Psychology For Dummies
Language: English
Pages: 360
ISBN: 0764554344
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
What do psychologists do? Why do they do it? Does it take some sort of special aptitude to become a psychologist? How do you think psychologists feel about us asking all these questions about them? A psychologist friend of yours tells you that he is unhappy all the time and thinks it might have something to do with how he makes a living—how would you help? Now substitute the word “people” for psychologist and you have some idea of the kinds of questions the science of psychology tries to answer—questions about behavior, motive, aptitude, feeling, perception, and therapy. And while psychology may not provide definitive answers, it does offer powerful insights that can help you better understand who you are and why you feel and act the way you do.
Psychology For Dummies is a fun, user-friendly guide to the basics of human behavior and mental processes. In plain English and using lots of everyday examples, psychologist Dr. Adam Cash cuts through the jargon to explain what psychology is all about and what it tells us about why we do the things we do. With this book as your guide, you’ll:
- Gain profound insights into human nature
- Understand yourself better
- Make sense of individual and group behaviors
- Explore different approaches in psychology
- Recognize problems in yourself and others
- Make informed choices when seeking psychological counseling
From Freud to forensics, anorexia to xenophobia, Psychology For Dummies takes you on a fascinating journey of discovery. Topics covered include:
- Major schools of thought and how they differ
- The role of the body, the mind, relationships and culture in human psychology
- What is consciousness, awareness, and consciousness of self?
- Instinct, feeling and emotion and where they come from
- Developmental psychology and how people learn
- The role of gender in psychology
- Abnormal and forensic psychology
- Emotional and psychological problems and psychotherapy
Human behavior is an endlessly fascinating subject. Get Psychology For Dummies and find out what the science of human behavior has to say about why we do the things we do.
of thinking about the world. Rather than sit passively by as the world presents them with information, children actively construct an understanding and mental representation of the world. There are three basic schemata: Sensorimotor schemata: These organized patterns of thought are generated from a child’s direct interaction with and manipulation of the objects in their environment. For example, when a 1-year-old takes everything off her plate and drops it on the floor, she’s not
help further develop thinking: Organization: Organization involves combining the different schemata already developed with new and more complex schemata. You’re basically constantly shifting your understanding of the world to create a better and more complete picture. Adaptation: Adaptation is a process of getting adjusted to the demands of the environment. Adaptation is accomplished by two distinct subprocesses: • Assimilation: Little kids use assimilation all the time. When
a professional and expect the psychologist to have the answers. But without a thorough investigation of the patient’s situation, any mental health professional can only perform expensive guesswork. The two most common approaches to clinical assessment are formal interviews and psychological testing. I describe these processes in this section. Documenting history There may be as many interview techniques in the psychological world as there are individual psychologists out there. Everyone
controversial, in part because research consistently shows that happiness is more than having the experience of positive emotions. Happiness can be understood as a multifaceted experience consisting of many things, including a person’s self-view of life satisfaction, positive beliefs about life, and having more positive emotions than negative ones on average. Happiness is considered synonymous with well-being in psychological research. Was my positive experience the other day the product of
start playing around with extinction and spontaneous recovery! One more way to reverse the effects of classical conditioning is worth mentioning. You’ve conducted the lemonade test, and you’ve successfully taught your Pavlovian subjects to drool on command. If you want to change the effect, choose another US that produces some other response (UR) and classically condition your subjects with the new US. This process is called counterconditioning. Counterconditioning works especially well