Chapter One

Essence of Psychology
• This chapter tries to acquaint students with the concept of
psychology and psychologists.
• Definition of psychology and related concepts, goals of
psychology, historical background and major perspectives in
psychology, branches/subfields of psychology, and research
methods in psychology.
• A psychologist once asked a group of university freshmen to
tell him who they think a psychologist is. Some say someone
who reads the palm of an individual and tells the behavior of a
person‟, others said “someone who is a fortune teller‟, the
rest said, “a person who can understand what someone is
thinking about at a certain time.”

• What about you? You just explore these views as you proceed
through the discussions in this chapter.
1.1. What Is Psychology?
• Psychology
• Psyche: “Mind”
• Logos: “Knowledge” or “study” or ‘line of teaching’; thus, we have ‘study of the mind’.
• Therefore, by combining the two Greek words the term "psychology" epistemologically refers to
the study of the mind, soul, or sprit and it is often represented by the Greek letter ᴪ (psi) which is
read as ("sy").
• Psychologists define psychology differently based on their intentions, research findings, and
background experiences. Nowadays, most of them agree on the following
• Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and the underlying mental processes.
• Three aspects of this definition:

• Science: psychology uses scientific methods to study behavior and mental processes in both
humans and animals. This means psychologists do not study behavior with commonsense
rather they follow scientific procedures and use empirical data to study behavior and mental
processes.
• Empirical evidence: Information gathered from direct observation.
• Behavior: refers to all of our outward or overt actions and reactions, such as talking, facial
expressions, movement, etc. Covert behavior which is hidden, non-observable and generally
considered as a mental process.
• Mental Processes: refer to all the internal, covert activities of our minds, such as thinking,
feeling, remembering, that each of us experience privately, but can not be observed directly.
 1.2. Goals of Psychology
Description: Naming and classifying various observable, measurable behaviors as objectively as possible.
Description involves observing the behavior and noticing everything about it. It is a search for answers for
questions like: What is happening?‘ Where does it happen?‘ To whom does it happen?‘ And under what
circumstances does it seem to happen? How do people think, feel, and act in various situations?”
E.g. a teacher might notice that a young freshman girl in his/her general psychology classroom is behaving
oddly. She is not turning to her homework, her results are slipping badly, and she seems to have a very
negative attitude toward the course.
Explanation: While descriptions come from observable data, psychologists must go beyond what is
obvious and explain their observations. Explanation is about trying to find reasons for the observed
behavior. Why is it happening? Example: find out why the girl is behaving differently- the teacher would
most likely ask her parents about her home background, neighborhood, her friends, and how she grew up.
Prediction: determining what will happen in the future. In the above example, the case of the freshman
girl, the psychologist or counselor would predict (based on previous research into similar situations) that
this girl may never be able to reach her full learning potential. There’s an old saying, which very often holds
true: "the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior."
Control: Altering conditions that influence behaviors. How can it be changed? Control or modify or change
the behavior from undesirable one (such as failing in school) to a desirable one (such as academic success).
Certain learning strategies can be used to help the girl so that she will be successful in her academic
endeavor.
In studying the relationship between intelligence and academic performance, a psychologist needs to control the effect of
socio-economic status of the family.
Not only do psychologists attempt to control behavior, balways the ut they also want to do so in a positive
manner, they want to improve a person’s life, not make it worse. This is not case, but it should always be the
intention.
Historical Background and Major Perspectives in
Psychology
• Psychology is a relatively new field in the realm of the sciences, only
about 146 years old.
• Although it dates back to the time of Plato and Aristotle as a branch of
philosophy, it began as a science of its own in 1879 in Leipzig,
Germany, with the establishment of a psychology laboratory in the
University of Leipzig by Wilhelm Wundt.
• Wundt developed the technique of objective introspection to
scientifically examine mental experiences.
• The study of human subjective experiences that were previously under
the field of philosophy alone, psychology then begun as an
independent field of study and with Wundt as its founder or "father of
modern psychology.
• Once psychology begun to use the scientific method, it then went
through successive developments in which different schools of thought
emerged at different times. These schools of thought can be
categorized as old and modern as described below.
Scientific Psychology
• During the first decades of psychology’s existence as a formal discipline,
psychologists came to hold quite different views about the nature of the mind
and the best ways to study it.
• Fundamental questions were raised about what should be studied in
Psychology: Should Psychology be the study of the mind, should it study
Behavior, or should both mind and Behavior be included?
• Different influential psychologists of the time held quite different views on the
nature of mind and the proper subject matter for psychology.
• Schools of thought formed around these leaders as their students adopted their
ideas. These schools of thought are known as the schools of Psychology.
• Schools, in this context, can best be thought of as groups of psychologist who
held common beliefs about both the subject matter of psychology and what
methods of study should be used.
• Most schools developed in revolt against traditional methods and beliefs at the
time. However, they did not always replace earlier schools but sometimes
existed alongside them.
• Understanding these schools can help us make sense of the multitude of ideas
and methods which currently characterize psychology.
 Early schools of psychology
A school of thought is a system of thinking about a certain issue, say, for example,
about human behavior or mind. You may, for example, think that human behavior is all
the result of inheritance, or it is all the result of interaction with the
environment. The first system of thinking takes a biological approach and the later
takes an environmental approach.
a) Structuralism
• Mental chemistry
• A study of structure of mind. It is an expansion of Wundt‘s ideas by his student named Edward Titchener (1867-
1927). Titchener is the founder of structuralism. English psychologist who studied under Wilhelm Wundt for
several years.
• Wundt believed that psychology should concern itself with the elementary processes of conscious
experience. The structure of consciousness and immediate mental experience could be broken down into basic
elements and compounds in the same way that, in chemistry; one can describe the structure of water or air.

• Uses introspection as a method-looking inward into our consciousness‖. It is a procedure aimed at

analyzing the mental experience into three basic mental elements: images, feelings, and sensation.
• The goal of structuralists was to find out the units or elements, which make up the mind such as; sensations
(sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touch which arise from stimulation of the sense organs); images
(experiences not actually present), and feelings ((love, fear, joy and so on) which compose the mind.
• The method of introspection proved difficult and inadequate, largely because of conflicting findings between
introspectionists in different laboratories.
• Reaching agreement on the basic elements of a particular mental experience proved an impossible task and
reporting on mental activity in humans was not quite so straight forward as observing what happens in a test
tube when two chemicals are combined.
b) Functionalism
• Introduced by William James (1848-1910), who was the first American psychologist
and the author of the first psychology textbook.
• Functionalism was influenced by biology and many of the concepts ‘borrowed’ from that discipline
continue to influence psychology today.
• The work and ideas of Charles Darwin evolutionary theory had a monumental impact on the
emergence of functional psychology. His theory of evolution provided an account of the way living
organisms change and develop over time through a process of natural selection.
• In this way a particular species might change quite extensively over several generations and, in
some cases an entirely new species could evolve.
• Influenced greatly by Darwin, he held that the function of consciousness was to enable humans to
behave in ways which would aid survival through adaptation to the environment.
• Functionalists were interested that Mind and Behavior are adaptive- they enable an individual
to adjust to a changing environment. Where these adaptive behaviours were repeated
frequently, they became habits. Habits, James believed, provided stability and predictability in
society.
• He developed many research methods other than introspection including questionnaires, mental
tests and objective descriptions of behavior.
• The emphasis on the importance of observing similarities and differences between varying species
greatly influenced the development of comparative psychology.
c) Gestalt psychology
• Gestalt psychology views psychology as a study of the whole mind.
• The leading proponents of Gestalt view were Max Wertheimer (1880-1943), Kurt
Koffka (1876- 1941) and Wolfgang Kohler (1887 -1967).
• The German word "gestalt" refers to form, whole, configuration or pattern.
• Mind should be thought of as a result of the whole pattern of sensory activity and
the relationships and organizations within their pattern.
• Gestalt psychologists acknowledge consciousness. They argued that people
perceive the world in ‘wholes. They held that "the whole is greater than the sum
of its parts. Means mind is greater than its parts (images, sensations, and
feelings).
• 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.
• The tendency of the Gestalt psychologists to rely for their data on subjective
observations and reports of conscious experience, rather than carefully controlled
behavioral methods, attracted criticism from the behaviorists.
• Nonetheless the influence of gestalt psychology is great in some areas of
contemporary psychology, for example in the study of perception and problem
solving.
d) Behaviorism
• This school of psychology came into being with John B. Watson (1878-
1958). Other proponents include E. Thorndike and B.F. Skinner.
• Behaviorists view psychology as a study of observable and
measurable behaviors and nothing more about hidden mental
processes.
• For psychology to become scientific, it needs to get rid of dealing with
subjectivity in all its forms and rather focus on studying behavior.
• According to Watson, we cannot define consciousness any better than
we can define the soul; we cannot locate it or measure it and, therefore,
it cannot be the object of scientific study.
• Though Watson’s view of the nature of human beings was considered by
critics to be mechanistic and oversimplified, his focus on the study of
observable behavior allowed him to formulate clear hypotheses which
could be tested by experimentation.
• This shift in emphasis towards the use of more objective and
systematic methods was one of his greatest contributions to psychology.
e) Psychoanalisis
• Psychology studies about the components of the unconscious part of the human
mind, is the subject matter of psychoanalysis. It contains hidden wishes, passions,
guilty secrets, unspeakable yearnings, and conflict between desire and duty.
• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is the founder of this school of thought.
• As a physician, Sigmund Freud became convinced that some of the physical
illnesses of his patients didn‘t have medical or bodily causes; but non-physical
or emotional causes.
• Hysteria‘ or conversion reaction to indicate the conversion of emotional problems
into bodily problems.
• We are not aware of our unconscious urges and thought and they make themselves
known in dreams, slip of the tongue, apparent accidents and even jokes. He
used clinical case studies (hypnosis and Dream analysis) as a method. Hypnosis is
done with the help of a therapist using verbal repetition and mental images.
• In classical psychoanalysis, therapy involves Transference, the client’s projection
and displacement of thoughts and feelings onto the analyst; Free association,
where the client says whatever comes into mind, no matter how trivial or irrelevant
it may seem; and dream analysis, which involves the analyst interpreting the
content of the client’s dreams.
• These schools basically differ in terms of three issues: object, goal, and methods of
These schools basically differ in terms of three issues: object,
goal, and methods of study:
• In their object of study, i.e. what they studied (conscious mind,
unconscious mind, and overt behavior).
• In their goal (analyze the components of the mind or observing the effect
of the environment on behavior).
• In their method (Introspection, observation, clinical case studies, etc...).
 In conclusion, the discourse made by the Structuralism, Gestalt, and
functional schools of psychology have become part of the general
store of psychological knowledge; but the schools as such, have
vanished.
 Behaviorism and Psychoanalysis on the other hand are still, in
modified forms among the current psychological perspectives.
Modern Schools of Thought/Psychology
• The early schools of thought have generally laid the
foundation for further developments in psychology as a
science.

• They opened a door for taking multiple perspectives in

explaining human behavior and mental processes.

• Modern psychologists tend to examine human behavior

through several views.
a) Psychodynamic perspective
• It has its origins in Freud's theory of psychoanalysis.
• This perspective emphasizes the unconscious dynamics within
the individual such as inner forces, conflicts or instinctual
energy. The psychodynamic approach emphasizes.
• The influence of unconscious mental behavior on everyday behavior
• The role of childhood experiences in shaping adult personality
• The role of intrapersonal conflict in determining human behavior

Psychodynamic perspective tries to dig below the surface of a person's

behavior to get into
unconscious motives; psychodynamics think of themselves as
archaeologists of the mind.
b) Behavioral Perspective
• It emphasizes the role learning experiences play in shaping the
behavior of an organism. It is concerned with how the
environment affects the person‘s actions.
• Behaviorists focus on environmental conditions (e.g. rewards,
and punishments) that maintain or discourage specific behaviors.
• The behavioral perspective is sometimes called the "black box"
approach in psychology because it treats the mind as less useful
in understanding human behavior and focus on what goes into
and out of the box, but not on the processes that take place
inside.
• This means, behaviorists are only interested in the effects of the
environment (input) on behavior (output) but not in the process
inside the box.
c) Humanistic perspective
• Carl R. Rogers & Abraham Maslow
• Humans are born with natural/innate capacities
• Humans are conscious individuals
• Human behavior is not determined either by unconscious
dynamics or the environment.
• Emphasizes the uniqueness of human beings and focuses on
human values and subjective experiences.
• Places greater importance on the individual‘s free will.
• The goal was helping people to express themselves
creatively and achieve their full potential or self-actualization
(developing the human potential to its fullest).
d) Biological perspective
• Behavior is determined by biological processes
• It focuses on studying how bodily events or functioning of
the body affects behavior, feelings, and thoughts.
• This perspective underscores that biology and behavior
interact in a complex way; biology affecting behavior and
Behavior
behavior in turn affecting biology.
• Hormones
• Genes
• Neurotransmitters
• Etc Environm
Biology ent
• The environment and biology interact
 e) Cognitive perspective
• Cognitive styles  Behavior
• It emphasizes what goes on in people's heads; how people
reason, remember, understand language, solve problems,
explain experiences and form beliefs. This perspective is
concerned about the mental processes.
• The most important contribution of this perspective has been
to show how people's thoughts and explanations affect
their actions, feelings, and choices.
• Techniques used to explore behavior from a cognitive
perspective include electrical recording of brain activity,
electrical stimulation and radioactive tracing of metabolic
activity in the nervous system.
 f) Socio-cultural Perspective-
• Many thoughts and behaviors are influenced by our
culture.
• Psychologists need to be aware of the impact cultural
diversity may have on our behaviors.
• What is acceptable in one culture might be
unacceptable in another cultures.
• This perspective holds that humans are both the
products and the producers of culture, and our
behavior always occurs in some cultural contexts.
• Positive Psychology: Study of human strengths,
virtues, and optimal behavior
Branches of psychology
• Developmental
• Personality
• Social
• Counseling
• Clinical
• Educational
• Forensic….the practice of psychology applied to the law. Forensic
psychology is the application of scientific knowledge and methods to help
answer legal questions arising in criminal, civil, contractual, or other
judicial proceedings.
• Health
• Cross-cultural
• Industrial/organizational
1.2. Research in Psychology
Definition
Scientific method - a process of testing ideas through systematic
observations, experimentations, and statistical analysis.
Theory - is an integrated set of principles about observed facts that
is intended to describe and explain some aspects of experience
Hypotheses - is a tentative proposition about the relationship
between two or more variables or phenomena. E.g., Males have high
self- confidence in making decisions than females.
In this sense, psychological research is typically used for the following:

 Study development and external factors and the role they play on individuals' mental
health.

