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SECONDARY/ LEARNT/ PSYCHOLOGICAL MOTIVES Besides the basic biological needs, the expression of psychological needs is also of great significance: through society and culture in which one lives. Non-satisfaction of these motives may lead to mental illness. Main psychological needs are: Achievement Curiosity Need for appraisal Need for affiliation Need for power Work as motive 1.Achievement [...]

MEMORY III Memory Disorders/Dysfunctions Memory loss has long been considered as a result of aging, but now physicians believe that there must be some pathological reasons as well, that cause memory impairment: “Memory Cognitive Impairment” (MCI). Although the suffering individuals are capable of doing every day tasks independently, they also heavily rely on using diaries, [...]

MEMORY II Long-Term Memory This system stores information on a permanent or relatively permanent basis; the information thus stored may or may not be retrieved easily. The term long-term memory is somewhat broad meaning phrase because it can refer to facts learned a few minutes ago, personal memories many decades old, or skills learned with [...]

MEMORY I Memory refers to the processes by which people and other organisms encode, store, and retrieve information. Memory is critical to humans and all other living organisms. Practically all of our daily activities—talking, understanding, reading, and socializing—depend on our having learnt and stored information about our environments. Memory allows us to retrieve events from [...]

COGNITIVE APPROACH (Also known as the cognitive Perspective or Model) After having gone through the classical and operant conditioning approaches ask yourself: Did we learn, all that we know, as a result of mere association of stimulus and response; or was it learnt just because we were reinforced for it?????Can learning take place as a [...]

OPERANT CONDITIONING Type of learning in which a voluntary response becomes stronger or weaker depending on its positive or negative consequences. The organism plays an active role and ‘operates’ on environment to produce the desired outcome. Operant conditioning forms an association between a behavior and a consequence. Consequences have to be immediate, or clearly linked [...]

LEARNING Learning is commonly understood as the act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skill. For a layperson it is knowledge or skill gained through schooling or study. With reference to Psychology; it is the behavioral modification especially through experience or conditioning The best definition of learning is that: Learning is a relatively permanent [...]

ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS Significance of Wakefulness, Sleep, and Fatigue Wakefulness is the productive part of our life. At the same time sleep is also an essential aspect. When we are awake, we are consuming our physical energy, and after some time we begin to experience fatigue. All these are the various faces of consciousness [...]

PERCEPTION II Depth Perception Depth perception is the perceptual tendency/ ability to see objects in three dimensions, although the image that falls on the retina of the eye is two-dimensional; thus enabling us to perceive distance. “Depth Perception” is the skill to perceive depth and distance e.g. we are able to judge the distance of [...]

PERCEPTION I “Perception is not determined simply by stimulus patterns; rather it is a dynamic searching for the best interpretation of the available data.” Gregory (1966)The process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting stimuli; it includes identification, recognition, and images of the stimulus in question; previous experiences have a role to play in it.Perception is holistic. [...]

HEARING (AUDITION) AND BALANCE:Hearing or audition is the sense of sound perception and results from tiny hair fibers in the inner ear detecting the motion of a membrane which vibrates in response to changes in the pressure exerted by atmospheric particles within (at best) a range of 20 to 20000 Hz. Sound can also be [...]

SENSATION Traditionally, the five special senses have been defined as taste, smell, sight, hearing and feeling. However, touch is now considered to reflect the activity of the general senses, and equilibrium, or balance, can be thought of as a new fifth special sense. In contrast to the general sensory receptors, most of which are modified [...]

ENDOCRINE SYSTEM Endocrine system is a collection of glands that produce hormones that regulate body’s growth, metabolism, and sexual development and function. The hormones are released into the bloodstream and transported to tissues and organs throughout the body. Although there are eight major endocrine glands scattered throughout the body, they are still considered to be [...]

NERVOUS SYSTEM (2) Membranes of the Brain Between the surfaces of the brain and the skull, there are three layers of membrane called the meanings, which completely cover the brain and spinal cord. These three membranes are: Dura Matter Arachnoid Pia Matter Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) The subarachnoid space contains a fluid called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), [...]

NERVOUS SYSTEM (1) Central Nervous System (CNS) and Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) The brain and its constituent parts are the most complex system ever known. With one trillion separate cells, each one in a continuous process of changing in response to chemical signals. From the moment of conception to the moment of death, the biology [...]

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Cognitive development is the process of the development of children understanding of the world as a function of age and experience.Development of Cognition and Cognitive AbilityCognition is the process of knowing as well as what is known. It includes “knowledge” which is innate/ inborn and present in the form of brain structures and [...]

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT AND NATURE NURTURE ISSUE Development “The process of growth and differentiation” Development refers to the progressive changes in size, shape, and function during the life of an organism by which its genetic potentials (genotype) are translated into functioning mature systems (phenotype). Most modern philosophical outlooks would consider that development of some kind or [...]

RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY (II) e. Content Analysis Part of archival research: An approach for systematically categorizing and analyzing the content of the behavior or its related aspects/ variables being studied. The analysis may cover contents of live human behavior, books, journals, magazines, poetry, drama, movies, folktales, TV programs, school textbooks and curricula, advertisements etc. [...]

RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY (I) Scientific method in psychology The scientific method is an approach that practitioners of psychology are interested in for assessing, measuring, and predicting behavior. It is the process of appropriately framing and properly answering questions. It is used by psychologists and those engaged in other scientific disciplines, to come to an [...]

THE HUMANISTIC APPROACH AND THE COGNITIVE APPROACH The Humanistic Approach Faced with a choice between psychoanalysis and behaviorism, many psychologists in the 1950s and 1960s sensed a void in psychology’s conception of human nature. Freud had drawn attention to the darker forces of the unconscious, and Skinner was interested only in the effects of reinforcement [...]

BEHAVIORAL APPROACH The psychological model that focuses on the overt, observable, behavior. The model grew out of the rejection of psychology’s early emphasis on the inner working of the mind, suggesting instead that observable behavior should be the focus of the field. John B. Watson was the first person that advocated the behavioral approach. This [...]

THE PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH/ MODEL The approach that concentrated on the unconscious forces that drive our behavior; belief that the inner forces over which individuals have little control motivate behavior. Founded by Sigmund Freud, the most influential figure in the history of psychology. The basis of motivation and behavior lies in inner forces; forces that are [...]

PERSPECTIVE/MODEL/APPROACH• A paradigm in psychology is a distinct way of describing, observing, understanding, and predicting any given psychological phenomena. The professionals, as well as students, in order to conceptualize and organize the available information, need a model or paradigm. Also, it is required because it is used to test hypotheses and for conducting research work [...]

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT Wilhelm Wundt, in Germany, established the foundations of modern psychology in 1879. He wanted to study, experimentally, the conscious experience of individuals. As discussed earlier, the different schools of thought gradually emerged after psychology took this scientific turn. These schools were basically different ways of observation, description, understanding, and prediction of psychological [...]

HISTORICAL ROOTS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Throughout some twelve or so decades, psychology has led an active life, developing gradually into a true science. As part of evolution, it has produced a number of conceptual models, approaches, theories, interrelated ideas and concepts used to explain phenomena, that has guided the work being carried out.Earlier views of [...]

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY? Beginning with the first psychological laboratory, founded in 1879 by German philosopher and physiologist Wilhelm Wundt, modern psychology’s can be traced in many disciplines and countries. Psychology’s historical perspectives and current activities lead us to define the field as the science of behavior and mental processes.Theoretical perspectives of psychology There are many [...]