Chapter 1

Introducing Psychology and Research Methods

Module 1.1: Learning Objectives The Science of Psychology

• Describe reasons for studying psychology and why it is considered both a science and a profession

• Define psychology and behavior, differentiating between overt and covert behaviors

• Describe how the search for empirical evidence sets psychology apart from “common-sense” beliefs and from other fields of study

• Define the terms data, scientific observation, and research method

• Explain why some topics in psychology are difficult to study

Module 1.1: Learning Objectives The Science of Psychology (Continued)

• Describe each of the following research specialties in psychology: developmental, learning, personality, sensation and perception, comparative, biopsychology, cognitive, gender, social, cultural, evolutionary, and forensic

• Explain why and how animals are used in research, defining the term animal model and listing ways in which psychological research may benefit animals

• Explain the four goals of psychology

What Is Psychology?

• Psychology

– Psyche: Mind

– Logos: Knowledge or study

• Definition: The scientific study of behavior and mental processes

– Behavior: Overt; i. e. , can be directly observed (crying)

– Mental Processes: Covert; i. e. , cannot be directly observed (remembering)

Empiricism: The Goals

• To measure and describe behaviors

• To gather empirical evidence: information gained from direct observation and measurement

• To gather data: Observed facts

• To use scientific observation: Empirical investigation that is structured so that it answers questions about the world

What Topics Do Psychologists Research?

• Development:

– Course of human growth and development

• Learning:

– How and why it occurs in humans and animals

• Personality:

– Traits, motivations, and individual differences

What Topics Do Psychologists Research?(Continued)

• Sensation and Perception:

– How we come to know the world through our five senses

• Comparative Psychology:

– Behavior of different species

• Biopsychology: – How behavior is related to biological

processes, especially activities in the nervous system

What Might a Psychologist Research? (Continued)

• Cognition:

– How people think

• Gender:

– Study differences between males and females and how they develop

• Social Psychology:

– Human social behavior

What Might a Psychologist Research? (Continued)

• Cultural Psychology :

– How culture affects human behavior

• Evolution:– How our behavior is guided by patterns

that evolved

• Forensics:– How to apply psychological principles to

legal issues

What Are the Goals of Psychology?

• Description of Behaviors: – Naming and classifying various observable,

measurable behaviors

• Understanding: – The causes of behavior

• Prediction:– Forecasting behavior accurately

• Control: – Altering conditions that affect behaviors

Module 1.2: Learning Objectives Critical Thinking and the Scientific Method in

Psychology• Define the term critical thinking

• Describe the four basic principles which form the foundation of critical thinking

• Define pseudo-psychology

• Explain how it differs from psychology

• Describe the pseudo-psychologies of palmistry, phrenology, graphology, and astrology

Module 1.2: Learning Objectives Critical Thinking and the Scientific Method in

Psychology (Continued)• Explain why they continue to thrive even though they have no

scientific basis

• Explain the problem with using common-sense as a source of information

• List and define the six steps of the scientific method

• Define the terms hypothesis, operational definition, and theory

• Explain the importance of publishing

• List and describe the parts of a research report

Critical Thinking

• Ability to analyze, evaluate, critique, and synthesize information– What would you expect to see if the claim

were true?– Gather evidence relevant to the claim– Evaluate the evidence– Draw a conclusion

• Oftentimes used in research

Four Basic Principles of Critical Thinking

1.Few truths transcend the need for empirical testing

2.Judging the quality of evidence is crucial

3.Authority or claimed expertise does not automatically make an idea true

4.Critical thinking requires an open mind

Pseudopsychologies

• Pseudo means “false”; any unfounded “system” that resembles psychology and is NOT based on scientific testing– Phrenology:

• Personality traits revealed by shape of skull and bumps on your head

– Palmistry:

• Lines on your hands (palms) predict future and reveal personality

Pseudopsychologies (Continued)