 Study people with specific psychological disorders, symptoms, or characteristics

 Develop tests to measure specific psychological phenomenon.

 Develop treatment approaches to improve individuals' mental health.

Types of Research
Descriptiv Experimen Correlatio
e tal nal

Observatio
Survey Case study
nal

Naturalisti
Participant
c
1: Descriptive Research
A). Naturalist observation
Subjects are observed in their natural environment to get a real (not artificial) picture of how
behavior occurs.
It often involves counting behaviors, such as number of aggressive acts, number of smiles, etc.
Psychologists conduct naturalistic observations at football games, day care centers,
kindergartens, college dormitories, shopping malls, restaurants, and other places people live
in and frequent.

• Limitations
Observer effect: changes in a subject’s behavior caused by an awareness of being
observed.
Observer bias: the researcher may not observe systematically, or he/she may observe
behaviors he/she wants to observe and ignores others.

Anthropomorphic error: attributing human thoughts, feelings, or motives to animals

B. Participant observation

Becoming part of the subjects to be studied

c. Case study (aka Clinical Method)
• Case study involves an in-depth investigation of a single subject (case) or group.
• A single case study where the researcher wants to understand a specific
phenomenon in detail.
• Multiple-Case Study which involves the analysis of several cases that are similar
in nature-helps to identify similarities and differences between the cases.
• It provides tremendous amount of data
• However, it is not generalizable to the larger population.
• A case study provides information about one person’s fears, hopes, fantasies,
traumatic experiences, upbringing, family relationships, health, or anything that
helps the psychologist understand the person’s mind and behavior.
• A case study can involve naturalistic observations, and include psychological
testing, interviews,, and the application of a treatment. A case study can gather
extensive information, both qualitative and quantitative and it can be helpful in
better understanding rare cases or very specific interventions.
• In case study, usually only one case is involved, severely limiting the generalization
to the rest of the population. It can also be very time consuming and can involve
other problems specific to the techniques used, including researcher bias.
 d. The Survey Method
 Survey method involves data collection from a very large group of
people
 Using public polling techniques to know attitudes, interests, opinions
of people
 It is useful to get information on private (covert) behaviors
 Its disadvantage is that it needs a careful selection of a representative
sample of the actual population.
 The sample may not be representative enough.
 Social desirability effect: a tendency to give “polite” or socially
desirable answers to an issue.
Instruments to conduct survey
 Questionnaire (self-constructed/ standardized scale)
 Interview items
 Focus group discussion checklists
Self-control scale

Gender: Male ☐ Female ☐

Religion: Christian ☐ Muslim ☐
Occupation: Teacher ☐ Merchant ☐ Farmer ☐
Religion: Muslim☐ Orthodox ☐ Catholic ☐ Protestant ☐

1=Not at all…………5 Very much

Items 1 2 3 4 5
I have a hard time breaking
bad habits
I get distracted easily
I say inappropriate things
I refuse things that are bad
for me
I’m good at resisting
temptations
Populati
on Survey

Sample Conclud
e
 2. Correlational research
• Definition: is a research method that measures the relationship between two or more
variables.
• Correlation means relationship, so the purpose of a correlational study is to determine if a
relationship exists, what direction the relationship is, and how strong it is.
• This is a useful strategy because the more strongly events are correlated (related or
associated), the more effectively we can predict one from the other. E.g the
relationship between personality factors and leadership effectiveness.
• Coefficient of Correlation: Statistic ranging from –1.00 to +1.00; the sign indicates the
direction of the relationship.
• Closer the statistic is to –1.00 or to +1.00, the stronger the relationship.
• Correlation of 0.00 demonstrates no relationship between the variables.
• Positive Correlation: Increases in one variable are matched by increases in the other
variable.
• Negative Correlation: Increases in one variable are matched by decreases in the other
variable.
• Correlation does not demonstrate causation: Just because two variables are related
does NOT mean that one variable causes the other to occur.
• Based on results from correlational research one cannot make any assumptions of cause and effect
(explain how third variable can be involved, or how the variables can influence each other).
3. Experimental Research
• To identify cause-and-effect relationships between variables, we
conduct experiments.

• A formal trial to confirm hypothesis

 Directly vary a condition you might think affects behavior

 Create two or more groups of subjects, alike in all ways except the
condition you are varying

 Record whether varying the condition has any effect on behavior

Variables
• Definition: Any condition that can change and that might affect the
outcome of an experiment
Independent Variable: The independent variable is the
manipulated, influential, experimental factor. These are suspected
causes for behavioral differences.
Dependent Variable: Demonstrates results of the experiment.
Condition is affected by independent variable. The dependent
variable is the factor (behavior) that is measured in an
experiment. It can change as the independent variable is
manipulated.

Extraneous Variables: Conditions that a researcher wants to

prevent from affecting the outcomes of the experiment (e.g.,
number of hours slept before the experiment, type of training
received before the experiment).
Groups
• Experimental Group: An experimental group is a group whose
experience is manipulated.
• Control Group: The group of subjects that does NOT get the
independent variable.
• Random Assignment: Subject has an equal chance of being in
either the experimental or control group.
• Experiments also involve randomly assigned experimental groups
and control groups. An experimental group is a group whose
experience is manipulated.
• E.g., a researcher may need to know whether or not class size has
an effect on students‘ academic performance and hypothesizes as
―do students in small class size have better academic performance
than students in large class size?
 Research Biases
• Selection Bias – occurs when differences between groups are present at the
beginning of the experiment.
• Placebo Effect – involves the influencing of performance due to the subject’s belief
about the results. 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 beliefs 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 for Biases:
• 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 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.
• Steps in experiment
1. Define problem (e.g. the effect of stress on memory among AAU
students)
2. Define the population
3. Create experimental and control conditions
4. Randomization: assign half of the subjects the expt’l and the
other half to the control group
5. Intervention: give IV to the Experimental Group
6. Measurement: measure the DV
7. Comparison
• Suppose Mr. Ahmed conducted an experiment to know the effect
of coffee on sleeping. He gave 2 cups of coffee for “Group A” and 0
cup for “Group B”. Based on this case, what is the:

• The health condition of the witnesses….affect the accuracy of the

information.
• Control group
• Experimental group
• Independent Variable
• Dependent Variable
• Extraneous Variable (EV)
Suppose: A psychologist is those in group two do not. In this example, what
is the:
Dependent variable interested in exploring the effect of tutorial support
on students‘ academic performance and assign students into two groups.
Students in group one get the tutorial support and
Independent variable
Control group
Experimental group
The Scientific Method

Testing
Drawing
Defining a Hypothe the
conclusi Report
problem sis hypothe
on
sis
• Step one - Defining the Problem: Noticing something
attention catching in the surrounding for which one would
like to have an explanation. For example, you may notice that
children seem to get a little more aggressive with each other
after watching practically violent children‘s cartoon videos.
• You wonder if the violence in the cartoon video could be
creating aggressive behavior on the children. Hence, you
may raise a research problem focusing on the effect of
aggressive behaviour.
• Step two - Formulating the Hypothesis - after having an
observation on surroundings (perceiving the problem), you
might form an educated guess about the explanation for
your observations, putting it into the form of a statement that
can be tested in some way. For our example above, you might
formulate a hypothesis “children who watch violent
cartoons will become more aggressive than than those
• Step three - Testing the Hypothesis - at this step, the
researcher employs appropriate research methods and collects
ample data (information) to accept or reject the proposed
statement. For instance, in the above example, the data will be
gathered from children who watch aggressive videos and from
those who do not watch aggressive videos and make
comparisons between the behaviors of the two groups to
determine whether watching aggressive video makes children
more aggressive.
• Step four - Drawing Conclusions - this is the step in which
the researcher attempts to make generalizations or draw
implications from the tested relationship.
• Step five - Reporting Results – the researcher would want to
write up exactly what she/he did, why she/he did, and what
she/he found. So that, others can learn from what she/he has
already accomplished or failed to accomplish. This allows
others to predict and modify behavior based on the findings.
Activity 1
1. Who is the father of psychology?
2. A school of psychology that believes the environment as a
determinant factor to affect behavior ________
3. A researcher stated that positive social interaction has
helped him to reduce the symptoms of depression. This goal
of psychology is Control____
4. A school of thought that focuses on the use of the mind
_____
5. A branch of psychology that deals with the treatment of
severe psychological problems/disorders ______
6. A branch of psychology that applies psychology to the legal
context ____
Activity 2
1. Suppose a researcher gave you to fill a questionnaire on JJU’s quality
of education. This method is _____
2. The correlation of -0.82 is ___ (A. Weak B. Moderate C. Very strong)
3. A type of research method by which study small group/individuals in
detail _____
4. A researcher went to a school and acted as if he is one of the teachers
in order to study them. This method is ______
5. A researcher wanted to study the effect of eating breakfast on
students’ memory. Group A students ate breakfast and gave no
breakfast to group B. Then, what is:
1. IV _________
2. DV
3. Extraneous variable (s) ______ _________
4. Control group ______ 5. Experimental group _______
Chapter Two

Sensation &
Perception

Sensation and perception 42

 Learning Outcomes
• Meaning of sensation and perception
• Difference and similarities of sensation and perception
• Factors affecting sensation and perception
• Principles of sensation and perception, and
• Reasons for sensory and perceptual differences amount individuals.

43
 2.1. Introduction
• Sensation and perception are the first important dimensions of this intelligent life.
• They are starting points for all of your other psychological processes. They supply the data you use
for learning and remembering, thinking and problem solving, communicating with others, and
experiencing emotions and for being aware of yourself.
• Without access to the environment through sensation and perception, you would be like a person in
a coma devoid of any thoughts or feelings.
• Sensation: process of detecting, converting, & transmitting raw sensory information from the
external & internal environments to the brain.
• Sensation is the process whereby stimulation of receptor cells in the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and
surface of the skin sends nerve impulses to the brain. Sensations are closely tied to what is
happening in the sensory systems themselves.
• Stimulus (pl stimuli): specific energy needed to stimulate sense organs.
• Distal stimulus: the real object in the external world.
• Proximal stimulus: representation of the physical reality in sensory receptors.
• Perceptual object: mental representation of the physical reality.
• Perception: is process of selecting, organizing, & interpreting sensory information into meaningful
patterns
• It is the process whereby the brain interprets sensations, giving them order and meaning.
• Thus, hearing sounds and seeing colors is largely a sensory process, but forming a melody and
detecting patterns and shapes is largely a perceptual process.
• We say largely because in everyday life, it is almost impossible to separate sensation from
perception. As soon as the brain receives sensations, it automatically interprets or perceives them,
44
and without sensations of some kind perception could not occur.
• Consider, the black marks and letters in this page.
Visual sensation lets you detect the black marks.
Visual perception lets you organize the black marks
into letters and words.
• How different is sensation from perception?
• Have you heard of sayings like “you watch but you
don’t see” “you hear but you don’t listen”, you touch
but you don‟t grasp…”
What do these statements suggest to you?
Which one do you think refers to sensation and which
one refers to perception?

45
The sensory laws: Sensory thresholds and sensory adaption.
The absolute threshold: The minimum amount of stimulation that can be detected is called absolute
threshold.
• If you experience a hearing loose, the audiologist asked you to raise your hands when you could
detect the tone.
• The absolute threshold for a particular sensory experience varies, psychologists operationally
define the absolute threshold as the minimum level of stimulation that can be detected 50
percent of the time when a stimulus is presented over and over again.
• The difference threshold: In addition to detecting the presence of a stimulus, you also detect
changes in the intensity of a stimulus. The minimum amount of change that can be detected is
called difference threshold. For example, a cup of coffee would require a certain amount of
additional sugar before you could detect an increase in its sweetness. Similarly, you
would have to increase the intensity of the sound from your tape recorder a certain
amount before you could detect a change in its volume.
• This difference in threshold is called the just noticeable difference (jnd). The amount of change in
intensity of stimulation needed to produce a noticeable difference is a constant fraction of the
original stimulus. This became known as Weber‘s law.
• Weber’s law is a principle in psychology that indicates the relationship between the
intensity of a stimulus and the minimum amount of change required to detect a
difference in that stimulus (Pednekar et al., 2023).
Sensory Adaptation: Decreased sensitivity due to repeated or constant stimulation.
• If a stimulus remains constant in intensity, you will gradually stop noticing it. Example: after
diving into a swimming pool, you might shiver. Yet a few minutes later you might invite someone
to join you saying, The water is fine.
• This tendency of our sensory receptors to have decreasing responsiveness to unchanging
1. Selectivity of perception: Attention

• The selectivity of perception implies, among other things, that our field
of experience is divided into what is known as ―Focus and ―Margin.
• Events or stimuli that you perceive clearly are the focus of your
experience and other items or stimuli that you perceive dimly or vaguely
are in the margin of your attention. You may be aware of items in the
marginal field but only vaguely or partially.
• Example: football game. While you are dimly aware of the mass of
players and the activity of the blockers during the play, it is the ball
carrier and his movement that stands out clearly to you your attention is
mainly focused on him. But at the same time, sensory inputs are coming
in from your cold feet, from your stomach as a result of the last
uncomfortable food you ate, and from the fellow behind you who is
smoking a cigar.
• The crowd is also shouting. While the play is going on, you are probable
not aware of any of these sensory inputs. Only when the play is finished,
or time is called that you perceive how cold your feet are, and how noisy
the crowd is.
• Attention shifts constantly. What is in the focus of your attention
one moment may be in margin; and what is in the margin may
become in your focus.

