ch. 1: psychology and research methods
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8/14/2019 Ch. 1: Psychology and Research Methods
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Chapter 1:
Introducing Psychology
andResearch Methods
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What Is Psychology?
• Psychology
– Psyche: Mind
– Logos: Knowledge or study
• Definition: The scientific
study of behavior and
mental processes
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Behavior Types
• Directly observable
actions and responses
– Overt; i.e., can be
directly observed
(crying)
– Covert; i.e., cannot
be directly observed
(remembering);private, internal
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Empirical Evidence
• Information gathered
from direct observation
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Psychological Research
• Scientific Observation:
A systematic empirical
investigation that is
structured to answer questions about the
world
• Research Method:
Systematic approach toanswering scientific
questions
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What Might a Psychologist Research?
• Development: Course of
human growth anddevelopment from
conception to death
• Learning: How and why it
occurs in humans andanimals
• Personality: Traits,
motivations, and individual
differences• Sensation and Perception:
How we come to know the
world through our five
senses
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What Might a Psychologist Research?
Continued
• Social: Human socialbehavior
• Cultural: How cultureaffects human behavior
• Evolutionary: How our behavior is guided bypatterns that evolved
during human history
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What Are the Goals of Psychology?
• Description of Behaviors: Naming and classifyingvarious observable, measurable behaviors
• Understanding: The causes of behavior(s)
• Prediction: Forecasting behavior accurately
• Control: Altering conditions that influence behaviors
– Positive Use: To control unwanted behaviors,
(e.g., smoking, tantrums, etc.)
– Negative Use: To control peoples’ behaviors
without their knowledge
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History of Psychology: Beginnings
• Wilhelm Wundt: “Father” of Psychology
– 1879: Set up first lab to
study conscious
experience
– Stimulus: Any physicalenergy that affects the
person and provokes a
response
– Introspection: Looking
inward (i.e., examiningand reporting your
thoughts, feelings, etc.)
– Wundt’s ideas brought to
the U.S. by Tichener and
renamed Structuralism
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History of Psychology:
William James and Functionalism• Functionalism: How the mind
functions to help us adapt to
our environment
– Functionalists admired
Darwin and his theory of
Natural Selection:
• Animals keep physical
features throughevolution that help
them adapt to
environments
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History of Psychology: Behaviorism
• Watson and Skinner
– Psychology must
study observable
behavior objectively
– Watson studied Little
Albert with Rosalie
Raynor; Skinner
studied animalsalmost exclusively
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History of Psychology: Gestalt
• “The whole is greater
than the sum of its
parts.”
• Key names:Wertheimer, Perls
• Wertheimer: Mistake to
analyze psychological
events into pieces;many experiences
cannot be broken into
smaller units
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• FIGURE 1.2 The design you see here is entirely made up of broken circles.
However, as the Gestalt psychologists discovered, our perceptions have a
powerful tendency to form meaningful patterns. Because of this tendency,
you will probably see a triangle in this design, even though it is only an
illusion. Your whole perceptual experience exceeds the sum of its parts.
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Psychoanalytic Psychology: Freud
• Our behavior is largely influencedby our unconscious wishes,thoughts, and desires, especiallysex and aggression
• All thoughts and actions are
determined; nothing is an accident• Freud performed dream analysis
and was an interactionist(combination of our biology andenvironment make us who we are)
• Recent research has hypothesizedthat our unconscious mind ispartially responsible for our behaviors
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Repression
• Unconscious thoughts held out of awareness
because they are threatening
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Humanism
• Rogers – Goal of psychology is tostudy unique aspects of theperson; focuses onsubjective human
experience. – Each person has innate
goodness and is able tomake free choices (contrastwith Skinner and Freud).
