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The Superior University Okara

Department of management Science


Class: MBA-Professional
4th Semester

Assignment
on
Psychology

Submitted to:
Prof. Nighat Wattoo

Prepared by:
Hina Shaheen
Faizan Ch
Faisal Saeed
Adeel Ahmad

Date of Submission 22-05-2015

History of Psychology:
The history of psychology as a scholarly study of the mind and behavior dates back to the Ancient Greeks. There is also
evidence of psychological thought in ancient Egypt. Psychology was a branch of philosophy until the 1870s, when it
developed as an independent scientific discipline in Germany and the United States. Psychology borders on various other
fields including physiology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, sociology, anthropology, as well as philosophy and other
components of the humanities.
Psychology as a self conscious field of experimental study began in 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first
laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research in Leipzig. Wundt was also the first person to refer to himself as
a psychologist. Today, psychology is defined as "the scientific study of behavior and mental processes".

Philosophical interest in the mind and behavior dates back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Persia, Greece,
China,
and
India.

Definition:
1. The scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behaviour in
a given context.
2. The scientific study of the way the human mind works and how it influences behaviour, or the
influence of a particular person's character on their behaviour.

Goals of Psychology:

1. Describe:
The first goal is to observe behavior and describe, often in minute detail, what was observed as objectively as
possible.
2. Explain
While descriptions come from observable data, psychologists must go beyond what is obvious and explain their
observations. In other words, why did the subject do what he or she did?
3. Predict
Once we know what happens, and why it happens, we can begin to speculate what will happen in the future.
Theres an old saying, which very often holds true. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.
4. Control
Once we know what happens, why it happens and what is likely to happen in the future, we can excerpt control
over it. In other words, if we know you choose abusive partners because your father was abusive, we can assume
you will choose another abusive partner, and can therefore intervene to change this negative behavior.
5. Improve
Not only do psychologists attempt to control behavior, they want to do so in a positive manner, they want to
improve a persons life, not make it worse. This is not always the case, but it should always be the intention.

Types of Psychology:
Health:
The field of health psychology is focused on promoting health as well as the prevention and treatment of disease
and illness. Health psychologists also focus on understanding how people react, cope and recover from illness.
Some health psychologists work to improve the health care system and the government's approach to health care
policy.
Sports:
Sports psychology is the study of how psychology influences sports, athletic performance, exercise and physical
activity. Some sports psychologists work with professional athletes and coaches to improve performance and
increase motivation. Other professionals utilize exercise and sports to enhance peoples lives and well-being
throughout the entire lifespan.

Educational Psychology:
Educational psychologists are concerned with the study of human learning. They attempt to understand the basic
aspects of learning and then develop materials and strategies for enhancing the learning process.
For example, an educational psychologist might study reading and develop a new technique for teaching reading
from the results of the research.
Consumer psychology:
Branch of social psychology concerned with the market behaviour of consumers. Consumer psychologists
examine the preferences, customs, and habits of various consumer groups; their research on consumer attitudes is
often used to help design advertising campaigns and to formulate new products.

Environmental Psychology:
Environmental psychologists are concerned with the relations between psychological processes and physical
environments ranging from homes and offices to urban areas and regions. Environmental psychologists may do
research on attitudes toward different environments, personal space, or the effects on productivity of different
office designs.
Forensic:
It is relating to law and the legal system. Forensic psychologists study problems of crime prevention,
rehabilitation programs in prisons, courtroom dynamics, psychology and the law, select candidates for police
work. Forensic psychologists delve into the vast psychological perspectives and apply them to criminal justice
system. Forensic Psychology knowledge is used in various forms, such as in treating mentally ill offenders,
consulting with attorneys, analyzing a criminal's mind and intent, and practicing within the civil arena.
Personality:
Studies the many different aspects of personality and how individual traits influence an individual's life and
behavior.
Military:
Concerns practicing psychology in a military setting and can include such things as treating soldiers suffering
from mental illness or emotional distress, researching different aspects of military life, and helping soldiers make

the transition back to civilian life.


Cognitive:
Investigates how people think, including topics such as decision-making and problem-solving.

Stages of Mind
There are three stage of the human mind: Unconscious mind, Subconscious mind and Conscious mind.
1. Unconscious:
This stage of human mind holds the control of the basic functions of the human body, breathing, heart beating,
digestion, reflexes. Basically, it controls all automatic functions, without need to think about it. Though, by
conscious will we can influence some of these functions.
2. Subconscious:
This stage contains all knowledge, experience, habits, beliefs and attitudes toward life. Whatever we met and
learned in our life is placed in this level, in our personal library. Every second of your life is recorded in this
segment of mind. Your subconscious mind is enabler or prohibit or, depending what you adopted as your attitude
toward something. If you placed belief that you cannot drive a bicycle, than you will not be able to drive it, since
your subconscious mind tells you that you cannot do it.
3. Conscious:
Third stage of human mind is the Conscious mind. This is analytical part of the mind that analysis all data that
comes in. Also this part of mind is filtering information that comes to the subconscious mind. Actually, the
Conscious mind is aligned with what is already formed as attitude or belief in Subconscious mind.

Concept of optimism/pessimism:
In psychology, the most commonly used optimism/pessimism construct is dispositional optimism, which is the
general tendency to expect positive outcomes, as opposed to dispositional pessimism, which is the general
tendency to expect negative outcomes. Dispositional optimism/pessimism refers to broad, stable individual
differences that are influenced by interactions between environment and genetics.

Normal Person:
Normality (also known as normalcy) is the state of being normal. Behaviour can be normal for an individual
(intrapersonal normality) when it is consistent with the most common behaviour for that person. Normal is also
used to describe individual behaviour that conforms to the most common behaviour in society.

Abnormal Person:
Abnormal psychology is the branch of psychology that studies unusual patterns
of behavior, emotion and thought, which may or may not be understood as precipitating a mental disorder.

Abnormal Disorders:

Phobia
Specific
social
Schizophrenia

Sub-fields of Psychology:
(1) - Developmental psychology:
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why human beings change over the course of their
life. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult
development, aging, and the entire lifespan.

Aspects of Development:
1. Physical development:
Physical development refers to the normal ways in which bodies grow, change and develop throughout a person's
lifetime. This is the procedure by which infants become children, teenagers, adults and then enter into old age.
The term physical development can also be used to refer to general fitness; muscular development, over/under
weightiness, etc.

2. Psychological development:
Psychological development, the development of human beings' cognitive, emotional, intellectual, and social
capabilities and functioning over the course of the life span, from infancy through old age. It is the subject matter
of the discipline known as developmental psychology.
3. Social Development:
Social Development refers to how people develop social and emotional skills across the lifespan, with particular
attention to childhood and adolescence. Healthy social development allows us to form positive relationships with
family, friends, teachers, and other people in our lives. As we mature, we learn to better manage our own feelings
and needs and to respond appropriately to the feelings and needs of others.
4. Language development:
Language development is the process by which children come to understand and communicate language during
early childhood.

2 - Cognitive development:
Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in
terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of
brain development and cognitive psychology compared to an adult's point of view.

(1) Cognitive development during infancy.


(2) Cognitive development during Childhood.
(3) Cognitive development during Adolescence.
(4) Cognitive development during Old age.

(3) -Cross-cultural psychology:


Cross-cultural psychology is differentiated from cultural psychology, which refers to the branch of psychology
that holds that human behavior is significantly influenced by cultural differences, meaning that psychological
phenomena can only be compared with each other across cultures to a very limited extent.

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