WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?

Active Vocabulary
1. abolish (v) – Psychologists want to abolish crime, international tension and war.
2. advantage (n) – Psychology has unique advantages over most other academic subjects.
3. aim (n) – The main aim of the course is to improve students' communication skills.
4. apply (v) – He wants a job in which he can apply his knowledge of Psychology.
5. behavior (AE), behaviour (BrE) (n) - Her behaviour is often violent.
6. cognition (n) – They study the regions of the brain that are responsible for memory and cognition.
7. concern (v) – The state of my father’s health concerns us greatly.
8. discourse (n) - Civilized discourse between the two countries has become impossible.
9. encourage (v) – His optimism encouraged me.
10. gain (v) – Parents want to know what kind of children gain the most out of life.
11. goal (n) – One of the goals of Psychology is to explain, predict and sometimes modify behaviour of people.
12. investigate (v) – She was thoroughly investigated before being offered the job.
13. prediction (n) ‒ To everyone’s surprise his prediction of the storm came true.
14. psychology (n) ‒ She studied psychology at Harvard.

Activity 1. A. Study and complete the chart.

B. Answer the questions. Start your answers with:
As far as I know … It seems to me that….
As far as I am informed…… No doubt……

Why is Psychology Interesting?

... has numerous

? applications to
everyday life.
?
…knows a lot about
human beings.

? … studies human behaviour.

… has unique advantages ?
over most other academic
subjects. … studies human
Psychology...
nature.

What do Psychologists do?

… help people to
? understand ?
each other.
… deal with people … help people
at work. to choose a
profession.

? ?

… study processes which

… develop programmes to
teach people ways of ?
Psychologists ... are taking place in our society.

coping difficulties.

Activity 2. Use the charts to complete the idea.

Start your statements with:

Modern psychologists ...
As a future psychologist, I ...

The aim of Psychology is …

to understand Practical interest
to study - to have a more practical interest
to investigate - to have an important practical interest
to describe human nature - to have a significant practical interest
to predict human being - to motivate a practical interest
to know - to show a practical interest
to probe - to develop a practical interest.

to have a person  a personality  personally  different

to solve types of personalities  to develop the personality  to study the personality  to investigate
to investigate the personality.
to escape social problems
to change
to abolish
to diminish

Activity 3. Read the text and fill in the gaps using the words in the box.

Human beings to solve sufficient Man knowledge personalities to perceive

jobs The interest ofnature
some people in human nature emotions difficulties
They want to know just for theinterest
"Why Men Study Human Nature"
is motivated only by (1)______. sake of knowing. In exactly thesocial
same waytensions
that some people want to understand rocks or stars,
others want to understand (2)________. They agree with the poet Alexander Pope that 'the proper study of mankind is (3)_______. In effect, they want to know what it means to be a human being.
curiosity
Some have a more practical interest in acquiring (4)__________ about human (5)________. They believe it would be possible (6)__________social problems if enough were known about their causes. Such
people feel that man-made (7)_______ can be overcome, that man-made institutions can be changed, given (8)______ knowledge of man. They want to abolish or at least diminish industrial unrest, racial conflict, crime,
international (9)_____ and war.
Still another kind of practical interest motivates studies of man: the desire to 'get along with other people'. They realize that in order to work and live as harmoniously as possible with others, they must know
why people think and feel and act the way they do. There is also a business as well as a (10)____ interest of this sort. Thus employers want to know what kind of (11)_______ are most likely to succeed in particular
(12)______. Parents want to know what kind of children gain the most out of life.
Perhaps the strongest practical (13)______ in human nature comes from our intense curiosity about ourselves.
How do I become aware of things? How do I (14)______ things? How do I learn, remember, and forget? Am I wasting my intelligence and talent? How did my personality develop? Can I learn to control my
(15)______? Do my motives conflict? How can I make the best possible adjustment between the complex world and my equally complex but unique self?
In asking these questions, people are following the 2,500-year-old dictum of Socrates, ‘Know thyself’.
Activity 4. Answer the question:

to abolish and diminish …

to solve social problems to understand the human being

Why is it important to
study human nature?

to succeed in overcoming difficulties

Activity 5. Read the text.

