LISA GARLAND - AL JAWDAH BOYS SCHOOL - RAK GRADE 11 TERM 3

Health science
Study guide unit 10 Psychology

What is Psychology? Types of

psychology
Psychology is the scienti c study of the mind and human Clinical psychology
behaviour. It examines the way that people think and behave.
Cognitive
psychology

Developmental
Psychology helps to nd A psychologist’s job is to psychology
out what motivates work with patients in
people to change their relation to their mental Forensic
behaviour health psychology

Health psychology

Personality
Cognitive processes psychology

Basic - controlled by the brain and nervous system Social psychology

Higher - controlled by the brain Sport psychology

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 Basic cognitive functions

SENSATION
This process allows our brain to take
in information from our ve senses.
This information is then interpreted
and processed by the brain. Sensory
receptors are located all over the
body.

SENSORY ADAPTATION
Senses can adapt to their
surroundings, this means that the
level of sensitivity decreases (goes
down) as the senses get used to new
conditions

UNDERSTANDING SENSATIONS IN HEALTHCARE

• It can help a healthcare professional identify diseases or illnesses

• For example, someone who has vision loss may be showing the symptoms of diabetes

• Senses change during a persons lifespan

• For example, a person can start to lose their hearing or have reduced vision as they get older.

UNDERSTANDING PERCEPTION IN HEALTHCARE

PERCEPTION • It can help the patient identify past experiences that
can lead to making unhealthy choices
This is the process of getting, selecting and
organizing the information that is being sent • If a patient does not think they are at risk of
from the ve senses. The information is developing a certain disease, they may be more
processed by the brain, which tells the body likely to have unhealthy behaviors
what to do.
• They can discuss with the patient achievable targets

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 CONSCIOUSNESS
In psychology this refers to your own
awareness of your thoughts, memories,
feelings, sensations, and environment. This
awareness is unique to you. There are three
levels of consciousness.

UNDERSTANDING CONSCIOUSNESS IN HEALTHCARE

• Understanding the patients current or past behaviour

• Set realistic goals

• Understand the reasons for making a change

• Experiences and memories from the past might shape the

way a person thinks in the present

Higher cognitive functions

LEARNING
Something that everyone does,
every day. People do not stop
learning new skills and knowledge
throughout their whole life.

LEARNING IN HEALTHCARE
Health professionals need to keep learning
throughout their career, there are always new
discoveries and technology being developed.
They are also passing this information and
knowledge to patients and the public.

 MEMORY
People use their memory for lots of things, many times a day.
Memory helps you to learn new things and recall or remember
information from the past. If you cannot remember things you will
not be able to learn.

We have three types of memory

• Sensory memory

• Short-term memory

• Long-term memory

MEMORY IN HEALTHCARE
• Encourage patients to remember any signs or symptoms they have
experienced

• Understand if patients are developing an illness in relation to their

memory (Alzheimer’s or dementia)

• Help make health information easier for patients to understand

LANGUAGE
This refers to how we communicate with
each other. This can be verbal, written, or
non-verbal such as body language.

LANGUAGE IN HEALTHCARE
• It will help to communicate well with patients

• They can use simple language to explain medical

terms and procedures

• They can communicate with other health

professionals using medical terminology

 THINKING
How people think is a very important cognitive process.
The left side of the brain is responsible for logical
thinking. The right side of the brain is responsible for
creative thought, awareness and imagination.

Thinking can also be emotionally based. This is known

as emotional intelligence and can affect your mood,
motivation and self-esteem.

THINKING IN HEALTHCARE
• Discuss behaviour change with patients

• Understand why patients behave the way they

do

• Identify and change negative thought patterns

INTELLIGENCE
This is the mental ability to learn from experience, adapt to new
things, understand thoughts and ideas, and use knowledge.
Human intelligence is not only how clever someone is. It is also
about all the different skills and abilities that a person has.

• Analytical intelligence

• Verbal intelligence

• Interpersonal intelligence

• Practical intelligence

INTELLIGENCE IN HEALTHCARE
• They must be able to analyse information about patients in order to diagnose healthcare problems

• They should be able to understand the different medical terms and language used in healthcare

• They need to build interpersonal relationships with their patients - positive communication and
trust

• They must quickly adapt to new situations and ideas as healthcare practices change very often

 Human development and lifespan

Developmental psychology studies show how people change throughout their lifespan. This includes
physical, social and intellectual growth. Lifespan is the duration of a person’s life. It is the the time it
takes to complete what is known as the ‘life cycle’.

MAIN STAGES OF THE HUMAN LIFE CYCLE

• Birth

• Infancy

• Childhood

• Adolescence

• Adulthood

• Old age

Two developmental theories that are used in healthcare to explain human behaviour and
development are the theory of cognitive development and social cognitive theory

SENSORIMOTOR 0-2 YEARS

Infants start to build an understanding of the world
through their senses by touching, grasping,
watching, and listening

THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT PRE-OPERATIONAL 2-7 YEARS

Children develop language skills and begin to use
Cognition develops as people are taught and
pretend play, draw pictures, and talk about things
experience new things. This is done by processes
that happened in the past. They begin to
of learning, thinking and memory. As people get
understand different objects, their names and uses.
older, their cognitive processes change. These
changes are most noticeable during childhood. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL 7-11 YEARS
The psychologist Jean Piaget created the theory of Children learn logical concrete rules about objects,
cognitive development to explain how children such as height, weight and volume. They can
move through four stages of mental development. understand conversations and the feelings of
others.

FORMAL OPERATIONAL 11+ YEARS

At this stage, children and young adults can
critically analyse situations, use reasoning and
understand abstract ideas. This stage lasts
throughout adulthood.

 SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

This suggests that people learn from one another.
Who do we learn from?
This theory was developed by a psychologist called
Albert Bandaranaike in the 1960s.

It explains how people learn and develop their

behaviour and skills through watching, imitating
and copying other people. Parents
Teachers
Siblings
Fiends

What do we learn?

• Walking and talking

• Communication skills
• Cooking
• Sports
• Morals
• Behaviour
• How to build
relationships

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT THEORIES IN HEALTHCARE

Health interventions try to change peoples behaviour to reduce their risk of developing a disease or illness.
Interventions that are based on theories are more likely to show good results.

• They will be better informed about behaviour change

• They will understand what motivates people to adopt healthy behaviours

• They will be able to develop and implement health interventions

• They can understand children’s behaviour

• They can give parents advice on how to encourage learning and development

• They will be able to identify if a child is not developing at the correct rate

History of psychology

In the past psychology was explored as part of

philosophy. Philosophy is the link between
human thoughts and the universe and the
connections between them.
In the late 1800s, psychology was rstly
separated from philosophy by the German
scientist Wilhelm Wundt.
He decided to focus only on human mind and
it’s functions in a more detailed way and
opened the rst laboratory that did
psychological research exclusively.
He is considered the founder of psychology
and is known today as the father of
psychology.

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