• Paying attention is in general a function of two factors: factors

external to the perceiver and factors internal to the perceiver.

• External factors: factors that are generally found in the objects or

stimuli to be perceived. Some of the external characteristics of
objects that determine whether you are going to attend them or not
are size and intensity, repetition (attention getting), novelty
(or newness), and movement.

• Other things being constant, bigger and brighter stimuli are more
likely to capture your attention than smaller and dimmer objects.
That is why announcements and notice are written in big and block
letters.
• Internal psychological states of the observer
• Set or expectancy and motives or needs. Set refers to the idea that
you may be ―ready and ―Primed for certain kinds of sensory input.
• Set, or expectancy, therefore, varies from person to person. It is
important not only in the selection of sensory input for inclusion in the
focus of your attention. It is also important in organizing the selected
sensory input.
• To illustrate the role of set-in attention, consider the husband who is
expecting an important phone call. He will hear the telephone ring in
the night while his wife does not. The wife, on the other hand, more
likely to hear the baby crying than the telephone ringing. Of course, if
the wife is expecting an important cell, the reverse may be true.
• Motives and needs: There are differences between you and your
friend in what you select to perceive as a result of differences in your
motives and needs. You and your friend attend to and organize the
sensory input in ways that match your respective needs. People who
are hungry, thirst, or sexually aroused are likely to pay attention to
events in the environment, which will satisfy these needs.
• Internal psychological states of the observer
• Set or expectancy and motives or needs. Set refers to the idea
that you may be ―ready and ―Primed for certain kinds of
sensory input.
• Motives and needs are the second psychological factors
influencing you as an observer. There are differences between
you and your friend in what you select to perceive as a result
of differences in your motives and needs. You and your friend
attend to and organize the sensory input in ways that match
your respective needs.
• People who are hungry, thirsty, or sexually aroused are likely
to pay attention to events in the environment, which will
satisfy these needs.

• Further, one’s cultural background, attitudes, experiences,

 2. Form Perception

• Visual sensations provide the raw materials that are to be organized into
meaningful patterns, shapes, forms, and concepts or ideas or form
perception.
• The meaningful shapes or patterns or ideas that are made perhaps out of
meaningless and discrete or pieces and bites of sensations refer to form
perception.
• To perceive forms (meaningful shapes or patterns), you need to
distinguish a figure (an object) from its ground (or its surrounding).
• Figure-Ground Perception: perception of objects and forms of everyday
experience as standing out from a background. Pictures (figure) hang on a
wall (ground), words (figure) are seen on a page (ground), and melody
(figure) stands out from the repetitive chords in the musical background
(ground). Chord progressions are the skeleton that give your songs their
basic outline.
• The ability to distinguish an object from its general background is
basic to all form perception.
A. Shape Perception
• Shape a. Figure-Ground
perception Relationship
involves  Perceiving the figure
(the stimulus) from the
perceiving left out surrounding
shapes, forms, (background)
and patterns.

Sensation and perception 52

3. Organization in form Perception
• Organization in perception partially explains our perception of
complex patterns as unitary forms, or objects.

• The process of assembling perceptual data to make them

meaningful.

• Gestalt psychologist said ―the whole is more than the sum of its
parts.

• We see objects as objects only because grouping processes operate

in perception. Without them, the various objects and patterns we
perceive-a face on a television screen, a car, a tree, a book-would
not ―hang together as objects or patterns., they would merely be so
many disconnected sensations-dots, lines or blotches, for example.
53
 Laws of perceptual organization: Gestalt laws
of perception
A. The Law of Proximity: objects
that are near each other tend to be
perceived as a unit C. Good continuation:
PPP PPP PPD perceiving patterns as
continuing even though they are
disrupted or discontinued.
“A” “far” and “Region”, read as “Afar
Region”

B. The law of Similarity: we tend to

group similar items (in terms of color,
shape, size) together

CCCCBBBDDD
Sensation and perception 54
• Grouping according to similarity, however, does not always
occur.
• A figure is more easily seen as a six-pointed star than as one
figure composed of dots and another figure made up of rings.
In this case, similarity is competing with the organizing
principle of symmetry, or good figure. Neither the circle nor
the dots by themselves from a symmetrical pattern.
• The law of good figure says that there is a tendency to
organize things to make a balanced or symmetrical figure that
includes all the parts.
D. The law of closure: perceiving incomplete figures
as a whole
• We organize our perception into complete objects
rather than a serios of parts.

Hearing a broken sound (message from your parents in

the countryside).

Sensation and perception 56

3. Depth Perception

• If we live in a two-dimensional world (all objects and beings only have length
and width, but no depth or thickness), form perception would be sufficient.

• But life is a three-dimensional world, we have evolved depth perception-the

ability to judge the distance of objects.
• Given that images on the retina ( the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue
of the eye) are two dimensional, how can we determine the distance of objects
(the distal stimulus) from the pattern of stimulation on our retinas (the
proximal stimulus)?
 Depth Perception
• Depth Perception: ability
to perceive three-
dimensional space and
judge distance.
• It involves binocular (based o
sensory information from both
eyes) and monocular cues
(based on one eye).
• Depth perception depends on
the use binocular cues and
monocular cues. There are
two kinds of binocular cues:
retinal disparity and
convergence. Sensation and perception 58
• Retinal disparity: the degree of difference between the image of an object that are
focused on the two retinas. It describes the modest variation in the images that the
left and right eyes as a result of their different placement on the face The closer the
object, the greater is the retinal disparity. Example: Look at the finger with one
eye closed. Then look at it with the other closed. You will notice that the background
shifts as you view the scene with different views of the same stimulus. point a
forefinger vertically between your eyes.
• A person is asked to sit on a chair and a box is placed in front of him. Person is asked
to look at the box placed straight. Both of his eyes will capture the image which will
differ from each other. The box will be straight on looking with left sided eye and the
same box will be at a specific angle (not straight) on looking with right sided eye.
When brain merges both the images, then person can easily see 2 sides of the box.

• Convergence: the degree to which the eyes turn inward to focus on an object. The closer the objects
are the greater the convergence of the eyes.
• Binocular cues require two eyes, whereas monocular cues require only one. One monocular is
accommodation, which is the change in the shape of the lens that lets you focus the image of an
object on the retina.
• A second monocular cue is motionfarther away. Motion parallax is the visual effect where objects
that are closer to the observer appear to move faster than parallax, the tendency to perceive
ourselves as passing objects faster when they are closer to us than when they are those that are
farther away when the observer is in motion. This phenomenon is a result of the relative
4. Perceptual Constancies
• Perceptual Constancy: perceiving the environment
as remaining the same even in spite of changes in
sensory input.
• Four best-known constancies:
• Size
• Shape
• Color
• Brightness

Sensation and perception 60

Shape constancy: the same perception
in spite of the image on the retina.

Sensation and perception 61

5. Perceptual Illusion
• In Edgar Allen Poe‘s ―The sphinx, a man looks out of his
window and is horrified by what he perceives to be a
monstrous animal on a distant mountain. He learns only later
that the monster was actually an insect on his window.
Because he perceived the animal as far away.
• Because he never had seen such a creature, he assumed that
it was a monster. This shows how the misapplication of a
visual cue, in this case perceived size constancy, can produce
a visual illusion as he assumed it was relatively large.
• The rice wave illusion, where a static image of rice grains
appears to move and ripple like water.
Types of illusions
• Distortions (or geometric illusions):
when we misperceive the stimuli
• Ambiguous (or reversible) figures:
figures having two or more plausible
interpretations
• Paradoxical figures (or impossible
objects): paradoxical figures look
ordinary enough at first, on closer
inspection we realise they cannot exist
in reality (hence ‘paradoxical’).
• Fictions: figures that create
perceptions of non-existing things
Sensation and perception 63
 Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
• Extrasensory Perception (ESP): supposed “psychic” abilities that go beyond the
known senses.
• In general, perception is the act of knowing through sensation.
• But some people appear to have an ability to know other people, objects, and events
without any sensory contact an
• Experience called extra sensory perception (ESP) or paranormal ability.
 Telepathy: mind to mind communication-the purported vicarious transmission of
information from one person's mind to another’s without using any known human sensory
channels or physical interaction. Some examples: 1) Hellen Keller, a deaf and mute girl, who
allegedly made a telepathic connection with her teacher, Sullivan, and managed to earn a
bachelor’s degree. 2) Tracy Granger, who sent telepathic messages to her husband after a
brutal car accident and survived. 3) Twins who are able to communicate without speaking.
 Clairvoyance: seeing without the eye-the claimed ability to acquire
information that would considered impossible to get through scientifically
proven sensation.
Precognition: perceiving things/events before they happen- the purported
psychic phenomenon of seeing, or otherwise becoming directly aware of,
events in the future. It is the ability to know events before they take place. This could include
seeing visions of future events or having gut feelings about certain outcomes. 64
 Chapter Three
Learning and Theories of
Learning
• Almost all human behavior is learned.

• Imagine if you suddenly lost all you had ever learned. What
could you do? You would be unable to read, write, or speak.
You couldn't feed yourself, find your way home, and drive a
car, play a game, or “party.”

• Needless to say, you would be totally incapacitated.

• Learning is involved in almost every phenomenon that

psychologists study and occurs in many different ways.

• Every individual uses learning techniques and processes and

directive unique thoughts and memories to perform day-to-
day functions.
• Learning is a change in behavior
• This change in behavior is relatively permanent
• It does not include change due to illness, fatigue, maturation and use of
intoxicant.
• This permanent change in behavior is not because of biological factors (like
hormonal changes) that bring permanent changes in behavior; but because of
experience, or practice
• The learning is not directly observable but manifests in the activities of the
individual.
• It is a continuous modification of behavior throughout life
• It is pervasive, it reaches into all aspects of human life.
• Learning involves the whole person, socially, emotionally & intellectually.
• Learning is often a change in the organization of experiences.
• Learning is responsive to incentives
• Learning is an active process
• Learning is purposeful
• Learning depends on maturation, motivation and practice.
• Learning is multifaceted
Factors Influencing Learning
• Motivation: The learner‘s motivation matters the effectiveness of learning.
• Maturation: Neuro-muscular coordination is important for learning a given
task. Example, The child has to be mature before she/he is able to learn.
• Health condition of the learner
• Psychological wellbeing of the learner
• Good working conditions
• Background experiences
• Massed and distributed learning: Learning that spreads across time with
reasonable time gaps brings better results compared with crammed learning
that occurs at once or within short span of time. Examples:
• Distributed learning: a student may choose to study for an exam for one hour
per day during the week leading up to the assessment.
• Massed learning: a large amount of information is studied over a short
period of time and may only be recalled once. For example, a student who
crams for an exam the night before the assessment would be utilizing
massed practice. Not effective learning method.
3.2. Theories of Learning
• Behavioral theories
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Cognitive approaches
• Social cognitive approach
1. Classical Conditioning
• Ivan Pavlov states that learning is a result of association between stimulus and
response.
• Classical conditioning focuses on the learning of making involuntary emotional
or physiological responses to stimuli that normally elicit no response. E.g., fear,
increased heartbeat, salivation or sweating at the sight of a hyena. Through the
process of classical conditioning, humans and animals can be trained to act
involuntarily to a stimulus that previously had no effect - or a very different effect -
on them.
• Previously neutral stimulus starts to produce unlearned response after conditioning
• Classical conditioning focuses on the learning of making involuntary emotional or
physiological responses to stimuli that normally elicit no response; for example, s
fear, increased heartbeat, salivation or sweating at the sight of a hyena.
• Pavlov was studying salivation in dogs as part of a research program on digestion.
• After a dog had been brought to the laboratory a number of times, it started to salivate
before the food was placed in its mouth. The sight or smell of the food, the dish in
which the food was kept, even the sight of the person who delivered the food each
day or the sound of the person’s footsteps were enough to start the dog’s mouth-watering.
Elements of Classical Conditioning
 Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): natural stimulus
that produces natural response
 Unconditioned response (UR): is natural response
produced by the UCS
 Conditioned stimulus (CS): is previously neutral
stimulus that eventually elicits conditioned response
after being paired with the UCS.
 Conditioned response (CR): is learned response to
the conditioned stimulus
 Principles of Classical
Conditioning
 Acquisition: refers is the initial learning stage of the stimulus-
response link
 Stimulus generalization: a process that occurs when new
stimulus similar to the conditioned stimulus (e.g. bell) elicits similar
response. For example, a dog conditioned to salivate to a dinner bell
(CS) might also salivate to a door bell, a telephone bell.
 Stimulus discrimination: the process of learning to differentiate
among stimuli
 Extinction: is unlearning what is learned or the weakening of CR.

