry
out psychological research. In addition, it describes, explains, predicts, and controls the
behaviors as any science does. Moreover, psychology relies up on the scientific assumptions
such as:
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 Order: the world is not random; rather it has regular patterns or order.
 Determinism: psychology tries to find the causes of human behavior.
 Empiricism: theories must be based on available evidences gathered through observation
 Parsimony: explanation of events should not go beyond the available evidences, and
should explanation as much of events as possible in the simplest way.
In addition to these, such scientific assumptions as: Measurability, Objectivity,
Replication, being systematic…etc are also applicable in psychological study.
ii. Psychology studies behavior (both covert and overt)
Psychology studies both overt behaviors and covert behaviors. Overt behaviors are those
behaviors that are measurable, observable or external actions like swimming, walking, crying,
laughing, speaking, various physical activities… etc. Covert behaviors are those behaviors which
include internal actions or reactions and mental activities (cognitions) such as feeling, thinking,
remembering, attitude, belief, imagination, perceiving, motives…etc which each of us
experience them subjectively (privately). These behaviors are not observable directly.
iii. Psychology studies both human and other animals’ behavior
The reasons why psychology deals with animal behavior are:

 The study of animal behavior helps to develop general laws of behavior that apply to all
organisms.
 The study of animal behavior provides important clues to answering questions about
human behavior.
 For its own sake. For example, for ethical reasons it is sometimes difficult to conduct
psychological experiments on human beings.
1.2 Goals of Psychology
As any other science psychology has also precise goal. Psychology tries to describe, explain,
and predict human behavior and mental processes. Moreover, it will help people change and/or
modify their bad behaviors and improve their lives by adjusting themselves with the world in
which they live. So, the following are the major goals of Psychology:
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A. Description: this first goal of psychology is all about the description of behaviors after
observing them thoroughly under various settings repeatedly. Through description the extent,
degree and type of the behavior observed will be described objectively.
B. Explanation – While descriptions come from observable data, psychologists must go beyond
what is obvious and explain their observations. In other words, psychologists will study why did
the subject do what he or she did? Why someone behave in certain way? In short, this goal of
psychology deals with understanding the cause of (factors) certain behavior.
C. Prediction – Once we know what happens (prediction), and why it happens (explanation), we
can begin to speculate what will happen in the future regarding human behavior. It is all about
forecasting the likely hood of certain behavior in the future. There’s an old saying, which very
often holds true: "the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior."
D. Controlling – Once we know what happens, why it happens and what is likely to happen in
the future, we can excerpt control over it. Under this goal of psychology issues such as
modifying, improving, managing, changing …etc of one’s behavior will be considered. For
instance, if we know you choose abusive partners (describe) because your father was abusive
(explain), we can assume you will choose another abusive partner (predict), and can therefore
intervene to change this negative behavior. Not only do psychologists attempt to control
behavior, they want to do so in a positive manner, they want to improve a person’s life, not make
it worse. This is not always the case, but it should always be the intention.
1.3 The Historical roots of Psychology- The beginnings of psychology as a science
As a separate discipline of study psychology has a recent history. However, the standard view
of psychology’s history is that it stretches back to ancient Greek philosophers before the 19 th
century. For examples, Plato and Aristotle tried to answer questions about personality types and
the relationship between the mind and body. Such questions are a part of psychology today but,
as we shall see, psychology uses rather different methods to answer the questions. Not only this
but also they (early Greek philosophers) raised many issues that are relevant to Psychology.
Socrates and Aristotle for instance urged us to know ourselves, to use logic to make inferences
about mind, and to systematically observe behavior. It was Aristotle who argued that an
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empirical approach, rather than dialogue, was the best route to knowledge. Direct observation
remains an important dimension of psychology today.
Moreover, for centuries philosophers enjoyed arguing and debating questions like these: How
do we acquire knowledge? Does information come to us through our senses and our experiences
with the environment, or is it born? However, these scholars of the past did not rely heavily on
empirical evidence. Often their observations were based simply on anecdotes or descriptions of
individual cases. Although such speculation fueled a great deal of intellectual passion, it didn’t
yield much in the way of concrete answers.
Not only them (early philosophers), but also others like: theologist, educators, physiologists,
experts in the medical area and other ordinary people tried to answer the above question
beginning from distant past. Based on this some argue that “Psychology has long past but short
history.” Of course, philosophy and physiology are considered to be the source of psychology.
Until the 19th century, psychology was not a formal discipline- did not stand by itself as a
separate field of study. Psychology, as a separate and independent discipline developed
(emerged) in the late 19th century when the German physiologist Wilhelm Wundt (1879)
established the 1st psychological laboratory at the University of Leipzig. He said, the mind need
to be studied scientifically and objectively and it should be psychology which studies the mind.
Hence, credit for the establishment of psychology as a science usually goes to Wilhelm Wundt
[VIL-helm-voont), who formally founded the first Psychological laboratory in 1879, in Leipzig,
Germany. With Wundt Psychology began as the science of mental life. His focus was on
understanding mental processes, focusing on inner sensations, feelings and thoughts.
Until the 1920’s, psychology remained as the science of mental life. From 1920’s to 1960’s,
American psychologists led by J.B. Watson refined psychology as the science of observable
behavior. They focused only on observable and measurable behavior. After the 1960’s,
psychology is considered to be concerned both with mental processes and external behavior.
During the first decades of psychology’s existence as a formal discipline (independent field of
study), psychologists came to hold quite different views about the nature of the mind and the best
ways to study it. About the same time fundamental questions were raised about what should be
studied in Psychology (the subject matter of psychology): Should Psychology be the study of the
mind, should it study Behavior, or should both mind and Behavior be included?
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Different influential psychologists of the time held quite different views on the nature of mind
and the proper subject matter for psychology. As a result Schools of Thought formed around
these leaders as their students adopted their ideas. These schools of thought are known as the
Schools of Psychology. Therefore, Schools of Psychology is a group of psychologists who held
similar view regarding the nature of mind, how to study it and the subject matter of psychology.
1.3.1 Early schools of Psychology

A. Structuralism
Perhaps, the most important contribution of the Leipzig lab was its students; they took ideas of
Wundt to universities around the world and popularized it. One of such students was Edward
Bradford Titchner who gave Wundt’s approach the name Structuralism. The goal of the
structuralists was to find out the units or elements which make up the mind. They thought that as
in chemistry, the first step in the study of the mind should be the description of the basic or
elementary units of sensation, image, and emotion, which compose the mind.
Structuralists hoped to analyze sensations, images and feelings (thinking that these are the
elements that make up the mind) into basic elements, much as a chemist might analyze water
into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Structuralists wanted to strip perception of its associations in
order to find the very atoms of thought. The main method used by the structuralists to discover
these elementary units of the mind was introspection. Introspection is a technique whereby
specially trained people carefully observe and analyze their own mental experiences. In this
method, subjects were trained to report their own sensations, mental images and emotional
reactions disregarding the meanings they had come to associate with that stimulus.
Although Wundt hoped that his methods would produce reliable, verifiable results, most
psychologists eventually rejected trained introspection as too subjective. But, Wundt still gets the
credit for initiating to make psychology a science.
B. Functionalism
Proponent psychologists of Functionalism such as William James, John Dewey, James R.

Angell and Harvey Carr emphasized the function or purpose of behavior and the mind.
Functionalists argued that our minds are characterized by a continuous flow of information
(stream of consciousness) about our experiences rather than by discrete components. Unlike
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structuralism- who study the elements of the mind they dealt with the functions of the mind and
behavior in adapting to the environment. They were interested in the fact that mind and Behavior
are adaptive- they enable an individual to adjust to a changing environment.
The functionalists did experiments on the ways in which learning, memory, problem
solving, and motivation help people and animals adapt to their environments. The inspiration for
this was partly attributed to the evolutionary theories of British Naturalist Charles Darwin. The
functionalists developed many research methods other than introspection, including
questionnaires, mental tests and objective descriptions of Behavior. The functionalists
emphasized on the causes and consequences of behavior. So, their main method was
experimentation.
C. Gestalt Psychology
This school of psychology was founded in Germany in the early 20th century by Max
Wertheimer and his colleagues Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler. These psychologists argued
that the mind is not made up of a combination of elements. The German word gestalt refers to
form, whole, shape, configuration, complete, general or pattern. Accordingly, the Gestalts
maintained that the mind should be thought of as resulting from the whole pattern of sensory
activity and the relationships and organizations with in this pattern.
In brief, the Gestalts acknowledged consciousness; they just refused to look at it in little pieces.
Unlike the Structuralism, Gestalt psychologist said the mind should be studied just as one entity.
They held the view stated as the whole is greater than the sum of its parts- a view that had a
particular impact on the study of perception. Their goal was to understand the phenomenon of
conscious experience in holistic terms and their subject matter was subjective experience with
emphasis on perception, memory and thinking.
D. Behaviorism
This school of psychology came into being with John B. Watson. Other proponents include E.
Thorndike and B.F. Skinner. For Watson, Psychology was the study of observable and
measurable behavior- and nothing more. As a science, they argue psychology should focus on
the behavior that can directly be observed, measured and recorded. They held the view that the
subject matter of psychology should be over behavior but not the covert ones. Moreover, they
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support the view of environmental determinism with respect to behavior. They argue observation
is the best method to study behavior.
E. Psychoanalysis
The founder of this Early School of Psychology is Sigmund Freud. While researchers in
Europe and America were working in their laboratories struggling to make psychology more
scientific, Sigmund Freud- an obscure neurologist was in his office listening to his patients’
reports of depression, nervousness and obsessive habits. Freud became convinced that many of
his patients’ symptoms had mental but not bodily (organic or physiological) causes. Their
distress, he concluded, was due to conflicts and emotional traumas that had occurred in early
childhood and that were too threatening to be remembered consciously.
According to Freud there are three levels of human consciousness (mind). These are:
Conscious (mental abilities that we are fully aware of), Preconscious (memories which we are
not currently remembered but easily and readily remember with minimum efforts) and
Unconscious (all life experiences that is forgotten and repressed or never remembered or
memorized).
Freud argued that conscious awareness is merely the tip of the mental iceberg. Beneath the
visible tip, he said, lies the unconscious part of the mind, containing hidden wishes, passions,
guilty secrets, unspeakable yearnings, and conflicts between desire and duty. We are not aware
of our unconscious urges and thoughts as we go blithely about our daily business, yet they make
themselves known- in dreams, slips of the tongue, apparent accidents, and even jokes. Freud’s
ideas evolved into a broad theory of personality and a method of personality and a method of
psychotherapy, both of which became known as Psychoanalysis. Freud believed that unlearned
biological instincts (contents of unconscious mind) influence the way individuals think, feel,
imagine, perceive and behave.
In general, according to S. Freud, it is the content of people’s unconscious mind that governs
their behavior. So, Freud argued that the subject matter of psychology should be the unconscious
mind of individuals.
The discourses made by the Structuralism, Gestalt Psychologist, and the Functionalism schools
of psychology have become part of the general store of psychological knowledge (unable to be
part of the modern perspective in psychology); i.e. these schools as such were vanished.
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Behaviorism and Psychoanalysis on the other hand are still in modified forms among the modern
(current) psychological perspectives.
1.3.2 Modern Perspectives of Psychology
Modern psychologists tend to examine human nature and behavior through several lenses.
These lenses that predominate psychology today are the biological, learning, cognitive, socio-
cultural, psychodynamic and humanistic perspectives. These perspectives hold various views
regarding human behavior, different assumptions about how the mind works and most important
they give different kinds of explanations on why people do what they do (why people behave the
way they do).
i. The Neurobiological Perspective
This perspective also called Biological Psychology, Physiological Psychology,

Psychobiology…etc focuses on how bodily events (functioning of the body) affect behavior,
feelings and thoughts. That is how one’s nervous system, brain, hormonal system and other
physiological activities (work) influence his/her behavior (the way he/she behave and think).
Psychologists have long recognized this fact and generally agree that understanding theses
biological roots is an essential component of the field. This perspective holds that an
understanding of the brain and the nervous system is central in the understanding of behavior,
thought and emotion.
ii. The Behaviorist Perspective

This is one of the Early School of Psychology which exists in the Modern Perspective of
Psychology. Their focus is on observable or covert and measurable behavior. Behaviorist called
themselves as Mechanistic. For behaviorists human beings are passive and reactive. They
emphasized the importance of the environment in shaping behavior (determinism). They rejected
the special nature of mental events; denying that unobservable and unverifiable mental events
were properly the subject matter of psychology. Behaviorists believed that because psychology is
the study of observable behaviors, mental events – which cannot be observed – are outside the
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realm of psychology. Behaviorism is thus the study of the relation between people’s
environments and their behavior; what occurs within their heads is irrelevant.
iii. Social-learning Perspective
One of the famous people in this regard is Albert Bandura who conducted a lot of research on
observational learning. They argued both the environment and one’s cognition play a great role
in shaping one’s behavior. Those favoring the Social-learning Perspective, combine elements of
behaviorism with research on thoughts, values, expectations and intentions. They believe that
people learn not only by adapting their behavior to the environment, but also by imitating others
and by thinking about the events happening around them. In other words, these theorists believe
that behavior is determined not only by its own controlling environmental conditions, but also by
how thought processes modify the impact of environment on behavior.
iv. The Cognitive Perspective

Cognitive refers to the way we process information mentally about the world around us. This
perspective emphasizes the mental processes involved in knowing: how we direct our attention,
how perceive, how we remember, and how we think and solve problems. One of this
perspective’s most important contributions has been to show how people’s thoughts and
explanations affect their actions, feelings and choices. The cognitive approach is one of the
strongest forces in psychology today, and it has inspired an explosion of research on the complex
workings of the mind.
v. The Socio-cultural Perspective

The socio-cultural perspective focuses on social and cultural forces outside the individual. It
emphasizes that culture, ethnicity, race, religion, norm, way of life and gender are essential in
understanding one’s behavior (both covert and overt). Most of us underestimate the impact of
other people, group affiliations, and cultural roles on our behavior. We are like fish that are
unaware they live in water; so obvious is water in their lives. Socio-cultural psychologists study
the water- the social and cultural environment that people “swim” in everyday.
Within this perspective, social psychologists focus on social rules and roles, how groups
affect attitudes and behavior, why people obey authority, and how other people- spouses, lovers,
friends, bosses, parents and strangers affect each of us. Cultural psychologists examine how
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cultural rules, norms and values- both explicit and unspoken- affect people’s development,
behavior and feelings.
vi. The Psychodynamic Perspective

This perspective is the extension of Psychoanalysis (one of the Early School of Psychology).
It emphasizes (as major factors that govern one’s behavior) the unconscious aspects of the mind,
conflict between biological instincts and society’s demands, and early family experiences. It
deals with unconscious dynamics within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts, or
instinctual energy. It has its origins in Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, but many other
psychodynamic theories exist. Psychodynamic psychologists try to dig below the surface of a
person’s behavior to get to its unconscious motives; they think of themselves as archaeologists of
the mind.
vii. The Humanistic Perspective
Humanistic psychology developed during the 1950s and1960s as a reaction against both
behaviorism and psychoanalysis (psychodynamics) with its proponents such as Carl Rogers and
Abraham Maslow. Human Behavior, in the humanists view (Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow and
others), is not completely determined by either unconscious dynamics (as that of Psychoanalysis)
or the environment (as that of Behaviorism). Humanistic psychologists insist that human nature
goes beyond environmental influences, and that conscious processes, not unconscious ones, are
what psychologists should study. In addition, they note that psychoanalysis seems preoccupied
with mental disturbance, ignoring positive phenomena such as happiness, satisfaction love and
kindness. Humanistic psychology is an approach to the study of human behavior that emphasizes
human experience, choice, creativity, self-realization and positive growth.
They stress a person’s capability for personal growth, freedom to choose their destiny and
positive qualities. According to them individual can fully explain their own behavior, modify and
make decision about their behavior. The goal of humanist psychology was to help people
express themselves creatively and achieve their full potential. It has had its greatest influence in
psychotherapy and in the human-potential and self-help movements.
Although all the differences among the perspectives mentioned are real, for the complete
understanding of behavior it is not advisable to stick to only one approach (perspective). Rather
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it is best (more advisable) to apply Eclectic Approach- applying in their psychological research
or practice what they believe to be the best features of diverse schools of thought (perspective).
1.4 Research Methods in Psychology
Before we proceed to the research methods used in psychology let’s see the scientific research
in general. What is scientific research? Scientific research is a systematic, controlled, empirical,
and critical investigation of hypothetical and propositions about natural, behavioral, and social
phenomena. To conduct any scientific research gathering information or evidences is very
crucial. To collect this information different methods/techniques are employed.
Psychology is not an absolute science and is often referred to as a 'Social Science' or a 'Soft
Science.' This is because it deals with human thoughts, feelings, and behavior, and as we are all
aware, humans are not always predictable and reliable. Instead, we interact with our environment
in ways that alter how we behave, how we think, and how we feel. Change one thing and the
domino effect can change everything else.
Nevertheless, research plays an extremely important role in psychology. In research we use

various methods to collect information. The collected information/data will be organized,
analyzed and finally interpreted so that various conclusions will be drawn. Research helps us
understand what makes people think, feel, and act in certain ways; allows us to categorize
psychological disorders in order to understand the symptoms and impact on the individual and
society; helps us to understand how intimate relationships, development, schools, family, peers,
and religion affect us as individuals and as a society; and helps us to develop effective treatments
to improve the quality of life of individuals and groups and many more.
In the subsequent section, how research is conducted and the different types of research
methods used to gather information in Psychology are discussed.
A. Naturalistic Observation
It is the observation of behavior as it occurs in its natural setting. It is more than simple looking.
For observations to be effective they have to be systematic. The researcher has to have such
ideas as: what to be observed, whom to observe, when and where will observation takes place,
how to observe, and in what form will the result of observation be recorded? (In writing, using
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checklist, tape recording, video… etc). Observing behavior in their natural environment often
involves counting behaviors, such as number of aggressive acts, number of smiles, etc.
The other important points to be considered while conducting naturalistic observation are:
 The researcher must record simply & passively what are occurred.
 Taking care not to interfere with the people or animals being observed. This is because if
there is interference of the researcher, the subjects may not show their real behavior.
Advantages of Naturalistic Method

 Behavior is naturally occurring and is not manipulated by a researcher and it can provide
more qualitative data as opposed to merely quantitative information.
 It enables one to get a good idea of how people/animals normally behave in their
naturalistic setting (it has ecological validity).
 Provide uncontaminated or unbiased/real data.
 It gives the opportunity to study issues that cannot be studied through experimentation or
in laboratory situation.
Disadvantages of Naturalistic Method

 Difficult to maintain the natural status of events (behaviors). Eg. If people or animals
aware that they are being observed they may not show their actual behavior. Even the
presence of someone observing can cause those being observed to alter their behavior
 It is difficult to observe all behaviors in its natural settings.
 The researcher may probably subjective.
 Researcher’s beliefs can also alter their observations
 It is time consuming and requires more resource
B. Case Study/ Case History/ Clinical Study
This is an in-depth study or description of a single event/case/individual or single case

about few individuals. Because it is used in clinics by medical practitioners or clinical
psychologist it is sometimes called clinical method. Applying the case study method
typically over an extended period of time can involve other remaining methods such as
naturalistic observations, psychological testing, survey (questionnaire and interview),
document analysis and the application of a treatment.
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Advantages of the Case Study Method
 Provide an in-depth information (both qualitative and quantitative) about the case
under study
 It is more helpful in understanding rare cases and applying specific interventions.
 It may be a source of hypothesis that may be used in studying large cases
Disadvantages of the Case Study Method
 Difficult to generalize to large cases (population)

 The researcher biases and problems on the techniques employed may occur
 Requires more resources (time and others)
C. Survey Method
It is the way of assessing people’s behavior, thought or attitudes by selecting samples from
the population, then generalizing the findings to the whole population. They are often used in the
news regarding various issues for instance in gathering and disclosing viewers’ opinions such as
during a race for presidency. In most cases interview and questionnaires are the tools used to
collect information from the sample/participant in survey method.
Advantages of Survey Method

 Helps to gather large information from large population within the short period of time
 Unlike a case study it helps to generalize the findings from the sample to the population
 Relatively it is economical in terms of time and other resources. Questionnaire for
instance can be conducted using the internet and interview can be conducted through
phone and Skype technology.
Disadvantages of Survey Method
 Survey data is based solely on subjects’ responses which can be inaccurate in
questionnaire for example due to outright lying, misunderstanding of the question,
placebo effect, and even the manner in which the question is asked
 The sample/participant may not precisely represent the target population
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D. Correlation study
Correlation study is used to determine whether there is relationship between two or more
variables or not. Moreover it tells us the direction of relationship and the strength of relationship
between two variables (if the correlation already exists). It does not show cause- effect
relationship. For example, if two variables (A & B) are correlated: i. The 1st variable (A) may
cause the 2nd variable (B) ii. The 2nd variable (B) may cause the 1st variable (A) iii. The 3rd
unknown variable “C” may causes the correlation between variable A & B iv. There might not a
clear cut cause –effect relationship between the two variables (A) and (B). Therefore, we cannot
conclude that the 1st variable causes the 2nd variable and vice versa.
Statistically the number that helps us to know the direction and strength of relationship
between two variables is called Coefficient of Correlation (represented as r). The values of
correlation coefficient (r) range from -1.00 to +1.00. The negative and positive sign indicate the
direction of relationship while the magnitude (the number or the values) indicates the strength or
degree of relationship between two variables.
Advantages of Correlational Method

 Helps to assess direction and strength of relationship between two variables
 Helps to the situations that may not be studied using experimental method
Disadvantages of Correlational Method
 Cannot make any assumptions of cause and effect relationship (does not explain how
third a variable can be involved, or how the variables can influence each other).
 Mostly applicable for quantitative data only
E. Experimental Study
This is a carefully designed procedure in which the extraneous variables are controlled and the
cause-effect relationship between variables will be determined.
Some basic elements in experimental method include:
 Variable: is a characteristic that takes on different values or conditions for different
individual in experiment. It is something that changes.
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 Independent variable: manipulated or selected variable by the experimenter to see its

effects on another variable or dependent variable. It is the variable that is manipulated by
the experimenter (also called input variable or the cause).
 Dependent variable: it is the variable which is measured to determine the effect of

independent variable. This is the outcome variable (results of the experiment).
 Extraneous variable: is variable which can theoretically affect the observed phenomena
unless it is controlled by the experimenter/researcher. It cannot be measured or
manipulated.
 Experimental group: is the group which receives the experimental treatment/

independent variable.
 Control group: is the group which do not receives the experimental treatment/
independent variable. Both experimental and control group are identical (the same) in
every ways except on the level of independent variable.
Most of the time researchers use two methods to divided participants as experimental and
control groups. These are through Randomization-assigning participants to experimental and
control groups by chance and Matching-trying to balance the two groups by deep consideration
such factors as age, educational background, IQ level, economic status …etc.
Advantages of Experimental Research Method

 It provides the cause-effect relationship
 There is a better ways of controlling the effect of the Extraneous variable
 It is possible to differentiate between the real/actual and the placebo effect
Disadvantages Experimental Research Method