• Graphology: – Personality revealed by your handwriting

• Astrology: – The positions of the stars and planets at

birth determine your personality and affect your behavior

More on Pseudopsychologies

• Uncritical Acceptance: – Tendency to believe positive or unflattering

descriptions of yourself

• Fallacy of Positive Instances: – When we remember or notice things that

confirm our expectations and forget the rest

The Barnum Effect

• Barnum Effect: – Tendency to consider personal

descriptions accurate if stated in general terms

• Always have a little something for everyone; make sure all palm readings, horoscopes, etc. are so general that something in them will always apply to any one person! – E. g. , Miss Cleo

The Scientific Method

• Six Basic Elements

1. Making observations

2. Defining a problem– Operational definitions

3. Proposing a hypothesis – An educated guess that can be tested

4. Gathering evidence/testing the hypothesis

5 Publishing results

6 Building a theory

Scientific Theory

• A system of ideas that interrelates facts and concepts, summarizes existing data, and predicts future observations

• A good theory must be falsifiable – i .e. , operationally defined so that it can be

disconfirmed

Module 1.3: Learning Objectives History and Contemporary Perspectives

• For each of these schools of psychology—structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, Gestalt psychology, psychoanalytic, and humanism—answer each of the following questions: its founder, reasons it was founded, its goal or main focus, and its impact on modern psychology and/or possible use in psychotherapy

• Identify notable events within the history of psychology

• Describe the contribution of women to the early history of psychology and their representation in the field then and now

• Explain the contemporary perspectives in psychology, including the concepts of eclectic, positive psychology, cultural diversity, cultural relativity, and social norms

History of Psychology: Beginnings

• 1879: Wundt set up first lab to study conscious experience in Germany

• Systematically observed and measured various stimuli

• Introspection: – Looking inward (i.e., examining and

reporting your thoughts, feelings, etc. )

History of Psychology: Structuralism

• Wundt’s ideas brought to the US by Tichener and renamed Structuralism

• Structuralism: – School of thought concerned with

analyzing sensations and personal experience into basic elements

History of Psychology: Functionalism

• William James (American) wrote Principles of Psychology (1890)

• Functionalism:– How the mind functions to adapt us to our

environment

• Functionalists admired Darwin and his theory of natural selection – Animals keep features through evolution

that help them adapt to environments

Functionalism’s Effects on Modern Psychology

• Animals brought into the study of psychology

• Educational Psychology: – Study of learning, teaching, classroom

dynamics, and related topics

• Industrial Psychology: – Study of people at work

History of Psychology: Behaviorism

• Psychology must study observable behavior objectively– John B. Watson studied relationship

between stimuli and responses

• Little Albert– B.F. Skinner studied animals almost

exclusively

• Believed actions controlled by punishments and rewards

History of Psychology: Cognitive Behaviorism

• View that combines cognition and conditioning to explain behavior

• Cognitive Behaviorists: Ellis and Bandura– Our thoughts influence our behaviors– Used often in treatment of depression

History of Psychology: Gestalt

• Gestalt Psychology: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts ”– Studied thinking, learning, and perception

in whole units, not by analyzing experiences into parts

– Influenced study of perception and personality

– Key names: Wertheimer, Perls

History of Psychology: Freud

• Psychoanalytic Perspective– Our behavior is largely influenced by our

unconscious wishes, thoughts, and desires, especially sex and aggression

– Freud among first to appreciate that childhood affects adult personality

– Freud created psychoanalysis

Repression

• Repression: – When memories, thoughts, or impulses are

unconsciously held out of awareness

• Recent research has hypothesized that our unconscious mind is partially responsible for our behaviors

History of Psychology: Neo-Freudians

• New or recent—some of Freud’s students who broke away to promote their own theories

• Less emphasis on sex and aggression

• Key Names: Alfred Adler, Anna Freud (Freud’s daughter), Karen Horney, Carl Jung, Otto Rank, Erik Erikson

