Psychology - A public health perspective

Psychology - A public health perspective

1. PSYCHOLOGY Dr Ubaid N P Assistant Professor Community Medicine Dept KMCT Medical College

2. Psychology Defined as study of human behaviour – of how people behave, why they behave in just the way they do. Essential to know others better; to differentiate between normal and abnormal, to understand attitude, beliefs, learning, and memory processes to promote mental health

3. Dynamics of behaviour Human behaviour is the total reaction of an individual accessible to external observation Factors that may influence individual & community health behaviour includes Knowledge Beliefs Values Attitudes Skills Finance Materials Time Influence of family members, friends, coworkers, leaders Social context

4. Health behaviour Illness behaviour Treatment behaviour

5. Causes of behavior Environmental stimuli Emotions & feelings Needs – biologic, social, economic, ego-integrative Motivation Intellectual perception – reasoning & thinking

6. Emotions Emotion is a strong feeling of the whole organism External & internal changes due to emotion Doctor should break the emotional barrier with patient for better communication Health and behavior is determined by emotional states Some major emotions are Fear Anger Love Hate Jealousy Moodiness Joy Sorrow Sympathy Pity Lust Grief

7. Attitude Defined as a relatively enduring organization of beliefs around an object, subject or concept which pre-disposes one to respond in some preferential manner. It is an acquired characteristic It is more or less permanent ways of behaving Eg : attitude towards poor, government policies etc On the other hand opinions are temporary and beliefs are permanent.

8. Learning Learning is any relative permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of practice or experience It means acquiring something new – new knowledge, new techniques, new skills, new fears and new experiences Conditions affecting learning Intelligence Age Learning situation Motivation Physical health Mental health

9. Types of learning Cognitive learning (knowledge) Affective learning (attitudes) Psychomotor learning (skills)

10. Theories of how learning takes place Learning by conditioned reflex Trial & error Learning by observation & imitation Demonstration Learning by doing Learning by remembering Learning by insight Field experience Problem solving

11. THANK YOU