 Less applicable to human beings due to ethical issues & complexity of human behavior
 Because of its artificial settings it is difficult for generalization (external validity)
 If the participants are aware that they are under the controlled situation they may not
reflect their real behavior so that the result may be biased.
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Research Biases in an Experiment Method
After we state the hypothesis which is the first step in doing an experiment before we proceed to
the next step of the research, we need to be aware of some aspects of research that can
contaminate our results. In other words, what could get in the way of our results in this study
being accurate? These aspects are called research biases, and there are basically three main
biases. These are:
 Selection Bias – occurs when differences between groups are present at the beginning
of the experiment. This occurs when there is a problem on the selection and assignment
of the research participants to various groups (control and experimental group).
 Placebo Effect – involves the influencing of performance due to the subject’s belief
about the results. This is the influence of participant’s expectation rather than
experimental treatment on an experimental out comes. In other words, if I believe the
new medication will help me feel better, I may feel better even if the new medication is
only a sugar pill. This demonstrates the power of the mind to change a person’s
perceptions of reality.
 Experimenter Bias – The same way a person’s belief’s can influence his or her
perception, so can the belief of the experimenter. If I’m doing an experiment, and really
believe my treatment works, or I really want the treatment to work because it will mean
big bucks for me, I might behave in a manner that will influence the subject.
Controlling Biases in Experimental Research Method
After carefully reviewing our study and determining what might affect our results that are not
part of the experiment, we need to control for these biases. To control for selection bias, most
experiments use what’s called Random Assignment, which means assigning the subjects to
each group based on chance rather than human decision. To control for the placebo effect,
subjects are often not informed of the purpose of the experiment. This is called a Single Blind
study, because the subjects are blind to the expected results. To control for experimenter biases,
we can utilize a Double-Blind study, which means that both the experimenter and the subjects
are blind to the purpose and anticipated results of the study.
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1.7 Sub-fields in psychology
1. Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychologists diagnose and treat emotional and behavioral disorders that range form
mild to very severe. They are trained to do psychotherapy with highly disturbed people, as well
as with those who are simply troubled or unhappy or who want to learn to handle their problems
better. Most clinical psychologists have a Ph. D, Ed.D. And a smaller but growing number have
a Psy.D. Clinical Psychologists typically do four or five years training of graduate work in
psychology, plus at least a year’s internship under the direction of a practicing psychologist.
People often confuse clinical psychologist with three other terms: psychotherapist,
psychoanalyst, and psychiatrist. But these terms mean different things. A psychotherapist is
simply anyone who does any kind of psychotherapy (psychological treatment). A psychoanalyst
is a person who practices/ uses the particular psychotherapeutic techniques, which originated
with Sigmund Freud and his followers. Anyone who has the training who has the training to use
these techniques can be a psychoanalyst.
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor (M.D.) who has done 3 to 4 years of residency training in
psychiatry, the medical specialty concerned with mental disorders, maladjustment, and abnormal
behavior. During the residency period, a psychiatrist learns to diagnose and treat mental
disorders under the supervision of more experienced physicians.
Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists do similar work, but psychiatrists, because of their
medical training, tend to focus on possible biological causes of mental disorders and to treat
these problems with medication. They prescribe, whereas clinical psychologists cannot.
Psychiatrists are however, often untrained in current psychological theories and methods.
2. Counseling Psychology
Counseling psychologists are concerned with “normal” problems of adjustment that most of
us face sooner or later, such as choosing a career or coping with marital problems. They deal
with countless personal problems that do not involve psychological disorders. A number of
counseling psychologists try to help people who are having problems with family living; these
are marriage and family counselors.
3. School Psychology Much of the school psychologist’s job consists of diagnosing
learning difficulties and trying to remedy them. Using tests and information gained from
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consultations with the students and his parents, the school psychologist tries to pinpoint the
problem and suggest action to correct it. For instance, a school psychologist might suggest that a
poor reader be assigned to a remedial reading class. Other school psychologists are involved in
vocational and other forms of counseling. These are the school counselors.
4. Educational Psychology
Educational psychology may include school psychology, but educational psychologists as such
are usually involved with more general, less immediate problems than are most school
psychologists or school counselors. Educational psychologists are especially concerned with
increasing the efficiency of learning in school by applying their psychological knowledge about
learning and motivation to the curriculum.
5 Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Industrial/or Organizational psychologists study behavior in the workplace. They address the
problems of training personnel, improving working conditions, and studying working effects of
automation on humans. The primary concern of industrial/or organizational psychologists is to
make-work as pleasant as possible and productive as possible. They apply psychology to
problems of management and employee training, to supervision of personnel, to improving
communication within the organization, to counseling the employees, in recruiting employee for
certain organization and to alleviate industrial conflict.
6. Social Psychology
Social psychologists study the way we affect and are influenced by other people, both in groups
and in intimate relationships. This focus covers a wide range of possible interests. For example,
it includes the study of the ways in which we perceive other people and how those perceptions
affect our behavior toward them. Similarly, it involves concerted efforts to understand the
determinants of interpersonal influences and of attitude change. Thus, social psychologists might
study how perceptual stereotypes affect interactions or how the decisions of a committee
member are influenced by what others on the committee do or say.
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7. Developmental Psychology- They study mental, physical and psycho-social development

of humans over the entire life span (from the prenatal period till childhood, adolescence,
adulthood, and old age). They study change in behavior due to change in age.
In addition to those sub-fields of psychology listed above others are also there. These are:
Forensic Psychology, Health Psychology, Environmental Psychology, Personality Psychology,
Experimental Psychology, Political Psychology, Community Psychology, Sport Psychology,
Consumer Psychology, and Psychometrics.
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Chapter Two Human Development
Introduction
Dear learners, how you have become the person you are today? In what ways do early
experiences influence your present self? What roles do the family, community, and culture play
in your development? How do you acquire language when you were child? How does change in
one area, such as physical growth, influence other aspects of your development such as social
interaction? Answers to these and other questions are studied under the field of human
development. This unit, therefore, deals with the fundamentals of human development
(developmental psychology). It will cover the major aspects and principles of human
development, the issues, approaches, principles and theories in the study of human development.
2.1 The Meaning of Human Development

Human development (also known as Developmental Psychology) is a systematic study of
age-related changes in behavior and abilities that occur as a result of maturation and experiences
throughout the human life-span. It studies the common patterns of changes in people’s life-span.
Besides, human development investigates how and why certain characteristics remain consistent
over the life course. It focuses on the study of the physical, motor, cognitive, intellectual,
emotional, personality, social, language and moral changes/development that occur throughout
all stages of the life-span.
The difference between development and growth:
Development Growth
- It is both qualitative and quantitative. - It is quantitative change. e.g., growth of height
- Products of both biological and environmental - It is biological (hereditary) changes.
interaction.
2.2 Aspects of Human Development
The study of human development involves many aspects. The major aspects are:
A. Physical development: it involves the growth of body and its organs, and the physical
functioning systems along with its psychological implications.
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B. Cognitive development: it involves growth of mind and information processing capabilities

of individuals. In addition, it focuses on the development of memory, perception, logical
reasoning, problem-solving skills, understanding, intelligence, hypothetical thinking, language…
C. Psychosocial development: - it focuses on changes and continuities in motives, emotions,
personality traits, interpersonal communication skills, roles played in the family and society.
2.3 Principles of Human Development
The following are the major principles that govern the study of human development.
A. Development involves change. The changes could be in size (physical or brain size), or in
proportion or disappearance of old features (such as baby hair, milk teeth), and acquisition of
new features (such as second teeth, running and jumping, better thinking abilities, etc.).
B. Development is the product of maturation and learning. Maturation is the biological
unfolding of the individual according to the plan contained in the genes. On the other hand,
learning is any relatively permanent change of behavior that occurs through experience and
training. Thus, human development is the product of interaction between nature (genetic
endowment and maturation) and nurture (environmental influences and learning).
C. Development follows definite and predictable pattern, order, sequence or direction.
C1. Cephalocaudal sequence: suggests that development proceeds from the head (cephlo)
to the tail (caudal) region. Most of the time, it is responsible for height increment.
C2. Proximodistal sequence: states that development spreads outward from the central axis
of the body to the extremities. Most of the time, it is responsible for weight increment.
C3. The Principle of developmental complexity: states that human beings are more and
complex in their behavior and abilities with age.
C4. The Principle of developmental specificity: states that people get more and more
specific in their behavior and abilities with age.
D. There are individual differences in development. There are individual variations in

development especially in the rate of change, the specific factors affecting development and
specific types of developmental achievements. Because of different factors (both genetic and
environmental), some have small level of development and the other may have larger level of
development.
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E. Development is cumulative, interactional and correlated. This principle suggests that

various changes are not mutually exclusive or independent but are interactive. E.g., the physical
aspect of development can affect other aspects of development such as cognitive and
psychosocial and vice versa.
Approaches in the Study of Human Development

Studies on human development follow two main approaches. These are:
A. The topical approach: researchers who follow this approach focus on specific aspects of
development across the life-span. In this approach, human development is divided into
different areas of growth, including physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and personality
development.
B. The ages and stages approach: researchers who follow this approach focus on the changes
and influences that occur during specific stages of human life. Following this approach,
human life can be classified into eight stages. These are:
Prenatal period (from conception to birth) 5. Adolescence (ages 12 to 19)

2. Infancy (birth to age 2) 6. Early adulthood (ages 19 to 40)
3. Early childhood (ages 2 to 6) 7. Middle adulthood (ages 40 to 60)
4. Middle childhood (ages 6 to 12) 8. Late adulthood (ages 60 and beyond)
2.4 Basic Issues in Human Development

i. Nature versus Nurture (nativism versus empiricism)
Is development primarily product of nature (biological forces like heredity, gene, maturational
process) or nurture (environmental forces such as learning experience, child rearing practices,
societal changes, peer influence, media, schools, religious institution, culture…etc)? This is the
issue of nature vs nurture in human development- one fundamental issue in Developmental
Psychology. It has philosophical roots. The English philosopher John Locke said that the
newborn baby is a Tabular Rasa (blank slate). So, for him it is the environment that governs
human development. The French philosopher Jean Jacques Roseau considered genetic factors as
most influential in one’s development.
The question nowadays has changed from which influences behavior (one’s development) to
how and to what extent environment and heredity affect development. This is because; no one
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grows up without being influenced by heredity and environment. Developmental psychologists

take an integrationist/interactionist position i.e. they consider the combined influence of heredity
and environment on development. Heredity is not the only influential factor on development.
Environment is necessarily an important factor in any developmental process, including that of
the prenatal period. In the case of motor skills, for example, development can be accelerated or
retarded by the presence or absence of environmental stimulation.
ii. Activity versus passivity: are people active in their development or are they passively shaped
by forces outside themselves? Some theorists believe that children are active creatures of their
own development by exploring the world and shaping their environments. And others argue that
humans are passive beings who are largely the product of forces beyond their control- usually
environmental influences but possibly strong biological forces. Currently the view is that human
beings are both active and passive.
iii. Continuity versus discontinuity: Is human development is changing gradually or

dramatically? Continuity theorists view human development as a process that occurs in small
steps without sudden changes and it is quantitative. On the other hand, discontinuity theorists
view human development as a series of stair steps, each of which elevates the individual to a new
level of functioning. For the latter theorists human development is qualitative and stage-like.
iv. Universality versus context specificity: are developmental changes common from person to
person and from culture to culture to everyone (universal) or different from person to person
(context specific)? The answer of the scholars in the area is “it depends”.
2.5 Theories of Human Development

Many theoretical perspectives attempt to explain human development. Among the most
prominent are: Erik Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development, Jean Piaget's Theory of
Cognitive Development, Lev Vygotsky's Theory of Social Contextualism (and its heir, the
Ecological Systems Theory of Urie Bronfenbrenner), Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral
Development, John Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment and the Information-processing framework
employed by Cognitive Psychology.
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A. Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget was a French speaking Swiss theorist who posited that children learn through actively
constructing knowledge through interaction with their environment. He suggested that the adult's
role in helping the child learn was to provide appropriate materials for the child to interact and
construct. He would use Socratic Questioning to get the children to reflect on what they were
doing. He would try to get them to see contradictions in their explanations. Piaget classified
development into four stages and each stage has its own features of cognitive development.
These are:
1. Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years of age): the infant constructs an understanding of
the world around them by coordinating the sensory experiences with physical actions such as
seeing, hearing, manipulation, touching, sucking… etc. Infants have inborn behavior which is
called reflexes. Example, if you touch a new born baby’s lips then, they begin to suck. Similarly,
if you place your finger in the palm of an infant’s hand then, they will grasp it.
During this stage, infants develop the ability to explore their own bodies; but soon they turn to
the external objects. At about 8 months, infants develop the notion of object permanence, i.e.
objects that are out of the sight are continued to exist. The other characteristic of this stage is the
appearance of trial and error learning. This is risk exploration stage which Piaget call them
little scientist. An infant progresses from reflexive instinctual action at birth to the beginning of
symbolic thought toward the end of this stage.
2. Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years of age):
At this stage children start to represent their world with words, images, and drawing. The child
begins to represent the world with words and images. These words and images reflect increased
symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection of sensory information and physical actions.
The implication is that children at this stage understand their world more through symbolic than
sensorimotor thought. However, the type of symbolic thinking that the children are able to
perform at this stage is limited-they lack the following abilities:
Conservation – refers to certain properties of an object (such as weight, width) remain the
same regardless of changes in other properties (such as height, length, etc.). Preschool children
of this stage focus on only one aspect/property by ignoring all others.
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Reversibility – refers to thinking through which one the ability to reverse has or change
direction in one’s thinking and returns to the starting point. For instance, children may easily
answer that 5 + 5 = 10 but they may lack 10 - 5 = 5.
Egocentrism – refers to the inability to distinguish between one’s own perspective and
someone else perspective. They assume/expects everybody thinks in the way they think or has
the same perspective with them.
3. Concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years of age):
The child can now reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different
sets. These ages are often called elementary school years. At this stage children are less likely to
be affected by the limitations that happened during preschool year such as reversibility,
conservation, egocentrism or centration. However, they understand the world on concrete or
tangible level. So, abstract thinking is not yet developed. According to Piaget, they learned
important tasks such as seriation (putting things in sequence), reversibility, objective thinking,
number concept, classification… etc at this stage.
4. Formal operational stage (11 years of age through adulthood): adolescent reasons in
more abstract, idealistic and logical ways. Adolescents are no longer limited to actual concrete
experiences. They now develop the ability to test hypotheses, ability to understand possibilities
beyond the here – and – now (immediate and concrete environment). These abilities continue to
develop into adulthood. At the same time at which adolescents think more abstractly and
idealistically, they also think logically. According to Piaget, adolescents begin to think more the
way scientist thinks, developing plans to solve problems and systematically testing solution i.e.
hypothetical – deductive reasoning.
B. Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development in Human

Erick Erikson formulated a lifespan theory of human psychosocial development. Erikson
posited that the primary motivation for human behavior is social in nature and this is reflected in
the desire to affiliate with other people. Erikson developed eight stages which go through the
human life span. Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individual
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with a crisis that must be resolved for successful development of an individual. The eight
psychosocial stages and their typical features are presented hereunder.
Stage 1: Trust Vs Mistrust (Birth – 1 year of age)

Trust requires a sense of both physical and psychological comfort. Infants want stability,
comfort, and safe place. Responsive, caring and sensitive caregivers meet infant’s basic needs
(both biological and psychological). If this is the case (both biological and psychological needs
of children are fulfilled for them by responsive, caring and sensitive caregivers) infants will
develop a sense of hope (trust). So, they consider the world as a safe place. An infant with
neglect, unresponsive, rejecting and/or insensitive caregiver will tend to mistrust the world.
Stage 2: Autonomy Vs Shame and doubt (1 – 3 years of age)

After gaining trust in their caregivers, toddlers began to discover that their behavior is their
own. Toddlers do things themselves to demonstrate their independent and control over their
parents. They start to assert their sense of independence or autonomy. They realize their own
wills. During this time if their parents (caregivers) encourage them, they develop a sense of
independence/autonomy. If parents humiliate or punish when they want independence, toddlers
develop a sense of shame and doubts and they believe that they are fundamentally bad people.
Stage 3: Initiative Vs Guilt (3 – 6 years of age)

At this stage children develop a sense of purpose by developing bold plans but must also
learn not to step on another people in the process. Challenges increase in this stage and active
purposeful behavior is needed to cope with these challenges. Children are asked to assume
responsibility for their bodies, their behavior, their toys and their pets. A sense of responsibility
will be developed. This in turn increases initiative. They devise plans to build stand castles and
to conquer monsters in their fantasy play and take great pride in accomplishing their goals. If
parents restrict children, they develop guilt, feel irresponsibility and they become anxious.
Stage 4: Industriousness Vs Inferiority (6 – 10 years of age)

To gain a sense of competence/ industry, children must master the important cognitive and
social skills (reading, writing, teamwork & being diligent). Primary school children direct all
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their energy toward mastering knowledge, creating something new, trial & error, to be competent
and intellectual skills. Children want to make new exploration and creativity. Erickson believes
that teachers have a special responsibility for children’s development of industry. If they are
encouraged with great care, children will develop a sense of competence, diligence, hard-
worker…etc. If not, they develop a sense of inferiority (a feeling of incompetent and
unproductive).
Stage 5: Identity Vs Identity confusion (10 – 20 years of age)

Adolescents attempt to define "who they are" in terms of career, religion, political affiliation,
sexual identity…etc. Parents needed to allow adolescents to explore many different roles and
different paths with in a particular role. If they explore such roles in a healthy manner and arrive
at a positive path to follow, then a positive identity will be achieved and they develop fidelity. If
adolescent does not explore many roles adequately and if positive future path is not defined
clearly, identity confusion or identity crisis will result.
During this time individual’s physiology rapidly changes. This rapid physiological change,
coupled with external factors push adolescents to make decisions about future education, career,
and friendships. This creates the need to question and redefine the psychosocial identity
established during the earlier stages. Identity is the sense of who one is, what he/she is all about,
and where he/she is going in life. Exploring with various sexual, occupational, educational,
spiritual roles…etc successfully helps them to develop identity. However, inability to experiment
with such activities creates role confusion.
Stage 6: Intimacy Vs Isolation (20’s & 30’s years of age)

Early adults face development task of forming intimate relationships with others. They want to
form a committed and long term relationship. At this stage, people will develop feelings of
losing oneself in another for love what Erikson describes as intimacy. This stage is a time of
marriage, becoming parent i.e. having children and accordingly of carrying families and social
responsibility. If young adults form healthy friendship and an intimate close relationship with
another individual, intimacy will be achieved if not, isolation will be resulted.
The young adult is now ready to form a new relationship of trust and intimacy with another
individual, with respect to friendship, sex partner, competition, and cooperation. This
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relationship should enhance the identity of both partners without shifting the growth of either.
The young adult who does not seek out such intimacy or whose repeated trials fail, may retreat
into isolation, while a person successful in forming intimacy proceed in success or achievement.
Stage 7: Generativity Vs Stagnation (40’s & 50’s years of age)

People at middle adulthood want to do something meaningful through their work or volunteer
activities and if all goes well, they will care about the welfare of future generation. But the
feeling of having done nothing to help the next generation is stagnation. Generativity refers to
the interest in establishing and guiding the next generation. Typically, this comes through raising
one’s own children. Assuming social responsibility (such as leading family, society in kebele,
edir, governmental and non-governmental organizations, world…etc) and contributing
something for the next generation become a basic concern. During this stage people should
continue to grow if they are successful with this basic concern, they feel happy. If not a sense of
stagnation and interpersonal impoverishment develops. This in turn leads to self – absorption
(excessive concern with one’s own life and interest).
Stage 8: Integrity Vs Despair (60 years of age and above)

Elder adults try to find a sense of meaning in their lives that will help them face the
inevitability of death. They go back and evaluate what they have done throughout their lives.
This is late adulthood, in which people look back over their life time (their accomplishments or
achievements) and resolve their final identity crisis. If the retrospective glances evaluation reveal
picture of a well spent life, the person feels a sense of satisfaction and integrity will be achieved.
I.e. acceptance of accomplishments, failures, and ultimate limitations as a member of
community, family leader such as marriage, children, grand children, as a professional, as
discharging of certain social responsibilities…etc brings with it a sense of integrity; a realization
that one’s life and one’s own responsibility has been successfully accomplished. If this is the
case, wisdom is developed and the person prepares himself/ herself for death.
If the evaluation of earlier stages is negative, it will yield doubt or gloom, and disparity will
be resulted and finally the person has developed difficulty in preparing himself/herself for death.
The finality of death must be faced and accepted by those who have successful accomplished life
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tasks. Despair can occur in those who regret the way they have led their life and how they
discharged their responsibilities.
C. Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development in Human

Moral development refers to the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, what is right
and wrong, what is moral and immoral, what is ethical and unethical…etc. Furthermore, it is the
ability to judge things that depends on explaining or reasoning ability which is directly related to
cognitive development. Lawrence Kohlberg made an extensive study on moral development. In
his study, he developed a hypothetical story, posed/forwarded ethical dilemma or moral
questions. He analyzed and classified responses to the dilemma into three levels (each of which
is divided into two stages). These stages occur in a specific sequence regardless of culture or
subculture, continent or country.
The following is one among eleven stories used by Kohlberg to investigate the nature of moral
reasoning (moral development) of people.
In Europe, a woman was near death from special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the
doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had
recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times
what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small a
small dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz went to everyone he knew to borrow
the money, but he could only get together $1,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the
druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the
druggist said, “No, I discovered the drug, and I am going to make money from it.” So Heinz got
desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife.
After reading the story, interviewees were asked a series of questions like stated as follow to
find out the moral dilemma: Heinz have stolen the drug? Was stealing is right or wrong? Why?
Is it a husband’s duty to steal the drug for his wife if he can get it no other way? Would a good
husband steal it? Did the druggist have the right to charge that much when there was no law
setting limit on the price? Why? In doing so Kohlberg’s more attention was not on the
answers (moral judgments) of the participants rather on the way individuals’ reason out
their moral judgment.
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After rigorous research Kohlberg formulated the human moral development stage with three
levels and six stages (two stages per level). These are:
Level I: Pre-Conventional Moral Reasoning (4-10 years of age)

At this level moral reasoning comes from external world or no internalization.
Stage 1. Punishment versus Obedience Orientation

Avoid punishment and get reward is the motto of moral reasoning at this stage. Children judge
an act is wrong if it is associated with punishment or judge as right if not related to punishment.
To meet this standard therefore, children obey authority figures like parents, elders, & teachers.
Example:1, a student who does not do homework if teacher does not check or punish.
2. Stealing is right because, Heinz should not let his wife die. If he does, he will be in big
trouble.
3. Stealing is wrong because, Heinz might get caught and sent to jail.
Stage 2. Instrumental versus Relativist Orientation

At this stage individual do or not to do something is based on reward or satisfaction. In other
word, children or individuals believe that the action is right, if instrumentally satisfies one’s own
need and occasionally the need of others. Ethical choices now become more like an exchange of
favor more mutual benefits.
Example 1. A student lends a pen to someone who helps in any way.
2. Stealing is right because, if Heinz gets caught, he could give the drug back and may
be they would not give him a long jail sentence.
3. Stealing is wrong because, the druggist is a businessman and needs to make money.
Level II: Conventional Moral Reasoning (10-13 years of age)

At this level moral reasoning comes from intermediate internalization. At this level, moral
reasoning is more related to the laws and rules of the society. Therefore, it is marked by
conscious concern for meeting social expectation about right or wrong.
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Stage 3. Interpersonal/ good boy or good girl/ orientation

Right behavior is one that pleases others so that acceptance or approval of others will be won.
Therefore, individual do something to get acceptance or approval and not do something to avoid
rejection or blames. Therefore, individuals evaluate right and wrong by the approval or criticism
of the significant others (parents, peers, friends, teachers…etc).
Example 1. A student may highly participate in the class to get acceptance by his/her teachers.
2. Stealing is right because, Heinz was only doing something that a good husband
would do; it shows how much he loves his wife.
3. Stealing is wrong because, if his wife dies; he can’t be blamed for it; it is the
druggist’s fault. The druggist is the selfish one.
Stage 4. Social Law and Order Orientation

Ethical thinking at this stage is based on norms, rules and laws of the society. Right behavior
consists of doing one’s duty, showing respect for authority; maintaining the social order …etc
which are consistent with the norm of the society. If certain acts are against the norm of the
society they will be judged as morally wrong. Standards still originate with remote others such as
teachers, police, community members, religious leaders…etc.
Example 1. A student may stop cheating because it is prohibited by rules and regulations of the
university.
2. Stealing is right because, if he did nothing, he would be letting his wife die; it is his
responsibility if she dies. He had to steal it with the idea of paying the druggist latter.
3. Stealing is wrong because, it is always wrong to steal; Heinz will always feel guilty
if he steal the drug.
Level III: Post Convectional Moral Reasoning (> 13 years of age)

At this level moral reasoning comes from individual himself/herself or fully internalized.
Moral thinking and judgments are comprehensive. Laws are viewed as a system of governance,
each law can be judged in terms of the extent to which it adjusts with the principles of the system
and individual or group interest. Therefore, they will be examined carefully in order to drive
general principles to guide behavior appropriate for all.
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Stage 5. Social Contract Orientation

At this stage reasoning is based on community right versus individual right. Right is a matter
of personal values and opinions, but emphasis on legal point of view. At this stage the principles
are usually written as a document of assumption or a deceleration of ideas.
Individual gives one’s own justification or interpretation. Since rules of society are mutually
agreed for the benefits of all, rules that are broken by one are judged no more binding for others.
Example 1, students may judge coming late to class if the teacher does same often.
2. Stealing is right because, the law was not set up for these circumstances; taking the drug is not
really right, but Heinz is justified in doing it.
3. Stealing is wrong because, you can’t really blame someone for stealing, but extreme
circumstance don’t really justify taking the law into your own hands. You might lose respect for
yourself if you let your emotions take over; you have to think about the long time.
Stage 6. Universal Ethical Principles Orientation