History of Psychology: Humanism

• Key Names: Rogers and Maslow

• Goal of psychology is to study unique aspects of the person

• Focuses on human experience, problems, potentials, and ideals

• Each person has innate goodness and is able to make free choices (contrast with Skinner and Freud)

Terms

• Self-Image: Perception of our own body, personality, and capabilities

• Self-Evaluation: Positive or negative feelings held toward one’s self

• Frame of Reference: Mental perspective used to interpret events

• Self-Actualization: Ongoing process of fully developing one’s personal potential

Women in Psychology’s Early Days

• Mary Calkins:– Research on memory– 1st woman president of American

Psychological Association

• Christine Ladd-Franklin:– Research on color vision

• Margaret Washburn:– Published The Animal Mind (1908)

Psychology Today

• Biopsychological Perspective: – All of our behavior can be explained

through physiological processes– Study the brain and nervous system

• Psychological Perspective: – Behavior is shaped by individual

psychological processes– Includes behaviorism, cognitive

behaviorism, cognition, humanism, and psychoanalysis

Psychology Today (Continued)

• Sociocultural Perspective:– Behavior affected by social and cultural

contexts– Cultural relativity:

• Behavior must be judged relative to values of the culture in which it occurs

– Social norms:

• Rules that define acceptable and expected behavior

Positive Psychology

• Study of human strengths, virtues, and optimal behavior– Looks at positive side of human behavior

such as love, creativity, well-being, and optimal behavior

Module 1.4: Learning ObjectivesPsychologists and Their Specialties

• Characterize the differences in training, emphasis, and sources of employment among psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, counselors, and psychiatric social workers

• Explain how the media often portrays psychologists

• Discuss psychology as a career option, including the various specialties, such as clinical and counseling psychology, the “scientist-practitioner” model, the APA code of ethics, and the types of research (applied or basic) performed

Many Flavors of Psychologists

• Psychologists: – Usually have master’s degree or doctorate– Trained in methods, knowledge, and theories of

psychology

• Clinical Psychologist: – Treats psychological problems or does

research on therapies and mental disorders

• Counseling Psychologist: – Treats milder emotional and behavioral

disturbances

More Helping Professionals

• Psychiatrists: – A medical doctor (M.D.)– Usually use medications to treat problems– Generally do not have extensive training in

providing “talk” therapy

• Psychoanalysts: – Receive additional training post-Ph.D. or

M.D. at an institute for psychoanalysis

Some More Helping Professionals

• Counselor: – Advisor who helps solve problems with

marriage, school, and so on– Requires master’s degree

• Psychiatric Social Workers: – Many have masters degrees and perform

psychotherapy – Presently a very popular profession

• Not all psychologists perform therapy!

Module 1.5: Learning ObjectivesThe Psychology Experiment

• List and describe the three essential variables of the experimental method

• Explain the nature and purpose of the control group and the experimental group in an experiment as well as the purpose of randomly assigning subjects to these two groups

• Describe three areas of ethical concern in behavioral research

• List the basic ethical guidelines for psychological researchers

• Describe what a placebo is and why it is used in an experiment

• Explain how the single-blind and double-blind experimental approaches control for the placebo effect and the experimenter effect, respectively

• Discuss the self-fulfilling prophecy

Experiments

• To identify cause-and-effect relationships, we conduct experiments– Directly vary a condition you might think

affects behavior– Create two or more groups of subjects,

alike in all ways except the condition you are varying

– Record whether varying the condition has any effect on behavior

Variables • Independent Variable:

– Condition(s) altered by the experimenter; experimenter sets their size, amount, or value; these are suspected causes for behavioral differences

• Dependent Variable: – Demonstrates effects that independent variables

have on behavior

• Extraneous Variables: – Conditions that a researcher wants to prevent from

affecting the outcomes of the experiment (e.g., number of hours slept before the experiment)

