INTRODUCTION TO EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY IN EDUCATION

LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

By – Raphael Tumaini O’maitarya
0755340506/0655820165: Email – [email protected]

LECTURE SUMMARY
1.1 INTRODUCTION
 This course is about Educational Psychology.
 However, knowledge on General Psychology is a prerequisite of
understanding the specialized field of Educational Psychology.
 As you know general psychology is a course of its own.
 At the end of this topic the student will be able to:
o Define psychology
o Describe the main objectives of psychology
o Narrate a brief history of psychology
o Describe the main branches of psychology
o define Educational Psychology
o narrate a brief history of Educational Psychology
o state the main objectives of Educational Psychology
o Describe and identify the components of laboratory experiments
o Describe and identify randomized field experiments
o Describe and identify single-case study.
o Describe Correlational study.
o Define descriptive research and action research.
1.2 DEFINITION OF PSYCHOLOGY
 In short, the subject matter of psychology is behavior and mental
processes.
 This means that, psychology is dealing with two aspects.
 These are the following:
o Behavior, and
o Mental processes
 However, there are other fields which also deals with behavior.
 These are such as the following:
o Political science,
o Religion,
o Astrology,
o Witchcraft,
o Fortune telling,
o Literature,

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 o Economics,
o Law, and
o Sociology.
 Psychology is different from these other fields since it uses
scientific approaches in studying behavior and mental processes.
 So, psychology is the scientific study of behavior and
mental processes.
 Scientific approach is based on empirical evidence.
 Empirical evidenced are obtained through scientific methods that
are objectively and can be verified.
 These methods are the following:
o Measurements,
o Experiments
o Observation.
 Psychology tries to use scientific approach in understanding the
nature behavior and the functioning of mental processes.
 Explanations of behavior based on scientific approach are more
credible than those based on mere speculations.
 Some of questions related to education addressed by psychology
include the following:
o How do children learn?
o Why do student differ in performance?
o What are best approaches of controlling classroom?
o How can we reduce aggressive behaviors in our schools?
 Other disciplines like medicine, business, health, industries and
vocations have questions that are also addressed by psychology.
 The above questions imply behavior is a very broad concept.
 Some behaviors are manifested externally and can be observed
directly.
 These are like the following:
o Walking,
o Singing,
o Writing, and
o Climbing a tree.
 However, some of behaviors are internal and can only be inferred.
 These are like the following:
o Thinking,
o Being happy and
o Hating an object.

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  As you will soon see in the definition the concept “study” is also
very broad as it includes the following:
o Describing,
o Understanding, and
o Predicting behavior.

POSIBLE QUESTIONS AND THEIR ANSWERS FOR

MTT &A.E
1.Define Psychology. Discuss the main issues which psychology
is concerned with.
Introduction
Psychology is the science of behavior and mental processes.
- It is the scientific approaches in studying behavior and mental
processes.
- Behavior includes such human traits like aggressive behavior like
violent and hostility, assertive behaviour like firm and confidence,
passive behaviour like submissive, inert and inactive, happiness,
jealous, hardworking, etc.
- While mental processes include; memory, emotion, perception,
imagination, thinking and reasoning.
Main body
Psychology uses scientific based empirical evidence to obtain its content.
Also, psychology uses measurements to collect data which are analyzed
to generate its subject content.
- Psychology tries to use scientific approach in understanding the
nature behavior and the functioning of mental processes.
- It explains behavior based on scientific approach in a more credible
way than based on mere speculations to address its main issues.
- Some of questions which psychological issues related to education.
- The main issues addressed by psychology include the following
 How do children learn?
 Why does student differ in performance?
 What are best approaches of controlling classroom?
 How can we reduce aggressive behaviors in our schools?
- The above questions imply behavior is a very broad concept.

