psychology roots big ideas and critical thinking tools 1 siegerman chapter one

Psychology Roots Big ideas and Critical Thinking Tools

1 Siegerman Chapter One

Psychology With hopes of satisfying curiosity, many

people listen to talk-radio counselors and psychics to learn about others and themselves.

Dr. Crane (radio-shrink)

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Psychic (Ball gazing)


Psychology’s RootsAristotle (384-322 B.C.)

Aristotle, a naturalist and philosopher, theorized about psychology’s concepts. He suggested that the soul and body are not separate and

that knowledge grows from experience.

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Dec 1879 Psychology is bornWilhelm Wundt creates a machine that measures

the speed people can tap a telegraph key

This is psychology’s first experimentPsychology has some very early pioneersWundt was both a philosopher and physiologist. Charles Darwin was an English NaturalistIvan Pavlov was a Russian PhysiologistSigmund Freud was a personality TheoristJean Piaget was a Swiss BiologistWilliam James was an American Philosopher


Psychology Early PioneersMay Caulkins worked with William James

was denied her Ph.D. because she was a women. She would later go on to be the president of APA.

Margaret Flog Wasburn – 1st Women to receive a P.h.D in Psychology.


Psychology developed at any leveles by many people

The definition of Psychology has changed over the years.

1st the science of mental life1920’s John B. Watson and later B.F. Skinner stated that Psychology must be “ The Scientific

study of observable behavior”Behaviorists were one of two major forces in

psychology well in the 1960’s Humanistic rejected the Definition of

Psychology, this was lead by Carl Rodgers and Abraham Maslow, they also found that Freudian

and Behaviorism was too limiting.


Psychological Science is Born

Sigmund Freud, an Austrian physician, and his followers emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind and its effects on human

behavior.

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Psychological Science Develops

Humanistic Psychology

Maslow and Rogers emphasized current environmental influences on our growth

potential and our need for love and acceptance.

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Rodgers and MaslowDrew attention to ways that a Positive

Environment can enhance our growth and to our needs for love and acceptance.

Defining Humanism- emphasized the Growth potential of healthy people and the individual’s potential for personal growth.

The rebellion of the 1960’s is called the COGNITIVE REVOLUTION which led the field back to the Mental Processes that humans use.


TODAYWe use science to find out how our mind

perceives, processes and remembers information.

Cognitive Neuroscience has enriched our understanding of brain activity

The Current definition of Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Behavior is anything a human or nonhuman animal does. Any action we can observe and record.


Today continuedMental processes are internal states we

infer from behavior:

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Psychology’s Subfields: Research

Psychologist What she does

BiologicalExplore the links between brain and mind.

DevelopmentalStudy changing abilities from womb to tomb.

CognitiveStudy how we perceive, think, and solve problems.

Personality Investigate our persistent traits.

SocialExplore how we view and affect one another.

12Siegerman Chapter One

Psychology’s Current PerspectivesPerspective Focus Sample QuestionsNeuroscience How the body and

brain enables emotions?

How are messages transmitted in the body? How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives?

Evolutionary How the natural selection of traits the promotes the perpetuation of one’s genes?

How does evolution influence behavior tendencies?

Behavior genetics

How much our genes and our environments influence our individual differences?

To what extent are psychological traits such as intelligence, personality, sexual orientation, and vulnerability to depression attributable to our genes? To our environment?


Psychology’s Current PerspectivesPerspective Focus Sample Questions

Psychodynamic

How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts?

How can someone’s personality traits and disorders be explained in terms of sexual and aggressive drives or as disguised effects of unfulfilled wishes and childhood traumas?

Behavioral How we learn observable responses?

How do we learn to fear particular objects or situations? What is the most effective way to alter our behavior, say to lose weight or quit smoking?


Four Big Ideas in Psychology

1. Critical Thinking is Smart Thinking2. Behavior is a Biopsychosocial Event3. We Operate with a Two-Track Mind

(Dual Processing)4. Psychology Explores Human

Strengths as Well as Challenges


Big Idea #1 Critical ThinkingIs smart thinkingThinking that does not blindly accept

arguments and conclusionsIt examines assumptions, uncovers hidden

values, weights evidence, and assesses conclusions.


Big Idea #2 Biopsychosocial Approach

An integrated approach that incorporates different but complementary views from biological, psychological , and social-cultural perspectives.

Nature versus Nurture17 Siegerman Chapter One

Big Idea #3 Dual ProcessingThe Principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks in our brains.


Big Idea #4 Explaining human Strength

Martin Seligman- Positive Psychology- the Study of Positive Emotions, positive characters traits, and enabling institutions.


Why do Psychology?