• Maslow: Self-actualization:Develop one’s full potentialand become the best personyou can be
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Psychology Today
• Biopsychology: Our behavior can be
explained through
physiological processes
– Uses brain scans togather data (CT,
MRI, PET)
– Looks at
neurotransmitters• Positive Psychology:
Study of human
strengths, virtues, and
optimal behavior
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Sociocultural Perspective
• Many thoughts and behaviors are influenced byour culture
• Psychologists need to be aware of the impactcultural diversity may have on our behaviors
• What is acceptable in one culture might beunacceptable in another
• Cultural Relativity: Behavior must be judged
relative to the values of the culture in which itoccurs
• Social Norms: Rules that define acceptable andexpected behavior for members of various
groups
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• FIGURE 1.3 (a) Specialties in psychology (APA, 2005). Percentages areapproximate. (b) Where psychologists work (APA, 2000). (c) This chartshows the main activities psychologists do at work (APA, 2000). Anyparticular psychologist might do several of these activities during a workweek. As you can see, most psychologists specialize in applied areas and
work in applied settings.
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Psychologists
• Usually have masters or doctorate. Trainedin methods, knowledge, and theories of psychology
– Clinical Psychologists: Treat psychologicalproblems or do research on therapies andmental illnesses
– Counseling Psychologists: Treat milder problems, such as poor adjustment at workor at school
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Many Flavors of Psychologists
• Psychoanalysts: Receive additional Freudianpsychoanalytic training post-Ph.D. or post-
M.D. at an institute
• Counselors: Advisers who help solve
problems with marriage, career, school, or
work
• Psychiatric Social Workers: Many have
masters degrees and perform psychotherapy – Use social science principles
– Presently a very popular profession
• Not all psychologists perform therapy!
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The Scientific Method
• Six Basic Elements – Observing
– Defining a problem
– Proposing a hypothesis (an educated guess that
can be tested) – Gathering evidence/testing the hypothesis
– Publishing results
– Building a theory
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• FIGURE 1.5 Psychologists use the logic of science to answer questions aboutbehavior. Specific hypotheses can be tested in a variety of ways, includingnaturalistic observation, correlational studies, controlled experiments, clinical studies,and the survey method. Psychologists revise their theories to reflect the evidence
they gather. New or revised theories then lead to new observations, problems, andhypotheses.
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Hypothesis
• Predictable outcome of an
experiment or an educated
guess about the relationship
between variables• Operational Definition:
States exact procedures
used to represent a concept.
Allows abstract ideas to betested in real-world terms
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• FIGURE 1.4 Operational definitions are used to link concepts with concrete
observations. Do you think the examples given are reasonable operational
definitions of frustration and aggression? Operational definitions vary in how well
they represent concepts. For this reason, many different experiments may be
necessary to draw clear conclusions about hypothesized relationships inpsychology.
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Limitations
• Observer Effect: Changes ina subject’s behavior causedby an awareness of beingobserved
• Observer Bias: Occurs whenobservers see what theyexpect to see or record onlyselected details
• Anthropomorphic Error:Attributing human thoughts,feelings, or motives to
animals, especially as a wayof explaining their behavior (e.g., “Anya my cat is actinglike that because she’sfeeling depressed today.”)
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Correlations
• Existence of a consistent, systematic
relationship between two events, measures,
or variables
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Positive Correlation
• Increases in one measure are matched by
increases in the other measure
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Negative Correlation
• Increases in one measure are matched by
decreases in the other measure
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Correlation and Causation
• Correlation does not demonstrate causation:
Just because two variables are related does
NOT mean that one variable causes the other to occur
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Experiments
• A formal trial to
confirm/disconfirm ahypothesis and to
identify cause and effect
relationships
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Performing an Experiment
• Directly vary a condition you might think
affects behavior
• Create two or more groups of subjects, alikein all ways except the condition you are
varying
• Record whether varying the condition has any
effect on behavior
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• FIGURE 1.1 Results of an empirical study. The graph shows that aggravated
assaults in Los Angeles become more likely as air temperature increases. This
suggests that physical discomfort is associated with interpersonal hostility (Data fromSimister & Cooper, 2005.)
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Variables
• Any condition that can change and that might
affect the outcome of an experiment
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Independent Variable
• Condition(s) altered by the experimenter;
experimenter sets their size, amount, or
value. These are suspected causes for behavioral differences
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Dependent Variable
• Measures the results of the experiment;
Condition is affected by independent variable
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Extraneous Variables
• Conditions that a researcher wants to prevent
from affecting the outcomes of the
experiment (e.g., number of hours sleptbefore the experiment)
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• Figure 1.9 Experimental control is achieved by balancing extraneous variables for the
experimental group and the control group. For example, the average age (A),
education (B), and intelligence (C) of group members could be made the same for
both groups. Then we could apply the independent variable to the experimental
group. If their behavior (the dependent variable) changes (in comparison with thecontrol group), the change must be caused by the independent variable.
