Complete Psychology

Introduction

What is psychology?

Psychology is about people. In particular, it is about why people do the things they do. It is also about groups of people. Why do people in the same group behave differently? Why are some people leaders and other people followers? Psychology is also about helping people. It enables us to develop treatments for psychological problems, put together effective health campaigns, facilitate education, help catch criminal offenders, and increase productivity and health in the workplace. Psychology is also about the very basis of our biology. These are the things we take for granted and never even have to think about: our response to pain, riding a bicycle, experiencing a visual illusion or learning to speak. Psychology is also about science, and the scientific investigation of our human nature and the social and biological contexts in which we live.

But in addition to all this – and unlike most other disciplines – psychology is about you. When you learn about psychology, you don’t just learn about why other people do the things they do, you also learn about yourself – both as a social being and a biological organism. It is very rarely that a student of psychology completes a course without encountering an unexpected insight into their own psychology, or acquiring some knowledge that contributes to their personal growth as an individual. That’s quite a lot! But that is why psychology is one of the most popular undergraduate degrees around the world, and why psychology at secondary level in the UK has expanded rapidly since the mid-1990s. It is difficult to think of any other discipline that gives the student a broader and more rounded education than psychology. The psychology graduate doesn’t just learn about people’s behaviour, their personality and intelligence (the kinds of knowledge you might think useful in many areas of applied psychology, such as occupational psychology, clinical psychology, educational psychology and so on), they will inevitably acquire knowledge of the practical skills necessary to interact with people in a variety of occupations and careers. In understanding and comparing psychological theories, they will also acquire skills of critical thinking and analysis. In addition, the need to construct and analyse psychological studies will provide them with valuable methodology and statistical skills that will be prized by many employers. Finally, psychology graduates will also take with them a knowledge of computing and presentational skills, which are now part and parcel of an undergraduate degree in the social and biological sciences.

You will encounter a lot of people unfamiliar with psychology who claim it is all ‘just common sense’. Well, much of it is common sense – we all have to use a bit of psychology to negotiate our lives, regardless of whether or not we have studied it. However, much of what seems like common sense in psychology is often so only with hindsight. For example, one of the simplest rules of behaviour is that if you reward someone for doing something, they are more likely to do it again (the principle of reinforcement – see Chapter 8, page 130). Yet how many of us actually verbalise that rule and use it consistently? Certainly not the mother who responds to her child’s tired tantrum in the street by buying them a toy or magazine, nor the person who showers his/her partner with attention and affection when they are having a jealous sulk at a party. So while some psychology is common sense, much of what we learn about people when we study them closely is counterintuitive – and some of it is downright strange! Focus Point 1.1 gives you the flavour of some of the unusual facts you will come across during the course of your reading of this book.

The potential of psychology

The largest proportion of students who apply to psychology degree programmes in the UK do so because they claim to have an interest in becoming an ‘applied’ psychologist. That is, they want to apply their knowledge of psychology in some way – perhaps as a clinical psychologist, an occupational psychologist or maybe as one of the increasing numbers of sports psychologists. The British Psychological Society (BPS) has an increasing number of Divisions and Special Groups whose purpose is to develop and regulate the application of psychology to ever more specific, and important, areas of daily life. The BPS has Divisions of Clinical Psychology, Educational and Child Psychology, Occupational Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Counselling Psychology, Teachers and Researchers in Psychology, Health Psychology, and Neuropsychology
(see http://www.bps.org.uk/ sub-syst/subsystems_div1.cfm).

However, psychology is not just about generating professionals and practitioners who apply their practical skills in specific settings, it is also about personal understanding and personal growth, and to this extent the discipline has a duty to ensure that psychological knowledge informs daily life. One of the mission objectives of the BPS is, in its broadest sense, to ‘take psychology to the people’. This means finding ways not only of helping people to understand themselves and why they do the things they do, but also making people aware of the range of activities that psychology can be applied to – with positive effects.

To get an idea of the range of activities psychologists have been involved in during the past few years – some more extraordinary than others – have a look at Table 1.1. It draws on some items taken from the BBC news website (http://news.bbc.co.uk).

The psychology curriculum

This book has been written with the UK psychology undergraduate in mind. However, it assumes no prior knowledge of psychology and so should be quite accessible to the interested lay person, as well as to those studying psychology at a range of different educational levels, including Access courses, GCSE, A and AS level, college evening courses, diploma courses, and to those studying disciplines related to psychology (such as medicine, nursing, speech therapy and counselling).

The book’s curriculum is based on the most recent revision of the BPS’s Qualifying Examination syllabus (October 2001). This syllabus sets the criteria for the accreditation of undergraduate psychology degrees in the United Kingdom, and only those students who take BPS-accredited degree programmes will be eligible on completing their degree to register as a full graduate member of the BPS. Such membership is essential if the student wishes to pursue a career as a practising psychologist (e.g. as a clinical or educational psychologist), or become a Chartered Psychologist once they have acquired the appropriate training and experience (see Appendix 1i).

This book acts as a comprehensive foundation for the full undergraduate syllabus, and offers a detailed introduction to all the main areas of psychology required for BPS accreditation. It covers eight major areas of psychology. The seven core areas are:

the conceptual and historical issues on which psychology is based
psychobiology (formerly the biological foundations of behaviour)
cognitive psychology (covering the areas of perception, attention, memory, language and thinking)
developmental psychology
social psychology
personality and intelligence, and
an introduction to research methods and statistics.

In addition to these, this book includes an eighth section, which deals with abnormal, clinical and health psychology. Abnormal and clinical psychology is already an established topic of study in many undergraduate degree programmes, and health psychology is a rapidly developing area that is beginning to find its way on to undergraduate curricula as a precursor to postgraduate vocational courses in this area.

The eight core areas in this book are supported by a comprehensive chapter on study skills, designed specifically for psychology undergraduates, which covers basic study principles, tips on lecture notetaking, writing essays and laboratory reports, and revision and exam skills. A separate chapter on careers gives the reader an in-depth understanding of how psychologists are employed, and this is illustrated with professionals’ own insights into their specialised areas of psychology.

Apart from ensuring full coverage of the most recent psychology curriculum, we have aimed to present this material in an accessible and structured way. The full-colour presentation of this book, with plentiful illustrative material, is designed to make your reading and learning experience as pleasant as possible. All chapters contain highlighted Focus Points to draw your attention to interesting or important facts and concepts. Chapters also contain Applications and Research Methods boxes, which are designed to provide you with examples of practical applications of psychological knowledge and familiarise you with the different types of research methodologies used across the differing areas of psychology. Finally, each chapter provides suggestions for activities that will facilitate learning and understanding; further support and information are available on the book’s website.

Finally, despite being geared to the syllabus designed by the BPS for UK higher education institutions, the curriculum presented in this book is an eclectic one that will map very closely on to contemporary psychology curricula in Europe, Asia and the USA, so feel free to use it wherever you may live or study.