PSY 460 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Psychosexual Development, Behaviorism, Reality Principle
Document Summary
By the end of this unit, you should, among others, be able to: define psychology, discuss the main approaches in psychology, describe the structure of personality according to sigmund freud, describe the stages in psychosexual development, describe ego defense mechanisms. This introductory unit introduces the subject matter of psychology. In addition, the approaches which psychology uses in understanding human behavior have also been presented in details. Psychodynamic approach, behaviorism approach, cognitive approach, biological approach, and the humanist approach. Under psychodynamic approach, extra content has been given on the main ideas of sigmund freud who is considered to be the father of psychology. Thus, sigmund freud"s ideas on defense mechanisms, psychosexual stages of development, and the structure of the mind have been significantly covered. Psychology is the scientific study of mental processes. The human mind and how it functions to affect human behavior is the focus of the subject matter of psychology.