At this stage the principles of social justification are universal but not necessarily in written
form. The principles are abstract, ethical, universal, and consistent. Therefore, individual made
conscience based reasoning. In other word, the person has developed moral judgments that based
on universal human rights. When faced with a dilemma between law and conscience, a personal,
individualized conscience is followed. According to this principle, society rules are arbitrary, life
is more than anything.
Example 1, Stealing is right because, by stealing the drug, you would have lived up to society’s
rules, but you would have let down your conscience.
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Chapter Three Sensation and Perception
3.1. Meaning and Definition of Sensation
Sensation is the process of receiving, translating and transmitting messages from the
environment to brain. Sensation is the activation of the sense organs by a source of physical
energy. It is the simple experiences that rise from the stimulation of the sense organs. To be fully
understood sensory messages must be translated into neural impulses. The process of changing
neural impulses/energy is called transduction. It is the first stage in becoming aware of our
environment.
Traditionally, it believed that human beings have five senses of organs. However, scientists agree
that human beings have more than five senses. But the exact number is not clearly known.
For example,
A) Skeletal muscles- kinesthetic- sense of body movement. It tells us the position of our body
parts in relation to each other.
B) Ear- the sense of the vestibular – balance. Tell us the position in relation to gravity.
C) Skin- sense of heat, cold, pain, …
3.2 Measuring Sensitivity of the Senses
1) Absolute Threshold- it is the minimum amount of energy that a person can detect. It is
determined by half of the time (50%). When the energy of a stimulus fall below the absolute
threshold, we cannot detect its presence; when the energy of the stimulus risen above the
absolute threshold we can detect the stimulus. For instance: how bright does a light is so that we
can see it. How loud a sound is so that we can hear it.
2) Difference Threshold /Just Noticeable Difference
The smallest difference in stimulation required to discriminate one stimulus from another in half
the time (50%). WEBER’S LAW- said that, the amount of change in a stimulus need to detect a
difference is indirect proportion to the intensity of the original stimulus.
Example, adding one candle into 60 candles and notice a difference.
3. Signal Detection Theory- Going beyond the threshold. It focused on the decision making
about stimuli in the presence of uncertainty; detection depends on variety of factors besides the
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physical intensity of the stimulus and the sensory ability of the observer. An observer’s response
in detection task can be divided into a sensory process which depend on the intensity of the
stimulus and a decision process which influenced by the observer’s response bias.
Sensory Adaptation- is weakened magnitude of sensation resulting from prolonged presentation
of the same stimulus. When the same stimulus is continuously/repeatedly presented the sensation
often disappears or fades away. In other word, if our senses are exposed to the same kind of
stimuli they stop to change the sensory energy/electrical impulse or they stop to react.
Sensory Overload –it is the confusion as a result of great source of stimuli and it’s beyond the
ability to senses. When we exposed to different stimulus at the same time the sense organs are
confused.
3.3 Perception
It the process of organizing and interpreting information received from the environment. Or it
is the process of becoming aware of our environment. Perception is also defined as the
sorting out, interpretation, analysis, and integration of stimuli carried out by the sense
organs and brain.
i. Basic Processes of perception
A. Selective Attention (Focused)
Filtering or discarding out some stimuli from the mass of different stimuli. Paying attention to
stimulus by eliminating other irrelevant stimulus. This is the first stage in perception.
Factors Influence Selective Attention
This can be divided into personal and environmental factors.
I. Environmental Factors
1. Intensity- the more intense the stimulus the more it will be attended. Example, the louder
the sound, the better is it heard.
2. Size- we tend to notice unusually large or small things than other.
3. Contrast- things/objects contrasts with the environment attract our attention easily.
4. Repetition- stimulus that regularly repeated can draw our attention easily.
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5. Movement- human beings as well as most of the other animals are quite to objects that
move within their visual field.
6. Novelty- some objects/things which are new or not seen before attract our attention. Any
novel/unique stimulus draws our attention.
II. Personal factors
Personal factors like motivation, attitude, experience, memories, emotion and interests are
affecting our attention.
B. Perceptual Organization
Organizing and interpreting sensation into percepts, meaningful perceptual units, puts these
percepts in perspective and locates the in space and prevents stimuli from changing their
appearance as the perceiver examines them from another point.
1. Form Perception – it refers to the way sensations are organized into a meaningful shape and
patterns. This is systematically studied by gestalt psychologists. They said, “Perceptions are
more than the sum of their sensory inputs.” According to them, our perceptions are actively
organized according to the following Gestalt Principles of perception.
i. Figure-ground -When we perceive a visual stimulus, part of what we see is the center of our
attention – figure and the rest is considered as ground.
ii. Continuity- we tend to perceive lines or patterns as being continuous even if interrupted by
another objects.
iii. Proximity – things that are close together are usually perceived as belonging together than
those that are far apart.
iv. Similarity – objects that are alike in some way (color, size, shape) are tend to be perceived as
belonging together. Orientation- objects with the same orientation are seen/perceived as part of a
group.
v. Closure – incomplete figures of familiar objects will tend to be perceived as wholes. Our
brain tends to perceive complete by filling the gaps of incomplete figures.
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2. Perceptual Constancy- it refers to ability to perceive objects’ (shape, size, color, brightness)
as being constant or unchanging even though the sensory patterns they produce are constantly
shifting. It is the ability to perceive things as they are in contrast to retina images changes. For
example, the size of image that falls on the retina changes as a person walks away from us, but
we do not perceive the person as shrinking in size. There are several types of perceptual
constancy.
a) Shape Constancy- According to this, the shape of an object remaining constant, even though
the shape of the retina images produced by the object changes when our point of view changes.
Example, shape of a books; See by turning and twisting a book through different angle.
b) Size Constancy- An object is perceived to be a constant size regardless of how close or far
away it is. We continue to perceive a familiar object as having a constant size even when retina
images size change as we get closer or far from object.
c) Color and Brightness Constancy: The color of the objects is seen/perceived constant
regardless of the context (dark or light).
3. Depth Perception
It is concerned with how we perceive the three dimensions nature of the world (object). Depth
perception is our ability to judge accurately how far the objects from us. The objects are three
dimensional and they have depth. The problem is that retina registers the image in two
dimensional, flat, but we perceive the objects in three dimensions. How do we do this?
Generally, depth perception depends on two types of cue: binocular cues and monocular cues.
I. Binocular Cues
It is our perception of depth using information from two eyes.

1. Convergence –turning of the two eyes inward. When the two eyes are focused on a
distance object the eye muscles are less stressed than when they are focused on the near
object.
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2. Retinal Disparity- difference between the two retina images. We have two eyes, spaced
apart by a few inches. Because of this separation each eye gets a slightly different view of
the world. When an object is far away the disparity (difference) is small and vice versa.
II. Monocular Cues Judgement about what we perceive based on the information
from one eye. There are about eight monocular cues.
1. Texture Gradient-close objects appears to have a rough or more visible or detailed

texture than distance objects. The texture of the foreground is very grainy, with large
grains that are quite far apart. Example, coble stone road
2. Linear Perspective The two lines known to be parallel appear becoming closer together
as they are farther away from us. This is because objects become smaller images on the
retina when they are more distance. Example. Rail way
3. Superposition Closer objects tend to be partially in front of or partially cover up more

distance objects. When one object blocks the view of another, generally the object that is
entirely in view be perceived as closer of the two.
4. Light and Shadow Bright objects are perceived as closer while darker, dimmer objects
are perceive as farther away.
5. Aerial Perspective Objects that are far away look fuzzy and blurred in comparison to
near objects. This is because, dust particles, smokes, water vapor and pollution decrease
the clarity of view.
6. Speed of Movement Objects farther away appear to move more slowly than closer
objects. Example, Bus
7. Accommodation The process by which the shape of the lens of the eye change to
follow the visual image on the retina from stimuli that are different distance from the eye.
8. Vertical Position When objects are on the ground, the farther they appear to be below
the horizon, the closer they appear to be to us. Example, when you see the sky, as it far
from you is seems to meet the land or the sea.
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4. Movement Perception
i. Perception of Real Movement We perceive actual movement of the objects when there is
actually a change in position in space of the object. We are able to see the real movement of the
object because the image moves across the retina. Therefore, the eyes and the head move to
follow the path of the object.
ii. Apparent Movement (Wrong Perception or Visual Illusion): Perception of an object when
there are no actual changes in position in space.
a) Stroboscopic Motion: When you sit in dark room and look at two adjacent lights being
turned on one after another, it will seem that a single light is jumping back and forth.
b) Auto-kinetic Motion: Perceive motion of single stationary light or object. You can
perceive this illusion by looking at a small dim-light at far in a completely dark room. If you
stare at the light for a few seconds, it will appear to move. Eg. Light of cigarette in the dark room
c) Induced Movement: It occurs if stationary spot or object is perceived as moving when

its frame or background moves. Example, Moon perceived to move when a cloud moves.
d) Muller – Lyer Illusion: Two lines with exactly the same length have perceived to have
different length when arrows are added to their heads/edge. Thus, car crash between small cars
and big cars are usually resulted from illusion.
C. Interpretation: Giving meanings to the organized perceptions. It is influenced by

personal factors like motivation, beliefs, expectation/perceptual set. Example, Food can be
perceived as fuel.
3.2. Extra Sensory Perception: tend to receive stimulus without using their senses of organs.
I. Telepathy: A direct communication from one mind to another without the usual visual,
auditory and other signals. Those who tends to be telepathic claim to know you’re thought.
II. Clairvoyance: It is a perception of an event or fact without normal/any sensory inputs.

Example, if a man suddenly knows that his wife has just died, yet no has informed him.
III. Pre-cognition:The perception of events that has not yet happened. Eg. Fortune teller.
IV. Psycho-kinesis: The ability to affect the physical world purely through thought. Persons
with this abilities claim to move or affect objects without touching them.
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Chapter Four Human Learning, Memory and Forgetting
4.1 Introduction to Human Learning
Learning can be defined as the process leading to relatively permanent behavioral change or
potential behavioral change. In other words, as we learn, we alter the way we perceive our
environment, the way we think, the way we interpret the incoming stimuli, and therefore the way
we interact with others or the environment, or behave. John B. Watson (1878-1958) was the
first to study how the process of learning affects our behavior, and he formed the school of
thought known as Behaviorism. The central idea behind behaviorism is that only observable
behaviors are worthy of research since other abstraction such as a person’s mood or thoughts are
too subjective. This belief was dominant in psychology in the USA for about 50 years.
Perhaps the most well known Behaviorist is B. F. Skinner (1904-1990). Skinner followed
much of Watson’s research and findings, but believed that internal states could influence
behavior just as external stimuli. He is considered to be a Radical Behaviorist because of this
belief, although nowadays it is believed that both internal and external stimuli influence our
behavior.
Behavioral Psychology is basically interested in how our behavior results from the stimuli
both in the environment and within ourselves. They study, often in minute detail, the behaviors
we exhibit while controlling for as many other variables as possible. Often a grueling process,
but results have helped us learn a great deal about our behaviors, the effect our environment has
on us, how we learn new behaviors, and what motivates us to change or remain the same.
So, in general in Psychology Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior that comes
as a result of practice or experience. In this statement there are about three main concepts
related to human learning. These are:
i. Learning is a relatively permanent (not for a brief period of time) change
ii. Learning is a change in behavior (both covert and overt)
iii. Learning is a change in behavior that comes as a result of practice or experience. This
means it is not the result physiological or other biological changes.
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4.2 Theories of Human Learning
4.2.1 Classical Conditioning
One important type of learning, Classical Conditioning, was actually discovered

accidentally by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936). Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who discovered
this phenomenon while doing research on digestion. His research was aimed at better
understanding of the digestive patterns in dogs.
During his experiments, he would put meat powder in the mouths of dogs that had tubes
inserted into various organs to measure bodily responses. What he discovered was that the dogs
began to salivate before the meat powder was presented to them. Then, the dogs began to salivate
as soon as the person feeding them would enter the room, when they hear the sound of this
person, with the sight of the dish on which the meat was presented to them…etc. These were the
surprising observation of his students. After that he (Pavlov) soon began to gain interest in this
phenomenon and abandoned his research on the role of saliva in digestion in favor of his now
famous Classical Conditioning study.
Pavlov began pairing a bell sound with the meat powder and found that even when the meat
powder was not presented, the dog would eventually begin to salivate after hearing the sound of
bell. Since the meat powder naturally results in salivation, these two variables (the meat and the
salivation) are called the unconditioned stimulus (US) and the unconditioned response (UR)
respectively. The bell and salivation are not naturally occurring; the dog was conditioned to
respond to the bell. Therefore, the bell is considered the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the
salivation to the bell is the conditioned response (CR).
Many of our behaviors today are the results of the association between certain stimuli and
responses we made to them. Have you ever noticed that certain stimuli such as the smell of a
“dorowet” or perfume, a certain song/music/manzuma, a specific day of the year, results in fairly
intense emotions? It's not that smell or the song that cause of the emotion, but rather what that
smell or song has been associated with...perhaps an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, the death of a
loved one, maybe the day you met your current spouse, or issues related to your nationality. We
make these associations all the time and often don’t realize the power that these connections or
pairings have on us. But, in fact, we have been classically conditioned.
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Steps in Classical conditioning
Before Conditioning
Neutral Stimulus (CS) No Response/ Irrelevant Response/no specific response
(Bell)
Unconditioned Stimulus (US) UR- Unconditioned Response (Salivation)
(Meat)
During Conditioning
CS (to be conditioned stimulus) (Bell)
+ UR (Salivation due to US)
US (Meat)
After Conditioning
CS (Bell) CR (Salivation only due to the sound of the bell).
Principles of Classical Conditioning
 Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery: If after conditioning, the conditioned stimulus

is repeatedly presented without being paired with the unconditioned stimulus, the
conditioned response eventually disappears, and extinction is said to have occurred.
 After extinction a conditioned response may suddenly reappear even without further
conditioning trials. This is referred to as Spontaneous Recovery.
 Higher Order Conditioning: Sometimes a neutral stimulus can become a conditioned
stimulus by being paired with an already established CS (conditioned stimulus). In such
case, a procedure known as higher order conditioning will occur.
 Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination: After a stimulus becomes a conditioned
stimulus for some response, other, similar stimuli may produce a similar reaction- a
phenomenon known as stimulus generalization. The mirror image of stimulus
generalization is stimulus discrimination_ a case in which different responses are made to
stimuli that resemble the conditioned stimulus in some way.
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Application of the Basic Principles of Classical Conditioning
1. Counter conditioning: Unlearning

2. Systematic desensitization: psychotherapy
3. Advertisement: In marketing and Business area
Read more on these and other areas of application of the Classical Conditioning Principles
4.2.2 Operant Conditioning
Another type of learning, very similar to Classical Conditioning is Operant Conditioning.

The term "Operant" refers to how an organism operates on the environment, and hence, operant
conditioning comes from how we respond to what is presented to us in our environment. It can
be thought of as learning due to the natural consequences of our actions.
Various experimental studies were conducted concerning Operant Conditioning by

different scholars such as B.F Skinner. The classic study of Operant Conditioning involved a
cat that was placed in a box with only one way out; a specific area of the box had to be pressed in
order for the door to open. The cat initially tries to get out of the box because freedom is
reinforcing. In its attempt to escape, the area of the box is triggered and the door opens. The cat
is now free. Once placed in the box again, the cat will naturally try to remember what it did to
escape the previous time and will once again find the area to press. The more the cat is placed
back in the box, the quicker it will press that area for its freedom. It has learned, through natural
consequences, how to gain the reinforcing freedom.
According to Skinner we learn this way every day in our lives. Skinner also argued that our
personality itself is the result of reinforcement hence operant conditioning. He stated “we are
what we have been reinforced for being.” Imagine the last time you made a mistake; you most
likely remember that mistake and do things differently when the situation comes up again. In that
sense, you’ve learned to act differently based on the natural consequences of your previous
actions. The same holds true for positive actions. If something you did results in a positive
outcome you are more likely to do those same activities again- phenomenon called reinforcement
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4.2.2.1 Reinforcement
The term reinforcement means to strengthen, and is used in psychology to refer to anything
(stimulus, conditions, events…etc) which strengthens or increases the probability of the
occurrences of a specific response preceding it (reinforcement). For example, if you want your
dog to sit on command, you may give him a treat every time he sits for you. The dog will
eventually come to understand that sitting when told to do so will result in a treat. This treat is
reinforcing because he likes it and will result in him sitting when instructed to do so.
We all apply reinforcers everyday, most of the time without even realizing we are doing it.
You may tell your child "good job" after he or she cleans her/his room; perhaps you tell your
partner how good he or she looks when she/he dresses up well; or maybe you got a reward at
work after doing a great job on a project. All of these things increase the probability that the
same response will be repeated.
Types of Reinforcement
A. Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement are stimuli, events, conditions or any other factors whose addition,
presentation or application increases the reoccurrence of the responses (the behaviors) preceding
them. The examples given above describe what is referred to as positive reinforcement. Think of
it as adding something in order to increase a response. For example, adding a treat will increase
the response of sitting in the dog case; adding praise will increase the chances of your child
cleaning his or her room. The most common types of positive reinforcement are: praise, money,
promotion, and rewards. And most of us have experienced this as both the giver and receiver.
B. Negative Reinforcement.
Negative reinforcements on the other hand are conditions, stimuli, events or other factors
(mostly aversive) whose termination, ending or elimination increases the likely hood of the
occurrence of the behaviors preceding them again. Think of negative reinforcement as taking
something negative away in order to increase a response. Imagine a teenager who is nagged by
his mother to take out the garbage weekly. After complaining to his friends about the nagging, he
finally one day performs the task & to his amazement, the nagging stops. The elimination of this
negative stimulus is reinforcing & will likely increase the chances that he will perform it weekly.
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The Schedules of Positive Reinforcement
This is all about when and how to give a positive reinforcement. For example, do we apply
the positive reinforcement every time a child does something positive? Do we punish a child
every time he does something negative? To answer these questions, you need to understand the
schedules of reinforcement.
Giving the reinforcement every time the behavior occurs (getting a raise after every successful
work or getting punished after every negative behavior) is called a Continuous Schedule. It’s
continuous because the application occurs after every behavior. This is the best approach till
certain behavior is learned very well since it makes learning rapid. However, after the behavior is
learned reliably to make that behavior resistant to extinction, it is better to reinforce it not
continuously. Rather, it is advisable to reinforce it intermittently/partially/sometimes.
Types of Partial Reinforcement Schedule
If it (reinforcement) is based on the number of correct responses we call this type of

reinforcement schedule Ratio; if it is based on the time passed since the last reinforcement is
provided we call it Interval. Based on whether the reinforcement will be given on a
predetermined (fixed) or unpredictable (variable) base, mainly there are four schedules of
reinforcement. When it is applied on an irregular basis, they are called variable schedules. If it is
applied on a predetermined set basis they are termed as fixed schedules.
Fixed Ratio: A fixed ratio schedule refers to applying the reinforcement after a specific
number of needed behaviors. Example: giving a reward for the students after answering every
five questions correctly.
Fixed Interval: Applying the reinforcement after a specific amount of time is passed since
the last reinforcement. An example might be getting a raise every year and not in between. A
major problem with this schedule is that people tend to improve their performance right before
the time period expires so as to "look good" when the review comes around. The monthly salary,
the daily wages, the weekly rest from work …etc are examples of fixed interval.
Variable Ratio: This refers to applying reinforcement after a variable number of responses.
Variable ratio schedules have been found to work best under many circumstances. Why?
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Variable Interval: Reinforcing someone after a variable amount of time. If you have a boss
who checks your work periodically, you understand the power of this schedule. Because you
don’t know when the next ‘check-up’ might come, you have to be working hard at all the times.
In this sense, the variable schedules are more powerful and result in more consistent behaviors.
4.2.2.2 Punishment
Punishment is the opposite of reinforcements- it weakens the probability of the reoccurrence of

behaviors preceding it. Just like reinforcement it can be positive (if something aversive is
applied) and negative (if something pleasant is removed). The most common example of this is
disciplining (e.g. spanking) a child for misbehaving. The reason we do this is because the child
begins to associate being punished with the negative behavior. The punishment is not liked and
therefore to avoid it, he or she will stop behaving in that manner.
The Pros and Cons of Punishment

 For Punishment to be effective it is better to consider the following:
 Immediacy – When punishment follows immediately after the behavior to be punished.
 Consistency- when punishment is inconsistent the behavior being punished is
intermittently reinforced and therefore becomes resistant to extinction.
 Intensity- In general terms severe punishments are more effective than mild ones. But,
there are studies that indicate that even less intense punishments are effective
provided that they are applied immediately and consistently.
 Better to accompany it with explanation, advising and reinforcing of good behavior.
 When does punishment fail?

1. People often administer punishment inappropriately or mindlessly.
2. It may lead to revenge. The recipient of punishment often responds with anxiety, fear or
rage. Through a process of classical conditioning, these emotional side effects may then
generalize to the entire situation in which the punishment occurs- the place, the person
delivering the punishment, and the circumstances. These negative emotional reactions
can create more problems than the punishment solves. A teenager who has been severely
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punished may strike back or run away. Being physically punished in childhood is a risk
factor for depression, low self-esteem, violent behavior and many other problems.
3. The effectiveness of punishment is often temporary: depending heavily on the presence
of the punishing person or circumstances
4. Most behavior is hard to punish immediately.
5. Punishment conveys little information. An action intended to punish may instead be
reinforcing because it brings attention for some.
Extinction in Operant Conditioning
This is the decline and finally disappearance of certain behavior due to the removal of a
positive reinforcement. It is stopping to behave in certain way because of the fact that the
consequence of our behavior is not reinforcing.
Applying the Principles of Operant Conditioning

1. Shaping
For a response to be reinforced, it must first occur. But, suppose you want to train a child to
use a knife and a fork properly during feeding. Such behaviors, and most others in everyday life,
have almost no probability appearing spontaneously. The operant solution for this is shaping.
Shaping is an operant conditioning procedure in which successive approximations of a desired
response are reinforced. In shaping you start by reinforcing a tendency in the right direction.
Then you gradually require responses that are more and more similar to the final desired
response. The responses that you reinforce on the way to the final one are called successive
approximations. Shaping has two components: differential reinforcement which simply means
some responses are reinforced and others are not, and successive approximation, which refers to
the fact that only those responses that become increasingly similar to the one the experimenter
wants are reinforced.
2. Chaining
The major difference between shaping and chaining lies on the nature of the behavior they
are related with. In the case of shaping we said that the person is trying to develop a behavior by
reinforcing every successive approximations made by the individual toward the target behavior.
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But in chaining, we are trying to establish a very complex behavior which consists of
independent and interrelated chains of other behaviors that are embedded in this behavior. In
here, we do not reward any sort of approximations. Instead, what we reinforce is actual
accomplishments of the series of behaviors.
Eg. Teaching a mentally retarded child to make his own bed and Training on project preparation.
3. Behavior Modification
The basic idea underlying this area of application is the issue of changing maladjusted and
unwanted behaviors of humans and animals alike through the use of the effects of reinforcement
and punishment. This is actually a very important technique formulated by behaviorists so as to
treat people who are suffering from various kinds of psychological problems. The intention, in
here, is molding or changing abnormal behaviors which create some sort of malfunction in the
lives of human beings. This is the application Operant condition in Psychotherapy.
Read more on these and other areas of application of the Operant Conditioning
4.2.3 Cognitive Learning Theories
For half a century, most American learning theories held that learning could be explained
by specifying the behavioral “ABCs” – antecedents (events preceding behavior), behaviors, and
consequences. In the 1940s, two social scientists proposed a modification they called Social
Learning Theory. Most human learning, they argued, is acquired by observing other people in
social context, rather than through standard conditioning procedures.
By 1960s and 1970s, Social Learning Theory was in full bloom, and a new element had been
added: the human capacity for higher level of cognitive processes. Its proponents agreed with
behaviorists that human beings, along with the rat and the rabbit, are subject to the laws of
operant and classical conditioning. But, they added that human beings, unlike the rat and the
rabbit, are full of attitudes, beliefs and expectations that affect the way they acquire information,
make decisions, reason, and solve problems. These mental processes affect what individuals will
do at any given moment and also, more generally the personality traits they develop.
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A. Learning by Observing (The Social Learning Theory)

This theory refers to learning by watching and imitating what others do and what happens to
them for doing it. Behaviorists have always acknowledged the importance of observational
learning, which they call vicarious conditioning, and have tried to explain it in stimulus-
response terms. But Social Cognitive Theorists believe that in human beings, observational
learning cannot be fully understood without taking into account the thought (cognition) processes
of the learner.
They emphasize the knowledge that results when a person sees a model- behaving in certain
ways and experiencing the consequences. Many years ago, Albert Bandura and his colleagues
showed just how important observational learning is, especially for children who are learning the
rules of social behavior. After a through experiment A. Bandura observed that children do not
imitate blindly or automatically. He started to consider cognitive factors are advanced as
explaining why children imitate some things and not others. Bandura changed Observational
Learning theory of by combining it with aspects of cognitive psychology called Social-cognitive
Learning. This can be seen in the four processes Bandura proposes as relevant to social learning:
Attention, Retention, Production, and Motivation.
All of these undergo age changes; they all develop. Therefore, age affects social learning.
1. Attention: Children gradually improve in their ability to pay attention. This affects social
learning because they pay better attention to models. One couldn't lecture to kindergartners and
expect them to pay attention.
2. Retention: Children gradually improve their ability to remember things they have seen or
experienced. This affects social learning because children are better able to remember what
models did.
3. Production: Children's abilities gradually improve. This means that they are able to produce
more of what they see and try to imitate. Obviously, young children can't imitate behaviors that
they are physically unable to reproduce any more than I can dunk a basketball just by watching
someone else do it.
Read more on Steps (attention, retention, and production) in Observational Learning
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B. Latent Learning
‘Latent’ means hidden, and thus latent learning is learning that occurs but is not evident in
behavior until later, when conditions for its appearance are favorable. It is said to occur without
reinforcement of particular responses and seems to involve changes in the way information is
processed. In a classic experiment, Tolman and C.H Honzic (1930) placed three groups of rats
in mazes and observed their behavior each day for more than two weeks. The rats in Group 1
always found food at the end of the maze. Group 2 never found food. Group 3 found no food for
ten days but then received food on the eleventh. The Group 1 rats quickly learned to head
straight the end of the without going blind alleys, whereas Group 2 rats did not learn to go to the
end. But, the group three rats were different. For ten days they appeared to follow no particular
route. Then, on the eleventh day they quickly learned to run to the end of the maze. By the next
day, they were doing, as well as group one, which had been rewarded from the beginning. Group
three rats had demonstrated latent learning, learning that is not immediately expressed. A great
deal of human learning also remains latent until circumstances allow or require it to be
expressed.
C. Insight Learning
It (the Insight Learning) is cognitive process whereby we reorganize our perception of a
problem. It doesn’t depend on conditioning of particular behaviors for its occurrence.
Sometimes, for example, people even wake from sleep with the solution to a problem that they
had not been able to solve during the day. In a typical insight situation a problem is posed, a
period follows during which no apparent progress is made, then the solution comes suddenly.
What has been learned in insight learning can also be applied easily to other similar situations.
Human beings who solve a problem insightfully usually experience a good feeling called an 'aha'
experience.
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4.3 Human Memory- Theories and process

