Introduction To Psychology

INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY ONLINE COURSE

" The online courses are very easy to use and follow. Prompt friendly replies from tutor to any queries. Course structure flows freely. Very satisfied with course and results..."
- Diana (completed ACS Online course in Intro to Psych and Psych & Counselling)

It can be your starting point for managing human behaviour, or the first step toward further studies and a career in counselling, psychology or personnel management.

Lesson Structure

There are 7 lessons in this course:

1. The nature and scope of Psychology
2. Neurological basis of behaviour
3. Environmental effects on behaviour
4. Consciousness and perception
5. Personality
6. Psychological development
7. Needs, drives and motivation

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Explain the nature and scope of psychology.
• Explain characteristics of the neurological basis of behaviour.
• Explain environmental effects on behaviour.
• Explain the differences between consciousness and perception.
• Explain the effect of personality on behaviour.
• Explain psychological development.
• Apply different techniques to motivate people.

What You Will Do

• Define different psychological terms such as ambivalence, apathy, behaviour, catalyst, cognition, empirical, fixation, homeostasis, obsession, perception, performance, psychosomatic, socialisation, stereotype, temperament, trait.
• Explain how a knowledge of psychology can be applied in different types of jobs.
• Explain risks involved in applying psychology in two different specified situations.
• Differentiate between developmental and interactive explanations of behaviour, in a case study.
• Describe how the nervous system functions to transmit messages throughout the body.
• Explain how the dysfunctioning of different parts of the nervous system, can influence behaviour.
• Compare the function of the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
• Explain two examples of conditioning, which you observe.
• Explain an example of behaviour affected by modelling, observed by you
  • Compare the likely affects of positive and negative reinforcement in a case study.
• Distinguish between consciousness and perception, in the attitude of an observed individual.
• Explain selective attention, in a case study.
• Explain in summaries, different states of consciousness including daydreams, sleeping and dreaming, meditation.
• Explain the relationship between consciousness and behaviour in a case study.
• Explain three different theories of personality.
• Distinguish between the "id" and "superego" in a person you are familiar with.
• Compare the application of humanistic approaches with the social learning approach with the psychoanalytic approach, in educating children.
• Explain through examples, different defence mechanisms, including repression, displacement, rationalisation, projection, denial, evaluation, sublimation, reaction/formation, intellectualisation
• Explain the factors which may have influenced the psychological development of a teenager who you know.
• Compare cognitive development with physical development, in a case study.
• Explain through a summary, the four main stages of development including sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, formal operational.
• Explain moral development in two different case studies.
• Explain psychosexual stages of development in a case study.
• Explain psychosocial stages of development in a case study.
• Distinguish between needs, drives and instincts in a specific workplace.
• Explain the cyclical nature of primary drives, in a case study.
• List examples of secondary drives.
• Explain how to motivate a worker in a specified situation using the psychoanalytical approach.
• Summarise Maslow's theory of human motivation.
• Demonstrate the application of three different motivation techniques, in three different specified situations, through role playing.

Some Sample Course Notes

The Origin of Dreams

The greatest pioneer in the study of the psychological origin of dreams was Sigmund Freud. Freud stated that, despite their strangeness, dreams are meaningful, giving expression to the person’s wishes and impulses that have been repressed and cannot find other expression because of guilt or social inhibitions. These hidden wishes and desires constitute the content of dreams, and are expressed through the images and experiences of our dreams.

Freud evokes the image of a "censor" at the threshold between our consciousness and our unconscious. This "censor" converts the latent content into the dream work, transforming some of the impulse-expressions that might be too disturbing into symbols that seem harmless and meaningless. In effect, the mechanism protects our sleep from too much psychological disturbance. Much of psychoanalysis is involved with trying to decipher the symbols of our dreams, and symbolic behaviours with which we disguise our true feelings when awake.

The activation-synthesis theory of dreaming formulated by Hobson and McCarley (1977) asserts that dreams have no inherent meaning, but that the mind tries to make meaning out of them by synthesising them into meaningful events. According to this theory, dreams are no more than the result of random firings of neurons in the brain. Dream images are triggered by the firing in different areas of the brain, so that firing in the part of the brain that controls balance will trigger sensations and images of falling.

Another theory of dreaming is the computer theory, which proposes that the brain is like a computer whose programs are adjusted and tested when the computer is offline (or the brain asleep). The images and sensations of our dreams are not new creations, but data being sifted and sorted: the day’s experiences, impressions, worries, ideas being organised. Yet another theory is that we dream to allow the brain to get rid of unwanted data, and the random firing of neurons that triggers images and sensations is the brain’s way of defusing unwanted neural connections.

Meditation

Meditationis another activity which involves an altering of ones state of consciousness. Some forms of meditation involve "opening up" or "emptying" of the mind, letting feelings, thoughts and images drift away, without focussing on anything. Other forms of meditation involve concentrating on a particular object or image, not analysing it, but rather letting it fill your consciousness. Either way, meditation seeks to minimise sensual perception – stimuli received through the senses – to find the still mind within. Meditation is said to be a very effective form of relaxation and stress release, and is often seen as a passive activity. Meditation can promote significant health benefits as some studies have found. Research suggests also, that the mind of the person meditating is very active and alert, and significant changes have been observed in brain and nervous system function.