PSİKOLOJİ

Psychology is a discipline which studies biological, social, and psychological bases of the behavior. Psychology is a discipline which attempts to understand the behavior and aims to describe, explain, predict, control, and improve it. Psychology is a discipline which studies both human and animal behavior.

The correct answer is E.

First of all, they need to be aware of the psychological theories explaining the situation. Second, they need to have knowledge of studies that already tested these theories. Third, researchers need to come with a theoretical question that has not already been answered. Fourth, in order to test this hypothesis, a researcher in psychology needs to use objective measures of the relevant behaviors (variables) and collect data from people (Table 1.1). Fifth, a researcher in psychology needs to analyze the collected data and evidence that a hypothesis is correct or not. Thus, psychology is regarded as a science because researchers in psychology conduct empirical or observational studies in which they test theory based hypotheses by measuring the behaviors in an objective way. 

The correct answer is E.

Empiricism is a philosophical approach about how humans acquire knowledge. It suggests that humans come to the world with empty minds, which is called a tabula rasa or a blank slate. According to this approach, humans gain knowledge later in their life with their senses and through experience.This contrasted with notion of dualism and rationalism, which suggested that humans have knowledge through the reasoning. Instead, empiricism emphasized the sensations, perceptions and observations, people experience in the world they live in, as bases of their knowledge. 

The correct answer is A.

One of the names known with idealism is British philosopher George Berkeley (1685-1753). Proposing that humans’ knowledge is influenced by their own perspective or worldview, idealism offered psychology a new approach for the explanation of human behavior.

The correct answer is C.

Beginning of modern psychology dates back to the late nineteenth century, when Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) founded first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany. 

Wilhelm Wundt also wrote the first psychology textbook titled Principles of Physiological Psychology. He was not only influential in Germany but also in the UK and the USA. He had students important in the history of psychology, such as Granville Stanley Hall, James McKeen Cattell, and Frank Angell from the USA and Edward Bradford Titchener from the UK.

The correct answer is B.

Psychoanalysis approach, founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), suggested that psychology should study human mind by discovering the unconscious processes.

The correct answer is C.

Gestalt psychology was a reaction against structuralism, which attempted to divide human experience or consciousness into its elements. According to Gestalt psychology, individual elements of any experience cannot explain the experience itself. This approach argued that the human mind organizes the experience in the way that is not reducible to the sum of its parts. It suggested that elements of any experience interact with each other and humans perceive a pattern or a whole of these interactions, which takes place across time and/or space (Figure 1.1). Thus, psychology should consider the whole in order to understand its parts because the whole of anything is greater than its parts.

The correct answer is D.

Cognitive perspective suggested that psychology should study how mental processes influence the human behavior. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, researchers such as Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909), Jean Piaget (1896-1980), Semenovich Vygotsky (1186-1934), and Noam Chomsky (1928) influenced the development of cognitive perspective in psychology.

The correct answer is A.

Social psychology studies human behavior in relation with others’ behavior. It aims to understand how others influence humans’ behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. Social psychology has played a very important role in the development of psychology since the early twentieth century and interested in a large variety of subjects. Social identities and group and inter-group dynamics, interpersonal relationships, family and close relationships, aggression, helping behavior, crowd behavior, conformity, attitude formation and change, gender, ideological beliefs and voting behavior are some of the well-known subjects which social psychology studies.

The correct answer is E.

Traffic Psychology studies traffic behaviors (e.g., having an accident) in             relation with biological, social, and psychological properties.                           

Sports Psychology studies sports behaviors (e.g., high performance in tennis) in relation with biological, social, and psychological properties

Psychology of Religion studies (non)religious behaviors (e.g., going to church) in relation with biological, social, and psychological properties

Music Psychology studies music behaviors (e.g., composing music) in relation with biological, social, and psychological properties

Forensic Psychology studies judicial behaviors (e.g., defendant suitability for trial) in relation with biological, social, and psychological properties

Family Psychology studies family behaviors (e.g., communication problems) in relation with biological, social, and psychological properties

Educational Psychology studies school behaviors (e.g., participating class) in relation with biological, social, and psychological properties

Political Psychology studies political behaviors (e.g., participating collective action) in relation with biological, social, and psychological properties

The correct answer is A.

Spiritaulity

Human behavior is multifaceted and complicated and psychology attempts to look at it from different viewpoints. In order to understand behavior, psychology holds five aims: to describe, to explain, to predict, to control, and to improve the behavior.

Psychology separated from philosophy and became a discipline on its own right in the late nineteenth century. It has come to be accepted as an independent discipline with the foundation of its own laboratory and development of its own methodology.

Other disciplines interested in human behavior Philosophy Study of nature of existence, reality, knowledge, language, morality Sociology Study of human social relationships, structures, institutions, politics Anthropology Study of humans’ culture and physical body in the past and present Biology Study of nature of living organisms and life Physiology Study of physical and chemical processes in living organism Medicine Study of diagnosing and treating the diseases and maintaining the health Computer Science Study of computers systems, designs, computations, data processing.

Empiricism is a philosophical approach about how humans acquire knowledge. It suggests that humans come to the world with empty minds, which is called a tabula rasa or a blank slate. According to this approach, humans gain knowledge later in their life with their senses and through experience.

Behaviorism approach, emerged in the USA, suggested that psychology should study the observable behavior. Behaviorism was influenced by functionalism and empiricism7. It emphasized the relationship between behavior and environment. It suggested that psychology should question what happens in people’s environment and how they behave accordingly. That is, how the environment shapes the behavior. The studies by Edward Thorndike (1874-1949) and Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) influenced the development of behaviorism. Edward Thorndike searched the animal behavior and defined law of effect.

Gestalt psychology was a reaction against structuralism, which attempted to divide human experience or consciousness into its elements. According to Gestalt psychology, individual elements of any experience cannot explain the experience itself. This approach argued that the human mind organizes the experience in the way that is not reducible to the sum of its parts. It suggested that elements of any experience interact with each other and humans perceive a pattern or a whole of these interactions, which takes place across time and/or space.

Social psychology studies human behavior in relation with others’ behavior. It aims to understand how others influence humans’ behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. Social psychology has played a very important role in the development of psychology since the early twentieth century and interested in a large variety of subjects. Social identities and group and inter-group dynamics, interpersonal relationships, family and close relationships, aggression, helping behavior, crowd behavior, conformity, attitude formation and change, gender, ideological beliefs and voting behavior are some of the well-known subjects which social psychology studies.

Clinical psychology studies the behavioral, emotional, and cognitive problems in humans. It aims to understand the determinants of psychological disorders such as stress, depression, anxiety, and phobia. Clinical psychologists develop measures to recognize people with behavioral adjustment problems. They also develop and apply measures to help people with psychological problems to do better. Some clinical psychologists work as psychotherapists in hospitals or mental health clinics.

Psychoanalysis approach, founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), suggested that psychology should study human mind by discovering the unconscious processes (Photo1.3). Sigmund Freud was a neurologist and observed and talked with people having psychological problems. He concluded that early life experiences, which people are mostly unaware of, play an important role in the development of these problems. He proposed a theory of personality development and a method of psychotherapy. He suggested that humans have sexual and aggressive drives, which affect the development of personality. He explained that the expressions of sexual and aggressive drives are punished in childhood and people experience conflict and anxiety. In order to cope with such conflict and anxiety, humans tend to keep their childhood experiences in unconscious mind. Sigmund Freud proposed a free-association technique, which aims to make people with psychological problems aware of their anxious childhood experiences.