 Spontaneous recovery: refers to the return of conditioned

response because of the reappearance of previously extinguished
Counter conditioning

White rabbit + Cookies No fear

• Suppose a five-year old child is playing with a toy near an
electrical out-let. He sticks part of the toy into the outlet.
He gets shocked, becomes frightened, and begins to cry.
For several days after that experience, he shows fear when
his mother gives him the toy and he refuses to play with it.
• What are the UCS? UCR? CS? CR?
• Show in diagram the association into three stages of
processes?
• A seven-year-old child, who has been going to a school
every morning has seen one day a snake crossing his way
and crawling into small hall. For several days after he
experienced such conditions, he developed fear and when
he reaches there and sees the small hole, he feels
frightened. According to classical conditioning theory,
child’s fear towards small hall is known as: conditioned
Find the US, UR, NS, CS, CR in the following:

Your girl friend always uses the same

shampoo. Soon, the smell of that
shampoo makes you feel happy.

The door to your house squeaks loudly

when you open it. Soon, your dog begins
wagging its tail when the door squeaks.
The nurse says, “This won’t hurt a bit,”
just before stabbing you with a needle.
The next time you hear “This won’t hurt,”
you cringe in fear.
You have a meal at a fast food restaurant
that causes food poisoning. The next time
you see a sign for that restaurant, you
feel nauseated.
 2. Operant Conditioning

• According to B.F. Skinner Operant conditioning states that

learning is a result of punishment and reinforcement.
• Thorndike’s law of effect: behaviors followed by favorable
consequences become more likely, and behaviors followed by
unfavorable consequences become less likely
• Operant conditioning is learning in which a voluntary response is
strengthened or weakened, depending on its favorable or
unfavorable consequences.
• An emphasis on environmental consequences is at the heart of
Operant Conditioning (also called Instrumental Conditioning).
• In operant conditioning, the organism's response operates or
produces effects on the environment. These effects, in turn,
influence, whether the response will occur again.
Reinforcements and Punishments
Reinforcement: any stimulus that increases the
probability of behavior to be repeated
Reinforcement  ↑behavior

Primary reinforcers: Food, water, light, stroking of the skin, and

a comfortable air temperature are naturally reinforcing because
they satisfy biological needs. They are, therefore, known as
primary reinforcers. Primary reinforcers, in general, have the
ability to strengthen a behavior without prior learning.
Secondary Reinforcers: Behaviors can be controlled by
secondary reinforcers. They reinforce behavior because of their
prior association with primary reinforcing stimuli. Money, praise,
applause, good grades, awards, and gold stars are common
secondary reinforcers.
Punishment: anything that reduces the probability of
 Reinforcement
• Positive reinforcement: the presence of reward increases the
frequency of desired behavior.
Ex: Candy or appreciation  Study
• Negative reinforcement: the process whereby termination of an
aversive unpleasant) stimulus makes behavior more likely to occur.
Eliminating something aversive can itself be a reinforcer or a reward.
• Example : Someone started going to church because he is relieved
from his problems (depression). Assume a person is convicted of
committing crime and imprisoned. Telling the truth would help the
person to get released from prison.
• Examples: if someone nags you all the time to study, but stops nagging
when you comply, your studying behavior is likely to increase- because
you will then avoid the nagging. Taking aspirin reduces/eliminates
headache.....You will take aspirin in the future when you experience
headache.
Schedules of reinforcement

• When a response is first acquired, learning is usually most

rapid if the response is reinforced each time it occurs. This
procedure is called continuous reinforcement.
• However, once a response/behavior is learnt, it will be more
resistant to extinction if it is rewarded on an intermittent
(partial) schedule of reinforcement, which involves
reinforcing only some responses, not all of them.

• There are four types of intermittent schedules

Schedules of reinforcement
Partial
Schedul
es

Interval Ratio
schedul schedul
e e

Fixed Variable
Fixed Variable ratio ratio
interval interval
• Continuous: rewarding every desirable behavior
• Partial: intermittent reward
• Fixed interval : reinforcement is given for appropriate behavior after a fixed
amount of time. Example: giving salary after every 30 days

• Variable interval : reinforcement is given after a variable amount of time

• Fixed ratio : is reinforcing a behavior after fixed number of responses or

behaviors.

• Variable ratio : In variable ratio schedules reinforcement occurs after some

average number of responses, but the number varies from reinforcement to
reinforcement. Variable ratio schedules produce a steady extremely high
steady rates of responding. The responses are more resistant to extinction
than when a fixed ratio schedule is used.
• Winning a lottery is a variable ratio.
 Matching Activity
A B
1. Paid once a week A.Fixed ratio
2. Patted on the back occasionally B.Fixed interval
3. Paid for every 10 units of work C.Variable ratio
completed D.Variable
4. Unpredictably wining a lottery C interval
5. Teacher gives 0.5 mark for each E.Continuous
correct answer in a class
 Punishment
• Punishment refers to unpleasant or painful stimuli that decrease the
probability that a behavior will occur again
• Positive punishment: when a behavior decreases following the application of
unpleasant stimuli.
Ex: Beating  Misbehavior; getting spanking for disobeying

• Negative punishment: refers to decreases the probability of a behavior to be

repeated by removing pleasant stimuli.
Ex: Reducing salary  Absence; loosing a privilege for not studying
• Immediacy – When punishment follows immediately after the behaviour
to be punished.
• Consistency- when punishment is inconsistent the behaviour 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
Four Ways to Modify Behavior
Matching activity
A
1. A dog bites another aggressive
dog. C B
2. You mother reduces your work A.Positive reinforcement
load when you study...B B.Negative
3. You drink tea when you feel reinforcement
depressed...B C.Positive punishment
4. A teacher reduces 10 marks D.Negative punishment
after cheating...D
5. A teacher kicks a student for
cheating C
Positive punishment: something is “added” to Negative punishment: something is “taken away”
the mix that makes the behavior less likely to from the mix that makes the behavior less likely to
continue or reoccur (i.e., an unpleasant continue or reoccur (i.e., something pleasant is
consequence is introduced to the subject to removed from the subject to discourage their
discourage their behavior) behavior).
Shaping
• For a response to be reinforced, it must first occur.
• But suppose you to train a child to use a knife and a fork
properly. Such behaviors, and most others in everyday life,
have almost no probability of 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.
• 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.
• Applications: Conditioning study behavior; conditioning and
Application of the theory of operant
conditioning:
• Conditioning study behavior: For Self-learning of a student
teacher should reinforce student behavior through variety of
incentives such as prize, medal, smile, praise, affectionate
patting on the back or by giving higher marks.
• Conditioning and classroom behavior: children can acquire
unpleasant experiences……this unpleasantness becomes
conditioned to the teacher; subject and the classroom and
learners begin to dislike the subject and the teacher.
• Managing Problem Behavior:
• Dealing with anxieties through conditioning:
 Observational learning (Social Learning Theory)
 According to psychologist Albert Bandura, a major part of human learning
consists of observational learning, which is learning by watching the
behavior of another person, or model.
 Because of its reliance on observation of others—a social phenomenon—the
perspective taken by Bandura is often referred to as a social cognitive
approach to learning (Bandura, 1999, 2004).
 Bandura identifies three forms of reinforcement that can encourage
observational learning.
 First: The observer may reproduce the behaviors of the model and receive
direct reinforcement .
 Second: The reinforcement need not be direct - it may be vicarious
reinforcement as
well. The observer may simply see others being reinforced for a particular
behavior and then increase his or her production of that behavior. Third: self-
reinforcement,or controlling your reinforcers. This sort of reinforcement is
important for both students and teachers. We want our students to improve not
because it leads to external rewards but because the students value and enjoy
their growing competence.
Steps of observational learning
1. Attention: attending the model to learn (imitate)
from the model
2. Retention: storing what we have imitated in memory
to use later
3. Reproduction: reproducing (acting) what we have
imitated from the model
4. Motivation: motivation (interest) to reproduce the
act of the model
Educational Implications of Social
Learning Theory
• Students often learn a great deal simply by observing other
people.
• Describing the consequences of behavior can effectively
increase the appropriate behaviors and decrease
inappropriate ones.
• Modeling provides an alternative to shaping for teaching new
behaviors. Modeling can provide a faster, more efficient
means for teaching new behavior.
• Teachers and parents must model appropriate behaviors and
take care that they do not model inappropriate behaviors.
• Teachers should expose students to a variety of other models.
• Students must believe that they are capable of accomplishing
school tasks. Develop self-efficacy-belief in one’s ability to do
things.
Cognitive approaches to learning
• Cognitive approaches focus on thought processes involved in learning. Human capacity for
higher level of cognitive processing
• 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
Consequence.
Unlike animals, human beings, 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
A) Latent learning and cognitive maps: is unintended and hidden learning that is not evident
until reinforcement is presented
• ‘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. Read an experiment in page 54 of your module.
• E.C Tolman indicated that rats can learn cognitive maps of their environment, even in absence
of reinforcement.
• Cognitive maps (mental maps) can be learned learned because of repetition of the route
• Such knowledge will remain hidden until they get a reason or motivated to use it.
• Placed Rats in mazes experiment (Page 54 of the module).
B) Insight (aha) learning, gestalt learning or perceptual learning : sudden, unexpected recognition or learning

• It is cognitive process whereby we reorganize our perception of a

problem.
• It doesn’t depend on conditioning of particular behaviours 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.
• Wolfgang Kohler observed this among chimpanzees locked in a cage.
In the cage, there were boxes, and a bunch of banana hanged out of
their reach. They chimps tried to take the banana and failed for several
times. Suddenly, they recognized the presence of the boxes and stacked
them together to take down the bananas.
 Chapter Four:
Memory and Forgetting
Meaning and definition of memory
 Think back to your childhood and recall your earliest memory. Describe this memory in
your own words
 Intelligent life does not exist without memory. Imagine what life could mean to a person
who is unable to recall things that are already seen, tested, heard before.
 If you don‘t have a memory, you cannot remember whatever information you acquire that
makes your life disorganized, confused and meaningless.
 Your memory provides the function that your life to have continuity in place and time,
adapt to the new situations by using previous skills and information, enriches your
emotional life by recalling your positive and negative life experiences.
 Memory processes are the mental activities we perform to put information into memory,
to keep it there, and to make use of it later. Memory is retaining information for a long
period. Bridges between our past and our present
 The process of encoding, storage and retrieval
• Encoding: encoding refers to the form (i.e., the code) in which an item of information is to be
placed in memory. It is the process by which information is initially recorded in a form usable to
memory. Transform a sensory input into a form or a memory code that can be further processed.
• Storage: preserving information, the location in memory system in which material is saved. Storage
is the persistence of information in memory. To be remembered the encoded experience must leave
some record in the nervous system (the memory trace).
• Retrieval: using the preserved information. In retrieval, material in memory storage is located,
Stages/Structure of Memory
• Memory structure is the nature of memory storage itself- how
information is represented in memory and how long it lasts and how
it is organized. Although people usually refer to memory as a single
faculty, the term memory actually covers a complex collection of
abilities and processes.
• Many cognitive psychologists relate the mind to an information
processor, along the lines of a digital computer that takes items of
information in; processes them in steps or stages and then
produces an output.
• Consider how the computer works.
• First, it takes in information (for instance via keystrokes) and translates
the information into an electronic language, then the computer
permanently stores the information on a disc, and finally it
retrieves the information (file) stored on a disc on to a working
memory (which also receives new information from the keyboard) and
the information is put on to the screen as part of the working memory.
Memory process
 Working
memory
Attentio
SM n STM Rehearsa
l
LTM

Explici Implici
t t
Seman
tic
Episod
ic
 Three Stages (Structures) of
Memory
• Memory structure is the nature of memory storage itself- how
information is represented in memory and how long it lasts and
how it is organized.
• Although people usually refer to memory as a single faculty, the
term memory actually covers a complex collection of abilities
and processes.

• Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968) stated that

memory has three storages
• Sensory memory (SM)
• Short-term memory (STM)
• Long-term memory (LTM)
Sensory Memory/Sensory
Register
 The information stored in sensory memory is a fairly accurate representation of
the environmental information but unprocessed.
 Sensory memory is a brief storage of information in humans wherein information
is momentarily registered until it is recognized, and perhaps transferred to short-
term memory (Tripathy & Öǧmen, 2018). The entry way to memory. It is the first
information storage area. Sensory memory acts as a holding bin, retaining
information until we can select items for attention from the stream of stimuli
bombarding our senses.
• It gives us a brief time to decide whether information is extraneous or important.
Sensory memory includes a number of separate subsystems, as many as there
are senses. It can hold virtually all the information reaching our senses for a
brief time.
• Information will be lost if not attended
• Capacity: contain all information reaching the sense for a brief time
• Contains: visual images or sensing (Iconic memory)- lasts about a second; and
Auditory images or sensing (Echoic memory)- lasts for about two seconds;
haptic memory deals with tactile sensing.
• SM –Attention ---> STM ---Rehearsal ---> LTM
• Since it is impossible to permanently register each and every impression we
have captured via these senses, as we momentarily focus on a pertinent detail
in our environment, our sensory memory registers a brief snapshot of our
environment, lasting for several hundred milliseconds.

• Attention is the first step in remembering something, if a person’s attention is

focused on one of the sensory stores, then the data is transferred to short term
memory.