Groups

• Experimental Group: – The group of participants that gets the

independent variable

• Control Group: – The group of participants that does NOT

get the independent variable

• Random Assignment: – Participant has an equal chance of being in

either the experimental or control group

Placebo

• Placebo: – A fake pill (sugar), injection (saline), or

condition

• Placebos alter our expectations about our own emotional and physical reactions

• Placebo Effect:– Changes in behavior that result from

expectations that a drug or other treatment will have some effect• These expectancies then influence

bodily activities

Experiment Types

• Single Blind: – Only the subjects have no idea whether

they get real treatment or placebo

• Double Blind: – The subjects AND the experimenters have

no idea whether the subjects get real treatment or placebo

• Best type of experiment if properly set up

Experimenter Effects

• Changes in behavior caused by the unintended influence of the experimenter– Robert Rosenthal (1973)

• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: – A prediction that leads people to act in

ways to make the prediction come true

PLAY VIDEO

Does Marijuana Impair Memory?

Module 1.6: Learning ObjectivesNon-Experimental Research Methods

• Explain the use of non-experimental methods of research

• Describe naturalistic observation and its advantages and limitations, including the concepts of observer effect, observer bias, and anthropomorphic error

• Define the term observation record

• Describe a correlational study, its advantages and limitations, how a correlation coefficient is expressed and what it means, and why correlation does NOT demonstrate causation

• Briefly describe the clinical method of research, or case study method, including when it is used and its advantages and limitations

• Briefly describe the use of the survey method, including its advantages and limitations and the new use of Internet surveys

• Define the terms population, representative sample, random selection, biased sample, and courtesy bias

Naturalistic Observation

• Observing a person or an animal in the natural environmental context

• Provides descriptions of behavior– e.g., Jane Goodall

Naturalistic Observation Problems

• Observer Effect: – Changes in behavior caused by an

awareness of being observed

• Observer Bias: – Occurs when observers see what they

expect to see or record only selected details

Anthropomorphic Error

• Attributing human thoughts, feelings, or motives to animals, especially as a way of explaining their behavior – e.g., “Java, my dog, is acting like that

because he’s feeling depressed today.”

Correlational Studies

• Determine the degree of a relationship between two events, measures, or variables

• Correlation Coefficient: – Statistic ranging from –1.00 to +1.00;

• the sign indicates the direction of the relationship

– Closer the statistic is to –1.00 or to +1.00, the stronger the relationship

– Correlation of 0.00 demonstrates no relationship between the variables

Correlations (Continued)

• Positive Correlation: – Increases in one variable are matched by

increases in the other variable– e.g. high school grades and college grades

• Negative Correlation: – Increases in one variable are matched by

decreases in the other variable– e.g. hours playing video games and grades

• Correlation does not demonstrate causation: – Just because two variables are related does NOT

mean that one variable causes the other to occur

The Clinical Method

• Case Study: – In-depth focus of all aspects of a single

person

• Natural Clinical Tests: – Natural events, such as accidents, that

provide psychological data

Survey Method

• Using public polling techniques to answer psychological questions

• People in a representative sample are asked carefully worded questions

• 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)

Some Problems

• Internet Surveys: – Web based research – Low cost and can reach many people– Samples are not representative

• Courtesy Bias: – Problem in research – A tendency to give “polite” or socially

desirable answers

Module 1.7: Learning ObjectivesPsychology in Action:

Psychology in the Media

• List the suggestions from the textbook authors that will help you become a more critical reader of psychological information in the popular press

Separating Fact from Fiction

• Be skeptical

• Consider the source of information

• Ask yourself, “Was there a control group?”

• Look for errors in distinguishing between correlation and causation

Separating Fact from Fiction (Continued)

• Be sure to distinguish between observation and inference (e.g., Robert is crying, but do we know why he is crying?)

• Beware of oversimplifications, especially those motivated by monetary gain

• Remember, “for example” is no proof!