S1 Wk 1 - What is Psychology? Flashcards
What do clinical psychologists do?
- Deliver therapy
- Make assessments
- Write reports
- Carry out research
- Teach
- Sit on various committees
what do clinical psychologists not do
- diagnose mental illness
- prescribe drugs
what does health psychology deal with
the psychological impact of physical ill-health
focus on lifestyle, prevention of illness, intervention etc
what does educational psychology do
- support kids, parents, teachers
- have PGCE and classroom experience
- deal with special needs
- can diagnose conditions like dyslexia
what does forensic psychology do
- apply psychology in Legal settings
- prisons, courts, police force, hospitals
- assessment and intervention
- advice and training
- don’t catch criminals
What does occupational psychology do 4 points
- Apply psychology within the workplace
- work with workers, management and organisations
- focus on motivation and well-being
- May be based in institution or independent service
What does sport and exercise psychology do 2 points
- apply psychology in context of professional Sport, e.g. with teams, injured players, coaches and referees
- work in context to promote well-being, rehab etc through sports/exercise
teaching and research 3 points
- based mostly in unis
- most have PhD
- most expected to: do research, peer-reviewed journals, obtain funding, publicise findings
the academic discipline of psychology 3 points
- aligns up to a point with applied psychology / practice
- academic research is not directly associated with practice
(development of theory, production of literature,
focus on specialist areas, work within
interdisciplinary context) - put all these can be seen as ‘practice’ up to a point
Biological psychology 5 points
- the idea that behaviour is best understood as a physiological response to stimuli
- events in the brain
- genetics
- human evolution
- animal comparisons
Cognitive psychology 3 points
- focus on thinking - not necessarily with regard to brain function
- cognitive processes often draw on metaphors from computing
- memory, attention, problem solving, visual processing etc
Developmental psychology 3 points
- study of behaviour as maturational phenomenon
- mostly focused on childhood but can cover lifespan
- tendency to rely on Cognitive and explanations but some social Theory
Individual differences 3 points
- focus on phenomena that differentiates strongly between individuals
- personality and Intelligence, health, mental health
- dominated by psychometric testing and statistics
Social psychology 2 points
- preference for explanations rooted in social interaction
- maybe based around experiments, self-reporting of the behaviour, or through talk
4 points of the scientific method from Gross
- Definable subject matter
- Theory construction
- Hypothesis testing
- Empirical methods
4 points why psychology might not be specific
- Failure to adequately define subject matter
- Inadequate or inconsistent theories
- Theories that can’t be tested, are difficult to test, or don’t test the real issue
- Methods are insufficiently objective
psychology vs. other sciences 2 points
- most Sciences have a paradigm, e.g. biology - evolutionary theory
- some are more endearing than others, so paradigm shifts take place over time
Four stages in the development of science
- Prescience (paradigms compete for dominance)
- Normal science part 1 (dominant paradigm constrains subject matter, methods, vocab)
- Revolution (dominant paradigm overturned - counter evidence)
- Normal science part 2 (same again)
objectivity problem
Most Sciences have external objective inquiry but psychology is “the human activity of studying human activity” Richards, 1996)
Makes it true objectivity difficult or even impossible
Demand characteristics of experiments 3 points
- participants tend to give answers that will please researchers
- so need to avoid ‘hypothesis guessing’ in the designs
- this is also true of some qualitative research
Alternatives to science in psychology 3 points
Psychology as philosophy (part of the humanities)
Psychology as anthropology (‘soft’ social science)
what about psychology as a practice?