4.3.1 Definition and the process of Memory
There are various definitions of the term memory forwarded by the scholars in the area.
According to Information Processing Theory, memory refers to the capacity to encode, store,
and retrieve information and also to the structures that account for this capacity. The whole
system is guided by control processes that determine how and when information will follow
through the system. The information processing approach relies on the computer as a model for
human learning. Its process includes the following:
Attention and selection
The first process of memory is attention. There is much more information in your environment
than you can process at any one time. Thus, you must make choices (conscious and unconscious)
regarding the stimuli to which you will attend. Imagine two persons who are driving to
recreational park (Langano) during their break for enjoyment. Both have different plans for how
they want to spend their vacation: one listening to local bands and the other observing wild
animals. While they are in Bishan Gari Lodge, they are approached by a stranger who asks if
they see monkeys nearby. Assuming they have more monkeys and other wild animals in the
lodge and while passing, the chances are that the one planned to see wild animals, but not the
friend, would have remembered seeing it. Had the stranger asked about music clubs, you might
find the opposite scenario. Each one likely attended to what was of interest. This is presented
here to emphasize the roles attention and selection play in our memory.
Encoding
Once something is attended to, it must be encoded to be remembered later on. Basically,
encoding refers to translating incoming information into a mental representation that can be
stored in memory. You can encode the same information in a number of different ways. For
example, you can encode information according to its sound (acoustic code), what it looks like
(visual code), or what it means (semantic code). Suppose, for example, that you are trying to
remember these three types of encoding from your notes. You might say each of the terms aloud
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and encode the sounds of the words (acoustic), you might see the three types of encoding on your
page and visualize the way the words look (visual), or you might think about the meanings of
each of the terms (semantic).
How does encoding apply to memory? Well, the way you encode information may affect
what you remember and how you recall it later. If you encoded the three things visually or
acoustically, but not semantically, you may be able to list them during a test, but you may have
difficulty recalling what each term means. If you encoded them only semantically, you might be
able to explain what they mean but have difficulty remembering the order in which they were
listed on the page.
You may be able to remember information best if you use techniques (while retrieving the
information) that are related to the way you encoded it. For example, if you encoded something
visually, you will be able to recall it most easily by drawing on visual cues. You will find that
many of the memory techniques discussed in this section are designed to help you encode the
information in different ways.
Storage
Storage is the process of holding/retaining information in your memory. A distinction is

often made between short-term and long-term memory. Short-term memory is just that, brief and
transient. Think about looking up a new phone number in the phone book and making a call. You
may remember it long enough to make the call, but do not recall it later. This is your short-term
memory, which can hold a small amount of information for a short period of time. Once you stop
attending to the number, perhaps after you make the call and move on to another task, you are
likely to forget it. In order to remember the number for a longer period of time (and after
attending to other things), you would need to store it in your long-term memory.
The transfer of information from short-term memory (STM) to long-term memory (LTM)
can be achieved in many ways. However, Maintenance Rehearsal and Elaborative Rehearsal are
the two main ways for transferring information from STM to LTM. Simply repeating the
information can help if it's repeated enough times. For example, frequently called phone numbers
are remembered because you have used (repeated) the number many times. Although simply
repeating or practicing (Maintenance Rehearsal) something can help move it into long-term
memory, another strategy for transferring information is to think about it deeply. That is,
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elaborate on the information, drawing connections between what you are trying to remember
and the other things with which you are already familiar (Elaborative Rehearsal). You might
learn that telephone number quicker, for example, if you notice that it includes the dates of your
friend's birthday, the numbers on your license plate, or some other familiar number pattern.
Retrieval
Retrieval is the process of actually remembering something when you want to. If you think
about tip-of-the-tongue experiences, when you know a word or name but just can't seem to recall
it, you will understand how retrieval is different from storage. In terms of memory improvement,
it can help to understand how the retrieval process relates to encoding and storage. Consider the
relationship between retrieval and encoding. If you encoded something visually, but are trying to
retrieve it acoustically, you will have difficulty remembering. Like encoding, information can be
retrieved through visualizing it, thinking about the meaning, or imagining the sound…etc. The
more ways information has been encoded, the more ways there are for retrieving it. Imagine that
you are taking a test in which you are given a definition and asked to recall the word it describes.
You may recall the page of your notes that the word was on and visualize the word, or you might
say the definition to yourself and remember yourself repeating the word. Thus, memory is aided
by encoding and retrieving information in multiple ways.
Retrieval relates to storage as well, obviously the memory has to be stored in order for you to
retrieve it, but knowing how it was stored can help. This is where elaboration and processing
come in. When attempting to retrieve information, it helps to think about related ideas. Eg., you
are trying to remember a chemistry formula during an exam. Although you are able to visualize
the page of your chemistry notes, you cannot recall the exact formula. You do remember,
however, that this same formula was used in the biology class you took last year. As you think
about that class, you are able to recall the formula. This is one reason why intentionally
organizing information in your memory when you are learning it helps you recall it later.
Summary
Attention ----> Encoding ----> Storage ----> Retrieval
Here are the steps of memory discussed thus far. First, you select the information to which you
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will attend. You then code the information for storage (where it can be practiced and processed
more deeply). Later, when needed, information is retrieved by using a search strategy that
parallels how the information was coded and stored.
Memory is retention of information over a period of time. Ebbinghaus studied memories by

teaching himself lists of nonsense words and then studying his retention of these lists over
periods of hours to days. This was one of the earliest studies of memory in psychology.
4.3.2 Stages of memory: An information processing view
A. Sensory Register/Memory
This is the first stage of memory in which an exact image of each sensory experience is
held briefly until it can be processed. It is an experience that lasts for a very short time because it
takes a second or two for the sensory neurons and the neurons that come right after them to
recover from stimulation. It is a process of gathering information from the environment through
the senses of organs. For example, if you look at a window, then shut your eyes tight, you will
still see the window for a moment, and then see a reversed image of the window (where white
becomes black, red becomes green, blue becomes yellow, and so on).
Capacity, Duration and Contents of Sensory Register

The capacity of sensory register is very large, more information that we can possibly handle at
once. But the vast amount of information is forgotten/ fragile immediately. It holds all of the
information reaching our senses of organs for a very brief time i.e. it lasts between one and three
seconds. The types of information stored are the direct replica of our sensations.
B. Short-Term Memory/Working Memory

Once transformed into patterns, images or sound or perhaps other types of sensory code, the
information in sensory register can enter short-term memory. It is the aspect of memory that
you are aware of, or can bring back very quickly and easily.
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Capacity, Duration and Contents of Short-Term Memory

The capacity of short-term memory is limited to a very small number of “bits” of information
that can be held at one time. According to Gorge Miller, the capacity of short-term memory is a
magic number seven plus or minus two (7 + or – 2). It can hold "7 plus or minus 2” chunks
(units of memory) of information, that is, from 5 to 9 "things.” Notice that phone numbers (for
fixed lines without code) are 7 numbers long – just about the right length to keep in mind for a
bit. In USA the Social security numbers are 9 numbers long, and that is a strain for many.
One thing that helps is that the "chunks” can be of different sizes themselves. So, while a
series of random letters, like ibmfbiciabbcgadaanow..., are pretty difficult to remember, they
become much easier to remember if you "chunk” them further: IBM FBI CIA BBC GADAA
NOW....etc.
The duration of information in short-term memory is short and it’s about 20 and 30 seconds
at the most. Short-term memory is sometimes called working memory because its content is
activated information- what you are thinking about at the moment. The information in the short-
term memory may be in the form of images that resemble the perception in sensory register, or
the information may be structured more abstractly, based on meaning.
Retaining Information in Short-Term Memory

Because information in short-term memory is fragile and easily lost, it must be kept activated
to be retrained. Activation high as long as you are focusing on information, but it decays or fades
quickly when attention shift away. To keep information activated in short-term memory for more
than 20 seconds, most people rehearse the information mentally. They are two types of rehearsal:
maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal.
Maintenance Rehearsal involves repeating the information in your mind. This type of
rehearsal for retaining something you plan to use and then forget, like phone number.
Elaborative Rehearsal on the other hand involves associating the information a person is
trying to remember with something a person already knows, with information from the long-term
memory.
E.g. if you meet someone at a certain place whose name is the same to your brother’s, you don’t
have to repeat the name to keep it in memory, you just have to make the association. This kind of
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rehearsal not only retains information in the working memory but helps move information from
short-term memory to long-term memory.
C. Long-Term Memory
Long-term memory holds information that is well learned. Well learned information is said to
be high in memory strength. Short-term memory isn't really a place where things are temporarily
stored. It is actually more a matter of temporary cycles of neural excitement that, if repeated
often enough, eventually leave their mark as more permanent memory (long-term memory).
Capacity, Duration and Contents of Long-Term Memory

The capacity of long-term memory appears to be, for all practical purposes, unlimited. As
the name implies, this contains the memories that we hang on to for a long time – our whole
lives, often enough. Our access to information in the short-term memory is immediate because
information in short-term memory is what we are thinking about at that very moment. But access
to information in long-term memory requires time and effort. In this memory stage meaningful
information can last for a long period of time (may be throughout one’s life-span).
Contents of Long-Term Memory: there are different views regarding the way information is
stored in long-term memory. Allan Paivio suggests that information is stored in long-term
memory as either visual images, or verbal units, or both. Some psychologists also share this
view. The criticism forwarded against this view is that the capacity of the brain is not large
enough to store all the images we can imagine. Those with these critics suggest that many
images are actually stored as verbal codes and then translated into visual information when an
image is needed. Most cognitive psychologists distinguish three categories of long-term memory:
Declarative (semantic and episodic) and Non-declarative (procedural).
Semantic Memory is a memory for meaning. Those memories are stored as propositions,
images, and schema. It contains items of general knowledge or knowledge of facts- the
knowledge of the physical worlds.
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Episodic Memory is a memory of information tied to a particular place and time, especially
information about the events of your own life. It keeps track of the order of things, so it is place
to store jokes, gossip, or plots from films. E.g. birth date, date of graduation …etc.
Procedural Memory is a memory of how to do things. Procedural memories represented as

condition-action rules, sometimes called production. Production specifies what to do under
certain conditions. Procedural learning goes slow at first, but once the person master the skills;
he/she will remember them automatically for a long time. E.g. memory of swimming water and
riding a bicycle
Storing information in long-term memory

Information can be stored in LTM in many ways. The following are some:
Elaboration is the addition of meaning to new information through its connection with already
existing knowledge. In other words, we apply our schemas and draw an already existing
knowledge in the process.
Organization is a second element of processing that improves learning. Material that is well
organized is easier to learn and remember than bits and pieces of information, especially if the
information is complex or extensive. Placing a concept in a structure will help you learn and
remember either general definition or specific examples.
Context: Aspects of physical and emotional context are learned along with other information.
Later, if you try to remember the information, it will be easier if the current context is similar to
the original one.
Retrieving of Long-Term Memories

Information lost from short-term memory truly disappears. No amount of effort will bring it
back. But information stored in long-term memory may be available, given the right cues. The
following are some of the methods through which we retrieve information from the long-term
memory.
Recall Method- a measure of memory based on the ability to retrieve information from the long-
term memory with few cues. Similarly, some people use “tip of the tongue” phenomena.
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Recognition Method- a measure of memory based on the ability to select information from
among the options provided.
Relearning Method- a measure of memory based on the length of time it takes to relearn
forgotten materials.
Serial Position Effect- the finding that immediately recall of items listed in a fixed order is often
better for items at beginning (primacy effect) and at the end (recence effect) of the list than for
those in the middle.
4.3.3. Forgetting and Why it occurs

Psychologist use the term ‘forgetting’ to refer to the apparent loss of information already
encoded and stored in the long-term memory. The first attempt to study forgetting systematically
was made by Hermann Ebbinghous- tried to conduct study by taking himself as his own subject.
He took three letters nonsense syllabus and grouped by putting consonants at 1 st and last and the
middle vowel. Then he tried to remember them. Finally, he concludes that encoded information
may be forgotten during the first few hours after learning; but it persists later after 9 hours.
Theories of Forgetting
A. Decay Theory
According to this theory, forgetting occur as a result of the passage of time. Or in other
words, memory trace fades over time if they are not accessed now and then. This explanation
assumed that when new materials are learned, a memory trace occurs but, if we are not using the
information because of time forgetting occurs. As to this theory, the simple passage of time is
cause of forgetting, both in the sensory register and short-term memory but not in long-term
memory. This is because they said; once memory trace passed into long-term memory they
appear to be permanent.
B. Interference Theory
As to this theory, forgetting occurs because similar information or memories interfere with
the storage or retrieval of information. The information may get into memory, but it becomes
confused with other similar information. This would happen in two ways.
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Proactive Interference: Proactive interference occurs when the already stored memories
(previously learned information) come in between or interfere with the recall of the newly
learned material/information. e.g., you learned psychology this semester and sociology in the last
semester. When exam was taken in psychology, material from sociology, rather than that of
psychology, kept coming into mind.
Retroactive interference: Retroactive interference occurs when the newly learned material
or information interferes with or blocks our ability to recall the previously learned material. In
the psychology-sociology example given above, when examinations were taken, the memories of
newly learned material (psychology) may interfere with recall of the formerly learned material
(sociology).
C. Reconstruction (Schema) Theory
The theory that information stored in long-term memory sometimes changed over time to
become more consistent with our beliefs, knowledge, and expectations. Schemas are associative
networks of beliefs, knowledge, and expectations. Long-term memories often distorted,
sometimes unrecognizable because they change over time to become more with our schemas.
D. Motivated Theory (Emotional)
Sigmund Freud suggested that we sometimes intentionally forget or “repress” certain

information or experiences we do not really want to remember. We forget because some
information may painful or threatening to us and he called such self protecting process as
repression. Today most psychologists use more general term Motivated forgetting. As to
Freud we consciously remove unpleasant information from conscious mind to unconscious one.
And he said, “We tend to forget because we want to forget”
E. Retrieval Failure Theory (Cue Dependency Forgetting)
According to this theory, we forget because we lack the appropriate cues or retrieval cues. The
memory could be context dependent: E.g. unless students take the exam in the room that they
were learned the whole course they may face problem of remembering some information.
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The memory could also be state dependent: E.g. unless students take the exam under the similar
condition, mood, emotion they did while studying they may face problem of remembering some
information.
F. Displacement Theory of Forgetting
This theory states that the space in our brain is not enough to store all information we
encounter. So, to store new information the already stored ones should be eradicated or removed.
In addition to the above theories of forgetting, forgetting also occur because of different
diseases/ disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Amnesia (anterograde and retrograde amnesia).
4.3.4 Improving Memory
In the previous section, we have discussed memory processes and introduced you to
some basic concepts of memory. What we have presented, however, is just the tip of the iceberg.
If you review research on memory and learning, you will find that there exists a vast amount of
information on the subject. But in learning to become more personally and academically
effective, you are probably most interested in seeing how this knowledge can be put into
practice. In other words, how can it help you improve your memory? Thus, we focus on memory
techniques and strategies.
1. Pulling it all together Organizing and ordering information can significantly improve
memory. Imagine, for example, how difficult it would be to remember a random list of 62 letters.
On the other hand, it would not be difficult to memorize the first sentence in this paragraph
(consisting of 62 letters). Similarly, learning a large amount of unconnected and unorganized
information from various classes can be very challenging. By organizing and adding meaning to
the material prior to learning it, you can facilitate both storage and retrieval. In other words, you
can learn it better and recall it easier. The following concepts can help you pull various pieces of
information together in order to increase understanding and organization. This can mean
organizing material on paper, such as when you make an outline or idea web, or simply
organizing material in your memory, such as learning it in a particular order or making
intentional associations between ideas.
2. The funnel approach This means learning general concepts before moving on to specific
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details. When you study in this manner, you focus on getting a general framework, or overview,
before filling in the details. When you understand the general concepts first, the details make
more sense. Rather than disconnected bits of information to memorize, such as history dates, the
material fits together within the overall framework. Seeing how the smaller details relate to one
another, you process the information more deeply (which helps you store, and later retrieve, it
from memory). This idea is probably familiar--there are many learning strategies based on the
funnel approach. For example, the approach is used in previewing a chapter for the major ideas
as a way to enhance your comprehension of details contained in the chapter. You may also notice
that many textbook chapters are organized in a "general to specific" format. Finally, you
probably use this type of approach when studying from an outline, matrix, or concept map.
Because of their organization, these tools are particularly well-suited for learning general to
specific.
3. Organizing through meaning and association Earlier, we discussed the concept of making
intentional associations in order to improve learning retention. What do we mean by "intentional
associations"? During learning a person continually makes associations. We make associations
between what we are learning and the environment we are in, between the information and our
mental states, and between the information and our stream of thoughts. When things are
associated in memory, thinking of one helps bring the other to mind.
Have you ever actually retraced your path when you have forgotten where you put an object
such as your keys? Often, as you approach the place where you put them, you are suddenly able
to remember the act of laying them down on the table or putting them in your gym bag. This is
association. The memory of putting the keys down was associated with your memory of things in
the environment. You can make associations work for you by making them intentional. When
you are having difficulty recalling new material, you can help bring it to mind by thinking about
what you have associated it with. In other words--retrace your mental path. We will return to this
idea later when we discuss specific strategies.
a) Deep processing--relating the material to yourself One way to process information more
deeply, and also to create meaningful associations, is to think about how the information can be
personally meaningful. You might think about how the new material relates to your life, your
experience, or your goals. If you can link new information to memories already stored ("mental
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hooks"), you'll have more cues to recall the new material.
b) Grouping. This idea is probably best explained with an example. You can organize material
by grouping similar concepts, or related ideas, together. Arranging the material into related
groups helps your memory by organizing the information. For example, you could have grouped
all of the sports into one of the following categories: a) Winter sports, b) Track and Field sports,
and c) Sports using a ball. Keeping these categories in mind, try the exercise again. If you were
like most people, you will be able to remember more of the sports.
Of course, in this instance, we created a list with the intention of demonstrating grouping;
thus, there were 6 or 7 sports in each category. Still, with a little thought, this strategy can be
used in a variety of ways. For example, can you think of other ways that these sports could be
grouped? There are individual sports, team sports, sports you may enjoy, and sports you may
dislike. There are sports requiring a great deal of equipment, and sports requiring little or none.
When you are trying to remember lists for a test, the concepts and words may or may not have a
natural organization. Therefore, you may need to be creative when making associations. Finally,
the process of organizing a list into groups can often help you to understand the relationship
between the concepts better.
4. Vivid associations We have already discussed the idea of associations: aiding storage and
retrieval of new information by intentionally pairing it with something familiar. When learning
something new and unfamiliar, try pairing it with something you know very well, such as
images, puns, music, whatever. The association does not have to make logical sense. Often times
it is associations that are particularly vivid humorous or silly that stay in your mind. Some people
remember names this way. For example, they may remember the name "Robert Green" by
picturing Robert playing golf (on the green), wearing green clothes, or covered in green paint.
Or suppose for your anatomy course you have to recall names of the veins in the human
body, and the first one on the list is "pancreatic" followed by "right gastroepipeloic" and "left
gastroepipeloic" and so on. You can picture a frying pan being creative--maybe painting a
picture with bright paints and bold strokes. If the frying pan is working in a studio, picture gas
pipes with little padlocks on them (gastroepipeloic) in the left and right studio corners....
5. Active learning You will notice that the term "active learning" has come up frequently.
Active learning facilitates your memory by helping you attend to and process information. All of
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the memory techniques we have discussed require active learning. Even if you attend every
lecture and read every assignment, there is no guarantee that you will learn and remember the
information. Although you may passively absorb some material, to ensure that you remember
important information requires being active and involved, that is attending to and thinking about
what you are learning.
6. Visual memory Some people remember information best when it is encoded visually; if
that is the case for you, then code information in this manner. But even if you do not consider
yourself specifically "a visual learner," you may find that including visual memory can still help.
After all, it is one more way of encoding and storing information--and one more way of
retrieving it for a test.
There are many ways of visually encoding and retrieving information. We have already
mentioned the strategy of associating concepts with visual images. But other aids to visual
memory include diagrams, tables, outlines, etc. Often these are provided in texts, so take
advantage of pictures, cartoons, charts, graphs, or any other visual material. You can also draw
many of these things yourself. For example, try to visualize how the ideas relate to each other
and draw a graph, chart, picture, or some other representation of the material. You may even
want to make it a habit to convert difficult material into actual pictures or diagrams in your notes,
or to convert words into mental images on the blackboard of your mind.
Finally, using your visual memory can be as simple as writing out vocabulary words,
theories, or algebraic formulas. This allows you to not only practice (repeat) the information but
also to see the way it looks on the page (developing a visual memory that you may be able to
retrieve later). Another advantage is that it helps you take an active role in learning the material.
When you draw your ideas on paper or write down things you are trying to remember, you have
the opportunity to think about the information more deeply.
7. Talk it out When trying to memorize something; it can help to actually recite the
information aloud. You might repeat ideas verbatim (when you need to do rote memorization), or
you can repeat ideas in your own words (and thus ensure that you have a true understanding of
the information). Repeating information aloud can help you encode the information (auditory
encoding) and identify how well you have learned it.
For some students though they know the test information, they are surprised when they
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"freeze" and cannot give adequate responses. For some students, this "freezing" may be a result
of test anxiety. For others, however, it may be a result of overestimating how well they know the
material. If you recite the information aloud from memory (answering questions, defining words,
or using flash cards), it is often quite clear how well you know it. If you stumble in your
responses, have to look up answers, or can only give a vague response, then you know that you
need to study more.
Although reciting aloud can be a helpful memory technique, some people avoid it out of
fear of appearing foolish ("what if someone sees me talking to myself?"). If this applies to you,
work with a friend or study group. Another advantage of working with someone else is that they
can inform you when you are missing important concepts or misunderstanding an idea. Keep in
mind, however, that studying with others does not work for everyone. For example, some
students may become anxious or intimidated in study groups and would be more comfortable
studying alone.
8. Visualize yourself teaching the material An effective way to enhance recall and
understanding of dense material is to teach it to an imaginary audience. By doing so, you are
forced to organize the material in a way that makes sense to you and to anticipate potential
questions that may be asked by your students. Moreover, by articulating your lecture aloud, you
will uncover gaps in your comprehension (and recall) of the material. (Far better to is cover those
"weak" areas before a test than during it.) After you have mastered a particular section from your
textbook, try delivering an organized lecture on any topic from that section. Then check for
accuracy. Don't forget to anticipate questions that students might ask about the material as a way
of anticipating potential test questions.
9. Using mnemonics
a. Method of Loci
The ancients remembered things by imagining taking a familiar walk and placing the things to
be remembered at locations along the way. This method works because it organizes the material
to be remembered and it encourages elaborative processing and memorable imagery.
b. Context-Dependent Learning
Physical and emotional context may be inadvertently coded as retrieval cues along with the
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intended cues. Consistent with this idea, various studies show that recall is better when tested in
the same context (physical or emotional) as in which learning took place. Some benefit has been
found studying for important exams in the same room as they will be taken. However these
results are variable.
In addition to the techniques listed above the following methods are also helpful in improving
one’s memory: Paying attention- very critical in improving remembering; Encoding
Information in more than one way- using alternatives to make remembrance easier; Taking
Time- minimizing interference by taking rest; Spacing Vs Mass Practice- spacing practice is
better than mass practice (holding large information at once); Monitoring Learning-checking
(self-evaluation) how we are doing with the materials.
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CHAPTER FIVE MOTIVATION AND EMOTION
5.1 Motivation
Introduction
 Why do some students want to get “A” in every exam & some don’t even bother about it?
 Why do the skydivers love to dive down from hundreds of meters above the ground?
 Why do some people run after money & some refuse even the most attractive job offers?
 Why do some people leave their country for earning money and some are contented and
happy with whatever is available to them at home?
 Why we want to learn/ know about the particular subject or course? Why did you choose
your current career?
 Why people become doctors, psychologist, engineers, social workers, pilots, police…etc?
 Why did you choose your current partner? Where would you live?
 Are your goals different from other people or do we all share the same goals in life?
In this chapter issues such as: types of motivation, definition of motivation, the component
of emotion, stress and how to cope up with it, and the various theories related to motivation and
emotion will be discussed. You will also learn the different views on motivation, from those
deemed instinctual and internal to those viewed as external.
5.1.1 Meaning and Definition of Motivation

Motive means to move. A MOTIVE is a need or a want that causes us to act or that makes
us to move in certain direction. Why we do the things that we do? And why we give meaning to
some things? We give things meaning because we have desires. Because of desire, some things
have value to us, and some don't; some are relevant to us, some are not; and value or relevance is
just another way of talking about meaning. Behaviorists and other theorists who take a fairly
biological approach to psychology suggest that our desires all boil down to the desire to survive.
So our most fundamental needs are for food, water, rest, and the avoidance of pain. More
complex motivations are seen as derived from these by learning.
To this end, motivation refers to an internal state that activates and gives direction to our
thought. Further, motivation is that which gives the impetus/force to behavior by arousing,
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sustaining and directing it towards the successful attainment of goals. The implication is that
Motivation involves goal-directed behavior. Motivation is a desire, drive, instinct or need that
accelerate our behavior towards some goal. Psychologists are interested in identifying, observing
and evaluating the factors that motivate or direct human behavior. So, psychology is highly
concerned with motivation.
5.1.2 Classification of Motives

i. Primary /Biological Motives
It is clear that there is a physiological necessity for eating and drinking: without food and
water the organism will stop functioning. However, people eat for pleasure and are highly
motivated to take certain drugs, which do not appear to have a physiological benefit. Primary
motives refer to state based on biological needs that activates and guide behavior. They triggered
when there is certain state of imbalance in the body. Although most of the primary motives are
based on biological survival needs, psychological factors are involved in these motives as well.
ii. Psychological Motives