• Examples of Iconic Memory: Seeing an ant on the wall, seeing an aircraft in

the sky as you walk down the road; seeing the change in traffic lights.

• Examples of Echoic Memory Hearing the bark of a dog, Hearing the whistle
of a police officer, Hearing the horn of a car.
 Short-term Memory (STM)

 STM holds information for about 30 secs. Is part of our memory that holds the
contents of our attention.
 Unlike sensory memories, short-term memories are not brief replicas of the
environmental message. They consist the by-products or end results of
perceptual analysis. STM is important in a variety of tasks such as thinking,
reading, speaking, and problem solving.
 It is active, rapid accessibility, preserves the temporal sequence of
information- limited capacity- we overcome this problem, by grouping small
groups of information into larger units or chunks. Chunking is the grouping
or ―packing of information into higher order units that can be remembered
as single units.
 Chunking expands working memory by making large amounts of information
more manageable. Examples: remembering distant relatives’ names. If you
are going to attend a large family reunion with people you hardly know, try to
memorize names based on family groupings instead of age ranges (or those you
like and those you don’t).
 Memorizing Events and Dates: When studying for a history test, it is better
to group key figures and events that are related. For example, you might chunk
all events in a 10-year period in your mind into an ‘era’.
 STM is also called working memory, immediate memory, active memory, and primary
memory.
 STM ----Rehearsal---> LTM. Two types of rehearsal.
 Maintenance rehearsal: Maintenance rehearsal refers to the things people (repeat)
do to keep information in their short-term memory. Often leads to forgetting, names,
times and dates. If information is only useful temporarily, then your working
memory will use maintenance rehearsal for storage and recall purposes.
 Examples: remembering that is used to maintain information, repeating
information without thinking. Repeating a phone number under your breath;
trying to memorize a shopping list, verbally or mentally repeating information to
extend the duration of short-term memory beyond 30 second.
 Elaborative rehearsal: associating new information to the already existing one, help
to commit in the long-term memory. Contextualizes information for better storage and
retrieval, uses a deeper level of processing and is more effective at moving concepts into long-term
memory.
Example: Composing study questions and answering them, rewriting information in
your own words, grouping concepts into different categories, using images, watching
videos, using mnemonics, associating certain concepts with living things, and using
charts.
Many times, we can create mnemonics-a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations to
remember something - as a form of elaborative rehearsal. Memory device is any learning technique
that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory.
Examples of short-term memory
• Remembering where you parked your car this morning.

• Remembering what you had for lunch yesterday.

• Remembering a phone number while getting a pen to jot it

down (maintenance rehearsal).
• Remembering details from a book that you read a few days
ago.
• Listening to a Lecture, following directions.
• Playing Games. Many games, both mental and physical, tap
into short-term memory.
Long-Term Memory (LTM)
• Stores information for long period.
• It has unlimited capacity.The vast amount of information stored in LTM enables us to learn,
get around in the environment, and build a sense of identity and personal history.
• LTM stores information for indefinite periods. It may last for days, months, years, or even a
lifetime.
Sub-systems of LTM
• Declarative/explicit memory: the conscious recollection of information such as specific
facts or events that can be verbally communicated. It is further subdivided into semantic and
episodic memories.
Semantic memory- factual knowledge like the meaning of words, concepts and our ability
to do math. E.g., Recalling that Washington, D.C., is the U.S. capital and Washington is a
state
Episodic memory- memories for events and situations from personal experience. They are
internal representations of personally experienced events. E.g., witnessing a car accident,
your first date with your spouse, recalling what you did over the Christmas holidays.
• Non-declarative/ implicit memory/skill memory- refers to a variety of phenomena of
memory in which behaviour is affected by prior experience without that experience being
consciously recollected. It is the “how to” knowledge of procedures or skills. Knowing
how to comb your hair, use a pencil, or swim, knowing how to use utensils and dress yourself
each day.
• Serial positioning effect: If you are shown a list of items and are
then asked immediately to recall them, your retention of any
particular item will depend on its position in the list. A tendency to
remember things listed at the beginning and the end (not at the
middle)
• Primacy effect: remembering information that are presented first. The
first person you met while joining in the University.
• Recency effect: remembering most recent information. The person that
you met yesterday.
A serial position effect occurs when you are introduced to a lot of
people at a party and find you can recall the names of the first few
people you met and the last, but almost no one in between.
According to the three-box model, the first few items on a list are
remembered well because short-term memory was
relatively―empty when they entered, so these items did not have to
compete with others to make it into long term memory. They were
thoroughly processed, so they remain memorable.
The last few items are remembered for a different reason: At the time of
• The items in the middle of the list, however, are not so well
retained because by the time they get into short-term
memory, it is already crowded. As a result, many of these
items drop out of short-term memory before they can be
stored in long-term memory.
 Factors that Affects Memory
• Memory as stated already, is a process which includes
learning, retention and remembering. Factors include:
• Ability to retain
• Good health
• Age of the learner: Youngsters can remember better than the
aged.
• Maturity: Very young children cannot retain and remember
complex material.
• Over learning
• Speed of learning: Quicker learning leads to better retention.
• Meaningfulness of the material.
Forgetting
• Psychologists use the term forgetting to refer to the apparent loss of
information already encoded and stored in the long-term memory.
• The first attempts to study forgetting were made by German
psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885/1913). Using himself as his
only subject, he memorized lists of three letter non-sense syllables-
meaningless sets of two consonants with a vowel in between, such as
FIW and BOZ.
• By measuring how easy it was to relearn a given list of words after
varying periods of time from initial learning had passed, he found that
forgetting occurred systematically.
• Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve: the most rapid forgetting occurs in the
first hours and then declines after nine hours, even after the passage of
many days. There is almost always a strong initial decline in memory.
• Relearning of previously mastered material is almost always faster
than starting from a scratch, whether the material is academic
information or a motor skill such as serving a tennis ball.
 Theories of Forgetting
a) Decay Theory: as a time passes memory trace (engram) fades away if they are not
―accessed now and then. An actual physical change in the brain occurs.
Decay occurs in sensory memory and that it occurs in short term memory as well, unless we rehearse
the material. However, the mere passage of time does not account so well for forgetting in long-term
memory. People commonly forget things that happened only yesterday while remembering events
from many years ago.
b) Interference Theory: one information blocks the recall of the other
o Proactive interference: old information (e.g. grade 9 knowledge) blocks the recall of newer one (e.g., grade
12)
o Retroactive interference: newer information blocks the recall of old information. E.g., having a hard time
driving a manual car after recently driving an automatic car is an example of retroactive forgetting theory.
c) New memory for old/displacement theory: New information entering memory can wipe out
old information. This is associated with STM because of its limited capacity. It cannot be
associated with the LTM because of its virtually unlimited capacity.
d) Motivated forgetting: hiding unwanted threatening memories from consciousness. Block from
consciousness those memories that are too threatening, and Freud called this self-protective
process Repression.
e) Cue dependent forgetting: lacking retrieval cues to remember things. It is common in LTM.
Cues present during the initial stage of learning help us to recall the content of the
specific learning materials in an easy manner.
• Mood/state dependent: memory retrieval should match the encoding mood.
• Context dependent: retrieval and encoding situation should match.
Improving Memory
 Pay attention-encode information properly.
 Encode information in more than one way: The more
elaborate the encoding of information, the more
memorable it will be
 Over learn-studying information even after you already
know.
 Add meaning: The more meaningful the material, the
more likely it is to link up with information already in long-
term memory.
 Use elaborative encoding
 Monitor/test your learning
 Take break/time –minimize interference by using study
 Chapter Five
Motivation & Emotions
5.1. The Nature of Motivation
• The word motivation comes from the Latin word mover, which means to move
• Motivation is what moves people to do the things they do
• Motivation refers to the forces that initiates and directs behaviour, and the variables that determine the intensity and
persistence of that behaviour.
• It is concerned with factors that direct and energize the behaviour of humans and other organisms.
•When we are hungry, we initiate food seeking.
•This initiation can be prompted from within the individual or the external environment. What are the environmental
factors?
•An important characteristic of motives is that we never observe them directly.
• Psychologists often measure motivation by observing what individuals do (initiation), how they make choices
(direction), noting the strength of their behavior (Intensity) and how long they engage in them (persistence).
• When hungry, the person may cook something. The physical need for hunger causes the action (getting up), directs it
(going to the kitchen), and sustain the search (finding or preparing something to eat).
There are different types of motivation.
 Intrinsic motivation is a type of motivation in which a person acts because the act itself
is rewarding or satisfying.
 Extrinsic motivation is a type of motivation in which individuals act because the action
leads to an outcome that is external to a person (e.g., money).
Approaches to Motivation (Theories of Motivation)
a) Instinct theory
• This theory focuses on the biologically determined and innate patterns of
both humans and animals' behavior is called instincts.
• Just as animals are governed by their instincts to do things such as
migrating, nest building, mating and protecting their territory, early
researchers proposed that human beings may also be governed by similar
instincts.
E.g., Migration, nest building, mating, curiosity, flight (running away),
pugnacity (aggressiveness), acquisition (gathering possessions), and
protecting their territory.
• According to the instinct theory, in humans, the instinct to reproduce is
responsible for sexual behavior, and the instinct for territorial protection
may be related to aggressive behavior.
• Although none of these theorists did more than giving names to these
instincts, these approaches accomplished one important thing by forcing
psychologists to realize that some human behavior is controlled by
hereditary factors.
b) Drive-reduction approach to motivation theory
• Also called a push theory of motivation.
• A need is a requirement of some material (e.g., food and water) essential for the
survival of the organism.
• When an organism has a need, it leads to a psychological
tension as well as physical arousal to fulfill the need and
reduce the tension. This tension is called drive.
• According to drive theories, when we experience a drive, we are
motivated to pursue actions that will lead to drive reduction. A
drive is an internal state of tension that motivates (pushes) an
organism to engage in activities that should reduce this tension.

• Primary drives are those that involve survival needs of the

body such as hunger and thirst, whereas secondary drives
are acquired, those that are learned through experience or
conditioning, such as the need for money, social approval.
According to drive theories motivation is said to consist of
• a driving state

• the goal directed behaviour initiated by the driving state.

• the attainment of an appropriate goal and

• the reduction of the driving state and subjective satisfaction and

relief when the goal is reached. After a time, the driving state builds
up again to push behaviour toward the appropriate goal. This
sequence of events is sometimes called the motivational cycle.
c) Arousal approach-beyond drive
reduction
• Arousal approaches seek to explain behavior in which the goal is to maintain
or increase excitement.
• Each person tries to maintain a certain level of stimulation and activity
• If our stimulation and activity levels become too high, we try to reduce them
• If too low, we will try to increase them by seeking stimulation.
• Arousal theory has significant applications to a variety of fields.
• Example: students who are highly anxious while taking tests on complex
material may perform well below their ability because of their high level of
arousal.
• Drinking coffee to raise your level of motivation.
• In contrast to the drive-reduction perspective, the arousal approach also
suggests that if levels of stimulation and activity are too low, we will try to
increase them by seeking stimulation
d) Incentive theory-pull theory of
motivation
• States that motivation stems from the desire to
attain external rewards, known as incentives.
E.g. grades, money, affection, food, sex.
• Drive and incentives may not be exclusive.
Many psychologists believe that the internal
drives proposed by drive-reduction theory work
in a cycle with the external incentives of
incentive theory to push and ―pull behavior,
respectively.
• We may be pushed by hunger and attracted by
a delicious food.
• We seek to satisfy our underlying hunger needs
(the push of drive-reduction theory), we are
drawn to food that appears very appetizing (the
pull of incentive theory).
• Rather than contradicting each other, then,
drives and incentives may work together in
motivating behavior.
e) Cognitive Approaches: the thoughts behind motivation

• Motivation is a result of people‘s thoughts, beliefs, expectations, and goals.

For instance, the degree to which people are motivated to study for a test is
based on their expectation of how well studying will pay off in terms of a
good grade.
• Cognitive theories of motivation draw a key difference between intrinsic
and extrinsic motivation.
• Intrinsic motivation causes us to participate in an activity for our
enjoyment rather than for any actual or concrete reward that it will bring
us.
• Extrinsic motivation causes us to do something for money, a grade, or some
other actual, concrete reward.
• Example: a teacher providing tutorial support for students because she
loves teaching (intrinsic motivation); providing tutorial support to make
money (extrinsic motivation).
• Studying lot because you love the subject matter, you are being guided by
intrinsic motivation. On the other hand, if all you care about is the grade to
get in the course, it is extrinsic motivation.
f) Humanistic theory of Motivation-Maslow’s Hierarchy: Motivational
Needs
• Abraham Maslow-a prominent humanistic theorist, proposes
that human motives are organized into a hierarchy of needs, of
five classes of needs or motives, a systematic arrangement of
needs according to priority, which assumes that basic needs
must be met before less basic needs are aroused.
• Physiological needs- these are biological requirements for
human survival, e.g. air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth,
sex, sleep.
• Safety needs- protection from enemies, security, order, law,
stability, freedom from fear.
• Love and belongingness needs- feelings of belongingness,
friendship, intimacy, trust, and acceptance, receiving and giving
affection and love. Affiliating, being part of a group (family,
friends, work).
• Esteem needs- the need to be respected as a useful, honorable individual;
which Maslow classified into two categories: (i) esteem for oneself (dignity,
achievement, mastery, and independence) and (ii) the desire for reputation or
respect from others (e.g., status, prestige).

• People with esteem needs become concerned about their achievement, the
recognition, respect and status that they earn.