Siegerman Chapter One20

Is psychology intuition?Hunches are good!Critical Thinking means checking assumptions, weighing evidence, inviting criticism and testing conclusions.

Two common flaws in Intuitive thinking


1 Hindsight bias- tendency to believe after learning an outcome that one would have fore seen it.

Overconfidence

A point to remember : Hindsight bias and overconfidence often lead us to over estimate our intuition.

The Scientific Attitude


3 Basic attitudes toward the scientific AttitudeCuriositySkepticismHumility

The Scientific Method


In science a Theory explains behaviors or events by offering ideas that organize what we have observed .

Hypothesis- a testable predictionResearch and observation

The case studyThe SurveyWording EffectsRandom SamplingNaturalistic Observation

Research Process


CorrelationWhen one trait or behavior

accompanies another, we say the two correlate.

Correlation coefficient

Indicates directionof relationship

(positive or negative)

Indicates strengthof relationship(0.00 to 1.00)

r = 0.37+

Correlation Coefficient is a statistical measure of the relationship between two

variables.25 Siegerman Chapter One

or

Correlation and CausationCorrelation does not mean causation!


Positive Correlation Between 0 and +1.00 indicates a direct

relationship Increase or decrease together

i.e. height correlates positively with weight in growing children

Siegerman Chapter One 27

Negative Correlation

An inverse relationship 0 between -1.00

As one increases the other decreases.


Correlations

Help us predictCorrelations indicates the possibilities of a cause and effect relationship, but it does not prove causation.


Illusory CorrelationThe perception of a relationship where no

relationship actually exists. Parents conceive children after adoption.

Confirming evidence

Disconfirming evidence

Do not

adopt

Disconfirming evidence

Confirming evidence

Adopt

Do not conceiveConceive

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A fact to rememberWhen we notice

random coincidences we may forget that they are random


Experimentation

Like other sciences, experimentation is the backbone of psychological research.

Experiments isolate causes and their effects.

Exploring Cause and Effect


Many factors influence our behavior. Experiments (1) manipulate factors that interest us, while other factors are kept

under (2) control.

Effects generated by manipulated factors isolate cause and effect relationships.

Exploring Cause & Effect


In evaluating drug therapies, patients and experimenter’s assistants should

remain unaware of which patients had the real treatment and which patients had the

placebo treatment.

Evaluating TherapiesDouble-blind Procedure


Assigning participants to experimental (breast-fed) and control (formula-fed)

conditions by random assignment minimizes pre-existing differences

between the two groups.

Evaluating TherapiesRandom Assignment


An independent variable is a factor manipulated by the experimenter. The effect of the independent variable is the

focus of the study. For example, when examining the effects of

breast feeding upon intelligence, breast feeding is the independent variable.

Independent Variable


A dependent variable is a factor that may change in response to an independent variable. In psychology, it is usually a

behavior or a mental process.

For example, in our study on the effect of breast feeding upon intelligence,

intelligence is the dependent variable.

Dependent Variable


ExperimentationA summary of steps during

experimentation.


ComparisonBelow is a comparison of different

research methods.


Frequently Asked Questions About Psychology

Q1. Can laboratory experiments illuminate everyday life?

Ans: Artificial laboratory conditions are created to study behavior in simplistic terms. The goal

is to find underlying principles that govern behavior.


FAQQ2. Does behavior depend on one’s culture and gender?

Ans: Even when specific attitudes and behaviors vary across cultures, as they often do, the underlying

processes are much the same. Biology determines our sex, and culture further bends the genders. However, in

many ways woman and man are similarly human.

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FAQQ3. Why do psychologists study animals, and is it

ethical to experiment on animals?

Ans: Studying animals gives us the understanding of many behaviors that may have common biology

across animals and humans. From animal studies, we have gained insights to devastating and fatal

diseases. All researchers who deal with animal research are required to follow ethical guidelines in

caring for these animals.

D. Shapiro, © Wildlife Conservation Society 42Siegerman Chapter One

FAQQ4. Is it ethical to experiment on people?

Ans: Yes. Experiments that do not involve any kind of physical or psychological

harm beyond normal levels encountered in daily life may be carried out.


FAQ

Q5. Is psychology free of value judgments?

Ans: No. Psychology emerges from people who subscribe to a set of values and

judgments.

© Roger Shepard


FAQQ6. Is psychology potentially dangerous?

Ans: It can be, but is not when practiced responsibly. The purpose of psychology is to help humanity with problems such as

war, hunger, prejudice, crime, family dysfunction, etc.


psychology roots big ideas and critical thinking tools 1 siegerman chapter one

Documents

siegerman chapter

experiment psychology

humanistic psychology

psychology early pioneers

psychology roots big

psychological science

mental processes

human behavior