Orientation to Psychology
by Dr. Janet Waters
On this page:
What is Psychology?
Welcome to Psychology! Your introductory courses will de-bunk a few myths about psychology, and give you some useful information that psychology has found out about people and why we do the odd things we do!
Psychology is a science that, like other sciences, applies what theory and research discovers to address real life problems and issues. One definition of psychology is that it is the science that studies our behaviour and our experience, and the physiological and cognitive processes that underlie them. Psychology is also the profession that applies what we know about people to help them. Psychologists may help people with a variety of forms of psycho-therapy, or assess personality or problems in functioning, or help organizations in organizational behaviour and athletes in sports psychology (Weiten, 2003).
Psychology is one of the social sciences. While a science such as human biology would study the human body, psychology and the other social sciences study how humans act, think, feel, and interact with each other and with their social and physical environment. The social sciences include a variety of disciplines, which study humans as individuals, or in groups, or in cultures and societies, or in other eras, or human institutions such as economies and politics.
Although there is a lot of overlap between psychology and other disciplines in the social sciences (e.g. sociology and anthropology), psychology is interested in how and why we individual humans function and behave, rather than how our societies or cultures function as a whole.
The two introductory courses in psychology, Psyc 100 & Psyc 101, will give you an overview of the principal theories and research findings in the most important topics psychologists study. Psyc 100 includes an Introduction to Psychology, with a brief history of its past 125 years, and an overview of the topics of the Brain and Behaviour, Learning, Cognition and Intelligence, Social Behaviour, Emotion, Human Lifespan Development, and Personality. Psyc 101 reviews the second half of the Introductory Psychology textbook with a review of Research Methods & Statistics used in research in Psychology, and the topics of Sensation and Perception, Consciousness, Motivation, Stress, Psychopathology, and Therapies. Memory may also be included.
I think you might be surprised by what psychology does know about people. As with the other sciences, the media and popular culture have distorted, misrepresented, or ignored, a lot of what psychologists have found out in their research. So students in Introductory Psychology courses are often quite surprised that psychology has a strong focus on careful empirical research, and by the findings of our research.
How much reading and writing will I need to do?
Quite a bit. Psychology textbooks are very large and filled with complex information about theories and research findings. All of us in the Psychology Department have writing assignments, in which writing ability is a component of the grading, as well as written components to our exams. Although we also use multiple choice questions, most of us emphasize questions which demand your conceptual understanding of the topic, and your ability to apply the concept to new examples not given in the text. Memorization of rote facts will rarely be helpful in this course.
This can be difficult for some students who have trouble comprehending complex texts, and/or expressing themselves in a written form. Ability in spoken English does not guarantee you will find this easy. International students may find the academic level of reading and writing difficult, but so can bilingual students whose spoken English is excellent, as well as a fair number of students for whom English is their first language, as well! I've known English speaking students who were quite fluent in spoken English and felt confident that they will have no language difficulties in College, yet found they had a great deal of difficulty keeping up with the reading lists, and/or expressing themselves in the formal academic language required for papers in UT courses. Because of this, some bright students finish their courses with poor marks on papers and class participation.
Even if English is your first language, or you are fluent in spoken English, you will find that College demands a more difficult level of reading comprehension and writing fluency. You need to learn "academic discourse" and many specialized terms in psychology. It is almost like learning a whole new language. Understanding the vocabulary and meaning of specific terms used in each discipline is essential to your success at College.
To give you practice reading academic texts and summarizing and paraphrasing information from the texts for your course papers, link to the Writing a Summary web page. Being able to comprehend the important concepts in your text, and to paraphrase this information properly, are essential skills that will help you keep up with your course material, do well on your exams, and avoid unintentional plagiarism.
Students from other cultures and traditions, even those with excellent English skills, can find themselves lost when instructors use terms or concepts from Western history and philosophy, or examples from contemporary Canadian culture. If you have had any of these difficulties, the Writing Centre or the ESL department might be able to help. The Writing Centre has Learning modules in their files which include readings and handouts that you can consult to fill in gaps in your knowledge about Canada's history, politics, and geography, and about the history of Western Civilization that is the foundation of our culture.
Some of you may have been avoiding taking English courses. Yes, if you have difficulties writing papers, it may be a challenge for you to keep up with the reading and writing required in English courses. You may worry about getting poor marks and lowering your GPA. But we strongly suggest you will benefit greatly from the practice and experience. Avoiding taking English will not keep your GPA high, since you will have to read and write in all your psychology classes, and you won't have the skills. Do take at least one (preferably several) courses in English. All your other courses will benefit.
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Instructor Expectations:
Critical Thinking:
"Critical Thinking" is a term you will hear used through out your Psychology courses, as well as in many other courses in college. Critical thinking is emphasized in our Psyc 100/101 text (see Chapter 1). "Critical thinking" is the ability to analyze and understand the foundations of an argument, to challenge our own commonly held assumptions, to consider alternate explanations, and to suspend our preconceptions and beliefs. Critical thinking demands both a sceptical and an open mind - and a tolerance for ambiguity. You might find that a Philosophy course can be another excellent forum for learning critical thinking.
Math:
As you go on in Psychology you will need to use your math skills. Research in Psychology uses a lot of statistical analysis. If you wish to major in Psychology, you will eventually need to take the Research Methods and Statistics courses, and you need to have a good mark in Math 11 or its equivalent (e.g. Math 091/096) as a pre-requisite to Statistics. Don't panic! Statistics is actually a conceptual course, as computers do most calculations these days. What you need to learn in Statistics class is which statistic is used in which situation. Actually, I believe student resistance to math is mainly psychological! And yes, Psychology has studied math phobia, and can give you some practical suggestions to deal with it.
Class participation & presentations:
Your Psychology instructor will expect you to participate in your classes with critical thinking, questions, examples & applications, in formal or informal class discussions. Many of us also require class presentations. Your background or culture may have emphasized very different learning styles and classroom atmosphere than the ones here at Capilano University. Students with language difficulties, or those who come from schools or cultures which emphasize rote learning and highly structured classrooms, can be surprised and dismayed to find their instructors expect them to participate in class discussions, think critically, and even challenge the instructor's conclusions.
If you are shy or unsure of your skills in verbally expressing your ideas, I suggest you practice discussing your ideas and the theories you encountered in Psychology with an interested friend. A lot of us think best when we are thinking out loud! I've also put some discussion topics in Psychology in our web page you can use for practice to increase your proficiency and confidence.
Finally, since all our instructors use examples from current events and past and contemporary literature, keep current! Read the newspaper every day. Also, read fiction and non-fiction outside your course requirements. It doesn't matter what style or genre you read, as long as you read. Practice will increase your reading comprehension enormously. And write - write letters, write in your journal, write emails. As with music lessons, and math practice, the more you practice the better you will get. Guaranteed.