Psychological motives are motives that are not directly related to the biological survival of
the individual or the species. They are “needs” in the sense that individual’s happiness and well-
being depends on these motives. Even more than primary motives, psychological motives vary
considerably in the degree to which they are influenced by experiences. Some psychological
motives are found in every normal member of species and seem to be innate, whereas others
seem to be entirely learned.
iii. Social Motives
These motives are called social because they are learned in social situation such as the
family, community, society. Or in other words, they are learned through socialization.
Depending on when and where, these motives may vary from one individual to another and it is
not universal. It includes motives such as: need for power, need for recognition, need for
affiliation (sexual motivation, for intimacy…etc), need for achievement…etc.
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5.1.3 Theories of Motivation

A. Instinct Theory of Motivation
Instinct theory is derived from our biological make-up. We've all seen spider's webs and
perhaps even witnessed a spider in the tedious job of creating its home and trap. We've all seen
birds in their nests, feeding their young or painstakingly placing the twigs in place to form their
new home. How do spiders know how to spin webs? How do birds now how to build nests?
The answer is biology. All creatures are born with specific innate knowledge about how to
survive. Animals are born with the capacity and often with the knowledge of how to survive for
instance by spinning webs, building nests, avoiding danger, and reproducing. These innate
tendencies are preprogrammed at birth; they are in our genes. In the case of the spider for
instance, even if the spider never saw a web before and never witnessed its creation, it would still
know how to create one.
Humans have the same types of innate tendencies. Babies are born with a unique ability that
allows them to survive; they are born with the ability to cry. Without this, how would others
know when to feed the baby, when he needed changing, or when she wanted attention and
affection? Crying allows a human infant to survive. We are also born with particular reflexes
which promote survival. The most important of these include sucking, swallowing, coughing,
blinking. Newborns can perform physical movements to avoid pain; they will turn their head if
touched on their cheek and search for a nipple (rooting reflex); and they will grasp an object that
touches the palm of their hands.
B. Drive Reduction Theory of Motivation
Also called the Push Theory of Motivation, this theory emphasizes on the biological factors
behind human motivation and is based on the concept of our body’s homeostasis. Homeostasis is
where an organism attempts to keep its physiological systems at a constant balanced steady
(equilibrium) level. Hull as cited in Albery (2004) suggested that physiological disruptions to
homeostasis produce drives (internal tension that motives an organism to engage in behavior that
reduces this tension). E.g. If we get too hot we take measure to try to cool ourselves down. If
you feel hunger, you try your best to gate something to eat, if thirsted to drink…etc.
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C. Incentive Theory of Motivation
Also called the Pull Theory of Motivation, Incentive Theory maintains that external stimuli
motivate one’s behavior. Accordingly, individuals are attracted to the behaviors that offer
positive incentives (reinforcement), and discouraged from those behaviors they associate with
negative outcomes. E.g. grade in an exam might act as an incentive for those students to work
hard to maintain this level. Promotion, power, recognition, achievement, wealth, freedom, praise,
payment increment, to be appreciated…etc are some of the factors that motivate different
individuals to act in various ways.
D. Cognitive Theory of Motivation
How can we explain why some things motivate only some people and why these do not
always motivate the same person twice? Obviously, this is the role of cognition. According to
Cognitive Theory, goal directed behavior is motivated by two cognitive judgments:
 The strength of individual’s expectation that engagement in a particular behavior will
lead to goal obtainment.
 The value an individual places on the goal.
E. Optimal Arousal Theory of Motivation
For a normally functioning person a certain level of arousal and excitement is needed by his/her
system. We try to maintain that level of stimulation and activity in which the maintenance may
require the reduction or increase in the existing level, depending upon the circumstances. When
our arousal state becomes too high, it needs to come down for optimal functioning and vice
versa. Too high a motivational arousal may affect performance negatively; it may produce
anxiety and irritability in the organism. Similarly too low an arousal may also have adverse
effect e.g. performance of a person suffering from depression. Therefore, this theory states that a
consistent, well balanced, and leveled arousal is needed for the optimal functioning of
individuals. This is required for instance in case of exams, athletics, interviews.
Thus people are motivated to maintain certain best level of arousal to function normally and
exert their maximum effort. Similar to Hull's Drive Reduction Theory, Arousal theory states that
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we are driven to maintain a certain level of arousal in order to feel comfortable and function
normally. Arousal refers to a state of emotional, intellectual, and physical activity.
In each of us, there is different arousals which is just optimum that we want to function
normally. Optimal Arousal Theory does not suggest, however, that there is biological need for a
moderate or an optimal level of arousal. The individual can survive at high or low level of
arousal, but he or she is motivated to achieve a comfortable, optimum level of arousal by acting
in ways that increase or decrease stimulation. Affiliation motives and achievement motivation
are of this type.
F. Opponent Process Theory of Motivation
This is a theory of learning of new motives based on changes over time in contrasting/opposite
feelings. It states that it is the next experience (the opposite of the first one) not the first one that
motivate people to act in certain way. As to this theory:
 Every state of positive feelings is followed by a contrasting negative feeling, and vice versa.
 Any feeling-either positive or negative- that is experienced many times in succession loses
some of its intensity.
E.g. Parachute jumping is frightening at first. When the novice jumper lands, he/she is generally
in the middle of shock but soon begins smiling and talking excitedly about the jump. It also does
better to explain why people climb mountains; participate in horse riding, drug abuse, trying
various dangerous things or watch sad movies.
G. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory
According to Humanistic Theory of Motivation, humans are driven to achieve their maximum
potential and will always do so unless obstacles are placed in their way. These obstacles include
hunger, thirst, financial problems, safety issues, the ruling system or anything else (both external
and internal factors) that takes our focus away from maximum psychological growth.
The best way to describe this theory is to utilize the famous pyramid developed by Abraham
Maslow (1970) called the Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow believed that humans have specific needs
that must be met and that if lower level needs go unmet, we cannot possible strive for higher
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level needs. The Hierarchy of Needs shows that at the lower level, we must focus on basic issues
such as food, sleep, and safety. Without food, without sleep, how could we possible focus on the
higher level needs such as respect, education, and recognition?
It is clear that some needs are far more demanding than others: If you are hungry, thirsty, and
gasping for air, you have to take care of the air first, the water second, and the food third.
Abraham Maslow took this idea and created his now famous Hierarchy of Needs Theory.
Beyond the details of air, water, and food, he laid out five broader layers: the physiological
needs, the need for safety, the need for belongingness, the need for esteem, and the need to
actualize the self in that order.
1. The physiological needs. These include the needs we have for oxygen, water, food, salt,
sugar, calcium, and other minerals and vitamins. They also include the need to maintain a pH
balance (getting too acidic or base will kill you) and temperature (98.6 or near to it). Moreover,
the needs to be active, to rest, to sleep, to get rid of wastes (CO2, sweat, urine, and feces), to
avoid pain, and to have sex…etc can be part of physiological needs.
2. The safety and security needs When the physiological needs are largely taken care of,
this second layer of needs comes into play. You will become increasingly interested in finding
safe circumstances, stability, and protection. You might develop a need for structure, for order,
and some limits.
3. The love and belonging needs When physiological needs and safety needs are, by and
large, taken care of, a third layer starts to show up. You begin to feel the need for friends, a
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sweetheart, children; affectionate relationships in general, and even a sense of community.

Looked at negatively, you become increasing susceptible to loneliness and social anxieties.
4. The esteem needs Next, we begin to look for a little self-esteem. Maslow noted two
versions of esteem needs, a lower one and a higher one. The lower one is the need for the respect
of others, the need for status, fame, glory, recognition, attention, reputation, appreciation,
dignity, even dominance. The higher form involves the need for self-respect, including such
feelings as confidence, competence, achievement, mastery, independence, and freedom. Note
that this is the "higher” form because, unlike the respect of others, once you have self respect,
it’s a lot harder to lose!
Maslow called all of the above four levels of needs the deficit needs. If you don’t have
enough of something – i.e. you have a deficit – you feel the need. But if you get all you need,
you feel nothing at all!
5. Self-actualization The last level is a bit different. Maslow called it self-
actualization or the being needs. Self-actualization as Maslow uses the term refers to the kind
of things we have called higher motivations – creativity, compassion, wholeness, perfection,
completion, goodness, richness, uniqueness, autonomy, meaningfulness, simplicity, aliveness,
the appreciation of beauty, truth, justice, state of self-fulfillment and so on. They differ from the
deficit needs in that they become a part of your being, part of who you are. Maslow once said
that the being needs were the desire to "be all that you can be!"
Throughout our lives, we work toward achieving the top of the pyramid- self-actualization or
the realization of all of our potential. As we move up the pyramid, however, things get in the
way which slow us down and often knock us backward. Imagine working toward the respect and
recognition of your colleagues and suddenly finding yourself out of work and homeless.
Suddenly, you are forced backward and can no longer focus your attention on your work due to
the need for finding food and shelter for you and your family.
According to Maslow, nobody has ever reached the peak of his pyramid. We all may
strive for it and some may even get close, but no one has achieved full self-actualization. Self-
actualization means a complete understanding of who you are, a sense of completeness, of being
the best person you could possibly be. To have achieved this goal is to stop living, for what is
there to strive for if you have learned everything about yourself, if you have experienced all that
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you can, and if there is no way left for you to grow emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually.
5.1.4 Frustrations and Conflict

You must be aware that it is not always easy to satisfy the needs. You must have a variety of
needs at a time. We all face certain difficulties in our attempts to satisfy the needs. We
sometimes meet with failures. Also many obstacles prevent us from reaching the goals. When
our needs are not satisfied, we get frustrated. Frustration is the feeling within an individual of
being blocked in the attempts to satisfy needs which one considers significant. Frustration refers
to the blocking of behavior directed towards a goal. An individual displays some sort of
disturbed behavior when he or she is prevented from fulfilling the desired goals. If motives are
frustrated or blocked, the person may feel anxious, depressed or angry. For example, if you want
to go to a movie or want to play and your parents refuse permission, you may show some kind of
disturbed behavior such as anger and shouting. Frustration often leads to aggression directed
towards to source of frustration.
Generally there are three main sources of frustration. These are as follows:
a. Environmental Factors: The environmental factors can frustrate the satisfaction of
motives means blocks you from achieving your goals. The obstacle may be physical such as lack
of money, climate, technology, landscape, infrastructure, setting, a road block…etc. They may
be social. For instance, your parents, teachers or classmates may prevent you from doing
something that you want to do. Moreover, it may include the existing norm, culture, rules,
constitution and other external factors that impede ones from achieving his/her goals.
b. Personal Factors or Limitations: these are factors directly related to the persons
themselves (not external) that make goals unattainable and results in frustration. The personal
inadequacy may be either physical (disability, financial constraints, physical fitness..etc) or
psychological (personality, knowledge, attitude, feeling, emotional intelligence, self-esteem, self
concept, self-efficacy…etc). The personal characteristics of individual like personality or
intelligence affect performance. The limitations of ability frustrate individuals because they do
not let him or her to achieve very high goals. At times we have conflicting goals which create
frustration.
c. Conflict-produced frustration (conflict of motives)
A conflict is a situation in which an individual is required to act in two or more incompatible
ways to achieve two or more exclusive goals. It occurs when an individual is unable to choose
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between two or more goals. We all confront some degree of conflict in every stage of our life.
We sometimes face a situation where we are supposed to choose between two or more
alternatives.
For example, we may have to decide whether to buy a book or go to a movie. On the one
hand, you may like to play and get company of your friend, and on the other, if you study for the
examination you may be successful in the exams. The motive to play and get the company of the
friend is thus in conflict with the motive to be successful in examination.
Types of Conflict of motives

Mainly there are four kinds of conflict of Motives. These are:
a) Approach-Approach This is a situation when one has to choose between two positive
and equally attractive goals. It is caused when we have two pleasurable goals within our reach.
We have to choose one out of these two. For example someone is offered admission to two
equally attractive departments for higher education and you have to decide between them.
Another example if the day of final exam and marriage of a lovely friend is clash, decision to
attend either of them is not an easy. Even though both goals are positive- you would be happy
with either goal- the choice between these two goals can be very stressful.
Generally, such conflicts cause little distress and are easily resolved. This is so because
although we must choose one of the two, we can often obtain the other at a later time.
b) Avoidance- Avoidance This occurs when we have to decide between two equally
undesirable and negative goals. Such type of conflict involves a great deal of hesitation. Moving
closer to one of the unattractive choices increases our discomfort and leads us to retreat. This
retreat brings us closer to the other unattractive alternative, and we retreat in the opposite
direction. There is high vacillation in this type of conflict of motives. Such a conflict may arise
when you have to choose between goals that are equally disliked by you.
For eg., a student must spend the next four days studying for an examination exhaustively or face
the possibility of failure (getting F). Fear to undergo surgical operation & suffering from pain. A
woman must work at a job she intensely dislikes or take the chance of losing her income.
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c) Approach-Avoidance This is the case when we are both attracted and repelled by the
same goal. It arises when there are both desirable and undesirable feelings associated with a
single goal. The feeling of ambivalence is highly exercised here. This kind of conflict is among
the most difficult to resolve and brings emotional discomfort.
For eg., you want to marry a girl to whom you love because you love her. But assume that your
parents are not agreeable. You cannot marry her as you do not want to hurt your parents as well.
Another example A student accepted to college in another state will be in stressful conflict if she
knows that it will mean being separated from her serious boyfriend, who works in his family’s
business in her area. Attending college have both positive and negative consequences, so she
may experience considerable stress, especially as the time grows nearer for beginning school.
d) Multiple Approaches – Avoidances Such conflicts are the ones we most often face in
life. These involve situations in which several options exist, with each one containing both
positive and negative elements. Not surprising that they are the hardest to resolve and the most
stressful to cope up.
For example, suppose a woman is engaged to be married: suppose, further that the goal of
marriage has a positive valence for her because of the stability and security it will provide and
because she loves the man she will be marrying. Suppose on the other hand, that marriage is
disgusting to her because it will mean giving up an attractive offer of a job in another city. With
respect to her career, the woman is attracted to the new job but also repelled by the problems it
will create for her marriage. What will she do? Another example Tola married Ayantu ten years
ago. Both are engaged in similar job, work together for a couple of years. She want to bear child
soon because for one thing her beloved husband eager to see his son or daughter for other thing
it is a critical time for her because she is getting older around 40 years. However, if she bear
child she will stop her attractive job. Besides, Almaz has fear that her marriage would end up.
What will she do?
5.2 Emotion
5.2.1 Definition and Components of Emotions
Emotion is derived from the Latin word “Emovere” means “to excite, stir up or agitate”.
Emotions are feelings that are highly subjective personal tendencies to respond to internal and
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external variables. It is a response that includes feelings such as happiness, fear, sadness, grief,
sorrow…etc. It is the mixture of physiological arousal, the expression of feelings and the
conscious or the cognitive experience of the situation that influences behavior. This implies that
emotion has three components. These are: cognitive, physiological and behavioral components.
Our cognitive appraisals and evaluations of events in our lives are key determinants to our
emotional responses. These three main components of Emotion are discussed as follow:
A. Physiological/ physical component

The physical component of emotion is a physiological arousal that usually accompanies the
emotion the body is feeling. This may include: increase in pulse rate, rise in body temperature,
greater or less activity of certain glands, change in rate of breathing—and tends in itself to
motivate the individual toward further activity. So, physiological arousal is related to the
following: Heart rate, Pulse rate, Respiration, Blood pressure, Digestion and appetite, Muscular
activity, Body temperature, Perspiration, Endocrine and neurotransmitter secretions…etc.
If the body did not experience this arousal, the intensity of this emotion would be greatly
decreased. During the arousal, the body experiences a surge of powerful feelings known as
emotions. People who can detect changes in their arousal level experience their emotions much
more intensely than those who cannot detect the changes in their arousal level.
B. Cognitive Component
The cognitive component is how we interpret certain situations or stimulations. This

determines which emotion our body will feel. For example; if you are alone, sitting in the dark,
watching a scary movie, and you hear a loud noise, you may become scared... fearing that there
is an immediate threat or that you are in danger. This emotional response to this imaginary threat
is just as powerful as it would be to a real threat. Our perception to the imaginary threat is what
makes it feel real to us and causes the emotion in our body.
C. Behavioral Component
This component has been called the outward expression of our emotions. Body gestures,
posture, facial expressions, and our tone of voice display what emotions we are feeling. Many of
our facial expressions are universal. For instance, if somebody has a mad look on their face, it
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doesn't matter what language they speak or where they are from, chances are... they're mad.
However, some emotional expressions are influenced by our cultures and society's rules for
displaying emotions. For example, the guards outside of Buckingham Palace (the official London
residence of the British Monarchy) are not allowed to display any emotion on their face. Some
people have described them as looking mad when in reality they are not.
Robert Plutchik (1984) identified eight fundamental emotions. They are: joy, anger,
sadness, surprise, fear, acceptance, disgust and anticipation. He named them as Plutchik’s
emotional wheel.
5.2.2 The basic characteristics and function of emotion

The basic characteristics of emotion
 Pure emotions do not last long and have a short duration. Mood on the other hand, tends
to last longer.
 Emotional experiences can act as a motivation for action: the disgusted diner, for
example, sending his uncooked steak back to the chief and putting his coat on to leave the
restaurant. Where motivations are internal stimuli, emotions are reaction (responses).
 Emotion experiences are elicited in party by conscious mental assessments. Such
perceptual assessment can lead to very different emotional experiences. So getting an
annual bonus might bring joy, which might turn to anger when you learn your co-workers
all got bigger bonuses than you. Therefore, cognitive appraisal is central to emotional
experiences.
 Emotional experience is positive or negative, pleasant or unpleasant to us.
Function of emotion
There are possibly five main function of emotional behavior.
1. They are sources of information (they tell us if we have transgressed social and moral
standards, or tell us something important is happening in our environment).
2. They prepare us to action (arousal caused by emotional experiences makes us ready for
action).
3. They help us to communicate with others. Example, facial expressions are involved in the
formation of attachments between mother and baby prior to language acquisition.
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4. They regulate social behavior (through reinforcement we learn to avoid situations and
people that bring about fear, shame and guilt, and seek out those stimuli that promote joy
and happiness).
5. They can create cognitive bias and maintain self-esteem (it has been shown that people in
a good mood are not only more confident and optimistic about their own abilities, they
are also more likely to rate others as being more honest, creative and helpful. The
downside is that the reverse can be true for people in negative mood).
5.2.3 Theories of emotion

Since the foundation of the psychology, psychologists disagreed about the order in which the
four elements of emotions (stimulus, conscious experience, physiological arousal, and behavior)
are related to one another. Psychologists have attempted to define and explain the emotional
arousal and physiological conditions that accompany them. As a result about four major theories
(that will be discussed as follow) have been developed by psychologists.
i. James-Lang Theory
This is the earliest theory of emotion developed by American psychologist- William James
and Danish psychologist- Carl Lange in the 19th century. Nowadays mostly it is considered as
the classical approach to emotions. According to this theory, emotional experience occurs in
reaction to instinctive bodily events that take place as a result of an external situation. “…we feel
sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble” (James, 1890).
The theory states that the physiological changes create specific sensations and our brain
interprets these sensations as different emotions. Here is the sequence (according to this theory)
how emotional experience will be felt: Experience of an emotion-involving situation (the
occurrences of an event) is the first one. Then the physiological responses (physiological arousal)
which include for instance: pounding heart, sweaty palms, respiration increases and other
physiological states caused by visceral bodily changes are activated. In the next step the brain
interprets these physiological changes as emotional experience. And then finally emotional
experience will result. Thus they asserted that awareness of the physiological responses
determines our feeling/experiencing of emotion.
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It has always been assumed that the first thing that happens is that we experience an emotion
and then and only then do we start reacting to the situation physiologically. But as stated above
over a hundred years ago, William James- the father of American psychology and Carl Lange- a
Danish psychologist, separately introduced the idea that we have it all backwards: First, they
said, we have physiological responses to a situation, and only then do we use those responses to
formulate an experience of emotion. This is called the James-Lange theory.
This theory is criticized by some scholars mainly on the statement of “emotional experience
(fear) results from the physiological responses after evaluating the situation.” The critics stated
that on many occasions we experience physiological changes but no emotion. e.g. patients of
hypertension experience raised blood pressure but do not experience associated emotion. The
other is the case of runners (or others who do various physical exercises) whose heart does pound
but there is no emotional experience. How do same physiological changes create different
emotional experiences?
ii. Cannon-Bard Theory

Walter Cannon and Phillip Bard came up with a variation on the James-Lange idea in 1929:
They suggested that there are neural paths from our senses that go in two directions. One goes to
the cortex, where we have a subjective experience, and one goes to the hypothalamus, where the
physiological processes begin. In other words, the experience of an emotion and the
physiological responses occur together. This is called the Cannon-Bard theory.
According to this theory, various emotion provoking events would simultaneously lead us to
experience felt emotion and physiological changes. This means one is not the cause of the others.
Or bodily changes were consequences rather than cause of emotion; emotional experience, then,
began in the brain. They argue that we have similar bodily changes occurs different emotional
states. In other words, emotional encounters were emergency situations that directly triggered a
central brain process in thalamus. Such brain stimulation had two simultaneous but independent
outputs.
1. One output led to the arousal system, which prepared the body to cope with the
emergency (flight or fight response).
2. A second led to the cortex, where the conscious experience of the emotion was registered
(am I feeling happy or sad based on past experience?).
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Regarding the sequence how emotion is felt, this theory proposed the following: First the
perception of the emotion-inducing stimulus (event) will takes place. Next thalamus is activated.
Then thalamus sends messages to two sites i.e., the Autonomic nervous system which thereby
produces a visceral response (physiological arousal) and the cerebral cortex which receives a
message regarding the nature of emotion being experienced.
iii. Schachter-Singer Theory (Cognitive Labeling or Two Factor Theory) of Emotion

Cognitive theory stated that emotions involve physiological responses that are regulated
by the brain and mental activities. Scholars on this area suggest that we recognize different
emotions because of our mental evaluations of our current situation. Two forces jointly
determine emotional experience: Nonspecific kind of physiological arousal and the interpretation
of the experience based on environmental cues. According to this theory, the process of cognitive
interpretation in emotions has two steps:
a) The interpretation of stimuli from the environment and
b) The interpretation of stimuli from the body resulting from automatic arousal.
Therefore, the kind of emotion felt depends on how the interpretation is interpreted and
explained by the person experiencing it.
iv. Cognitive Appraisal Theory (Lazarus Theory) of Emotion

This theory was developed by Richard Lazarus and his colleagues in 1968. The theory maintains
that emotional experience cannot solely be understood of its own, but understanding the
environment is to be evaluated. According to this theory, emotions are the result of the cognitive
appraisal (evaluation) of the situation. Appraisal involves cognition, bodily responses and
memory. Richard Lazarus Gave two basic types of appraisal
a. Primary appraisal: Evaluate whether the situation is threatening or not
b. Secondary appraisal: Involve alternatives in order to deal with the perceived threat
c. Reappraisal: Includes reevaluating the situation and alternative in order to see whether
the judgment is true or not.
5.2.4 Stress and Coping skills

Stress is any event or circumstances that strains or exceeds an individual’s ability to cope. In
other words, stress refers to an internal state which can be caused by physical demands on the
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body and/ or by environment and social situations. Our subjective perceptions affect the degree
of stress. Mainly, there are about three factors which help to reduce the stressful of events.
1. Familiarity- experiencing or familiarizing with certain events may minimize the stress.
2. Controllability- if we feel that we have control over certain stressful events, we less
stressed.
3. Predictability- we may experience a certain kinds of events that we have anticipated, and
that causes less stress.
Sources of Stress
Knowing the causes of stress is the first step in understanding and coping with it. The
major sources of stress include the following factors: frustration, conflict of motives, pressure,
life events, and environmental conditions. Because we have already discussed about frustration
and conflict of motives in previous chapter we do not discuss in this chapter.
1. Pressure: is used to describe the stress that arises from threats of negative events. It occurs
mostly in two ways:
a) When we are expected to performs a certain task quickly, efficiently, successfully
within the short time. Example, if you are told that you will have an exam after one
day you are possibly stressed because of the load you will going to cover.
b) When we are expected to conform to a situation that we do not want it. Example, if
you are nominated to participate in national war.
2. Life event: major events in our lives are often stressful whether they are positive or negative.
Positive events such as marriage or entering graduation school can be stressful. The most
stressful negative life events that have been studied by psychologists include the following. A)
Crime, sexual attack, and violence, b) loss of family member, c) natural disaster, d) terrorism e)
daily hassles/bothers
3. Environmental condition: stress can be occurred by environmental threatening events which
may be above our control. These environmental sources of stress do not appear to be as potent as
other stressors but apparently contribute to our overall stress levels. There is growing evidences
that aspects of the environment in which we live (temperature, air pollution, noise, humidity,
etc.) can be sources of stress.
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Coping with Stress

Coping with stress is the ways of controlling or dealing with threatening or stressful events.
Generally, effective methods of coping either remove the source of stress or control our reaction
to it. Researchers divided these kinds of coping strategies as:
1. Removing Stress- this is the efforts to change the situation.
2. Cognitive Coping- efforts to change one’s cognition of the situation.
3. Managing stress reactions- efforts to change the unpleasant consequences of the stress.
Some Strategies Helps to Cope with Stress