• Self-actualization needs- realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment,

seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

• A desire ―to become everything one is capable of becoming.

Conflict of motives and
frustration
People usually face difficulty to make decision in lives.
Approach-approach conflicts - when we must choose only one of the two
desirable activities. Example, going to a movie or a concert; you want to study
medicine and management, but has time to study one.
Avoidance-avoidance conflicts - when we must select one of two undesirable
alternatives (e.g., choosing between the dead sea or the devil). Someone forced
either to sell the family home or to declare bankruptcy.
Approach-avoidance conflicts - happen when a particular event or activity has
both attractive and unattractive features (e.g., choosing to marry a rich but
unattractive girl). A particular event or activity has both attractive and unattractive
features, for example, a freshman student wants to start dating but she, at the
same time, is worried that this may unduly consume her study time.
Multiple approach-avoidance conflicts - exist when two or more alternatives
each have both positive and negative features (e.g., marriage). You must choose
between two jobs. One offers a high salary with a well-known company but requires
long working hours and relocation to a miserable climate.
The other boasts advancement opportunities, fringe benefits, and a better climate,
but it doesn‘t pay as much and involves unpredictable work schedule.
 Frustration and Source of
Frustration
The term frustration refers to the blocking of any goal directed behaviour. If
motives are frustrated, or blocked, emotional feelings and behaviour often result.
People who cannot achieve their important goals feel depressed, fearful, anxious,
guilty, or angry. Often, they are simply unable to derive ordinary pleasure from
leaving.
Source of Frustration
Environmental forces: Environmental factors can frustrate the satisfaction of
motives by making it difficult or impossible for a person to attain a goal.
Personal inadequacies: Setting unattainable goals can be important sources of
frustration. People are often frustrated because they aspire to goals- have a level of
aspiration- beyond their capacity to perform.
Conflict of motives: Conflict exists whenever a person has incompatible or
opposing goals. The frustration comes from being unable to satisfy all the goals.
Whatever goal the person decides to satisfy, there will be frustration, most likely
preceded by turmoil, doubt, and vacillation.
Of the three general sources of frustration described above the one that often
produces the most persistent and deep-seated frustration in many individuals is
motivational conflict. There are about four basic kinds of motivational conflicts.
 5.2. Emotion
• Emotion : feeling aspect of consciousness, characterized by certain physical arousal, certain
behavior that reveals the feeling to the outside world, and an inner awareness of feelings.
There are three elements of emotion:
• Physiological components- This internal bodily changes associated with emotions. E.g.,
increase heart rate, breathing becomes rapid, blood pressure, digestion etc. Emotions are
difficult to distinguish from one another based on outward bodily reactions alone. It is quite
easy to mistake a person who is afraid or angry as being aroused if the person‘s face is not
visible, which can lead to much miscommunication and misunderstanding.
• Subjective Experience – This involves the personal experience we label as emotions. It is
what it feels like to be angry, sad, happy or elated (overjoyed). Another way of labeling this
component is to call it the ―cognitive component, because the labeling process is a matter
of retrieving memories of previous similar experiences, perceiving the context of the
emotion, and coming up with a solution- a label. Such labels may differ in people from
different culturally backgrounds.
• Emotional Expression (the behavior of emotion) – This refers to outward signs of
internal bodily reactions. Facial expression, bodily movements, and actions. Emotions are
expressed in language, facial expression and gestures etc.
• Facial expressions can vary across different cultures, although some aspects of facial
expression seem to be universal.
• It appears that there are six different emotions, which are clearly represented on the face. These are anger, fear,
sadness, disgust, happiness and surprise.
Identifications of the 6 Basic Emotions
1. James–Lange Theory of
Emotion
• This theory of emotion is based on the work of William James
(1884, 1890, 1894), who was also the founder of the
functionalist perspective in the early history of psychology
and a physiologist and psychologist in Denmark, Carl Lang
(1885), came up with an explanation of emotion so similar to
that of James that the two names are used together to refer to
the theory –the James- Lang theory of emotion.
• A stimulus (for example, the large snarling dog) produces a
physiological reaction. This reaction, which is the arousal
of the ―fight-or-flight sympathetic nervous system (wanting
to run), produces bodily sensations such as increased heart
rate, dry mouth, and rapid breathing.
• Physical arousal led to the labeling of the emotion (fear).
Simply put, ―I am afraid because I am aroused, I am
• According to the James–Lange theory of emotion, emotions
arise from physiological changes arousal.
• Stimulus (e.g. snarling dog)…. Physiological arousal
(High blood pressure, high hear ate, seating)…Emotion
(fear)
2) Cannon–Bard Theory of Emotion
• Physiological arousal and emotional experience occur
simultaneously but independently. Bodily reactions and the
felt emotion (fear) are independent of each other in the
sense that bodily reactions are not the basis of the felt
emotion. The fear and the bodily reactions are experienced
at the same time-not one after the other. I am afraid and
running and aroused.
• Event…Subcortical brain activity…Physiological Arousal
and Emotion
(fear) occur simalteniously
3) Schechter-Singer and Cognitive Arousal Theory of Emotion
(Two-Factor Theory)
• The Schachter–Singer theory views emotion
as the result of the interaction between two
factors: physiological arousal and cognition
(labelling).
• Emotion-provoking events produce increased
arousal. In response to feelings of arousal, we
search the external environment in order to
identify the causes of such feelings (labeling
of the arousal).
• If a person comes across a snarling dog Cognitive
while taking a walk, the physical arousal
Arousal
label
(heart racing, eyes opening wide) is “There is a
accompanied by the thought (cognition)
that this must be fear. Then and only then scary
will the person experience the fear of bear!”
emotion. In other words, ―I am aroused
in the presence of a scary dog; therefore,
I must be afraid.‖
• If we feel aroused after a near-miss in
traffic, we’ll probably label our emotion as
‘fear’ or “ anger” we may label our arousal as
“attraction” or “love”
• In short, this theory holds that the emotion we
feel is due to our interpretation of an
aroused or “stirred up “bodily state.
Comparison of Emotion Theories
Stress and Coping

• Stress is a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation. It

is a natural human response that prompts us to address challenges and
threats in our lives. Everyone experiences stress to some degree. The way we
respond to stress, however, makes a big difference to our overall well-being.
• Generally, the major factors that influence our subjective appraisals of
potentially stressful events are familiarity with the challenge, the
controllability of the events, and the predictability of the events.
• The less familiar you are with a potentially stressful event, the more
threatened you are likely to feel.
• In short, familiarity with a challenge can make yesterday’s crisis today’s
routine. Similarly, events are usually less stressful when we see them as
being under our control. We also prefer predictable stress over surprise
packages.
Sources of Stress:
1. Life changes/Life events-changes in personal relationships, changes at
work, so on can be stressful even when the changes are welcomed.
2. Pressure-Pressure involves expectations or demands that one behaves in a
certain way.
Coping with Stress

• Efforts to change the situation-Efforts to cope by changing

the situation typically involve problem solving. The individual
may try to remove the stressor, plan ways of resolving the
situation, or seek advice or assistance from others in changing
the situation. What are your stressors in your life?
• Efforts to alter one’s cognition about the situation-
Coping by changing one’s cognition or appraisal of the
situation often involves reframing an event mentally to make it
seem less threatening.
• Efforts to alter the unpleasant emotional consequences
of the stress-trying to relive the associated emotional state.
Done through relaxation, body massage, and physical exercise
Chapter Six
Personality
Meaning of Personality
 The word personality is derived from a Greek and Latin root word “persona”,
which refers to the theatrical masks worn by Greek actors.

 “One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be,
rather than being yourself”. Shannon L. Alder
 Personality is defined as unique pattern of enduring thoughts, feelings, and
actions that characterize a person.
 Usually when we talk about someone’s personality, we are talking about what
makes that person different from other people, perhaps unique. This
aspect of personality is called individual differences. Some people are
introvert while others are extrovert and so on. Personality theorists are also
interested in the commonalities among people.
 Personality should not be confused with:
 Character: value judgments made about a person‘s morals or ethical behavior;
 Temperament: inborn enduring characteristics (e.g. irritability or adaptability)
• However, both character and temperament are vital personalities.
Theories of Personality
One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others
would want you to be, rather than being yourself”.
Shannon L. Alder
 1. The psychoanalytic theory of personality
Personality is an area of the still relatively young fields of psychology in
which there are several ways in which the characteristic behavior of
human beings can be explained.

1. The psychoanalytic theory of personality

 Sigmund Freud introduced this theory
 Personality is formed within ourselves, arising from basic inborn needs, drives,
and characteristics.
 People are in constant conflict between their biological urges (drives) and the
need to tame (pacify) them. Personality has three parts (structures) which
serves as different functions and develop at different times. These structures
interact and determine our personality .
 The theory explains:
 Personality structures
 Anxiety and defense mechanisms
Structures of Personality

Super
Ego
Ego Conscious
Preconsci
ous
Unconscio
us
Id
Id-: If It Feels Good, Do It

 The first and most primitive part of the personality that

exists at birth.
 It is completely unconscious amoral part of the personality
driven by pleasure principle, immediate satisfaction of needs
with no regard for the consequences
 Id is instinct, source of libido, the instinctual energy
responsible for basic biological drives (e.g. hunger, thirst,
sex, aggression)
 Eros (love): life instinct (survival, social cooperation, procreation or
reproduction) and Thanatos is the death instinct. Aggression, risky
behaviors
 When libidinal energy is high, it is unpleasant for the
• The ego, from the Latin word “I”
• It mostly conscious and rational/logical
• The executive part of our personality-Executive Director
• The ego works on the reality principle-Satisfy the demands of the id and reduce libido in
an acceptable way.
• This means that sometimes the ego decides to deny the id its drives because the
consequence would be painful or too unpleasant.
• A hypothetical example: If a 6-month-old child sees an object and wants it, she will
reach out and grab it despite her parent‘s frantic cries of ―No, no!‖ The parent will
have to pry (interfere) the object out of the baby‘s hands, with the baby protesting
mightily all the while. But if the same child is about 2 years old, when she reaches for
the object and the parent shouts ―No! she will most likely draw back her hand without
grabbing the object because her ego has already begun to develop. In the first case,
the infant has only the id to guide her behavior, and the id wants to grab the object and
doesn‘t care what the parent says or does.
• But the 2 years old has an ego and that ego knows that the parent‘s ―No!‖ may very
well be
followed by punishment, an unpleasant consequence. The 2 years old child will make a
more rational, more logical decision to wait until the parent isn‘t looking and then grab
the object and run. A simpler way of stating the reality principle is ―if it feels good, do it,
• Superego: (also in Latin, meaning “over the self”, the
Moral Watchdog) develops as a preschool-aged child
learns the rules, customs, and expectations of society
• Governed by moralistic principle.
• There are two parts to the superego: the Ego ideal:
dictates the ideal or correct and acceptable behavior. It
is a kind of measuring device. It is the sum of all the
ideal or correct and acceptable behavior that the child
has learned about from parents and others in the
society.
• . All behavior is held up to this standard and judged by
the conscience.
• Conscience: makes people pride when they do the
right thing and guilt or moral anxiety when they do the
wrong
Psychosexual stages of
development
1. Oral stage: pleasure centers around the mouth (e.g.
sucking)
2. Anal stage: the pleasure center shifts to the anus
3. Phallic stage: pleasure centers around the genital
4. Latency stage: repressed sexual feeling
5. Genital stage: matured sexual desire and activity
Psychosexual stages of
development
Stage Age Erogenous Sexual interest Fixation
[Yrs] zone
1. Oral Stage 0-1 The mouth Biting, sucking, Eating, drinking, substance use, and
issues of dependence on/independence
swallowing from others

2. Anal Stage 1-3 Anus Stimulation of the Orderly, stinginess

anus Extravagant, wastefulness
Anal messiness
expulsion/retention
3. Phallic 3-5 Penis/Clitoris • Touching sex
stage organs
• Oedipus
complex:
attraction of
males to mothers
• Electra
complex:
females
attraction to
fathers
• Castration
anxiety
 The Oral Stage (10-1)

• The infant derives intense pleasure from stimulation of the mouth, (e.g. breastfeeding and
biting)
• Oral fixation: related to eating, drinking, substance use, and issues of dependence on
independence from others
The Anal Stage (About 1 to 3 years old)
• Pleasure comes from stimulation of the anal (toilet training)
• Anal fixation: extreme stinginess or need to maintain strict order. Sometimes the opposite is
true, and the person is very wasteful and messy

Phallic Stage
• The child derives intense psychosexual pleasure from stimulation of the genitals, and becomes
attracted to the opposite-sex parent
• Phallic fixation might involve fear of being castrated (in boys) or “penis envy” in girls
The Latent Period (6-12/14)
• The child in this period suppresses his or her psychosexual interest. Children in this age group
tend to play mostly with same sex peers
• There is some evidence that the “latent period” is a cultural artifact. Children in some non-
industrialized societies do not experience a period of“latency

The Genital Stage (15 and above)

• The individual in this period has a strong sexual interest in other people. If he or she has
completed the other
stages successfully, primary psychosexual satisfaction will be gained from sexual intercourse
• The individual who is fixated in an early period of development has little libido left for this stage
Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms
• There is continuous battle among the id, the ego, and the superego
o Realistic anxiety: caused by naturally threatening events or objects (e.g. snake,
exam, etc.)
o Neurotic Anxiety: caused by id impulses that the ego can barely control.
o Moral Anxiety: comes from threats of punishment from the superego. E.g a person
who suffers from chronic shame and feelings of guilt over not living up to proper
standard.