A. Fill in each gap with one noun from the box.

(0) Psychologists study many aspects of behaviour and mental processes such as thinking, remembering and feeling that have practical (1) _____ for the lives of all of us. They study topics - why some people
learn to read at an early age but have little mechanical (2) _____, while others have good mechanical ability but may have trouble with connecting words on a page; what personality (3) _____ influence career choices; how
we remember and forget and what the biological (4) _____ for memory is; what kinds of psychological changes occur during old age; how we choose our spouses and become attached to our parents and children - and many
other issues that affect our day-to-day lives. (5) _____ is the scientific study of behaviour and mental (6) _____.
Let's look at this (7) _____ word by word. The term “psychology” comes from the Greek psyche (soul) and logos (word or discourse) and reveals the original definition as discourse about the soul (later, about
the mind).
Scientific study uses scientific method, a systematic, objective, and organized way to get (8) _____.
(9) _____ is defined broadly as actions that can be readily observed, such as physical (10) _____ and speaking. We are also concerned with mental processes that occur even though they cannot be observed
directly, such as perceiving, thinking, remembering, and feeling.

Example: 0. psychologists
1. ____________
2. ____________ Psychology, implications, information, activity, facility,
1. I’m absolutely sure ... 2. It seems to me that …
processes, psychologists, behaviour, basis, definition, factors.
B. Complete the idea of the sentences proving that Psychology can improve society in general.

3. We can’t deny the fact ... 4. Generally speaking …

Activity 6. Read these words, if necessary consult the dictionary.

Aristotle John Locke Rene Descartes Functionalism Gestalt Psychology

Psychoanalysis Behaviorism Structuralism Cognitive Psychology
Activity 7. Read the text.

A Brief History of Psychology

In a sense the history of psychology goes back to ancient times when people began to ask questions about human nature and tried to explain human behaviour.
The early Greek and Roman philosophers wondered what the mind and where it was located. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) introduced the concept of the mind as a tabula rasa (blank slate) that was empty until it
was "written upon" by experience.
Nineteen centuries later the British philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) adopted this term to express his agreement with this view of the human mind. An opposing view was held by the French philosopher
Rene Descartes (1596-1650), who believed that we are born with certain ideas and abilities.
Descartes also maintained that the mind and the body are separated but have a great deal of influence over each other.
These theoretical attacks into the nature of human beings were not true psychology. They expressed opinions rather than the results of scientific investigations.
Psychology as a science is little more than 100 years old.
Psychological issues are controversial mostly because of basic differences in the way different psychologists see the nature of human beings. Many of these controversies were born in the very early days of
psychology, with the emergence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of a number of different schools-groups of psychologists who shared a theoretical outlook. As these schools successfully developed and
then often declined, the history of psychology was written.

Activity 8. Disagree with the following:

1. In a sense the history of psychology goes back to the last century.
2. Descartes maintained that the mind and the body can't be separated.
3. Psychology as a science is little more than 300 years old.
4. Psychological issues are controversial mostly because psychologists from different countries don't want to work together.
5. Many of these controversies were born during the 60-s of our century.
6. These schools were founded by groups of psychologists who shared a practical outlook.

Activity 9. Study the table.

SEVEN SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN PSYCHOLOGY

School of Psychology Time Period Basic Belief Techniques Used

Late 19th century to early twentieth century The structure of mind is of prime importance. Analytic introspection, reaction-time experiments.
Structuralism

The uses and functions of the mind are more important Mental tests, questionnaires, objective
Late 19th century to early twentieth century than its structure. observations.
Functionalism

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Gestalt psychology Early 20th century to present Studies in perception.

Behavior is controlled by powerful unconscious urges

Late 19th century to present Clinical perception
Psychoanalysis
Psychology should focus only on observable events and
Early 20th century to present behaviors Scientific method, conditioning
Behaviorism
Psychology should focus on uniquely human
Humanistic psychology Mid-twentieth century to present experiences. Discussion of feelings
Psychology should focus on how the mind acquires, Experiments in memory, thinking, information
Cognitive psychology stores, and processes information. processing
Present

Activity 10. Read the names of psychologists and using the table distribute them according to the schools they belong to.
Wilhelm Wundt Sigmund Freud William James
John B. Watson Max Wertheimer Abraham Maslow

Activity 11. Answer the questions.

1. Why did psychology appear in ancient times?
2. Why can't we call the first theoretical forays into the nature of human beings as "true psychology"?
3. Why did different schools of thought in psychology appear?