A) Physical Strategies – are the ways we physically attempt to reduce the unpleasant
consequences of the stressful situations. The first physical strategy in minimizing stress is
cooling. This can be done in two ways: relaxation (is a technique by which one release
his/her tension/stress) and exercise (doing physical exercises).
These techniques have the following advantages:
i. Reduce heart rate, respiration rate and blood pressure.
ii. Give us a sense of control over our body and a sense of accomplishment.
iii. Provide a temporary relief from the environment that is causing the stress in the first
place. Helps individual to get normal sleep.
B) Problem Oriented Strategies- this can take two forms:
1. Cognitive focused strategies- change our cognitive or thinking or the way we deal with
the problems. In these cases individuals are not expected to change the problem, rather
their perspectives. This may done through the following ways:
 Reappraising the problem- accepting the problem as one of life obstacle.
 Learning from losses- learning from what we have experienced so that we expect that the
problem would happen again.
 Making social comparison- comparing one’s problems with serious problems of other
individuals, so that we can successfully coping with our problems.
 Cultivating the sense of humor- taking time for thinking over the problems so that we
easily coping with the problems.
2. Problem focused strategies- involve changing the situations or removing the sources of
the problem itself. In this case, you are first identifying the stressful problems, then
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generating possible problems, thirdly selecting the possible solution and applying
accordingly.
Drawing Social Support (Seeking Social Support)
The magnitude of reactions to stress is considerably less for individuals with good social
support from close friends and family members than for individuals with inadequate social
support. On the other hand, we relieve the feeling of isolation and other negative feeling when
we actively participated in social activities like Ikub and Idir. In addition, they may produce
necessary information on how to dealing with stress.
Inoculation- preparing oneself for stress before it happen can minimize the intensity of stress.
This difficult, but predicting some sources of stress in one’s life situation could lesser the stress.
Some Ineffective Ways of Coping with Stress

A. Withdrawal- sometimes we prefer to withdraw from the stressful events rather than
dealing with it. Many students encounter courses in college that are far more difficult
than anything they had experienced in high school. Attempting to study difficult
materials can be highly stressful, and that stress can lead to a withdrawal from studying-
by playing games, talking on the telephone, partying and killing their time on other
things.
B. Aggression- is a common reaction to frustration and other stressful situations. For
instant, woman who had tried unsuccessfully to create romantic interest in a man may
suddenly become hostile toward him.
C. Self-medication- it appears that many individuals cope ineffectively with stress by using
alcohol, and other drugs to relieve their emotional reactions to stress. According to
different studies, although alcohol temporarily reduces anxiety for some people, it does
nothing to remove the sources of stress and often creates additional problems in
relationships, studying, job performance, and health.
D. Defense Mechanisms- according to Freud, it is the unrealistic strategies used by the ego
to discharge tension. This can be done unconsciously to reduce unpleasant events or
protect individuals from experiencing negative feeling.
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Chapter Six Personality Psychology
6.1 Definition of Personality
Personality refers to a distinctive pattern of behavior (thoughts, motives and emotions) that
characterizes an individual’s adaptation to the situations of his or her life. It includes the
behavior patterns a person shows across situations or the psychological characteristics of the
person that lead to those behavior patterns. The term personality is used in two different, but
related ways. On the one hand personality refers to the characteristics that differentiate people-
those behaviors that make an individual unique. On the other hand, personality is used as a
means of explaining the stability in people’s behavior that leads them to act uniformly both in
different situations and over extended periods of time.
Most experts in the area suggest that the above definition of personality is not as such
complete. So, they (scholars in the area of Personality Psychology) forwarded the following
definition of personality as more comprehensive and acceptable: Personality is the set of
psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relatively
enduring and that influence his or her interactions with, and adaptations to, the intrapsychic,
physical, and social environments.
6.2 Theories of Human Personality
Personality has been studied in a number of different ways. Some have developed broad
theories to explain the origins and make up of personality. Others have focused only on one or
two issues, such as the influence of heredity on personality. As a result, we have many
personality theories with the broad ones grouped into the following four categories:
I. Trait and Type Theories
Type and trait theories of personality both focus on people’s personal characteristics.
However, they differ in the ways they use those characteristics to describe people.
 Type Theories: Classifying people into types is one device many of us use to try to
make sense out of others’ behavior and to anticipate how they will act in the future. One of the
first type theories that we know of was proposed about 400 B.C by Hippocrates. He grouped
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people into four temperament types: Sanguine- cheerful, vigorous, and confidently optimistic;
Melancholic- depressed, morose; Choleric- hot-tempered, and Phlegamitic- slow moving,
calm, unexcitable.
 Trait theories: Among the renown scholars in the Trait Theory of Personality are
Gordon Allport, Cattelle and Eysenck. Though there are certain differences among these
scholars, what they have in common is that the base for one’s personality is the trait of that
person. If someone were to ask you to characterize another person, it is probable that you would
come up with a list of that individual’s personal qualities, as you see them. But how would you
know which of these qualities were most important in determining the person’s behavior? In
order to answer them, they have developed a sophisticated model of personality known as Trait
Theory. Traits are enduring dimensions of personality characteristics along which people
differ.
 The Big-Five Theory of Personality

McCrae and Costa (the founders of the Big-five/Five-factor Model of Personality) stated that
people posses the following traits which determines their personality. The following table
describes the characteristics of individuals under various personality traits as proposed by the
Big-five Personality Theoreticians.
Type of the Trait High scores Low scores

Affectionate Reserved
Joiner Loner
Extraversion Talkative Quiet
fun loving Sober
Active Passive
Passionate Unfeeling
Anxious Calm
Temperamental even-tempered
Neuroticism self-pitying self-satisfied
self-conscious Comfortable
Emotional Unemotional
Vulnerable Hardy
Imaginative down-to-earth
Creative Uncreative
Original Conventional
Openness prefers variety prefers routine
Curious Uncurious
Liberal Conservative
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Softhearted Ruthless
Trusting Suspicious
Agreeableness Generous Stingy
Acquiescent Antagonistic
Lenient Critical
good-natured Irritable
Conscientious Negligent
Hardworking Lazy
Conscientious well-organized Disorganized
Punctual Late
Ambitious Aimless
Persevering Quitting
Trait theorists do not assume that some people have a trait and others do not; rather they
propose that all people have certain traits, but that the degree to which the trait applies to
specific person varies and can be quantified. For instance, you might be relatively friendly,
where as I might be relatively unfriendly. But, we both have a “friendliness” trait, although you
would be quantified with a higher score and I with a lower one. The major challenge for trait
theorists taking this approach has been to identify the specific primary traits necessary to
describe personality.
II. The Psychodynamic Theories of Personality

This theory involves a search for the process by which needs, motives and impulses- often
hidden from view- interact to produce the individual’s behavior. According to these groups of
personality theories, our behavior is triggered largely by powerful forces within personality of
which we are not aware. These hidden forces, shaped by childhood experiences, play an
important role in energizing and directing our everyday behavior.
The most important theorist to hold such a view and indeed one of the best-known figures in all
psychology is Sigmund Freud. He is the originator of the theory called psychoanalytic theory
in the early 1900s.
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

This is the first systematic and comprehensive theory of personality. It attempts to
explain personality, motivation, and psychological disorders by focusing on the influence of
early childhood experiences, unconscious motives and motives and how people cope with
their sexual and aggressive urges.
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Freud’s psychoanalytic theory has three major parts:

1. A theory of the structure of personality
2. A theory of personality dynamics
3. A theory of psychosexual development
1. Structure of Personality
To describe the structure of personality, Freud developed a comprehensive theory, which held
that personality consisted of three separate, but interacting components: the id, the ego, and the
super ego.
Although Freud described these in very concrete terms, it is important to realize that they are
not actual physical structures found in certain part of the brain. Instead, they represent aspects of
general model of personality that describes the interaction of various processes and forces with in
one’s personality that motivate behavior.
 The id: The id is the raw unorganized, inherited part of personality whose sole purpose is
to reduce tension created by primitive drives related to hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational
impulses. These drives are fueled by “psychic energy” or libido, as Freud called it. The id
operates according to the pleasure principle, in which the goal is the immediate reduction of
tension and the maximization of satisfaction. Unfortunately for the id- but luckily for people
and society-reality prevents the demands of the pleasure principle form being fulfilled in most
cases. Instead, the world produces constraints: we cannot always eat when we are hungry, and
we can discharge our sexual drives only when time, place-and-partner- are willing. To account
for this fact of life, Freud suggested a second part of a personality, which he called the ego.
 The Ego: The ego provides a buffer between the id and the realities of the objective,
outside world. In contrast to the pleasure seeking nature of the id, the ego operates according to
the reality principle, in which instinctual energy is restrained in order to maintain the safety of
the individual and helps integrate the person into society. In a sense, then, the ego is the
“executive” of personality: It makes decisions, controls actions, and allows thinking and
problem solving of higher order than the id is capable of. The ego is also the seat of higher
cognitive abilities such as intelligence, thoughtfulness, reasoning, and learning.
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 The superego: the final personality structure to develop represents the rights and wrongs
of society as handed down by a person’s parents, teachers and other important figures. It
becomes part of personality when children learn right from wrong and continues to develop as
people begin to incorporate into their own standards the broad moral principles of the society
in which they live.
The super ego actually has two parts, the conscience and the ego ideal. The conscience
prevents us from doing morally bad things, while the ego ideal motivates us to do what is
morally proper. The super ego helps to control impulses coming from the id, making them less
selfish and more virtuous.
2. Personality Dynamics and Levels of Consciousness
Freud did not intend to divide personality into three separate components but rather to convey a
lively, ongoing interplay among the id, the ego and the super ego. In this interplay Freud saw the
ego acting as a sort of mediator between the id-with its blind demands for instant gratification-
and the superego-with its rigid, often irrational rules, prohibitions and ideals. The ego’s task of
satisfying both id and super ego requires a somewhat risky balancing act. The ego’s task often
involves finding a compromise between the instinctual gratification sought by the id and the
strict rule- following sought by the superego.
Thus, Freud’s general notion that our behavior s influenced by biological drives (id), social
rules (super ego), and mediating thought processes (ego) may not seem farfetched. However, his
heavy emphasis on the primitive, sexual nature of human drives and energy (libido) helped make
his theory very controversial.
Less controversial but equally novel was Freud’s notion of unconscious processes. He used
this concept to explain why people often act in ways that seem irrational. Freud proposed three
levels of consciousness, awareness: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious.
 At the conscious level, we are aware of the certain things around us and of certain
thoughts. At the preconscious level are memories or thoughts that are easily available
with a moment’s reflection.
 In contrast, the unconscious contains memories, thoughts, and motives, which we cannot
easily call up. Many of life’s experiences are painful, and the unconscious provides a
“safe” haven for our recollection f such events, a place where they can remain without
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continually disturbing us. Similarly, the unconscious contains instinctual drives: infantile
wishes, desires, demands, and needs that are hidden from conscious awareness because of
the conflicts and pain they would cause us if they were part of our everyday lives.
The entire id is unconscious; the ego and the superego include material at all three
levels of consciousness.
3. Psychosocial Stages of Development
Freud strongly believed that if people look at the development of their behavior, they
could gain insight into their current behavior. This belief led him to an elaborate stage theory
of personality development. According to him the first five years of life have a decisive effect
on the development of the adult personality. Freud put a heavy emphasis on biological
development in general and on sexual development in particular. Freud’s idea was that from
birth on we have an innate tendency to seek pleasure, especially through physical stimulation and
particularly through stimulation of parts of the body that are sensitive to touch: the mouth, the
anus, and genitals. Freud called these parts of the Erogenous Zones.
Freud argued that all people pass through five critical stages of personality development. What
is especially noteworthy about the stages is that they it suggests how experiences and difficulties
during a particular childhood stage may predict specific sorts of idiosyncrasies in adult
personality. The theory is also unique in focusing each stage on a major biological function,
which is assumed to be the focus of pleasure in a given period. Let’s discuss each as follow
A. The Oral Stage (Birth-18 months)
In this first period of development the baby’s mouth is the focal point of pleasure. The
infant at this stage interacts with the world mainly through eating, sucking, biting …etc. To
Freud this behavior suggested that the mouth was the primary site of a kind of sexual pleasure,
and if infants either overly indulged or frustrated in their search for oral gratification, they
might become fixated at this stage.
Fixation refers to an unresolved conflict or emotional hang-up caused by overindulgence or
frustration. Displaying fixation means that an adult shows personality characteristics that are
related to an earlier stage of development. For example fixation at the oral stage might produce
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an adult who was usually interested in overtly oral activities- eating, talking, smoking- or
who showed symbolic forms of oral interests: being “bitingly” sarcastic or being very gullible
(“swallowing” anything). According to Psychoanalysis (that of S. Freud), the following are
among the major later personality for individuals either over gratified or under gratified during
oral stage:
 If over gratified- optimism, manipulativeness, gullibility, cockiness, admiration
 If under gratified- cruelty, self-belittlement, pessimism, dependency, suspiciousness,
envy, greedy, passivity
B. The Anal Stage (18 months until 3 years of age)
This stage occurs when parents are toilet training their children and teaching them to avoid
prohibited behavior connected with excretion. At this point, the major source of pleasure changes
from the mouth to the anal region, and children derive considerable pleasure from both retention
and expulsion of feces.
If toilet training is particularly demanding, the result may be fixation. If fixation occurs
during the anal stage, Freud suggested that adults might show unusual rigidity, orderliness,
punctuality- or extreme disorderliness or sloppiness (carelessness, negligence). To be more
specific, according to Psychoanalysis (that of S. Freud), the following are among the major later
personality for individuals either over gratified or under gratified during anal stage:
 If over gratified- dirtiness, over-generosity, vagueness, absent-minded, messy, lateness
 If under gratified- meticulousness, orderliness, compulsive cleanness, rigid,
stingingness, stubbornness, extreme punctuality, precision
C. Phallic Stage (about age 3)
This time, interest focuses on the genitals and the pleasures derived from fondling them.
During this stage pleasure, presumably, comes from masturbation, sex play, and other genital
stimulation. This is a stage of one the most important points of personality development,
according to Freudian Theory, the Oedipal Conflict.
As children focuses their attention on their genitals, the differences between female and male
anatomy become more salient. Furthermore, at this time Freud believed that the male begins to
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develop sexual interests in his mother, starts to see his father as a rival, and harbors a wish to
kill his father. But he views his father as too powerful; he develops a fear of retaliation in the
form of “castration Anxiety.” Ultimately, the fear becomes so powerful that the child represses
his desires for his mother and instead chooses identification with his father, trying to be as
much like him as possible.
For girls, the process is different. Freud reasoned that girls begin to feel sexual arousal toward
their fathers and that they begin to experience Penis Envy. They wish they had the anatomical
part that seemed most clearly “missing” in girls. Blaming their mothers for lack of a penis,
they come to believe that their mothers are responsible for their castration. As with males though
they find that in order to resolve such unacceptable feelings, they must identify with the same
sex parent by behaving like her and adopting her attitudes and values.
If difficulties arise (fixation occurs) during this period, all sorts of problems thought to
occur including improper sex-role behavior and the failure to develop a conscience will result.
To be more specific, according to Psychoanalysis (that of S. Freud), the following are among the
major later personality of individuals either over gratified or under gratified during phallic stage:
 If over gratified- vanity, pride, stylishness, gregariousness, promiscuousness, brash,
bold, rude, flirtatiousness, cheerfulness
 If under gratified- self-hatred (boy-effeminate, girl-tomboy), plainness, isolation,
chastity, bashfulness, sadness, low self-esteem
D. Latency Stage (around age 5/6 until 10/11 years)
During this period, little of interest is occurring; sexual concerns are more or less put to rest,
even in the unconscious. As the child learns more about the world, sexuality is largely repressed
and the ego expands. Their attention shifts toward education, knowledge, mastering, creativity,
skill development, to be competent, social issues such as friendship,
E. The Genital Stage (> 12 years)
During adolescence sexual feelings reemerge, marking the start of the final period, the genital
stage that extends until death. The focus in the genital stage is on mature, adult sexuality,
which Freud defined as sexual intercourse.
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Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms are normal coping processes that distort reality in the process of
reducing anxiety. They are unconscious strategies people use to reduce anxiety by concealing
the source from themselves and others. People use defense mechanisms to reduce their anxiety
and guilt. Psychoanalytic theory holds that because the id’s unconscious demands are instinctual,
infantile and amoral they must often be blocked by the ego and the superego. Because of this
conflict and the persistence of unsatisfied demands, anxiety (vague fearfulness) and guilt are
aroused.
The person then seeks way to protect the ego from this anxiety by setting up defenses. Freud
described several defense mechanisms by which the ego disguises, redirects, hides, and
otherwise copes with the id’s urges. The dynamic theorists who followed Freud have added
others. Many psychologists do not agree with Freud’s view that defense mechanisms originate in
conflicts among the id, ego, and superego. However, many do agree that these mechanisms
account for some of the ways people cope with their problems. Thus, defense mechanisms- an
intellectual bequest from the dynamic theories- are generally accepted as a useful way of looking
at how people handle stressful situations and conflicts. The following are some of these
mechanisms.
 Repression: Repression is an active mental process by which a person “forgets” by
“pushing down” into the unconscious any thoughts that arouse anxiety. “We forget and then
forget that we forgot.”
 Regression: In the face a threat, one may retreat to an earlier pattern of adaptation,
possibly a childish or primitive one. This is called regression. That is people using regression
behave as if they were an earlier stage of development.
 Reaction Formation: Reversal of motives is another method by which people attempt
to cope with conflict. A motive that would arose unbearable anxiety if it were recognized is
converted into its opposite.
 Projection: Blaming others or projection is a way of coping with one’s unwanted
motives by shifting onto someone else. The anxiety arising from the internal conflict can then be
lessened and the problem dealt with as though it were in the external world.
 Rationalization: This defense mechanism substitutes an acceptable conscious motive
for unacceptable unconscious one. Put another way, “we make excuses” giving a reason
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different from the real one for what we are doing. Rationalization is not lying we believe our
explanations.
 Intellectualization: Related to rationalization is intellectualization, which involves
reasoning. In intellectualization, however, the intensity of the anxiety is reduced by retreat into
detached, unemotional, abstract language.
 Displacement: In displacement, the motive remains unaltered, but the person substitutes
a different goal object for the original one. Often the motive is aggression that for some reason,
the person cannot vent on the source of the anger.
 Sublimation: Sublimation consists of a redirection of sexual impulses to socially valued
activities and goals.
III. The Behavioral Theories of Personality
Learning approaches to personality (The Behavioral Theories of Personality) focus on the outer
person. According to strict learning theorists, personality is simply the sum of learned responses
to the external environment. Internal events such as thoughts, feelings and motivations are
ignored; though there existence is not denied, learning theorists say that personality is best
understood by looking at features of a person’s environment.
B.F Skinner’s learning/behavioral theory of personality

According to the most influential of the learning theorists B.F. Skinner, personality is a
collection of learned behavior patterns. Similarities in response across different situations are
caused by similar patterns of reinforcement that have been received in such situations in the past.
Strict learning theorists such as Skinner are less interested in the consistencies in behavior across
situations, however, than in ways of modifying behavior. Their view is that human beings are
infinitely changeable.
If one is able to control and modify the patterns of reinforcers in a situation, behavior that
other theorists view as stable and unyielding can be changed and ultimately improved. Learning
theorists are optimistic in their attitudes about the potential for resolving personal and societal
problems through treatment strategies based on learning theory.
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 Social Learning Theories of Personality
Not all learning theories of personality take such a strict view in rejecting the importance of
what is “inside” the person by focusing on solely on the “outside.” Unlike other learning theories
of personality, social learning theory emphasizes the influence of a person’s cognitions- their
thoughts, feelings, expectations, and values- in determining personality. According to Albert
Bandura, the main proponent of this point of view, people are able to foresee the possible
outcome of certain outcomes in a given setting without actually having to carry them out. This
takes place mainly through the mechanism of observational learning- viewing the actions of
others and viewing the consequences.
Bandura places particular emphasis on the role-played by self-efficacy, learned expectations
regarding success, in determining the behavior we display. Self- efficacy underlies people’s faith
in their ability to carry out behavior, regardless of how successful they have been in the past or
what barriers currently lie in their paths. The greater the person’s sense of self- efficacy, the
more likely it is that success will take place.
Compared with other learning explanations of personality, social learning theories are
distinctive in the emphasis they place on the reciprocity between individuals and their
environment. Not only is the environment assumed to affect personality, but also people’s
behavior and personalities are assumed to “feed back” and modify the environment-, which in
turn affects behavior in a web or reciprocity. In fact, Bandura has suggested that reciprocal
determinism is the key to understanding behavior. In reciprocal determinism, it is the interaction
of environment, behavior, and individual that ultimately causes people to behave in the ways that
they do.
IV. Humanistic Theories of Personality

The term “ humanistic psychology” was coined by Abraham Maslow to describe a position
that focuses on the creative potentialities inherent in human beings and that seeks ways to help
them realize their highest and most important goals. Virtually all of the humanistic theories
postulate the existence of an innate growth mechanism with in individuals that will move them
toward realization of their potentialities if environmental conditions are right. This growth
process has been variously labeled by its numerous proponents as the drive toward self-
actualization, self-realization or self-hood.
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The roots of the humanistic movement can be found in the writings of Jung, Adler, Horney,
Kohut, Allport, Maslow, Rogers, May, and others. These theorists emphasize the uniqueness of
individuals and believe that all individuals should be free to make their own choices about the
direction they want to take in their own lives. People should be allowed to organize and control
their own behavior; they should not be controlled by society. Society is generally seen as the
“bad guy”- the enforcer of rules and regulations that stifle personal growth.
According to the humanists, a benevolent, helpful attitude toward people enables them to
grow and prosper. Most societies, they believe, by their very nature coerce individuals into
behaving appropriately- that is, normally. The result is rather dull, conventional people who
usually obey, without much question, the moral prescriptions of the majority. In other words, the
result is the average, law-abiding man or woman. The humanistic psychologists argue, instead,
for allowing individuals to develop their fullest potential. They see people as naturally striving to
be creative and happy rather than mediocre and conventional. Of course, the assumption that
what is mediocre and what is conventional is open to question, especially in a society that
encourages people to strive for excellence.
Another assumption underlying many of the humanist positions is that the universal set of
values can be specified that will provide people with a moral anchor so that they can decide what
is right or wrong and good or bad. Such a set of values, rooted in biology, would allow people to
make moral decisions by looking inside themselves, instead of relying on the judgments of
society. Yet philosophers or psychologists have never been able to agree on a universal set of
values, although numerous attempts to devise such a list have occurred.
In general, according to the humanistic theorists, all of the theories of personality that we
have previously discussed share a fundamental misperception in their views of human nature.
Instead of seeing people as controlled by unconscious, unseen forces (as does psychoanalytic
theory), a set of stable traits (trait theory), or situational reinforcements and punishments
(learning theory), humanistic theory emphasizes people’s goodness and their tendency to grow
to higher levels of functioning. It is this conscious, self-motivated ability to change and improve,
along with people’s unique creative impulses that makes up the core personality.
The major representative of the humanistic point of view is Carl Rogers. Rogers suggests that
people have a need for positive regard that reflects a universal requirement to be love and
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respected. Because others provide this positive regard, we grow dependent on them. We begin to
see and judge ourselves through the eyes of other people, relying on their values.
According to Rogers one outgrowth of placing importance on the values of others is that there
is often some degree of mismatch between a person’s experiences and his or her self-concept, or
self-impression. If he discrepancy is minor, so are the consequences. But, if it is great, it will lead
to psychological disturbances in daily functioning, such as the experience of frequent anxiety.
Rogers suggests that one way of overcoming the discrepancy between experience and self –
concept is through the recipient of unconditional positive regard from another person – a friend,
a spouse or a therapist.
 Unconditional positive regard refers to an attitude of acceptance and respect the part of
an observer, no matter what a person says or does. This acceptance says Rogers, allows people
the opportunity to evolve and grow both cognitively and emotionally, as they are able to develop
more realistic self-concepts. To Rogers and other humanist personality theorists, an ultimate goal
of personality is self-actualization. Self- actualization is a state of self-fulfillment in which
people realize their highest potential. This, Rogers would argue, occurs when their experience
with the world and their self-concept are closely matched. People who are self-actualized accept
themselves as they are in reality, which enables them to achieve happiness and fulfillment.
In addition to the aforementioned Theories of Personality, the following are among the
major theories of personality which conducted rigorous research and contributed a lot in
describing, explaining and predicting one’s personality: Psycho-social Theory, The
Cognitive Theory, the Socio-cultural Theory, The Evolutionary Theory, other Learning
Theories, the Bio-psychological Theory…etc.
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Chapter Seven Social and Organizational Psychology
7.1 Social Psychology

