B. Sc Nursing Psychology - First yearUNIT : I INTRODUCTION

B. Sc Nursing Psychology - First year

UNIT : I INTRODUCTION

Content: • History and origin of science of psychology • Definitions & Scope of psychology • Relevance to nursing • Methods of psychology
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I. HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY:

Before 1870 psychology was not a separate discipline rather it was studied under Philosophy.

Some of the contributors of psychology were as follows:

• Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 opened first experimental laboratory in psychology at the University of Leipzig, Germany. He is considered as the father of psychology.

• American Psychological Association (APA) was established in 1892 and the founder was G. Stanley Hall.

• In 1896 John Dewey and William James supported the functionalism in Psychology.

• In 1896 Sigmund Freud developed the theory of psychoanalysis. On the basis of this therapy later on he developed the therapy of free association and dream analysis.

• In 1905 IQ test developed by Alfred Binet and Thiodore Simon.

• In 1913 John B. Watson supported the behavioral aspects of psychology.
•  In 1921 Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach devised a personality test based on patients' interpretations of inkblots which is named as Rorschach ink blot test.

• In 1921 First Nobel Prize for psychological research was given to Charles Frederick Menninger.

• In 1921, Ivan Pavlov developed the theory of classical conditioning through the experimental approach.

• In 1935 Gestalt Psychology came into existence

• B.F. skinner proposed the theory of Operant conditioning.
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II. PERSONALITIES OF PSYCHOLOGY

• BF Skinner
• Sigmund Freud
• Ivan Pavlov
• Wilhelm Wundt - Father of Psychology
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III. ORIGIN OF SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY

Like any other science Psychology is also based on the observations and experiments which others can repeat and verify.

Psychology concerns the observation and explanations of human behavior in single individuals or in groups.

Psychology as a science deals with the motives, feelings, emotions, thoughts and action of men and women.

Like science, psychology discovers and explains the underlying laws and principles of human behavior.

Psychology describes the laws of learning, feelings and thinking.

Like any other science, psychology collects the subject matter or facts of behavior.

Psychology is a positive science not the normative as it describes the facts of human behavior and its laws as they are not as they ought to be.

Wundt was the first psychologist to measure the human behavior accurately.

Sigmund Freud, Maslow, Rogers, Watson, Pavlov and Thinner were all important in the development of Psychology as science.
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IV. DEFINITION OF PSYCHOLOGY

The word "psychology" comes from the Greek word psyche meaning "breath, spirit, soul", and the Greek word logia meaning the study of something.

Thus we can conclude that psychology is the study of the soul.

There are various definitions for psychology given by the variety of authors which are:

• Study of mind - William James
• Study of consciousness - Wilhelm Wundt
• Positive science of the conduct of the living creature - William McDougall
• Psychology is the science which aims to give us better understanding and control of the behavior of the organism as a whole - William McDougall
• Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior.
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V. SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology today covers enormous range of scope or fields.

They can be broadly classified into two groups-
• Basic psychology
• Applied psychology

¶ Basic Psychology: It is aimed at contributing to knowledge of behavior.

College, universities, laboratories and departments are the main employment settings of the basic Psychology.

Basic psychology has the following subfields:
1. Developmental psychology
2. Social psychology
3. Physiological psychology
4. Abnormal psychology
5. Experimental psychology
6. Psychometrics
7. Cognitive psychology
8. Personality psychology

1. Developmental psychology:

• It studies the human development, physical, emotional, social, moral emotional and personality development across the life span

• Developmental psychology primarily focused on the child development. But today devotes a great deal of research to adolescence, adult and old age group.

2. Social psychology:

• It deals with interpersonal behavior and the role of social forces in governing behavior.
• It primarily focuses on attitude formation, attitude change, prejudice, leadership, conformity, attraction, aggression, intimate relationships and behavior in groups.

3. Physiological Psychology:

• It examines the influence of genetic factors on behavior.
• It also deals with the brain, nervous system, endocrine system and bodily chemicals like the neurotransmitters in the regulation of behavior.

4. Abnormal psychology:

• It is also known as psychopathology.
•  It studies the models, causes, classification, diagnosis and the treatment of individuals with psychological disorders.

5. Experimental psychology:

•  Experimental psychologists restrict themselves chiefly to laboratory research on basic psychological processes, including perception, learning memory, thinking, motivation and emotions.

6. Psychometrics:

• It is concerned with the measurements of behavior and capacities usually through the development of psychological tests.
• Psychometrics is involved with the design of tests to assess personality, intelligence, and a wide range of abilities.
• It is also involved with the development of new techniques for statistical analysis.

7. Cognitive psychology:

•  Focuses on higher mental processes such as memory, thinking, reasoning, information processing, language, problem solving, decision making, creativity and artificial intelligence.

8. Personality psychology:

• It describes and explains the individual consistency in behavior which represents their personality.
• The area of interest is also concerned with the factors that determine personality and personality assessment.

¶ Applied Psychology: Applied psychology uses the various fields of basic psychology to improve the quality of life of the human being in various fields like school, industry, hospital, consultancy and community.

Applied psychology has the following subfields:

1. Clinical psychology
2. Counseling psychology
3. Organizational psychology
4. Educational psychology
5. Health psychology
6. Environmental psychology
7. Forensic psychology
8. Sports and exercise psychology
9. Psychology of woman

1. Clinical psychology

• It deals with the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of individual psychological disorders. • Principal activities include interviewing the client, psychological testing, and providing group or individual psychotherapy.
• NIMHANS, Bangaluru, central institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi provide the training in clinical psychology.