Activity 12. Read the text. Put the words in brackets into the correct active or passive form.
CARL JUNG AND SIGMUND FREUD
Carl Jung (0) was (be) a Swiss psychiatrist and one of the greatest figures of modern psychiatry. He (1) ......... (spend) a lonely childhood, and thought about all sorts of questions raised by his dreams. He
(2) ......... (fascinate) by science, in particular, by the study of ancient man, and by religion. Thus he was interested in both observable and spiritual matters.
Jung (3) ......... (study) medicine at the University of Basel and graduated in 1900. At first he (4) ......... (not draw) to psychiatry (the study of diseases of the mind), which was very unfashionable at the time.
But after reading a textbook on the subject, he was immediately interested and excited. He (5) ......... (take) a position at a mental hospital near Zurich, and tried constantly to unravel the causes of mental illness and to
understand what was happening in the mind of a mentally ill person.
In 1907, Jung met the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. They had much in common and immediately (6) ......... (become) close friends. Jung became the follower of Freud’s school of psychoanalysis (the
investigation and treatment of mental illness). But they (7) ......... (not agree) entirely about the causes of mental illness. Freud (8) ......... (trace ) everything back to early childhood, while Jung was more concerned with
understanding a person’s mental illness by studying problems and events that he or she was experiencing at the time of the illness. What Freud and Jung (9) ......... (have) in common was a concern with the “unconscious”.
This can (10) ......... (describe) as a region of the mind which consists of hidden memories and desires, and which is inside every person. The aim of psychoanalysis was to bring all unconscious thoughts into the conscious.
Only when the patient (11) ......... (make) aware of all these hidden thoughts he could begin to recover.
Freud and Jung eventually (12) ......... (part) company, and Jung started his own school of psychology, which (13) ......... (call) the Analytical, or Jungian school.
Jung introduced various terms into psychology, for example, “complex”, “extravert”, “introvert”. He (14) ......... (influence) many people outside the field of psychology, including writers, artists and art historians, and
musicians. His autobiography, Memories, Dreams and Reflections, (15) ......... (publish) after his death.

Activity 13. Use the words in capitals to form a word that fits in the space in the same line.
…Psychology is a complex (0) science SCIENTIFIC
encompassing many (1) …… ways of looking DIFFER
at the human mind and human (2) …… and BEHAVE
of applying the (3) …… it has acquired. KNOW
Being so varied, the field offers a rich (4) …… SELECT
of (5) …… opportunities for people of widely PROFESSION
different (6) ……, personalities, and abilities. INTERESTING
The (7) …… Psychological Association lists AMERICA
more than 40 (8) …… to which its members DIVIDE
may belong to, (9) …… on their DEPEND
interests and (10) ……. ABLE

Activity 14. Read the text.What other specializations do you know? Characterize it/them.
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION IN PSYCHOLOGY
Specialization What psychologists do

They diagnose and treat emotional and behavioural disorders that range from mild to very severe. Clinicians work much like psychiatrists, who also treat disturbed
but who have a medical degree and can prescribe medications.
Clinical Psychology
Counselling psychologists give and interpret psychological tests, interview and observe clients, and offer suggestions for resolving problems.
Counselling Psychology
They measure and describe personality through interviews and specially designed tests and formulate theories about its development.
Personality Psychology
Educational psychologists look to psychological principles and techniques to help different people in getting knowledge. School psychologists work with
Educational schoolchildren and their parents and teachers to help the children get the most from their school years.
and
School Psychology.
Experimental psychologists study such psychological processes as sensation and perception, learning, memory, cognition, motivation, and emotion. They work
mostly in the laboratory and may use animals as well as human beings in their research.
Experimental Psychology
They study the biological bases of behavior, especially the nervous system and the endocrine system. They conduct research with animals such as rats, cats, and
Physiological Psychology monkeys.
Developmental Psychology They describe, explain, predict, and sometimes try to modify behavior from birth through old age.

They focus on the role of psychology in helping people to adopt health-promoting lifestyles, to prevent and recover from illness, to deal with stress, and to use and
Health Psychology expand health care system.
Social psychologists solve practical problems that arise in public relations and in communities composed of members of different ethnic backgrounds, in the
workplace, and in just about every kind of situation in which people are together.
Social Psychology
Psychometric psychologists design intelligence tests by identifying the characteristics they want to measure, and then develop statistical methods to interpret the
Psychometrics scores.

Industrial These personnel specialists develop procedures for matching the job to the worker, for training workers, and for examining issues related to supervision,
and Organizational Psychology communication, and morale.
Engineering Psychology Engineering psychologists. design, evaluate, and adapt equipment so that it can be used efficiently and effectively.

Some Other Specializations Among the other psychological subfields are: comparative psychology, which focuses on comparing behavior across species; psycholinguistics, which is concerned with the
study of language; quantitative psychology, which undertakes statistical analysis of research findings.