In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt established the first laboratory of scientific psychology. During this time, Wundt and his group developed the structuralism approach, which describes perceptions as combinations of elements called sensations which when grouped together form an image or object that people perceive. This approach dominated the period as an explanation to perceptions in psychology until 1920’s, when it set...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
The Instinct Theory of Motivation suggests that all organisms are evolutionarily "programmed" in ways that help them survive. They're born with traits that cause them to behave in certain way naturally. These "natural behaviors" are referred to as instincts, and these instincts are what drive all behaviors.| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a common anxiety disorder that is distinguished by a pattern of prolonged worrying, nervousness, tension, and anxiety. People who are diagnosed to have this disorder experience unreasonable worry about health, money, death, family and other interpersonal relationship problems or work difficulties, that is excessive, uncontrollable, and disproportionate to the actual source of worry. This severe...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that occurs at a specific time of year—most commonly beginning in the late fall and continuing into winter. Less frequently, some individuals experience SAD during the spring or summer months.| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
Systematic desensitization is a form of behaviour therapy. Based on the principles of classical conditioning, the systematic desensitization technique is proved to be excellent in dealing with different phobias and anxiety disorder such as panic disorder.| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
Psychodynamic therapy is also known as insight oriented therapy. The main focus of psychodynamic therapy is to raise the patient’s self-awareness and educate him/her about the effects of their past experiences on their present attitudes and behaviors. Psychodynamic therapy is often used to treat complex mental disorders, personality and chronic mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, generalize anxiety disorder, social...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
Neurotransmitters are chemical substances released by nerve endings. They transmit nerve impulses from nerve to nerve and from nerve to the effecter organs. Nerve impulse is nothing but a propagated action potential, which is the rapid sequential change in the membrane potential of the cells. Neurotransmitters transmit the nerve impulse from the pre-synaptic neuron to the post-synaptic neuron through the...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
It is rather rare for terminal diagnoses to be easily met with peace and acceptance – as it usually leads the patient to question everything that he or she is being told, and is likely to undergo five stages of grief. During this time, grief counseling is very important not only for the family of the patient, but for the...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
In 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was attacked by a man near an apartment in New York. The assault lasted 30 minutes and even though more than 38 people heard Kitty’s screams, some even looked out of their windows and witnessed the assault, none of these people came to her aid. Social psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané suspected...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
In our last post, we talked about the James-Lange Theory of Emotion. That was just one of the theories of emotion. This week, we’re going to discuss another theory of emotion – the Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion. Background of the Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion In the early 1900’s, Walter Bradford Cannon (1871 – 1945), a physiologist at Harvard University, was...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
Our ancient ancestors realized that when it comes to finding food and fighting off enemies, it is beneficial to make a friend or two. That’s why we, humans, sometimes find it useful to become social. Why do we befriend some people but not others? Social psychology suggests 3 factors that influence our decision on picking friends. Proximity Proximity means geographic...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
Mood disorders are psychological disorders that cause mood disturbance in people. There are 2 main types of mood disorders: 1) Depressive disorders 2) Bipolar disorder Depressive disorders It’s normal for us to feel sad and depressed but these feelings are usually short-lived. Depressive disorder is characterized by prolonged sadness and hopelessness. On average, an episode of depression lasts about 6...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
Our brain is divided into 2 halves, or hemispheres, that are connected to each other by the corpus callosum. These two hemispheres control the motion in and receive sensory inputs from the opposite side of our body. In other words, the left hemisphere controls the right side of our body and also receives sensory inputs from the right side of our body.| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
In Psychology, aggression refers to physical and verbal behaviours that intend to hurt another person. There are different factors that trigger our aggressive behaviours. Biological factors Genetic influences Twin studies who that genes influence aggression in human. If one identical twin admits to being aggressive, the other twin often admits the same. Researchers are working on finding the “violent” gene....| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
The Piaget theory suggests that regardless of culture, the cognitive development of children follows a predetermined order of stages, which are widely known as the Piaget stages of cognitive development.| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
What is morality? The concept of morality revolves around a person’s differentiation of good and bad when it comes to intentions, thoughts, decisions and actions. It may be driven by a specific code of conduct that comes with a certain religion or philosophy, or from a standard that a person sees as universal. What is moral development? Moral development looks...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
Based on Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development, American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) developed his own theory of moral development in children. According to Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development, there are 6 stages of moral development, known as Kohlberg’s stages of moral development.| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
If you use an apple computer—and even if you don’t—you’re likely to have seen the picture above before: a grey apple logo with a circular array of “spokes” below that signifies that the computer is booting up. If I ask you whether there is any circular motion in this image, your initial answer is likely to be: of course! But...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
In order to avoid biased assumptions about someone’s personality, there is a more standardized way on how to evaluate a person and this is through personality assessment.| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
Attention deficit disorder (ADD) is a developmental disorder in children that interferes with the child’s learning process. Its symptoms can last from infancy to adulthood and are 2-4 times more common in boys than in girls. The symptoms of attention deficit disorder are usually identified through classroom observation. Symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder Here are some common symptoms of children...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
We all know that people and some animals can learn. If you had a terrible meal every time you went out to a particular restaurant, you’d quickly learn to avoid it. But how does that learning take place? What happens in our mind and brain that enables us to perform this remarkably complex task almost without any effort? One very...| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, developed a theory of cognitive development in children known as the Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development in the early twentieth century.| The Psychology Notes Headquarters