2. Counseling Psychology

• It usually works with a somewhat different clients, providing assistance to people struggling with everyday problem of moderate severity. Thus they often engage in family, marital and career counseling.

3. Organizational Psychology

•  It is an outgrowth of industrial psychology and also known as organizational behavior .
•  It tries to study and solve the different organizational problems exist in the school, hospitals, university, military, companies etc. • Here it tries to solve the problems of leadership, group conflicts, conflicts, different levels of organization, organization culture, organization development etc.

4. Educational Psychology

• Educational psychology is mainly devoted to an understanding of the different aspects of the teaching-learning process.
•  It is concerned with the application of the principles, techniques and methods of psychology to the teaching-learning process.

5. Health Psychology

•  Health psychology is the field that studies the role of the psychological factors in the promotion of health and the prevention of illness.
•  It has the interest in the relationship between stress and illness.
•  It describes the interaction of biological, psychological and social factors.
• This model is known as Biopsychosocial model. 

6. Environmental Psychology

• Environmental psychologists work in school, industrial and governmental settings.
• They design work environment and study the effects of crowding, noise and air pollution on behavior

7. Forensic Psychology

• Forensic psychology applies psychology to the legal system.
• They include jury deliberation process and the best ways to select jurors.
• Some forensic psychologists train police to handle domestic disputes, negotiates, negotiate with hostage takers.

8. Sports and Exercise Psychology

• This field applies psychology to athletic activities and exercise
• It considers the role of motivation, the social aspects of sports and the physiological impact of training on muscle development. 

9. Women Psychology

• It discusses the psychological factors relating to women’s behavior and development.
•  It tries to explain various issues like discrimination against women, structural differences between men and women, the effect of hormones on behavior, causes of violence against women and so on.
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VI. Methods a psychologist uses for gathering information or facts or data

1. Introspection
2. Descriptive research
3. Experimental method
4. Developmental method

1. Introspection

Introspection means looking into oneself or self observations or self analysis.

• It involves carefully examining and reporting one’s own behavior, thoughts, emotions, sensations and mental notes.
•  In the method of introspection one relies on his memory, draws on his past experiences of analyzing his current behavior.

Advantages:

• It is very helpful in self observations without depending on time.
• It does not require any device
•  It is the only method by which of the experiences can be known.

Disadvantages:

• They can not be verified objectively
• They cannot be confirmed by others
• Repeatability is not confirmed
•  Provide little or no informations about the experiences of infants, mentally ill person or animals.

2. Descriptive research

Descriptive research includes the following methods: 1. Naturalistic observation, 2. Case study and 3. Survey.

1. Naturalistic observation

Means making observations into the natural world.

• Subjects individuals and animals are observed in their natural world.
•  The observer remain unobtrusive
• Naturalistic observation is also used in studying the animal behavior in natural environment and it is called Ethology.

2. Case study

Means studying individual in depth

• One individual is examined intensively to find out as much as possible about a certain problem or a issue as it relates to that person.
• It is most often used to investigate abnormal behavior.
•  Biographical data, scores on psychological tests and information obtained in extensive interviews are the measures of the case study or case history methods.
• Overgeneralization and non objectivity are the limitations of the case study methods.

3. Survey

Means asking for responses to interviews or questionnaires.

• It collects informations about behavior, opinion, attitudes, life experiences or personal characteristics.
• Surveys are commonly in the form of an interview or questionnaire.
• Question in surveys should be clearly worded free from bias
• Due to financial constraint researchers administer surveys on samples of people who represent the target population.
• Sample for the population should be representative of entire population.
• It is best achieved in terms of random sampling

3. Experimental method

Means establishing cause and effect relationship.

• Cause effect relationships can be established by experimental methods.
•  In laboratory researcher controls the condition and measures the relations among variables.
• A variable is something that can occur with different value.
•  Independent variable
• Dependent variable

4. Developmental method

Means observing the period of growth.

• Used in the field of developmental psychology • Physical, social, moral, language and emotions are observed in the children
• Developmental method uses the following techniques: 1. Normative investigations 2. Longitudinal study

1. Normative investigation

•  It describes something that is characteristic of specific age
• These observation provides norms

• Example of normative investigation is Bayley scale of infant development.

2.  Longitudinal study

•  In this study change in the same individual or group are studied over a long period of time.
• In it researchers observe for changes in specific characteristics such as language, personality or intelligence.
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VII. Physical and mental well being of a patient depends largely on the nurse

• A nurse should know the science of behavior for better result to deal with the patient.
• Psychology explains the relationship between psychological stress and physical disorders.
• After detail study of the psychology nurse can apply the principles of psychology in dealing with the patients.
•  Psychology helps the nurse to accept the individual differences in terms of likings, disliking, emotions, response to stress
• Psychology also contributes in many therapeutic measures like- behavior therapy, play therapy, psychoanalysis etc.
• Psychology helps to understand the concept of self awareness and self esteem.
• It describes the coping abilities, defense mechanism used by the patients and theis relevance to diseased conditions.  
• Psychology helps to understand herself
• Psychology helps to understand other people
• It will help her to improve situations by helping others
• Make her understand the close relationship between body mind and spirit.
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