7.1.1 Definition and some Theories of Social Psychology
Social Psychology is the scientific study of how the actual, implied or inferred presence of
others influence our attitude, thought, feeling, understanding, way of acting, perception,
cognition (our behavior in general) and vice-versa. Or it is the scientific study of the social
behavior.
There are various Theories of Social Psychology. Their major difference is on the major factors
that contribute (cause) one’s social behavior. The major ones are: Biological Psychology with
their emphasis on hereditary and biological factors; Psychoanalytic Theory- unconscious mind
and early childhood experience; The Role Theory- one’s role, status and position in the society;
Socio-cultural Theory- culture, norm, religious institution, ethnicity, education, technology,
media, various organizations; Behavioral Theory- Reinforcement and punishment; The
Cognitive Theory- the way one process information in their mind.
7.1.2 Social Cognition and Social Perception
Social Cognition is the way we understand the world around us while social perception is the
process of forming impression of others in our mind.
4.1 Social Perception- Impression Formation, Impression Management techniques
Why do you think that people are highly concerned with how others view them?
Impression Formation is the process by which we make judgments about others (form
impression of others). It is similar to the social perception- the process by which we naturally
form impression of others. Self-presentation is another concept pertinent to social perception. It
is the process through which we try to control the impressions people form of us. It is similar to
impression management. It includes all the activities that one does mostly in order to receive a
good impression from others. Why do people self-present?
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First, people self-present to acquire desirable resources from others. Second, self-presentation
is a way of “constructing” a self-image. Our images of ourselves—our self-concepts—are
influenced partially by how we think others view us. Self-presentations, then, help us get what
we want and help us create desired self-images. They also serve a social purpose: They help
others know how we expect to be treated; enabling social encounters to run more smoothly. In
general, then, self-presentation is useful for three reasons. It helps us obtain those things we need
and value, it helps us create and maintain desired self-identities and it enables our social
encounters to run relatively smoothly.
Self-presentation, then, is a way of strategically gaining control over one’s life, a way of
increasing one’s rewards and minimizing one’s costs.
Techniques of self-presentation (impression management)

The following are the major techniques (under two main category) people use in self-
presentation (an attempt of making others form a positive impression of them)
A. Self-enhancement- includes improving one’s own appearance and other things

 Altering dressing
 Personal grooming- making ourselves physically attractive
 Use of non-verbal cues- smiling for instance and Use of selective verbal cues
 Self-promotion An attempt to get others to see us as competent.
 To act modestly (presenting our achievements modestly)
B. Other-enhancement
 Ingratiation- trying to induce positive moods in others
 Expressing liking for others specially through 3rd party using both verbal flattery and
nonverbal behaviors such as smiling.
 Asking others for advice and feedback- it implies respect for their (others,) expertise and
knowledge.
 Creating similarities with others and showing agreement with them (social conformity)
 Showing concern for others and interest in them
 Doing favor for others
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We are more likely to focus on self-presentation when we think others are paying attention to
us, when they can influence whether or not we reach our goals, when these goals are important to
us, and when we think these observers have impressions of us different from the ones we desire.
7.1.3 Attitude Formation and Attitude Change

A. Attitude Formation
We can see now that attitudes affect how we think, feel, and behave toward a wide range of
people, objects, and ideas that we encounter. Where do our attitudes come from? Are they
developed, as Allport suggested, through experience? If so, just how do our attitudes develop
through experience? And are there other ways in which we acquire our attitudes?
The term attitude formation refers to the movement we make from having no attitude toward
an object to having some positive or negative attitude toward that object. How you acquire an
attitude plays a very important role in how you use it. In this section, we explore a range of
mechanisms for attitude formation. Most of these mechanisms—mere exposure, direct personal
experience, operant and classical conditioning, and observational learning—are based on
experience and learning. However, the last mechanism we will look at is based on genetics.
i. Mere Exposure
Some attitudes may be formed and shaped by mere exposure, which means that simply being
exposed to an object increases our feelings, usually positive, toward that object. The mere-
exposure effect has been demonstrated with a wide range of stimuli, including foods,
photographs, words, and advertising slogans. Generally, this means that familiarity, in fact, may
not breed contempt. Familiar faces, ideas, and slogans become comfortable old friends
ii. Direct Personal Experience

A second way we form attitudes is through direct personal experience. This is the case in
which we form attitude of certain attitude objects by sensing (seeing, hearing, testing,
touching…etc) them. If you were attacked by robbers one Saturday night coming to your
dormitory (MWU) from a town, for example, you may change your attitudes toward criminals,
the police, personal safety, and a range of other concerns. Attitudes acquired through direct
experience are likely to be strongly held and to affect behavior.
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iii. Conditioning
Most social psychologists would agree that the bulk of our attitudes are learned. That is,
attitudes result from our experiences, not our genetic inheritance. Through socialization,
individuals learn the attitudes, values, and behaviors of their culture. Important influences in the
process include parents, peers, schools, and the mass media. During the course of socialization, a
person’s attitudes may be formed through operant conditioning and classical conditioning,
two well-known learning processes.
In classical conditioning, a stimulus comes to evoke a response it previously did not call
up. Classical conditioning occurs by repeatedly pairing this stimulus (the conditioned stimulus)
with a stimulus that does have the power to evoke the response (the unconditioned stimulus).
How might attitudes be learned through classical conditioning? In one experiment, when an
attitude object (a person) was paired with positive or negative stimuli, participants came to
associate the person with the positive or negative emotions. In an Operant Conditioning the
individual’s behavior is strengthened or weakened by means of reward or punishment.
iv. Observational Learning

Although we often learn attitudes by getting rewarded, we can also learn simply by observing.
Research shows that children may learn to act aggressively by watching violent movies or by
seeing their friends fight (Bandura, 1977). A rigorous research conducted on Observational
Learning (the Social Learning Theory) by the scholars in the area such as A. Bandura reveal that
one’s attitude can be formed by observing others. According to these research findings, if
children observe others being awarded for certain behavior, the children may develop a positive
attitude for such acts; or may develop a negative attitude for behaviors that others are punished
for. Observational Learning occurs when we watch what people do and then model or imitate
that behavior which is the expressive component one’s attitude.
v. Genetics (heredity)
Various researches conducted on identical twins reared and living in different social context
and cultures; on fraternal twins; on siblings; on relatives and unrelated individuals show that
biological factors (heredity) play a role in attitude formation.
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The major factors contributing for the development and formation of attitude are: Parents,
families, culture, peer, information technology, media, religious institutions, education and other
agents of socialization.
B. Attitude Change- Persuasion and Propaganda
i. Persuasion
Persuasion is a form of social influence that involves changing (the attempt to change)
others’ thoughts, attitudes, or behaviors by applying rational and emotional arguments to
convince them to adopt your position. It is a common practice in every part of daily social life.
The persuasion process goes on in the classroom, at home, on the street, in school, in parliament,
at cafeteria, church, political arena, using the media, personally…etc. Persuasive messages are so
much a part of our lives that we often are oblivious to the bombardment from billboards, TV,
radio, news-papers, parents, peers, teachers, preachers, politicians and public figures. Persuasion,
then, is a pervasive form of social influence. We are all agents of social influence when we try to
convince others to change their attitudes or behavior. We are also targets of social influence
when others try to persuade or coerce us to do what they want us to do.
Various models and techniques have been in place to be applied in the persuasion process.
Among those the well known model is that of the Yale Communication Model. Yale
communication model is a model of the persuasion process that stresses the role of the
communicator (source of a message), the nature of the message, the audience, and the channel of
communication.
According to the Yale communication model, the most important factors comprising the
communication process are expressed by the question, Who says what to whom by what
means (nowadays added ‘under what conditions’)? This question suggests that there are four
factors involved in persuasion process. The “who” refers to the communicator- the person
making the persuasive argument. The “what” refers to the organization and content of the
persuasive message. The “whom” is the target of the persuasive message- the audience. The
“means” points to the importance of the channel or medium through which the message is
conveyed such as television, radio, internet or interpersonal face-to-face communication. Finally,
“under what conditions” refers to the situation when the persuasion process is undertaking.
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For each factor, there are several variables that can potentially influence the persuasion process.
In fact, the four factors contributing to persuasion are not independent of one another; they
interact to create a persuasive effect. In practice, the content and presentation of the message
depend on the communicator, the audience, and the channel. With respect to each of those
factors there are elements that promote or hinder the effectiveness of the persuasion process.
Now let us see each of the four factors comprising the persuasion process with those elements.
A. The communicator- the source of information

Regarding the communicator there are various factors/elements that make the persuasion
process either effective or not effective. These are:
i. Credibility of the Communicator
Credibility is the believability (expertise and trustworthiness) of the communicator of a
persuasive message. Credibility is among the most critical variable affecting the ability to
persuade. Credibility has two components: expertise and trustworthiness. Expertise refers to a
communicator’s credentials and stems from the person’s training and knowledge. For example,
the medical doctor has the ability to persuade you on health matters because she/he has the
necessary education, training and experience that give her/him words power. Trustworthiness
refers to the audience’s assessment of the communicator’s character as well as his or her motives
for delivering the message. We ask “Why this person is trying to convince us?” Trustworthiness
may be diminished when we perceive that the communicator has something to gain from
persuading us (if the communicator has a hidden agenda behind his/her act). According to the
research findings, the more the communicator is credible (expert and trustworthy) the more will
be his/her persuading ability and vice versa.
ii. Prestige of the Communicator
This is related to the status, reputation, respect, fame, popularity…etc of the communicator.
The implication is that the more the communicator is prestigious; the more he/she will convince
others to change their attitudes, behaviors or feelings.
iii. Likability of the Communicator
People are more persuaded by those people whom they like than those they do not like. This
is the case why most of the time people send one’s friend (girl friend, boyfriend, husband, wife,
relatives…etc) in order to resolve a dispute between them.
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iv. Similarity of the Communicator to the audience

The similarity between the communicator and the audience can take many forms: may be
in religion, political affiliation, culture, ethnicity, language, race, nation…etc. If there is a more
resemblances between the communicator and the targets of persuasion, there will be more chance
of being persuasion be effective.
Other elements related to the communicator include: the intension of the communicator,
attractiveness of the communicator and rapidity in making the speech.
B. The Message to be Communicated

The following are the major characteristics of the message that make it either persuasive
or not. They are the research findings of various studies conducted in different settings and at
different time.
The novelty of the message: This is the newness of certain message. The more it is the
novel the more it will convince others to change their mind.
The nature of the message: This includes an important quality of the message- whether it is
based on rational or emotional appeals and whether the message contains the benefit of
changing attitude. Early research showed that appeal to one emotion in particular—fears—can
make a message more effective than can appeal to reason or logic. This is the case especially for
the audience who are less educated, not analytical, not well informed, have low self-esteem and
less committed. For the educated and analytical audiences on the other hand rational and logical
messages are more persuasive. This shows the presence of a linkage between various factors
(message and the audience here for instance) in making the persuasion more effective. Moreover,
if the benefit of changing the attitude is added it is more persuasive.
Timing: Primacy versus Recency effect:

The law of primacy is the law of persuasion stating that the first persuasive argument
received is more persuasive than later persuasive arguments. The law of recency is the opposite
of this one- persuasive argument coming at the last is more convincing.
The effectiveness of any persuasive attempt lies on the use of an effective strategy,
including the timing of the messages delivery. When is it best to deliver your message? If you
were given the option of presenting your message before or after your opponent in a debate,
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which should you choose? Generally, persuasive situations like these are governed by a law of
primacy is that, the message presented first has more impact than the message presented second.
However, the law of primacy does not always hold true. It depends on the structure of the
situation. A primacy effect occurs when the two messages follow one another closely, and there
is a delay between the second message and the audience response or assessment. In this situation,
the first message has the greater impact. But when there is a delay between the two messages and
a response or assessment is made soon after the second message, we see a recency effect—the
second message has a greater impact.
The structure of the persuasive messages- One-Sided Vs Two-Sided Messages:

The structure or the organization of certain persuasive message accompanied by the nature
of the audience influences the effectiveness of the persuasion process. For less educated,
uninformed audiences and those who are not analytical a one-sided message works best. In a
one-sided message you present only your side of the issue and draw conclusions for the
audience. For a well-educated and well-informed audience a two-sided message works best. The
more educated audience probably is already aware of the other side of the argument. If you
attempt to persuade them with a one-sided argument, they may question your motives. Also,
well-educated audience members can draw their own conclusions. They probably would hate
your drawing conclusions for them. Thus, a more educated audience will be more persuaded by a
two-sided argument.
One-sided and two-sided appeals also have different effects depending on the initial
attitudes of the audience. Generally, a one-sided message is effective when the audience already
agrees with your position. If the audience is against your position, a two-sided message works
best. You need to consider both the initial position of audience members and their education
level when deciding on an approach. A two-sided appeal is best when your audience is educated,
regardless of their initial position. A one-sided appeal works best on an uneducated audience that
already agrees with you.
C. The Audiences
Elements related to audiences include: Their knowledge level, their personality, their
commitment, their initial position, fore-warning, their self-esteem level, Emotional level of the
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audience and even their sex. The research findings reveal that the more the audiences are
knowledgeable, educated and informed about the issue; the more they are committed for their
first position; the higher their self-esteem; the higher their emotional intelligence; the less for-
warned and the less their initial position is agreeing to the communicator, the less will be their
probability of being persuaded by the communicator and vice versa.
D. The Channel
Regarding the channels (the means of communication) the research findings show that
various media have different levels of persuasion. Research conducted in different context at
different times reveal that various the type of the media used for persuasion purpose is crucial in
determining the effectiveness of the persuasion process. The media that can serve for persuasion
purposes may include: books, bulletins, newspapers, magazines, journals, TV, Radio, internet,
face-to-face…etc. It is found that TV, face-to-face and internet are more influential in making
the persuasion more effective.
ii. Propaganda
We now turn our attention to the application of persuasion techniques on a mass scale.
History abounds with examples of persuasion techniques aimed at changing the attitudes and
behavior of entire populations. Such mass persuasion can take many forms. Advertisers routinely
craft persuasive messages we call advertisements to get you to buy one product rather than
another. Various public service persuasive messages attempt to get us to change a wide range of
behavior, including not driving drunk, vote for this party, don’t give your back to corruption,
defend freedom of expression, practicing safe sex, wearing seat belts, and avoiding illegal drugs.
Perhaps the most controversial application of mass persuasion techniques is the use of
propaganda. Propaganda is “a deliberate attempt to persuade people, by any available media, to
think in a manner desired by the source”. It is a systematic, well organized and procedural
persuasion process targeted at the mass scale.
Some major techniques used in Propaganda

i. Plain folks- This is an approach often used by individuals to show humble beginnings
and empathy with the targets by stating similarity with them (target or audiences).
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ii. Testimonial- This is the case in which is related to the presentation of evidences,
testimony or witnesses in order to persuade others. Eg. Someone may say “I have using
this product for about ten years. So, I advice everyone to use it”.
iii.Bandwagon- is the implication that everyone wants the product or that the idea has
overwhelming support. Eg. Ambo Mineral Water is the Choice of the generation.
iv. Transfer- this is the technique of associating the person, product, or an organization with
something that has high or low credibility depending on the intention of the message.
Example: Mandella Distance Education Centre
v. Glittering generalities- is almost similar to the transfer technique. It is the technique of
associating a cause, product or idea with favorable abstractions such as freedom, justice,
democracy, high value and certain standards. Eg. Some may advertise their products by
saying “our products have a world class quality/standard. We have a certificate of ISO
2009”.
vi. Use of stereotypes: Propagandists often take advantage of our natural tendency to
stereotype people. Propaganda can eventually lead us to think of a group of people in
terms of the stereotype, rather than as individual human beings.
vii. Selection of facts: Propagandists do not present a balanced view of events. They select
specific facts that support their point of view.
viii. Repetition: In this type of technique the same message is repeated over and over again
to persuade others. Repeated exposure eventually leads to acceptance of the message.
You can take the propaganda to fight HIV/AIDS as an example.
ix. Assertion: This is a technique where by the propagandists are not interested in debating
and instead assert their point forcefully.
x. Downright lying: Falsehoods are used by propagandists to persuade others.
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7.1.4 Interpersonal Influences

i. The Social Power and Potential Sources of Social Power
Social power is the potential to influence others. It is the possible capacity of the social
influence. Social Influence on the other hand is the actual effort/attempt made by
individuals/groups/others to influence (make change others to change their behavior or make
others to act in certain way) others. There are different categories/sources of social power. These
are:
 Reward power: derives, as the term implies, from the ability to provide desired
outcomes to someone. The rewards may be tangible and material (e.g., money, a nice gift), but
often they are more subtle and nonmaterial in nature (e.g., approval, affection).
 Coercive power derives from the ability to provide aversive or otherwise undesired
outcomes to some-one. As with rewards, coercion can revolve around tangible and concrete
outcomes, such as the use of threat of physical force, or instead involve outcomes that are
nonmaterial and acquire their valence by virtue of less tangible features.
 Expert power is accorded those who are perceived to have superior knowledge or skills
relevant to the target’s goals. These may be acquired through education, training or other formal
and informal ways. For instance Medical Doctors in the area of health, Psychologists in the area
of Psychological problems, Political Analysts regarding politics…etc.
 Information power is related to expert power, except that it relates to the specific
information conveyed by the source. In this case the source may not be an expert rather only
having access to the crucial information.
 Referent power derives from people’s tendency to identify with someone they respect or
otherwise admire. It is more related to whether the source is the famous person or not. Tirunesh
Dibaba, Kenenisa Bekele, Ali Birra…etc can be considered as ones possessing the Referent
Power. Because of their celebrity they can influence individuals in various ways.
 Legitimate power derives from societal norms that accord behavior control to
individuals occupying certain roles. Teachers (their students), police, chairperson, manager…etc
are examples of those who have the legitimate power to influence others.
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ii. Major Forms of Social Influences

a. Conformity- Why and when do people conform?
Conformity is a social influence process that involves modifying behavior in response to
real or imagined pressure from others rather than in response to a direct request or order from
another. Conformity may occur due to two main reasons: the Information Social Influence and
Normative Social Influence.
Information Social Influence occurred when we modify our behavior in response to
information that we receive from others. We are subject to informational social influence
because we want to be accurate in our judgments. We use other people’s opinions as a source of
information by which to test the validity of our own judgments. We conform because we
perceive that others have correct information.
Conformity also comes about as a result of normative social influence. Normative social
influence is a social influence in which a person changes his/her behavior in response to pressure
to conform to a norm. In this type of social influence situation, we modify our behavior in
response to a norm- an unwritten social rule that suggests what constitutes appropriate behavior
in a particular situation. Our behavior is guided not only by rational consideration of the issue at
hand but also by the discomfort we experience when we are in disagreement with others. We are
motivated to conform to norms and to the implicit expectations of others in order to gain social
acceptance and to avoid appearing different or being rejected.
When do people conform?

The followings are the research findings that show situations in which people conform.
 When there is a feelings of incompetence and difficulty for judgment (decision)
 When there is a feelings of insecurity
 Group size- the very larger & very smaller the group size the less the conformity will be
 Unanimity of the group members- the more the unanimity the more the conformity &
vice versa.
 Cohesiveness of the group members
 The prior commitment of an individual- the higher the prior commitment of a person the
less his/her conformity will be and vice versa
 Status of the person
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b. Compliance- Principles and techniques of Compliances

Compliance occurs when one modifies her/his behavior in response to a direct request from
another person.
Techniques of Compliances:
Tactics based on Commitment
 Foot-in-the-door technique (FITD) A social influence process in which a small
request is made before a larger request, resulting in more compliance to the larger request than if
the larger request were made alone. It is a technique used with the assumption that when people
agree to a small request before a larger one is made, they are more likely to agree to the larger
request than if the larger request were made alone. This is a two-step compliance technique in
which the influencer secures compliance to small request, and then later follows this with a
larger, less desirable request (Franzoi, 2009).
 Low-ball technique In low-balling an initial request or offer is made that appears too
good to be true. Once you agree to this request, a higher request is made. It is assumed that since
you agree for the first one, there is high probability to agree to the later one too.
 Bait and Switch technique

This is a tactic in which the person who is looking for compliance says the
“products/items/goods/services…etc do not fit your (the person to be persuaded) need. So, you
better take this one (mostly more expensive and costly)”. It is assumed that people will agree to
the last option given by the persuader.
Tactics based on Reciprocity This is based on a norm of reciprocity (social norm reciprocity)
which states that you should help those who help you and should not injure those who help you.
 That’s not all effect Extras are added to initial offers (e.g., “Buy now and we will
include another free product”), which appear to be spontaneous offers of generosity. A person is
more likely to buy the original product than if no add-ons are included. It is a two steps
compliance technique in which the persuader makes a large request, then immediately offers a
discount or bonus before the initial request is refused.
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 Door-in-the-face technique (DITF) A social influence process in which a large request

is made before a smaller request, resulting in more compliance to the smaller request than if the
smaller request were made alone. In this case large request (most probably the refused ones) is
followed by a smaller request. The assumption behind this technique is that there is high
probability to agree to smaller request after someone disagrees to the larger one.
Tactics based on Scarcity

 Playing hard to get this states product/item/service/other things are very scarce (hard to get)
 The Deadline technique This deals with the fact that only limited time is available to get the
product/item/service/other things.
Complaining In this case the person will complain by trying to present evidences and data to
convince others. For instance when you go a shop to buy a cloth you say to the shopkeeper “it
has a lower quality, it is not a fashion, its color is not attractive…etc”. This all effort is to make
that salesperson lowers the price of the cloth you want to buy.
c. Obedience- Why do people obey?
Obedience is a social influence process involving modification of behavior in response to a
command from an authority figure. Obedience is sometimes good and sometimes bad. It is bad
when its consequence is destructive. This type of obedience is termed as Destructive Obedience.
Destructive obedience occurs when a person obeys an authority figure and behaves in ways that
are counter to accepted standards of moral behavior, ways that conflict with the demands of
conscience.
Why do people comply with the Destructive Obedience?
The research conducted across different contexts and time show that, the following are among
the major reasons why people comply to destructive obedience.
 Assuming that the authority is responsible
 For survival (not to be fired out, killed/harmed themselves…etc)
 Victims’ emotional distance to the obeyer
 Short time given to undertake the action
 Gradual escalation of the authority figure’s order (request_ demand- warning)
 Closeness and legitimacy of the authority figure
 Title/status of the authority
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Chapter Eight Abnormal Psychology
This chapter will review major classifications of abnormal behavior and the way in which
abnormal behavior is defined and classified. The use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM) as a diagnostic tool in identifying and classifying abnormal behavior is
discussed. The chapter ends with a review of the major disorders found in the DSM-IV and the
key symptoms and features of each disorder.
3.1 Definition of Abnormality
Abnormal behavior, or psychopathology, refers to patterns of behavior, thought and emotion

that are abnormal for one or more of the following reasons:
The behavior is rare in the general population Some behaviors are considered abnormal
because they occur rarely or infrequently in the general population. However, this criterion alone
is not sufficient in determining abnormality. A number of behaviors occur infrequently in the
populations (rare behaviors exist) that are quite normal. For example, extremely high intelligence
and exceptional athletic ability may occur rarely but normal.
The behavior causes personal distress A second indicator that a behavior might be
abnormal is if the individual is distressed (worried, bothered, troubled…etc) by the behavior,
thoughts, or emotions and desires them to stop. One must be careful in using this as a criterion
for abnormality because in some disorders the individual denies the problem or the problem
causes little or no emotional discomfort to the individual.
The behavior is maladaptive A third indicator is if the behavior, thought or emotion is
maladaptive (meaning that it results in a loss of normal functioning or impairs normal
functioning). Some psychological disorders leave individuals unable to get along with others, to
hold a job, to eat properly or to function on a daily basis.
The behavior is unconventional If a behavior violates the norms or standards of
society, it might be considered abnormal. However, not all behaviors that violate norms or
standards are signs of psychopathology. In fact, what is seen as abnormal in one particular
culture might be perfectly normal in another culture. In addition, it is not uncommon to see
culture-bound disorders that are unique to specific cultures.
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The behavior causes discomfort to others Sometimes the behavior of an individual

causes little discomfort to the individual but others find the behavior discomforting.
The behavior is irrational Behavior, thought or emotion might be considered abnormal
if it impairs one’s ability to think clearly and to make rational decisions.
The behavior is unpredictable If behavior, thought or emotion fluctuates from one extreme
to another for no apparent reason, or if behavior, thought or emotion is inappropriate for the
situation one is in, it might be considered abnormal.
3.2 Theories of Psychopathology
Views of psychopathology and mental illness have fluctuated over the years. In the 1600s,
abnormal behavior was believed to be caused by evil spirits and witchcraft. Individuals
displaying odd or abnormal behavior were believed to be witches or to be possessed by demons.
In the eighteenth century, explanations for abnormal behavior shifted from a focus on
supernatural processes to medical or physical conditions. During this time, mental illness was
viewed as a disease of the mind. Today, abnormal behavior is believed to be the result of
multiple factors (including biological, cognitive, social and psychological factors). Each of the
modern perspectives in psychology offers a unique explanation for abnormal behavior.
The psychoanalytic perspective holds that abnormal behavior is the result of childhood
conflicts that were not adequately resolved. Over- and under-indulgence of desires across
infancy and childhood, conflicts with parents early in life, and the formation of personality
structures that result from these early experiences all contribute to abnormal behavior.
The humanistic perspective focuses on one’s self-concept and one’s relationship with
society as important influences on behavior. From this perspective, abnormal behavior can result
from denial, distortion or questioning of one’s true self; lack of acceptance by others; and/or
judgment and criticism by others.
The cognitive perspective holds that faulty thoughts and beliefs are central to abnormal
behavior. According to this perspective, abnormal behavior results from maladaptive and
inappropriate thoughts, distorted and inaccurate perceptions, irrational beliefs, and self-defeating
and automatic thoughts.
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The biological perspective focuses on biological and/or genetic influences on behavior.