For Freud, our personality is the outcome of the continual battle for
dominance among the id, the ego, and the superego. This constant conflict
between them is managed by the Ego’s psychological defense
mechanisms.
Defense mechanisms are unconscious tactics that either prevent
threatening material from surfacing or disguise it when it does. Some of
the psychological defense mechanisms are discussed below.
Our use of defense mechanisms is not considered as inappropriate or
unhealthy unless we rely on them to an extreme level. Remember that all
of us use defense mechanisms to manage our conflict and stress.
Defense Description Example
mechanism
Repression Hiding unwanted and threatening A woman may totally forget that she
wishes and thoughts from the memory was raped as child.
An Ethiopian husband who is defeated
by
his wife will not talk it again.
Denial Refusal to acknowledge the existence A person with cancer may claim that
of threatening realities will never die; Geremew is an
alcoholic who denies being alcoholic.
Regression Returning to childhood behaviors Biting nail or crying in stressful
situation.
mple: a girl who has just entered
school may go back to sucking her/his
thumb or wetting the bed.
Rationalization Giving acceptable reason for I am poor because I was sharing my
unacceptable behavior or wish resources to others; it is knowledge
not grade that matters.
Displacement Substituting a more threatening You may kick a door when you are
stimulus with a less threatening one angry with your teacher

Projection Attributing ones own unwanted It is not my fault the teacher did not
wishes or behavior onto someone else. know the correct answer.
2. The trait theory of personality
Consider personality as a combination of stable internal
characteristics that people display consistently over time and
across situations.
The trait approach to personality makes three main assumptions:
 Personality traits are relatively stable predictable overtime. A gentle
person tends to stay the someway across time.
 Personality traits are relatively stable across situations. A person who is
competitive at work will probably also be competitive on the tennis court
or at a party.
 People differ in how much of a particular personality trait they possess;
no two people are exactly alike on all traits. The result is an endless
variety of unique personalities
The Big-5 approach is a best example for trait approach
Each dimension have high and low version
The Big-5-model or the Big Five theory. (OCEAN)
 Openness: willingness to try new things and be open to new
experiences. People who try to maintain the status quo and who
don‘t like to change things would score less on openness.
 Conscientiousness: characterized by organization, carefulness,
on-time in appointments, follow rules, orderliness and motivation.
Someone scoring low on this dimension, might always be late to
important social events or borrow belongings and fail to return
them or return in poor coordination.
 Extraversion: extraverts are outgoing and sociable, whereas
introverts are more solitary and dislike being the center of
attention
 Agreeableness: easygoing, go along with others, friendly and
pleasant personality.
 Neuroticism refers to emotional instability, worry, anxiousness,
and moodiness
 3. Humanistic theory
• Developed in response to the pessimism of the Freudian
psychoanalysis with its emphasis on conflict and animalistic
needs, together with the emphasis of behaviorism on external
control of behavior, the third force psychological perspective-
humanistic perspective.
• Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow focused on unique and
creative aspect of individuals
• Humanistic approaches to personality emphasize people‘s
inherent goodness and free will
• People a have a tendency to move toward higher levels of
functioning
• not controlled by internal/external forces
Carl R. Roger
• Rogers believed that human beings strive for fulfillment,
self-actualizing tendency
• An important tool in human self-actualization is the
development of an image of oneself or the self-concept.
• The self-concept is based on what people are told by
others and how the sense of self is reflected in the
words and actions of important people in one‘s life, such as
parents, siblings, coworkers, friends, and teachers.
A. self-concept
• Real and Ideal Self - Two important components of the self-
concept are:
• The real self: one‘s actual perception of characteristics, traits,
and abilities
• The ideal self: the perception of what one should be or would
like to be (comes often from significant others such as parents)
• A healthy and competent persons’ actual self and the ideal self
are very closer
• Mismatch between the real and ideal selves, anxiety and neurotic
behavior can be the result.
• A persons who is in the process of self-actualizing, activity
exploring potentials and abilities and experiencing a match
between real and ideal selves is a fully functioning person.
B. Conditional and Unconditional Positive Regard-

• Positive is vital to people‘s ability to cope with stress and to

strive to achieve self-actualization
• Positive regard:, affection, love, and respect that comes
from the significant others (parents, admired adults, friends,
and teachers)
• Unconditioned positive regard: warmth, love and respect
without any precondition. Help to be able to explore fully all
that they can achieve and become.
• Conditional positive regard-some parents give love,
affection and warmth to children depending on what they
want their children to be such as obedient.
• For Rogers, a person who is in the process of self-actualizing,
activity exploring potentials and abilities and experiencing a
match between real and ideal selves is a fully functioning
person.
• Fully functioning people are in touch with their feelings and
abilities and can trust their innermost urges and intuitions.
To become a fully functioning, a person needs unconditional
positive regard. In Rogers's view, Chaltu (given as a example
in the module) would not have been a fully functioning
person.
• In Rogers's view, only a person who is fully functioning is
capable of reaching the goal of self-actualization.
• Self-actualized people: Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi,
and Eleanor Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela of South Africa.
 CHAPTER SEVEN
PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS &
TREATMENTS TECHNIQUES
• Mental illness, also called mental health disorders, refers to a wide range of mental
health disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior.
• Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating
disorders and addictive behaviors. Many people have mental health concerns from time
to time.
• Schizophrenia is a long-term mental health condition-hallucination (hearing or
seeing things that do not exist outside of the mind) and delusions – unusual beliefs not
based on reality
• A mental illness can make you miserable and can cause problems in your daily life, such
as at school or work or in relationships.
• Symptoms of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating
disorders and can be managed with a combination of medications and psychological
treatments.
• Abnormal behavior is a behavior that deviates from the behavior of the “typical” person;
the norm.
• A society‘s norm can be qualitative and quantitative. When someone behaves in
culturally unacceptable ways and the behaviors, he/she exhibit violates the norm,
standards, rules and regulations of the society, this person is most likely to have a
psychological problem. Only abnormal behavior cannot be sufficient for the diagnosis of
psychological problem.
• The context in which “abnormal” behavior occurs must be considered before deciding
• A psychological disorder is an ongoing dysfunctional pattern of thought,
emotion, and behavior that causes significant distress, and that is considered
deviant in that person’s culture or society (Butcher, Mineka, & Hooley,
2007).
• Psychological disorders have much in common with other medical
disorders. They are out of the patient’s control, they may in some cases be
treated by drugs, and their treatment is often covered by medical insurance.
• Like medical problems, psychological disorders have both biological
(nature) as well as environmental (nurture) influences. These causal
influences are reflected in the bio-psycho-social model of illness (Engel,
1977).
• The bio-psycho-social model of illness is a way of understanding disorder
that assumes that disorder is caused by biological, psychological, and social
factors.
 Consider the following cases
• A young woman who showed great academic promise in high
school begins to have difficulty in her studies in college. She
feels lonely and becomes increasingly depressed and
withdrawn.
• A middle-aged businessman is fed-up with his stressful job
and the demands of his suburban life-style, packs a small bag
and flees to the mountains determined to life in isolation.
• Dear student, try to examine and gives the reasons that can
justify that the two cases mentioned above have
psychological problems, what makes people to behave in this
way and the criteria used to give the judgments. People who
exhibit abnormal patterns of feelings, thinking and
behavior most likely suffer from some kind of psychological
disorders.
 Definition of Psychological Disorders
People who exhibit abnormal patterns of feelings,
thinking and behavior most likely suffer from some
kind of psychological disorders.
What are the criteria used for determining that
person has a psychological problem/disorder?
We generally have three main criteria:
1. Abnormality, Deviation from social norm
2. Maladaptiveness (not adjusting adequately or
appropriately to the environment or situation).
3. Personal Distress.
1. Abnormality /Social and cultural unacceptability

 No universally accepted definition of mental illness or abnormality exists.

 In general, the definition of mental illness depends on a society’s norms, or rules of behavior.
Behaviors that violate these norms are considered signs of deviance or, in some cases, of mental
illness.
 Abnormal behavior is a behavior that deviates from the behavior of the typical‘ person; the norm.
 The context in which is abnormal behavior occurs must be considered before deciding that it is
symptomatic psychological disorders.
 A society‘s norm can be qualitative and quantitative. When someone behaves in culturally
unacceptable ways and the behaviors he/she exhibit violates the norm, standards, rules and
regulations of the society, this person is most likely to have a psychological problem.
 Only abnormal behavior cannot be sufficient for the diagnosis of psychological problem.

2. Maladaptiveness
 Maladaptive behavior in one way or another creates a social, personal and occupational problem on those
who exhibit the behaviors.
 These behaviors seriously disrupt the day-to-day activities of individuals that can increase the problem
more It is the reduction of the individual’s normal level of performance or functioning, i.e., washing hand
before you eat is normal or adaptive functioning, but washing your hands 100 times a day is impaired or
maladaptive functioning.
 Maladaptive behaviors are actions that prevent people from adapting, adjusting, or participating in
different aspects of life.
 These behaviors seriously disrupt the day-to-day activities of individuals.
3. Personal Distress
Our subjective feelings of anxiety, stress, tension and other
unpleasant emotions determine whether we have a
psychological disorder.
These negative emotional state arise either by the problem itself
or by events that happen on us.
 But, the criterion of personal distress, just like other criteria, is
not sufficient for the presence of psychological disorder.
This is because of some people like feeling distressed by their
own behavior. Hence, behavior that is abnormal, maladaptive, or
personally distressing might indicate that a person has a
psychological disorder.
Hence, behavior that is abnormal, maladaptive, or personally
distressing might indicate that a person has a psychological
disorder.
There is no one and universally accepted
definition of psychological disorder.
Components of the widely accepted standard
definitions are:
 Persistent emotional problem and suffering;
Behaving in a way that is disturbing to
others;
Failing to perform ordinary day-to-day
activities (at home, school, workplace)
 Being irrational thinker or excessively
lacking in self control.
 Causes of Psychological Disorders (Based on
Perspectives)
1. The Biological Perspective or Medical model
Hormonal imbalance, chemical deficiency or an injury on part of
the body cause mental illness and abnormal behavior.

The working of chemicals in the brain, called neurotransmitters,

may contribute to many psychological disorders.

 For example, over activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine

(involved in movement, memory, pleasurable reward and
motivation, behavior and cognition, and attention), perhaps
caused by an overabundance of certain dopamine receptors in
the brain, has been linked to the bizarre symptoms of
schizophrenia.
 Cont.
2. Psychological Perspectives
A. Psychoanalytic perspective
Abnormal behavior, is caused by the ego’s (which mediates
between the id and reality) inability to manage the conflict
between the opposing demands of the id (a pool of biological
urges)and the superego (which represent society‘s moral
standards).

Especially important is the individuals’ failure to manage the

conflicting of Id’s sexual impulses during childhood, and
society’s sexual morality to resolve the earlier childhood
emotional conflicts that determine how to behave and think
later.
B. Learning perspective
 Most mental and emotional disorders arise from inadequate or
inappropriate learning.
 People acquire abnormal behaviors through various kinds of learning
 According to this view, people who exhibit abnormal behavior either are victims of
faulty learning or have failed to learn appropriate patterns of thinking and acting.
C. Cognitive perspective
 The quality of our internal dialogue and people's way of thinking either builds
ourselves up or tear ourselves down and has profound effect on our mental
health.
 Self-defeating thoughts lead to the development of negative emotions and self-
destructive behaviors.
 Expectancies, self-efficacy, self control, beliefs about one-self are important in the
appearance of abnormal behavior in an individual.
 Our thinking patterns in one way or another affects our emotional and behavioral
wellbeing.
 Our environmental and cultural experiences in our life play a major role in the
 Cont.
D. The socio-culture perspective
 This perspective assumes that mental illness would result from such social problems
as poverty, poor nutrition, inadequate housing, crime, and discrimination.
 The primary evidence in support of this view is the generally higher rate of mental
disorders among the lowest socioeconomic classes. (Example. schizophrenia and
alcoholism). A mental disorder characterized by delusions (fixed, false conviction in
something that is not real or shared by other people), hallucinations (apparent
perception of something not present), disorganized thoughts, speech and behavior.

E. Humanistic Perspectives:
 Abnormal behavior due to blocked natural tendency.
 These perspectives emphasize a capacity for growth, freedom to choose one's own
destiny, and positive personal qualities.
 A psychological disorder reflects an inability to fulfill one’s potential likely arising from
the pressure of the society to conform others’ expectations and values. A person with
psychological disorder is likely to have a low self-concept because he/she has
experienced excessive criticisms and negative circumstances.
 Types of Psychological Disorder
A psychological disorder is a condition
characterized by abnormal thoughts, feelings,
and behaviors.
Psychopathology is the study of psychological
disorders, including their symptoms, etiology
(i.e., their causes), and treatment.
In this connection, there are many types of
psychological disorders, but here in this
section we will try to see only types of mood
disorder, anxiety disorder and personality
disorder.
1. MOOD DISORDERS-The feeling is wrong
 Have you ever met someone who is extremely excited onetime but turns the other way
shortly afterwards?
 Mood disorders are psychological disorders in which there is a primary disturbance of
mood from depressed to elevated feelings causing disruption to life activities.
 Depressive disorder is characterized by overall feelings of desperation and inactivity.
 If you have a mood disorder, your general emotional state or mood is distorted or
inconsistent with your circumstances and interferes with your ability to function.
 You may be extremely sad, empty or irritable (depressed), or you may have periods of
depression alternating with being excessively happy (mania-a high state of happiness).

