INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY BPS101

Work Education: Home Study Course in Psychology

Study Behavioural Management, Counselling Courses and Psychology Skills; learning psychology online by distance education at home.

• Internationally recognised and accredited, learning focussed courses
• Highly Qualified and Experienced Tutors with decades of experience, based in both the UK and Australia

COURSE STRUCTURE

There are seven lessons in this course, as follows:

1. The nature and scope of Psychology
2. Neurological basis of behaviour
3. Environmental effects on behaviour
4. Consciousness and perception
5. Personality
6. Psychological development
7. Needs, drives and motivation

Duration: 100 hours

Aims

This course aims to teach the student how to

• Explain the nature and scope of psychology.
• Explain characteristics of the neurological basis of behaviour.
• Explain environmental effects on behaviour.
• Explain the differences between consciousness and perception.
• Explain the effect of personality on behaviour.
• Explain psychological development.
• Apply different techniques to motivate people.

WHAT WILL YOU DO IN THE COURSE?

Students may carry out the following tasks in this course:

• Define different psychological terms such as ambivalence, apathy, behaviour, catalyst, cognition, empirical, fixation, homeostasis, obsession, perception, performance, psychosomatic, socialisation, stereotype, temperament, trait.
• Explain how psychology can be applied in different types of jobs.
• Explain risks involved in applying psychology in 2 different specified situations.
• Differentiate between developmental and interactive explanations of behaviour, in a case study.
• Describe how the nervous system functions to transmit messages throughout the body.
• Explain how the disfunctioning of different parts of the nervous system, can influence behaviour.
• Compare the function of the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
• Explain 2 examples of conditioning, which you observe.
• Explain an example of behaviour affected by modelling, observed by yourself.
• Compare the likely affects of positive and negative re inforcement in a case study.
• Distinguish between consciousness and perception, in the attitude of an observed individual.
• Explain selective attention, in a case study.
• Explain in summaries, different states of consciousness including daydreams, sleeping and dreaming, meditation.
• Explain the relationship between consciousness and behaviour in a case study.
• Explain three different theories of personality.
• Distinguish between the "id" and "superego" in a person you are familiar with.
• Compare the application of humanistic approaches with the social learning approach with the psychoanalytic approach, in educating children.
• Explain through examples, different defence mechanisms, including repression, displacement, rationalisation, projection, denial, evaluation, sublimation, reaction/formation, intellectualisation
• Explain the factors which may have influenced the psychological development of a teenager who you know.
• Compare cognitive development with physical development, in a case study.
• Explain through a summary, the four main stages of development including sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, formal operational.
• Explain moral development in two different case studies.
• Explain psychosexual stages of development in a case study.
• Explain psychosocial stages of development in a case study.
• Distinguish between needs, drives nd instincts in a specific workplace.
• Explain the cyclical nature of primary drives, in a case study.
• List examples of secondary drives.
• Explain how to motivate a worker in a specified situation using the psychoanalytical approach.
• Summarise Maslow's theory of human motivation.
• Demonstrate the application of three different motivation techniques, in three different specified situations, through role playing.

Get a 10% Reduction if you take the course via e-learning. For further information, visit http://www.thecareersguide.com/product.aspx?id=507

Some Sample Notes from The Introduction to Psychology Course -

"BUT IT'S ALL COMMON SENSE ISN'T IT?

Many people argue that psychology is just common sense. Many people will say things like someone behaves like this because of that - we are all "armchair psychologists". But how do we know that what we are saying is correct? This is the starting point that psychologists use when studying human behaviour. An example of common sense being not so 'common' is the murder of Kitty Genovese. She was stabbed to death in the middle of a busy residential area of New York. Thirty-eight witnesses saw the attack and none of them did anything to intervene, not even to phone the police. Why? The common sense answer might be that they thought someone else had or would intervene, or that the witnesses didn't care.

Darley and Latane (1968) carried out research into why the witnesses did nothing. They arranged for students to discuss personal problems over an intercom. Only one actual student was involved the others were confederates (i.e. working with the researchers, pretending to be students). During the conversations, a confederate would appear to have an epileptic seizure. If the real student thought that five other people were also listening to this person have a seizure, it took them three times as long to react as if they thought there were only two people in the discussion. This suggests that in emergency situations, if we think lots of other people are involved, we may be less likely to do anything - we think someone else will. This is called bystander apathy.

So when you consider this, if psychologists had not carried out this research, the overriding view would be that New Yorkers did not care that a woman was being murdered."

If you would like to see our range of psychology books, please visit - http://www.acsbookshop.com/books_productcategory.aspx?id=14

For more information on the range of careers available in psychology, have a look at - http://www.thecareersguide.com/articles.aspx?category=14

We have some interesting articles on psychology and counseling at - http://www.acs.edu.au/psychol/

Develop a solid foundation in psychology including the nature and scope of psychology, neurological and environmental effects on behaviour, personality, consciousness, perception, needs, drives and motivation.

Start building an ability to analyse aspects of a persons psychological state and apply derived knowledge to motivate that person.

Gives greater insight into the human mind and how it works.  A must for any student of human behaviour.