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- Some behaviors are manifested externally and can be observed
directly. These are such as
 Walking,
 Singing,
 Writing, and
 Climbing a tree.
- However, some of behaviors are internal and can only be inferred.
These include;
 Thinking,
 Being happy and
 Hating an object.
Conclusion
Generally, psychology deal with issues ranging from describing behavior,
understanding behavior, and predicting behavior using scientific
procedures.

2.Identify the main areas of psychology.

Introduction
Psychology is the science study of human behaviour and mental
processes.
- Human behaviour is very broad with many components that are
affected by many variables.
- So as to manage to understand the content of psychology, it is
divided broadly into four main areas.
- These are physical, cognitive, emotions and the
environment.
Main body
Physical aspect is the body of the individual i.e., muscles, skeleton,
glands and sensory systems.
- This implies that biological processes have influence on our
behaviour e.g., hunger makes us to look for food and eat
(behaviour); females can bear children while males cannot, and
writing involves coordination of eyes and muscles in the arm.
Cognitive in psychology focuses on mental activities that include
memory, thinking, problem solving and language.
- You know that brain is part of the physical body, thus there is a
connection between body and cognitive processes.
- Cognitive component is responsible for the understanding of us
and the environment, which results in capabilities and behaviours
that we use to manipulate environment for development.
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 Emotions are the feelings that we have as our reaction to an object or
event.
- These feelings can either be pleasant or unpleasant.
- Pleasant feelings include being happy, falling in love, laughing;
and unpleasant feelings include being angry, sad, fear and
happiness.
- Emotions make us human (different from machines and innate
objects), and colour our lives (happy in a ceremony and sad when
we lose a loved one) and affect our behaviour (in form of reacting
and acting on our emotions).
- There is a direct connection between emotions and the brain, and
between emotions and the physical body.
Environment; this physical environment.
- It has effect on our behaviour in that it provides us with the
necessities to survive (air, food and water).
- It limits or enhances our behaviours and potentials (think of
learning environment).
- People around us (social environment) have direct influence on us
for they take care of the young ones (who cannot look for food or
fend off negative elements in the environment, babies cannot
survive without the support of the caregivers);
- On the language we acquire and in shaping our behaviours
through socialization processes.
Conclusion
These major areas of studying psychology are interrelated and do not
act in isolation of the others. For example, the environment affects us
(emotionally, mentally, physiologically, socially and behaviour wise) and
we also have some influence on the environment be it physical or social.
When we see food, we like we salivate, decide to approach the vendor,
buy the food, and then enjoy while eating it. Such an act is simple and
yet complex as it affects the life of the vendor, food processing,
production of food and impact on the environment. These areas also
indicate that psychology is also related to other disciplines such as
biology, sociology, economics, education, environmental science,
anthropology, medicine and geography. However, you must be aware of
the boundaries between psychology and the other fields.

3.What are the objectives of psychology which make it a necessary

subject for professions like teachers?
Introduction

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 This subtopic is an elaboration of the term ‘study’ in the definition of
psychology. There are four objectives of studying psychology, namely to
describe behaviour, understand behaviour, predict behaviour and to
control behaviour.
Main body
 Describe: the first objective of psychology is to describe how
behaviour occurs.
 Understand: the second objective is to determine the causes of
behaviour.
 Predict: after describing and understand the causes of behavior we
are able to predict how one will behave under certain conditions.
 Control: the fourth objective of psychology is to influence the
behaviour of individuals.
Conclusion
As a teacher you like to know what Bahati is doing and how is doing it
(describe); then know why is s/he acting like that (cause); will s/he do
the same in the future (predict)?; and finally what can be done to
maintain/eliminate the behaviour (control).
4.Account for historical development of psychology.
Introduction
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
- It is field of study which has historical course on its development.
- Psychology as an independent field started in 1879 when Wilhelm
Wundt established a laboratory (read scientific approach) at
Leipzig to study the structure of the mind (a subject matter of
psychology).
- He wanted to find the basic elements of thinking, consciousness
and other mental functions.
- Before then most of these issues related to behaviour had been
based on speculation.
- So, the psychology is acknowledged to have been started in that
year because of the use of scientific method to describe a
psychological phenomenon.
Main body
- Issues relating to human behaviour have been of concern to
human beings since the beginning of history.
- For a long time, people have tried to address the mind –body
problem, and yet they have not come up with a complete
satisfactory answer.

