Romania Clasa a X-a Psychology
Chapters: 3
1. Mental processes and personality development
The psyche · Sensory processes · Higher cognitive processes · Regulating processes
- Philosophy of Mind: How Are Mind and Body Linked? – Philosophy of mind asks what the mind is and how it links to the body. Dualism (Descartes) says mind and body are two different things, which raises the problem of how they interact. Physicalism says the mind is what the brain does. Consciousness is our inner experience, like a torch that lights what we attend to. The unconscious (Freud) holds wishes, memories and habits we are not aware of. Related questions: what makes me the same self over time, how emotions join body and mind, and whether machines could ever think.
- Perception: How the Brain Makes Sense – Perception is giving meaning to what the senses bring. We work bottom-up (parts to whole) and top-down (ideas guide what we see). The perceiver's needs, interests, expectations and mood shape it. Gestalt principles (figure-ground, proximity, similarity, closure, continuity) organise parts into wholes. Monocular and binocular cues give depth. Constancies keep size, shape and brightness stable. Illusions are perceptions that do not match reality, and culture changes how strongly we fall for them.
- Thinking, Problem Solving and Reasoning – Thinking means working on information in the mind to reach a goal. Its building blocks are mental images and concepts. We use thinking to solve problems (step by step, watching out for mental set and functional fixedness), to reason (deductive: rule to case; inductive: cases to rule) and to make judgements and decisions.
- Motivation, Motives and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs – Motivation is the force that starts, directs and keeps up behaviour towards a goal. It works as a cycle: need → drive → action → goal → relief. Motives are biological (hunger, thirst, sleep, sex; kept in balance by homeostasis) or psychosocial (affiliation, power, achievement, curiosity). Maslow arranged needs in a pyramid from body needs up to self-actualisation.
2. Structure and development of personality
Personality traits · Personality in depth (differentiated)
- Personality: Approaches and Assessment – Personality is a person's steady, typical way of thinking, feeling and acting across situations. Type approaches sort people into groups (Type A and B, introvert and extravert). Trait approaches describe people on many dimensions (Allport, Cattell, Eysenck, Big Five). Freud's psychodynamic approach looks at the unconscious, id, ego, superego and defence mechanisms; post-Freudians (Jung, Horney, Adler, Fromm, Erikson) stress social and goal-seeking forces. The behavioural approach says personality is learned. The cultural approach links it to ecology and way of life. Humanistic approaches (Rogers, Maslow) stress growth and self-actualisation. Personality is assessed through self-report tests, projective techniques and behavioural methods.
- Intelligence: Theories, IQ and Emotional Intelligence – Intelligence is the ability to understand the world, think clearly and use resources well to meet challenges. Psychometric theories break it into factors: Spearman's g and s, Thurstone's seven primary abilities, Guilford's many abilities. Gardner lists eight separate intelligences. Sternberg's triarchic theory has componential, experiential and contextual parts. The PASS model sees intelligence as planning, attention-arousal and simultaneous-successive processing. IQ = mental age ÷ chronological age × 100; most people score 90-110. Culture shapes what counts as intelligent. Emotional intelligence is the skill of knowing and handling feelings.
3. Psychosocial behaviour
Self and others
- Social Psychology: How Other People Shape Us – Social psychology studies how other people change our thoughts, feelings and actions. Behaviour depends on both the person and the situation. In groups we often conform to the majority or obey authority. Stereotypes (thoughts), prejudice (feelings) and discrimination (actions) harm groups. When many people watch, each feels less responsible to help. Competition breeds conflict, while shared goals build cooperation.