According to the biological perspective, abnormal behavior results from structural/anatomical,
chemical and/or functional abnormalities in the brain.
The behavioral perspective argues that abnormal behavior is a product of faulty learning
through conditioning and/or modeling. According to this view, abnormal behaviors are learned
through past experience and present environmental conditions and circumstances.
The socio-cultural perspective emphasizes social and cultural factors as important
contributors to abnormal behavior. This perspective recognizes that abnormal behavior is defined
by the culture and influenced by socialization and cultural values, beliefs and practices. Thus,
behavior (including abnormal behavior) is shaped by the family group, society and culture in
which one lives.
The Bio-psycho-social Model
In Western cultures today, the predominant view is the Bio-psycho-social Model which
emphasizes that abnormal behavior has three major aspects: biological, psychological, and
sociological. Many researchers and therapists focus more on one aspect than another, but few
deny that all three are important.
The biological roots of abnormal behavior include genetic factors, which can lead to abnormal
brain development, excesses or deficiencies in the activity of various neurotransmitters or
hormones, and so forth. Additional influences include brain damage, infectious diseases, brain
tumors, poor nutrition, inadequate sleep, and the overuse of drugs, including nonprescription
medications.
The psychological component of abnormality includes a person’s vulnerability to stressful
events. For example, people who are known to have been physically or sexually abused in
childhood are more likely than others to develop psychological problems in adulthood.
Finally, for the sociological component the behavior must be understood in a social and
cultural context. People are greatly influenced by other people’s expectations. Many people with
strange behavior have disordered families or social networks.
The diathesis-stress model is a more modern explanation that incorporates elements from
each of the above perspectives including biological, psychological, and socio-cultural factors.
According to this model, inherited characteristics, underlying biological processes, and
personality traits, and learning experiences combine to create varying degrees of predisposition
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for a psychological disorder. Whether or not an individual actually develops a disorder or not
depends on the degree of stress/negative experiences one experiences. Thus, for those who have
a strong predisposition, relatively mild levels of stress can trigger a disorder. For those with a
weak predisposition, much higher levels of stress are required to trigger a disorder.
3.3 Diagnosis of Psychopathology
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV TR) is a manual
used by professionals to aid in the diagnostic process. Published by the American Psychological
Association, the DSM-IV TR provides a classification system for mental disorders and describes
in detail the criteria and symptoms that must be present for a particular diagnosis to be made.
The DSM-IV TR classifies behavior across five dimensions, or axes. The first three axes assess
an individual’s clinical condition. Axis I assesses the presence of clinical conditions such as
mood disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenic disorders and addictive disorders. Axis II
assesses the presence of personality disorders and mental retardation. Axis III assesses for
general medication conditions that might or might not be involved in the conditions assessed in
Axes I and II. Axis IV assesses the presence of psychosocial and environmental stressors that the
individual might currently be facing. Axis V involves an overall assessment of the person’s level
of functioning.
Disorders
The DSM-IV TR identifies over 300 specific psychological disorders. The most prevalent of the
various disorders include mood disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenic disorders,
somatoform disorders, dissociative disorders, and personality disorders.
I. Mood Disorders
Mood disorders are characterized by disturbances or extreme fluctuations in one’s feeling or
emotion or mood. It is a disorder characterized by a prolonged and persistent positive or negative
emotion which interferes with all aspects of one’s life. It may be due to highly elevated mood-
Mania or due to highly lowered mood- Depression. The two most common mood disorders are
uni-polar disorder and bipolar disorder.
A. Unipolar disorder, also known as major depressive disorder, is characterized by
persistent and intense sadness, despair, feelings of worthlessness, helplessness, low self-esteem,
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and high guilt and shame. For individuals who suffer from major depression, the sadness they
feel is so intense that it interferes with their ability to function, to feel pleasure, and to maintain
interest in life. In addition to the emotional disturbances, major depression is often accompanied
by physiological changes, including sleep and eating disturbances and reports of physical illness
and pain.
B. Bipolar disorder is characterized by alternating periods of depression and mania. An
individual who suffers from bipolar disorder experiences depressive episodes similar to those of
unipolar depression. However, depressive episodes are interspersed with periods of mania and
extreme elation. During a manic episode, an individual might be overly excited and extremely
active. They might show unrealistically high self-esteem and an inflated sense of importance
(possibly even delusions of grandeur). They might make elaborate plans, be impulsive,
hyperactive and sleepless for days at a time (without becoming fatigued). Speech often becomes
rapid and the individual might show rapid flight of ideas and pressured speech.
What factors contribute to mood disorders?

Evidence suggests that depressive disorders might be partially inherited. Individuals are at
increased risk of developing depression if a family member suffers from depression, and this risk
increases as the degree of genetic relatedness increases. There appears to be a stronger genetic
link for bipolar disorder than for unipolar disorder. Biological factors have also been found to be
associated with depressive disorders. Brainimaging techniques reveal significant differences in
brain activity during depressive and manic episodes. Additional research has found that
depression is linked to chemical imbalances, particularly levels of serotonin and norepinephrine
in the brain.
With respect to environmental factors, depressive episodes are often precipitated by certain
negative experiences, particularly high stress, loss and trauma. Finally, a number of cognitive
and psychological factors are also associated with depressive disorders. Beliefs about oneself,
one’s abilities and control over events are all related to depression.
Depressed individuals are more likely than non-depressed individuals to attribute failures to
internal factors and abilities (It’s my fault; I’m not smart enough), while at the same time
attributing successes to external factors (I got lucky). Depressed individuals are also more likely
than nondepressed individuals to make global attributions (I am a failure at everything) rather
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than specific attributions (I am not good at psychology). Additionally, depressed individuals are
more likely to report feelings of helplessness and to believe that they have no control over events
in their lives. Such cognitive patterns and attributional styles can fuel the cycle of depression,
making it difficult to break out of a depressive state.
II. Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders are a class of disorders characterized by tension, worry, nervousness, panic or
fear that is debilitating, distressing and interferes with an individual’s ability to function on a
daily basis. A number of disorders fall under this classification (including generalized anxiety
disorder, panic disorder, phobic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic
stress disorder).
1. Generalized anxiety disorder involves a chronic state of high anxiety, tension and
worry (free-floating anxiety) in which the individual cannot pinpoint any particular cause of the
anxiety. Individuals who suffer from generalized anxiety disorder report a sense of impending
doom and a feeling that something dreadful is about to happen, but cannot identify any specific
reason for the anxiety and worry.
2. Panic disorder involves anxiety attacks that produce a sudden and intense rush of
anxiety, fear or impending doom that arises abruptly and for no apparent reason. The attacks are
usually relatively brief (10–15 minutes) but leave the individual worrying excessively about
future attacks and avoiding activities for fear of having an attack.
3. Phobic disorder involves an intense, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object or
situation that (in reality) poses little or no objective danger. In many cases of phobia, the
individual recognizes the irrationality, but still experiences overwhelming anxiety and goes to
extremes to avoid or escape the presence of the feared object. (Imagine being so afraid of spiders
that you would jump out of a speeding car to get away from one.) Some common phobias found
in the general population include fear of spiders (arachnophobia), heights (acrophobia) and
closed spaces (claustrophobia). Agoraphobia is a more severe and debilitating phobia involving
an intense fear of social situations or crowded places. Individuals who suffer from agoraphobia
frequently withdraw from society, isolate themselves and have great difficulty functioning in the
everyday world.
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4. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) involves persistent, unwanted thoughts (called

obsessions) that cause anxiety and lead the individual to engage in repetitive acts or rituals
(called compulsions) in an attempt to reduce the anxiety. Obsessions- are intrusive and recurring
thoughts, impulses, and image that come to the mind and appear irrational and uncontrollable to
the individual. Compulsion- is a repetitive behavior or mental act that the person feels driven to
perform in order to reduce the distress caused by obsessive thought-obsession leads to compulsio
Unfortunately, with OCD, the compulsive behaviors reduce the anxiety only temporarily,
and the obsessions quickly return to cause another surge in anxiety. In fact, with OCD the
repetitive thoughts and ritualistic actions become uncontrollable and, as with most mental
disorders, interfere with an individual’s ability to function in daily life. Many sufferers of OCD
do not enjoy the rituals and realize that their actions are senseless, but find that the anxiety can
only be relieved by giving in to the urges. Common compulsions seen in individuals who suffer
OCD are endless counting, checking locks, putting items in order, checking, assurance, hoarding,
and repeatedly washing their hands. Common Obsessions are: obsession of contamination,
doubt, aggression, etc.
E. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
It is an anxiety disorder that develops through exposure to a traumatic event. The followings are
from some of its symptoms:
 Sense of detachment, high sudden forgetting,
 Reduced feeling of awareness, feeling of unreality (derealization),
 Depersonalization, excessive arousal,
 Flashbacks, avoiding situation, poor concentration, sleep difficulty, etc.
III. Schizophrenic Disorders

Schizophrenic disorders are considered some of the most serious and debilitating forms of
mental illness. The major feature of all schizophrenic disorders is a break from reality (or a
psychotic episode). In addition to experiencing psychotic episodes, additional symptoms of
schizophrenic disorders include disturbances in perception, language, thought, emotion and
behavior. Following is a more detailed description of the various symptoms associated with
schizophrenia.
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Perceptual symptoms: Individuals might experience hallucinations, in which they

perceive things without external stimulation. (Though hallucinations can occur in any of the
senses: hearing voices and sounds are the most common forms of hallucinations reported.)
Language disturbances: Individuals might exhibit disorganized and incoherent speech
including word salad, in which words become scrambled and jumbled together. For example,
individuals might create artificial words called neologisms (such as smever for smart and clever);
they might also speak in rhythmic, rhyming phrases called clang associations.
Thought disturbances: In many types of schizophrenia, logic is impaired and thoughts
are disorganized and bizarre. Individuals might experience delusions (distorted beliefs that are
maintained despite evidence to the contrary). Some common types of delusions seen among
individuals with schizophrenia include delusions of persecution in which they believe they are
the target of a plot to harm or assassinate them or that they are being watched, followed or
sought after. Delusions of grandeur cause individuals to believe they are someone very
important, such as Napoleon, or that they have special powers. Delusions of reference cause
individuals to believe that someone is giving or sending them special messages through radio
programs, newspaper articles, television programs and so on.
Emotional disturbances: Schizophrenia involves a variety of emotional disturbances
including inappropriate affect, exaggerated affect, blunted or flat affect, and rapid fluctuations in
affect.
Motor/behavioral disturbances: Certain types of schizophrenia involve unusual
mannerisms and movements in which the individual might show excessive, uncontrollable motor
activity or tics. In some cases, individuals display catatonic behavior in which they assume a
nearly immobile stance for an extended period of time.
Types of Schizophrenic disorders

1. Paranoid: The dominant symptoms are hallucinations, delusions, and erratic or
unpredictable behavior.
2. Catatonic: The dominant symptom is motor disturbances in which the person might
display complete loss of motion (catatonic stance) or experience uncontrollable and
erratic movement.
3. Disorganized: The dominant symptoms include incoherent speech, emotional
disturbances, social withdrawal and bizarre behavior.
4. Undifferentiated: This refers to instances in which an individual’s behavior meets the
criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but no defining symptom exists; rather, the
individual shows a mixture of major symptoms of schizophrenia.
5. Residual: A major psychotic episode or symptoms are not present, but minor signs of
schizophrenia are still evident.
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Many psychologists now distinguish between positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
Positive symptoms involve additions or exaggerations of normal thought processes and
behaviors (such as bizarre delusions, hallucinations and disorganized speech). Negative
symptoms involve the loss or absence of normal thought processes and behaviors (such as
impaired attention, limited speech, blunted affect and social withdrawal).
What factors contribute to schizophrenia? Psychologists used to speak of schizophrenic
mothers with the assumption that harsh, cold parenting contributed to the development of
schizophrenia. However, we now know this is not true. In fact, schizophrenia appears to result
from a complex interaction of genetic, biological, psychological, social and environmental
factors. For example, we know that one’s risk of developing schizophrenia increases as genetic
relatedness to an individual with schizophrenia increases. In addition, excess levels of certain
neurotransmitters in the brain (particularly dopamine) are associated with schizophrenia, and
ingestion of large amounts of amphetamines (which increase the amount of dopamine in the
brain) produces the positive symptoms of schizophrenia in people with no history of mental
illness. Even low doses of amphetamines worsen symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia.
Brain imaging techniques point to the possibility of structural differences in the brains of
individuals with schizophrenia and those without schizophrenia. Some individuals with
schizophrenia have been found to have abnormally large ventricles—spaces that house fluid—in
the brain. Certain life events and circumstances are also related to the onset of schizophrenic
episodes. For example, traumatic events and extreme stress are frequently associated with
schizophrenic episodes.
The diathesis-stress hypothesis argues that the development of schizophrenia involves an
interaction between genetic and environmental factors; it states that certain environmental
stressors are more likely to contribute to the development of schizophrenia in individuals who
have a predisposition toward schizophrenia than in those who do not have a predisposition.
IV. Somatoform Disorders

All somatoform disorders involve problems in which one experiences physical symptoms that
have no physiological or biological basis. Rather, psychological problems take on a physical
form for which no biological cause exists.
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1. Hypochondriasis is a disorder in which individuals display an extreme preoccupation

with their health and a constant fear of illness. Despite medical evidence to the contrary, people
who suffer from hypochondriasis continue to believe they are ill and might go as far as to doctor
shop (seeking multiple medical opinions) or create factitious disorders.
2. Conversion disorder involves an actual physical disturbance or problem, but the cause
of the problem is purely psychological. With conversion disorder, an individual might suddenly
lose a particular body function (for example, eyesight, use of arm) without any underlying
physiological cause, and then just as suddenly regain the function.
V. Dissociative Disorders
All dissociative disorders are characterized by the fragmentation of experience, memory, or
consciousness and involve a number of related disorders (including dissociative amnesia,
dissociative fugue, depersonalization disorder and dissociative identity disorder).
1. Dissociative amnesia involves memory loss that is typically highly selective (for
example, not being able to recall one’s own name, not recognizing loved ones, not remembering
one’s address). Though such individuals are unable to recall certain facts about themselves, in all
other respects they generally appear normal, maintaining memories for previously learned skills
and abilities.
2. Dissociative fugue is a form of amnesia in which one forgets who they are, wanders from
home and starts a completely new life. In dissociative fugue, people flee from their usual
environment and assume a completely new identity without any awareness of their past life.
3. Depersonalization disorder involves a separation of mind and body in which
individuals experience episodes of feeling detached from their body.
4. Dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder, occurs
when two or more distinct personalities develop in one individual. Each personality has unique
memories, behaviors and social relationships, and the personalities might even be a different sex,
race or age than the original personality.
119
VI. Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are characterized by long-standing, inflexible and maladaptive
behavior patterns that cause an individual or society impairment or distress. Several disorders fall
under this classification:
1. Narcissistic: The major characteristic is an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
2. Antisocial: This disorder involves a chronic pattern of self-centered, manipulative and
destructive behavior toward others. Individuals lack a sense of responsibility and feel little
personal distress, but bring considerable harm and suffering to others.
3. Paranoid: is characterized by suspicious, mistrustful, secretive and jealous behavior.
4. Borderline: This disorder is characterized by instability of self-image, mood, and social
relationships and an unstable and poorly defined identity. Individuals typically experience
extreme difficulties in relationships and engage in destructive, impulsive behaviors. They are
prone to chronic feelings of depression, emptiness, and intense fear of abandonment and are a
high suicide risk group.
5. Dependent: Preference for letting other people make decisions; lack of initiative and
self-confidence
6.4 Treatment of Psychological Disorders
In psychology, there are about 250 different forms of treatments for psychological
disorders. Here, we will see only a few of them. In general, there are two major branches of
therapies. These are:
A. Biomedical Therapies
Biomedical therapies are physiological interventions intended to reduce symptoms
associated with psychological disorders. These therapies assume that psychological disorders are
caused, at least in part, by biological malfunctions.
I. Treatment with drugs
Psychopharmacotherapy is the treatment of mental disorders with medications.
psychopharmachological interventions in mental disorder are aimed at treating psychological
problems by using chemical agents and is the most widely used forms of biomedical therapy. We
120
will refer this kind of treatment more simply as Drug Therapy. The four main therapeutic drugs
for psychological problems are as follows.
1. Antianxiety drugs –are medications that relieve tension, apprehension, and
nervousness. The most popular of these drugs are Valium and Xanax. These are the trade names
for diazepam and alprazolam, respectively. Valium, anax and others drugs in the henzzodiazepin
family often called tranquilizers. These drugs are fairly effective in alleviating feelings of
anxiety.
2. Antipsychotic Drugs –are used gradually reduce psychotics symptoms, including
hyperactivity mental confusion, hallucinations and delusions. Antipsychotic drugs are used
primarly in the treatment of schizophrenia. They also gave for people who have severe mood
disorders. The trade (and generic) name of some classic drugs in this category are Thorazine
(Chlolpromazine), Mellaril (Thioridazine) and Haldo(Haloperidol).
3. Antidepresent drugs- As their name suggests, antidepressant drugs gradually elevate
mood and help bring people out of a depression. The main two types of these drugs are
Tricyclics (such as Elavil and MAO inhibitors such as Nardil).
4. Mood Stabilizers-MS are drugs used to control mood swings in patients with bipolar
disorders. Lithium-was the only effective drugs in this category in preventing future episodes of
both mania and depression in patients with bipolar illness.
II. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)-is biomedical treatment in which electric shock is

producing a critical seizure accompanied by convulsions. It is a treatment of severe depression
that involves passing small amount of current through the brain to produce seizure activity.
Modern researchers however, have found ECT to be most effective against depression and the
depressive lows encountered in bipolar disorder. In the ECT- electrodes are attached to the skull
over the temporal lobes of the brain. A light anesthesia is induced, and the patient is given a
variety of drugs to minimize the likelihood of complications. An electric current is then applied
either to the right side or both sides of the brain for about a second.
III. Psychosurgery-involves the treatment of mental disorder, in absence of obvious
organic damage, through brain surgery. It is unalterable brain surgery used to relieve the
symptoms of psychological disorders. In contrast, brain surgery to remove a tumor or a diseased
121
neural tissue or to repair a damaged blood vessel is not psychosurgery and there is no
controversy about this procedure.
B. Psychotherapy: Psychological approaches to Treatment

Psychotherapy usually abbreviated as therapy to refer to any of the numerous
psychological treatment for mentally troubled people. It refers to treatment of mental disorders
by psychological (rather than physical or biological) means. Moreover, therapies involve verbal
interactions intended to enhance client’s self-knowledge and thus promote healthful changes in
personality and behavior. Or any noninvasive psychological techniques designed to bring about a
positive change in some one’s behavior, personality, or adjustment.
There are many schools of thought about how to do insight therapy. But here we focus on the
main four ones.
1. Psychoanalytic Therapy
S. Freud devised the psychoanalytic model of psychotherapy. Psychoanalysis is an insight
therapy that emphasizes the recovery of unconsciousness conflicts, motives, and defenses
through techniques such as free association and transference.
To appreciate the logic of psychoanalysis, we have to look at Freud’s thinking about the root of
mental disorders. Freud believes mostly treated anxiety-dominated disturbances, such as phobic,
panic, obsessive-compulsive, and conversion disorders, which were then called neurosis. Freud
believes that neurotic problems are caused by unconscious conflicts left over from early
childhood. Freud thought that these inner conflicts involve battle among and between the Id, Ego
and superego, usually over sexual and aggressive impulses. He theorized that people depend on
defense mechanisms to avoid confronting these conflicts, which remain hidden in the depth of
the unconscious.
Intra-psychic Reliance on
conflict (b/n Anxiety Defense
Id, Ego & mechanism
Superego)
However, he noted
that defensive maneuvers often lead to self-defeating behaviors. Furthermore, he asserted that
defenses tend to be only partially successful in alleviating anxiety, guilt, and other distressing
122
emotions. Within this model in mind, let’s take a look at the therapeutic procedures used in
psychoanalysis.
Methods and Techniques

a. Free association- is a technique in which the clients’ say whatever comes to their mind.
In free associating, clients expound on anything that comes to mind, regardless of how
trivial, silly, or embarrassing, it might be.
b. Dream Analysis- a technique involving the interpretation of dreams to uncover
unconscious conflicts. In dream analysis the therapist interprets the symbolic meaning of
the client’s dreams. Freud saw dreams as Royal road to the unconscious”, the most direct
means of access to patients’ inner most conflicts, wishes, and impulses.
c. Interpretation-refers to the therapist’s attempt to explain the inner significance of the
client’s thoughts, feelings, memories, and behaviors.
d. Resistance-refers to largely unconscious defensive maneuvers intends to hinder the
progress of therapy. It is blockage or refusal to disclose painful memories in free
association.
e. Transference-occurs when clients unconsciously start relating to their therapist in ways
that mimic critical relationships in their lives. It is the phenomena of clients placing
their unconscious material on to the therapist and experiencing the therapist as if they
were another previously encountered person. Thus, a client might start relating to a
therapist as if the therapist were an overprotective mother, a rejecting brother, or a
passive spouse. In a sense, the client transfers conflicting feelings about important
people on to the therapist.
f. Catharsis is the psychoanalytic term for the release of emotional tension a person
experiences when reliving can emotionally charged and conflicting experience.
2.Behavioral Therapy- is an approach to psychotherapy that seek to change particular

“target” behaviors and/ or symptoms of the client, rather than trying to alter some unobservable
or unconscious inner state. Behavioral therapy makes a fundamental assumption that both normal
and abnormal behaviors are learned. People who display abnormal behavior either have failed to
learn the skills needed to cope with the problems of everyday living or have acquired faulty skills
123
and patterns that are being maintained through some forms of reinforcement. To modify
abnormal behavior, then, behavioral approaches propose that people must learn new behavior to
replace the faulty skills they have developed and unlearn their maladaptive behavior patterns.
Methods and Techniques are Positive reinforcement or Selective reinforcement,
Behavioral Assessment, Assertiveness Training, Modeling, Relaxation Training, Systematic
Desensitization, Flooding, Token Economy, Behavioral Rehearsal, Self-regulation etc.
3. Humanistic Therapy-draws up on this physiological perspective of self-responsibility in

developing treatment techniques. Even though, many different types of therapy fit into this
category the idea that underlies them are the same: We have control of own behavior, we can
make choices about the kind of lives we want to lives: and it is up to us to solve the
difficulties that we encounter in owner daily lives (their underlying Assumption is that
people have). Instead of being the directive figures as that of some psychodynamic and
behavioral approaches, humanistic therapists view themselves as guides, or facilitators.
Therapists using humanistic techniques seek to lead people to realization about themselves. In
this view, psychological disorders are the result of people’s inability to find meaning in life and
of feeling lonely and unconnected to others. Humanistic approaches have spawned a number of
therapeutic techniques. Among the most important are as follows. A) Client-Centered Therapy
B)Existential Therapy C) Gestalt Therapy, Human Motivation therapy etc.
4. Cognitive Therapy- faulty maladaptive cognition lies as the heart of abnormal behavior.
Cognitive approaches to therapy have as their goal- a change in faulty cognitions that people
hold about the world and themselves. Unlike traditional behavior therapists, who focus on
modifying external behavior, cognitive therapists attempt to change the way people think. That is
to change people’s illogical thoughts about themselves and the world. Eg. Depression.
According to cognitive therapists, depression is caused by “errors” in thinking. So, the goal of
cognitive therapy is to change client’s negative thoughts and maladaptive beliefs.
124

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Introductory Psychology

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 What is Psychology? (Its meaning and Definition)

 The Meaning of the word Psychology: the word ‘psychology’ is derived/originated

i. Psychology is a science (the scientific study of)

ii. Psychology studies behavior (both covert and overt)

iii. Psychology studies both human and other animals’ behavior

The reasons why psychology deals with animal behavior are:

1.2 Goals of Psychology

1.3 The Historical roots of Psychology- The beginnings of psychology as a science

1.3.1 Early schools of Psychology

Proponent psychologists of Functionalism such as William James, John Dewey, James R.

1.3.2 Modern Perspectives of Psychology

i. The Neurobiological Perspective

This perspective also called Biological Psychology, Physiological Psychology,

ii. The Behaviorist Perspective

iv. The Cognitive Perspective

v. The Socio-cultural Perspective

vi. The Psychodynamic Perspective

1.4 Research Methods in Psychology

Nevertheless, research plays an extremely important role in psychology. In research we use

Advantages of Naturalistic Method

Disadvantages of Naturalistic Method

B. Case Study/ Case History/ Clinical Study

This is an in-depth study or description of a single event/case/individual or single case

Advantages of the Case Study Method

Disadvantages of the Case Study Method

 Difficult to generalize to large cases (population)

Advantages of Survey Method

Advantages of Correlational Method

Disadvantages of Correlational Method

 Independent variable: manipulated or selected variable by the experimenter to see its

 Dependent variable: it is the variable which is measured to determine the effect of

 Experimental group: is the group which receives the experimental treatment/

Advantages of Experimental Research Method

Disadvantages Experimental Research Method

Research Biases in an Experiment Method

Controlling Biases in Experimental Research Method

1.7 Sub-fields in psychology

7. Developmental Psychology- They study mental, physical and psycho-social development

Chapter Two Human Development

2.1 The Meaning of Human Development

B. Cognitive development: it involves growth of mind and information processing capabilities

2.3 Principles of Human Development

D. There are individual differences in development. There are individual variations in

E. Development is cumulative, interactional and correlated. This principle suggests that

Approaches in the Study of Human Development

Prenatal period (from conception to birth) 5. Adolescence (ages 12 to 19)

2.4 Basic Issues in Human Development

grows up without being influenced by heredity and environment. Developmental psychologists

iii. Continuity versus discontinuity: Is human development is changing gradually or

2.5 Theories of Human Development

A. Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

2. Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years of age):

3. Concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years of age):

B. Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development in Human

Stage 1: Trust Vs Mistrust (Birth – 1 year of age)

Stage 2: Autonomy Vs Shame and doubt (1 – 3 years of age)

Stage 3: Initiative Vs Guilt (3 – 6 years of age)