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 - Matters relating to behaviour have been a subject matter in
theology and philosophy (refer to the books of religion and
writings of philosophers such as Plato and Socrates).
- The following are different perspectives that underpin the history
of psychology.
- The perspectives have been influenced by the way people explain
their experiences based on the realities of that period.
- So, each perspective has been influenced by the previous
perspectives and they in turn influence the future perspectives.
- Each perspective has contributed in psychology and consequently
better understanding of human development.
Structuralism
The first school of thought in psychology is called structuralism.
- It was developed by Wilhelm Wundt (1932-1920) who was trying
to find the basic elements that form conscious sensations, feelings
and images.
- He was influenced by the advances in physical sciences of time
(the identification of atoms in physics and cells in biology).
- His main method of obtaining these elements was called
introspection i.e., self-observation.
- He trained his assistants to report verbally what they were sensing
when presented with an object.
- For example, an assistant will hold a banana and report what he
experienced in term of his sensation. The main limitation of
introspection was lack of objectively in those results could not be
independently verified. The trained persons on introspection
frequently gave conflicting sensations on the same object leading
to misunderstandings among themselves.
Functionalism
This school of thought was formed in USA by William James who was
influenced by Charles Darwin’s concept of natural selection i.e., survival
for the fittest.
- William James believed that psychology should investigate the
functions or purposes of consciousness and not the structure of
consciousness as advocated by Wundt.
- The interest was on how peoples’ behaviour functions to adopt the
demands of the real world around them.
- Based on this perspective John Dewey developed the first school
of psychology and the best ways of meeting educational needs of
children.
Psychodynamic
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The major force under this perspective was a physician called Sigmund
Freud (1856-1939).
- He was born in Vienna and later on moved to USA.
- His theory is based on the observations he made when treating
people with psychological disorders.
- He relied on interpretations he made on the meanings of the
dreams, fears and thoughts of his clients.
- He postulated that there is interplay between mental processes
and behaviour, thus the concept psychodynamics.
- He asserted that most of our actions are controlled by our minds
as result of the way we unconsciously think, feel and wish.
- Thus, the unconsciousness component of us has more influence on
us than the consciousness component.
- Sometimes there is a conflict between the motives of our feelings,
thoughts and wishes leading into a conflict within us.
- He believed that these conflicts have no physical basis but have a
strong impact on the way we live.
- The main contribution of this perspective is the acknowledgment
of the importance of childhood experiences on the quality of life in
later years; and the role of psychology in treating people with
psychological problems through therapy.
Behaviourism
This school of thought originated in the USA and was a modification of
functionalism.
- The behaviorists believe that one cannot objectively observe and
verify processes that take place in the mind of a person.
- They rejected introspection and other methods used in
psychoanalysis as not being truly scientific.
- Instead, they proposed that psychology should only focus on
observable behavior and the environmental conditions that have
influence on how human beings behave.
- The methods of research in psychology should be the same as
those used in other sciences.
- B.F. Skinner (1904 –1990) is the best-known behaviorist who
observed that behaviour of an organism can be controlled by the
manipulation of the environment.
- Behaviorists insist that behaviour is controlled by its
consequences.
- If behaviour is followed by reinforcement, then it will be repeated
under the same conditions.