 In addition to type and subtype of mood, these disorders also vary in intensity and
severity. The disorders in this category include those where the primary symptom is a
disturbance in mood. The disorders include Major Depression (clinical depression),
Dysthymic Disorder (persistent depression disorder), Bipolar Disorder (extreme
excitement episodes or extreme depressive feelings., and Cyclothymia
1.1 Major Depression (also known as depression or clinical
depression) is characterized by depressed mood, diminished interest
in activities previously enjoyed, weight disturbance, sleep
disturbance, loss of energy, difficulty concentrating, and often
includes feelings of hopelessness and thoughts of suicide.
1.2 Dysthymia is often considered a lesser, but more persistent form
of depression. Many of the symptoms are similar except to a lesser
degree. Also, dysthymia, as opposed to Major Depression is steadier
(fixed) rather than periods of normal feelings and extreme lows. It is
also known as persistent depressive disorder.
1.3 Bipolar Disorder (previously known as Manic-Depression) is
characterized by periods of extreme highs (called mania) and
extreme lows as in Major Depression. Bipolar Disorder is subtyped
either I (extreme or hypermanic episodes) or II (moderate or
hypomanic episodes).
1.4 Cyclothymia: Like Dysthymia and Major Depression, Cyclothymia
is considered a lesser form of Bipolar Disorder
2. Anxiety Disorders
What do you feel when you are to sit for exam? What do you feel if you are
just invited to give a speech to your classmates? Would you feel anxious? Is
this a problem? When does it becomes a problem?
What is phobia?
Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress and can be beneficial in some
situations. It can alert us to dangers and help us prepare and pay attention.
A mild to moderate amount of anxiety is normal and even beneficial, too little
anxiety or too much anxiety can cause problems.
Anxiety disorders differ from normal feelings of nervousness or anxiousness
and involve excessive fear or anxiety.
Anxiety is emotional state in which people feel uneasy, apprehensive, or
fearful.
The physical symptoms of anxiety include fidgeting (be impatient or uneasy),
muscle tension, sleeping problems, and headaches.
Higher levels of anxiety may produce such symptoms as rapid heartbeat,
• Anxiety disorders are the most common of mental disorders
and affect nearly 30 percent of adults at some point in their
lives. However, anxiety disorders are treatable, and a number
of effective treatments are available. Treatment helps most
people lead normal productive lives.
• Anxiety disorders can cause people into trying to avoid
situations that trigger or worsen their symptoms. Job
performance, schoolwork and personal relationships can be
affected.
• In general, for a person to be diagnosed with an anxiety
disorder, the fear or anxiety must:
• Be out of proportion to the situation or age inappropriate.
• Hinder your ability to function normally.
• Anxiety Disorders categorize a large number of disorders
where the primary feature is abnormal or inappropriate
anxiety.
 Cont.
Types of Anxiety Disorders
1) Panic disorder
2. Agoraphobia
3. Specific or Simple Phobia and Social Phobia
4. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
5. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
6. Generalized Anxiety Disorder
1. Panic Disorders

• Is characterized by a series of panic attacks. A panic attack

is an inappropriate intense feeling of fear or discomfort
including many of the following symptoms: heart
palpitations, trembling, shortness of breath, chest pain,
dizziness.

• Refers to an anxiety disorder marked by the recurrent, sudden

onset of intense apprehension or terror.

• These symptoms are so severe that the person may actually

believe he or she is having a heart attack. In fact, many, if
not most of the diagnoses of Panic Disorder are made by a
physician in a hospital emergency room.
2. Agoraphobia
• Literally means fear of the marketplace.
• It refers to a series of symptoms where the person fears, and
often avoids, situations where escape or help might not be
available, such as shopping centers, grocery stores, or other
public places.
• Agoraphobia is often a part of panic disorder if the panic attacks
are severe enough to result in an avoidance of these types of
places.
3. Specific or Simple Phobia and Social Phobia
• Represent an intense fear and often an avoidance of a specific
situation, person, place, or thing.
• To be diagnosed with a phobia, the person must have suffered
significant negative consequences because of this fear and it
must be disruptive to their everyday life.
Cont.
Phobic Disorders
 A phobia is an excessive, enduring fear of clearly defined objects or
situations that interferes with a person’s normal functioning.
 Although they know their fear is irrational, people with phobias always
try to avoid the source of their fear. Common phobias include
 Common phobia types and stimuli in the environment
 Phobia types Feared objects or situation
 Agoraphobia………………….............marketplace, public place

 Acrophobia.................................................... High place

 Claustrophobia.............................................. Enclosed places
 Ergasiophobia............................................... Work
 Gramophobia................................................ Marriage
 Hydrophobia……………………………………...water
Cont.
Haphephobia................................................. Being
touched
Hematophobia............................................... Blood
Monophobia.................................................. Being
alone
Ocholophobia................................................ Crowds
Xenophobia................................................... Strangers
Ophidiophobia.............................................. Fear of
snakes
4. Obsessive – Compulsive disorder (OCD)
 Is characterized by obsessions (thoughts which seem uncontrollable) and compulsions
(behaviors which act to reduce the obsession). Most people think of compulsive hand washers or
people with an intense fear of dirt or of being infected.
 These obsessions and compulsions are disruptive to the person's everyday life, with sometimes
hours being spent each day repeating things, which were completed successfully already such as
checking, counting, cleaning, or bathing.

 An anxiety disorder; the individual has anxiety provoking thoughts that will not go away
(obsessive) and or urges to perform repetitive, ritualistic behaviors to prevent or produce some
future situation (compulsion).
 Obsessions- are intrusive (interfering) 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 or obsession leads to compulsion.

 Common compulsions are obsession of contamination (e.g., changing clothes frequently or

discarding clothes or other items, repeatedly washing and cleaning oneself), doubt, aggression,
etc.

 Common Compulsions are washing, cleaning, counting, putting items in order, checking,
5. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Occurs only after a person is exposed to a traumatic event where their life or
someone else's life is threatened. Common examples: war, natural disasters,
major accidents, and severe child abuse. Once exposed to an incident, the
disorder develops into an intense fear of related situations, avoidance of
these situations, reoccurring nightmares, flashbacks, and heightened anxiety
to the point that it significantly disrupts their everyday life.
People with this disorder relieve or remember the traumatic event through
recurrent dreams or intrusive memories called flashbacks.

They avoid things or places associated with the trauma and may feel
emotionally detached or estranged or isolated from others.
Other symptoms may include difficulty sleeping, irritability, and trouble
concentrating.
Generally, people develop this disorder within one to three months.
 Cont.
6. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Is diagnosed when a person has extreme anxiety in nearly every part of
their life. It is not associated with just open places (as in agoraphobia),
specific situations (as in specific phobia), or a traumatic event (as in
PTSD). The anxiety must be significant enough to disrupt the person's
everyday life for a diagnosis to be made.
People with generalized anxiety disorder worry excessively about
routine events or circumstances in their lives.
Their worries often relate to finances, family, personal health, and
relationships with others.
People with this disorder have: restless, being easily fatigue,
concentration difficulty, irritability, muscle tension, sleeps disturbance,
etc. of these at least three symptoms should be seen to call generalized
anxiety disorder.
To receive a diagnosis of this disorder, individuals must have
experienced its symptoms for at least six months.
3. PERSONALITY DISORDERS
A personality disorder is a type of mental disorder in which you
have a rigid and unhealthy pattern of thinking, functioning and
behaving.

A person with a personality disorder has trouble perceiving and

relating to situations and people.

Personality Disorders are characterized by an enduring pattern

of thinking, feeling, and behaving which is significantly different
from the person's culture and results in negative consequences.
This pattern must be longstanding and inflexible for a diagnosis
to be made.

This pattern must be longstanding and inflexible for a

diagnosis to be made
 Types of personality disorders
• There are around nine types of personality disorders, all of which result in significant
distress and/or negative consequences within the individual:

1) Paranoid (includes a pattern of distrust and suspiciousness).

2) Schizoid (pattern of detachment from social norms and a restriction of emotions).

3) Schizotypal (pattern of discomfort in close relationships and eccentric (weird) thoughts

and behaviors).
*Schizoid do not desire close relationships; schizotypal may want close relationships, but their
symptoms make it difficult to foster these connections.
* People with schizotypal personality disorder are more likely to seek treatment than people with
schizoid personality disorder.
*Those with more eccentric, odd or bizarre behaviors or appearances are more likely to have
schizotypal than schizoid personality disorder.

4) Antisocial (pattern of disregard for the rights of others, including violation of these
rights and the failure to feel empathy).
5. Borderline (pattern of instability in personal relationships, including frequent
bouts of clinginess and affection and anger and resentment, often cycling between
these two extremes rapidly).
• An intense fear of abandonment, even going to extreme measures to avoid real or
imagined separation or rejection.
• A pattern of unstable intense relationships, such as idealizing someone one moment
and then suddenly believing the person doesn't care enough or is cruel
• Rapid changes in self-identity and self-image that include shifting goals and values,
and seeing yourself as bad or as if you don't exist at all

6. Histrionic (pattern of excessive emotional behavior and attention seeking).

7. Narcissistic personality disorder (pattern of grandiosity, exaggerated self-
worth, self-importance and need for admiration), expect to be recognized as
superior, be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty
or perfect mate, monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people
they perceive as inferior.
8. Avoidant (pattern of feelings of social inadequacies, low self-esteem, and
hypersensitivity to criticism).
9. Obsessive-Compulsive (pattern of obsessive cleanliness, perfection, and control).
Treatment Techniques
Treatment of mental illnesses can take various forms.
 They can include medication, talk therapy, a combination of
both, and can last only one session or take many years to
complete.
Many different types of treatment are available, but most agree
that the core components of psychotherapy remain the same.
 Psychotherapy consists of the following:
1. A positive, healthy relationship between a client or patient
and a trained psychotherapist
2. Recognizable mental health issues, whether diagnosable or
not
3. Agreement on the basic goals of treatment
4. Working together as a team to achieve these goals
Treatment Approaches
When providing psychotherapy, there are several issues to be
considered.
Empathy. It is a requirement for a successful practitioner to be able
to understand his or her client's feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
Being nonjudgmental - Everybody makes mistakes, everybody
does stuff they aren't proud of. If your therapist judges you, then you
don't feel safe talking about similar issues again.
Therapist approach should see clients from slightly different angles,
although the ultimate goal remains the same: to help the client
reduce negative symptoms, gain insight into why these symptoms
occurred and work through those issues, and reduce the emergence
of the symptoms in the future.

The three main branches include Cognitive, Behavioral, and

Dynamic.
A. Cognitive Approach/Therapies
• Therapists who lean toward the cognitive branch will look at dysfunctions and difficulties as
arising from irrational or faulty thinking.
• In other words, we perceive the world in a certain way (which may or may not be accurate)
and this result in acting and feeling a certain way.
• Cognitive restructuring technique, a general concept for changing pattern of thought that
is presumed to be causing maladaptive behavior or emotion, is central to cognitive therapies.
• Cognitive approaches appear to work better with most types of depression.
B. Behavioral Approach
• Those who follow more behavioral models look at problems as arising from our behaviors
which we have learned to perform over years of reinforcement.
• Behavior therapies use principles of learning to reduce or eliminate maladaptive behavior.
• Faulty learning or inappropriate learning. Behavioral treatments tend to work better with
phobias.
• Examples of treatment techniques: Systematic desensitization, flooding; Aversive therapy.
C. The dynamic or psychodynamic approach stem more from the teaching of Sigmund
Freud and look more at issues beginning in early childhood which then motivate us as adults
at an unconscious level.
Most mental health professionals nowadays are more eclectic in that they study how to treat
people using different approaches. These professionals are sometimes referred to as
integrationists.
Treatment Modalities
• Therapy is most often thought of as a one-on-one relationship between a
client or patient and a therapist. This is probably the most common
example, but therapy can also take different forms.
• Often time‘s group therapy is utilized, where individuals suffering from
similar illnesses or having similar issues meet together with one or two
therapists.
• Group sizes differ, ranging from three or four to upwards of 15 or 20, but
the goals remain the same.
• The power of group is due to the need in all of us to belong, feel
understood, and know that there is hope. All of these things make group as
powerful as it is.
• Imagine feeling alone, scared, misunderstood, unsupported, and unsure of
the future; then imagine entering a group of people with similar issues who
have demonstrated success, who can understand the feelings you have,
who support and encourage you, and who accept you as an important part
of the group. It can be overwhelming in a very positive way and continues
to be the second most utilized treatment after individual therapy.
• Therapy can also take place in smaller groups consisting of a couple
or a family. In this type of treatment, the issues to be worked on are
centered around the relationship.
• There is often an educational component, like other forms of therapy,
such as communication training, and couples and families are
encouraged to work together as a team rather than against each other.
• The therapist's job is to facilitate healthy interaction, encourage the
couple or family to gain insight into their own behaviors, and to teach
the members to listen to and respect each other.
• Sometimes therapy can include more than one treatment modality. A
good example of this is the individual who suffers from depression,
social anxiety, and low self-esteem.
• For this person, individual therapy may be used to reduce depressive
symptoms, work some on self-esteem and therefore reduce fears about
social situations. Once successfully completed, this person may be
transferred to a group therapy setting where he or she can practice
social skills, feel a part of a supportive group, therefore improving self-
esteem and further reducing depression.
 Cont.

Treatment Modalities
1. One-on-one (Individual) Treatment
2. Group Treatment
3. Family Treatment
4. Couple Treatment
THANKS