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Groups
• Experimental Group:The group of subjects
that gets the
independent variable
• Control Group: Thegroup of subjects that
does NOT get the
independent variable
• Random Assignment:Subject has an equal
chance of being in
either the experimental
or control group
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• FIGURE 1.8 Elements of a simple psychological experiment to assess the effects of music during study on test scores.
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Placebo
• A fake pill (sugar) or
injection (saline)
• Placebo Effect:
Changes in behavior that result from
expectations that a drug
or other treatment will
have some effect; thebelief that one has
taken an active drug
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Experimenter Effects
• Changes in subjects’
behavior caused by the
unintended influence of
the experimenter’sactions
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
A prediction that leads
people to act in ways tomake the prediction
come true
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The Clinical Method
• Case Study: In-depth focus of all aspects of a
single subject
• Natural Clinical Tests: Natural events, suchas accidents, that provide psychological data
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• FIGURE 1.10 Some of the earliest information on the effects of damage to frontal
areas of the brain came from a case study of the accidental injury of Phineas Gage.
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The Survey Method
• Using public polling techniques
to answer psychologicalquestions
• Representative Sample: Small
group that accurately reflects a
larger population – Population: Entire group of
animals or people belonging
to a particular category (e.g.,
all married women)• Courtesy Bias: Problem in
research; a tendency to give
“polite” or socially desirable
answers
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• FIGURE 1.11 If you were conducting a survey in which a person’s height might be an
important variable, the nonrandom sample of shorter people would be very
unrepresentative. The random sample, selected using a table of random numbers,better represents the group as a whole.
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Critical Thinking
• Ability to analyze,
evaluate, compare,
critique, and synthesize
information
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Critical Thinking Principles
• Few truths transcend
the need for empirical
testing
• Judging the quality of
evidence is crucial
• Authority or claimed
expertise does not
automatically make an
idea true
• Critical thinking requires
an open mind
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How to Critically Evaluate New
Information
• Ask the following:
– What claims arebeing made?
– What test (if any) of these claims hasbeen made?
– Who did the test;how good is theevidence?
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How to Critically Evaluate New
Information Continued
• Ask the following:
– What was the nature and quality of the tests? Are
they credible and can they be repeated?
– How reliable and trustworthy were the
investigators?
– How much credibility can the claim be given?
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Pseudo-Psychologies
• Pseudo means “false.” Anyunfounded “system” that
resembles psychology and is
NOT based on scientific
testing (“Pseudo” means
false)
• Phrenology: Personality traits
revealed by shape of skull
and bumps on your head
• Palmistry: Lines on your
hands (palms) predict future
and reveal personality
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Pseudo-Psychologies Continued
• Graphology: Personality traits
are “revealed” by your
handwriting
• Astrology: The positions of the
stars and planets at the time of
your birth determine your
personality and affect your
behavior
– Extremely popular today
(“What’s your sign?”)• Uncritical Acceptance: Tendency
to believe positive or flattering
descriptions of yourself
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Fallacy of Positive Instances
• When we remember or
notice things that
confirm our
expectations and forgetthe rest
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Barnum Effect
• Always have a little
something for everyone.
Tendency to consider a
personal descriptionaccurate if it is stated in
very general terms
P h l i th M di
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Psychology in the Media:
Separating Fact from Fiction
• Be skeptical
• Consider the source of
information
• Ask yourself, “Wasthere a control group?”
• Look for errors in
distinguishing between
correlation andcausation (are claims
based on correlational
results yet passed off
as causations?)
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Psychology in the Media:
Separating Fact from Fiction- Cont.
• Be sure to distinguish
between observation and
inference (e.g., Robert is
crying, but do we know whyhe is crying?)
• Beware of
oversimplifications,
especially those motivatedby monetary reasons
• “For example” is no proof,
i.e., one example is not proof
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