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 - However, if it is followed by punishment the likelihood of it
reoccurring under the same conditions decreases.
- Behaviourism was the major force in psychology between 1950
and 1970 and was adapted in approaches of learning and
teaching.
- The main limitation of behaviorism was that it ignored mental
processes which are also very important in influencing behaviour.
Cognitive Perspectives
Gestalt
Gestalt is a German word meaning “whole” or “pattern”.
- This perspective was postulated by three Germans who had
immigrated to USA.
- For them human behaviour cannot solely be explained by
behaviour alone or reduced into single elements as explained by
the behaviorists.
- They were also against the notion that humans are passive to the
environment.
- They believed that humans are rather active in gaining
experiences from the environment.
- Gestalt psychologists put more emphasis on mental processes i.e.,
how we organize sensory information into meaningful state
through perception, memory and thinking.
- Based on a number of experiments they proposed that brain
automatically organizes sensory information into meaningful
wholes.
- Gestalt perspective can be considered as one of the foundations of
cognitive perspective.
- Currently, more psychologists hold the cognitive perspective rather
than the behavioral perspective.
- Cognitive psychologists hold that psychology should also include
memory systems that have influence on how sensory information
is received, processed, stored and retrieved or forgotten.
- Also, they believe that traits related to mental functions such as
emotions, memories, motivation and beliefs have effects on our
behaviours and learning.
- It is safe to say that this perspective has been influenced by the
development of computers.
Cognitive perspective
This perspective has evolved from structuralism and believes that most
of human behaviour is rooted in the mind.

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 - They focus on people’s understanding of the world i.e., how they
think, understand and think about the world around them.
Conclusion

5.Make a list of the branches of psychology mentioned and show

how each branch is applied in education in general.
Introduction
Psychology is the scientific approaches in studying behavior and mental
processes.
- Therefore, its subject matter is behavior and mental processes.
- So, psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental
processes.
- Behavior includes;
 Aggressive,
 Assertive,
 Passive,
 Happiness,
 Jealous,
 Hardworking, etc.
- Mental processes include;
 Memory,
 Emotion,
 Perception,
 Imagination,
 Thinking, and
 Reasoning.
Main body
Psychology has been growing and it has created many areas of
specialization within the field. There are several branches of psychology.
These are development, social, cognitive, school, experimental,
counseling and clinical psychology.
Developmental Psychology
- This studies the changes that occur as humans grow and develop.
- It describes how human body changes and how we adapt in these
changes.
- For example, at which level of development do children recognize
themselves, what is the sequence involved in walking and what do
adolescence do in response to the physiological changes (puberty)
occurring at this stage?
- Also, developmental psychology describes cognitive and
psychosocial changes of individual.
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 - It looks on aspects in the environment that have effect on the
individual as s/he grows.
- Do children become aggressive or westernized because of
watching television?
 Social Psychology
- This looks at the interaction of the individual and the society i.e.,
how individual’s behaviour is affected by social factors.
- Topics under this area include socialization process, prejudice,
peer pressure, mob justice and the way people view themselves
and others.
 Cognitive Psychology.
- “Cognition” stems from the Latin word meaning "to know".
- Cognitive psychology investigates aspects of human
cognition i.e., all our mental abilities and processes including
perceiving, learning, remembering, thinking, reasoning, and
understanding.
- It studies how people acquire and apply knowledge or
information.
- It is closely related to other cognitive science and it is
influenced by artificial intelligence, computer science,
philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, biology, physics, and
neuroscience.
 School Psychology
- This is a branch that applies principles of psychology to the
diagnosis and treatment of children's and adolescents'
behavioral and learning problems.
- School psychologists carry out psychological and psycho
educational assessment; counseling; and consultation; and
also, in the ethical, legal and administrative codes in the
teaching profession.
 Experimental Psychology
- This is interested in using controlled experiments to study
psychological processes.
- It looks at the human mental processes and behaviour using
scientific method, research, experimentation and statistics.
 Counseling Psychology
- This branch focuses on providing psychological therapy to
individuals experiencing normal emotional, social, vocational,
educational and developmental problems.
- Counseling psychologists are trained to have a variety of
counseling skills.
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 Clinical psychology
- This is devoted to understanding and finding treatment to
people experiencing serious emotional, mental and
behaviour disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders
and psychotic disorders.
- Clinical psychologists specialize in a few areas of the
disorders and work in clinical setting.

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