THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY

CHAPTER 1

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGYSECTION 1

INTRODUCTION

• Psychology: the scientific study of behavior and mental process

• Seek to explain how we perceive, learn, remember, solve problems, communicate, feel and relate to other people

• Late 20th century psychology expanded dramatically—specializations, new behavior studies, etc.

FIELDS OF PSYCH

• Developmental Psych• study human mental and psychical growth from prenatal period

until old age• Interested in universal patters—patterns of everyone, and cultural

patterns • Physiological Psychology • Investigate the biological basis of human behavior, thoughts, and

emotions• Look at heredity

• Experimental Psych• Conduct research on basic psychological processes,

including learning, memory, sensation, perceptions, cognition, motivation, and emotion

• How do they remember and why do they forget?• They focus on the brain

• Personality Psychology• Study the differences among individuals in such traits as

anxiety, sociability, self-esteem, and the need for achievement and aggressiveness

• Try to determine what causes peoples moods

• Clinical and Counseling Psych• Clinical--Interested in the diagnose, cause, and treatment

of psychological disorders • Counseling—deals with eh “normal’ problems that many of

us face like choosing a career or dealing with martial problems.

• Social Psych• Study how people influence one another

• Industrial and Organizational Psychology• Issues like selecting and training personnel, improving

productivity and working conditions

PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

• Psychologists rely on the scientific method when seeking answers to questions.• Scientific Method: collecting data, generating a theory to

explain the data, producing a testable hypothesis based on the theory, and testing those hypotheses

• Theory: explanation of a phenomena, it organized facts, and predicts new facts

• Hypothesis: specific testable predictions derived from a theory

THE GROWTH OF PSYCHOLOGY

SECTION 2

THE “NEW” PSYCHOLOGY: A SCIENCE OF THE MIND

• Psychology was “born” in 1879 the year Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological lab in Germany

• Voluntarism and Structuralism• Wundt believed that our mental processes could not be studied

scientifically, but set out to find ways that it could be studied scientifically• Voluntarism: attention is actively controlled by intentions and

motives • Moved psych out of the realm of philosophy to the world of science

• Edward Bradford Titchener • Student of Wundt • Ideas differed from Wundt• Structuralism: stressed the basic units of experience and

the combinations in which they occur

• William James: Functionalism• First academic to challenge structuralism • Functionalism Theory: mental life and behavior that is

concerned with how an organism uses its perceptual abilities in its environments • We act out of habit, and the more we do something it

becomes easier than the time before

• Sigmund Freud: Psychodynamic Psychology • Most well know and controversial • We are motivated by unconscious desires• Saw unconscious as a mixture of primitive sexual and aggressive

desires, forbidden desires, nameless fears and wishes, and traumatic childhood memories

• Although repressed, they still come out in forms of dreams, mannerisms, slips of the tongue, and mental illness

• Psychodynamic Theory: personality theories contending that behaviors result from psychological forces that interact within the individual, often outside the conscious awareness

REDEFINING PSYCH: THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOR

• John B. Watson: Behaviorism• Idea of mental life was superstition• You cannot see or define consciousness and if you cannot

locate or measure something, it cant be studied scientifically

• Behaviorism: studies only observable and measurable behavior • We can train, or condition people to do the thing we

want them to do

• B.F. Skinner: Behaviorism Revisited • Leader in behaviorists school of psychology• Added to the theory by rewarding his subjects for behaving

the way he wanted them to

THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION

• Gestalt and Humanistic Psychology• Gestalt: studies how people perceive and experience objects as

whole patterns• When we look at a tree that is what we see, we don’t see

various branches and thousands of leaves individually • Humanistic: emphasizes nonverbal experiences and altered states

of consciousness as a means of realizing one’s full human potential• Importance of love, belonging, self-esteem, self-expression,

• Cognitive Psychology• Devoted to studying the mental processes but in the

broadest sense• Thinking, feeling, learning, remembering, making decisions,

and judgments• How people process information

NEW DIRECTIONS

• Evolutionary Psychology

• Concerned with the evolutionary origins of behaviors and mental processes, their adaptive value, and the purpose that continue to serve

• How did we get to where we are today?

• Positive Psychology

• Focuses on positive experiences, including subjective well-being, self determination, the relationship between positive emotions and physical health, and that factors that allow individuals, communities, and society to flourish

WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY

• Many contributions to psychology came from women• They presented papers and joined the national professional

association when it was formed in 1892• Often faces much discrimination:• Some universities and colleges did not grant degrees to women• Professional journals were reluctant to publish their work• Teaching positioned where often closed to them

CLASSWORK• In your textbook:• Read page 22 • Answer the following questions using the reading and the notes we just

discussed • 1. What are 3 ways women were discriminated against in psychology?• 2. Select one of the following women and discuss who they are and why

they are famous. •Christine Ladd-Franklin •Mary Whiton Calkins• Margret Floy Washburn

• 3. Because many women found the doors closed to academic careers closed, what did they do instead?

• 4. What historical event changed the cultural climate for women?

RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY

SECTION 4

INTRODUCTION• All sciences—psychology, sociology, economics, political science, biology, and

physics re quire empirical evidence• Empirical Evidence: information derived from systematic, objective

observation• Various Research methods to gather Empirical Evidence • Naturalistic Observation• Case Studies• Surveys• Correlation Research • Experimental Research

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION

• Systematic study of animal or human behavior in natural settings rather in the laboratory

• Advantage—behavior observed in everyday life is likely to be more natural, spontaneous, and varied then in a lab

• Disadvantage—Observer Bias: expectations or biases of the observer that might distort of influence his or her interpretations of what actually happened • What twist what actually happened to fit your prediction of

what would happen

CASE STUDIES

• Intensive description and analysis of a single individual or just a few individuals

• Similar to naturalist observations, but uses a variety of methods to receive information—doesn’t just watch them

• Disadvantages• Observer Bias• Cant draw general conclusion from just one person

because everyone is different

SURVEYS

• RESEARCH TECHIQUE IN WHICH QUESTIONAIRES OR INTERVIEWS ARE ADMINISTERED TO A SELECT GROUP OF PEOPLE

• CAN BE DONE FACE-TO FACE OR ON A QUESTIONAIRE

CORRELATION RESEARCH

• Research technique based on the naturally occurring relationship between 2 or more variables • Ex: The Air Force, is asked to predict which applicants for pilot-

training program will make good pilots

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

• Experimental Method: research technique in which an investigator deliberately manipulates selected events or circumstances and then measures the effects of those manipulations on subsequent behavior

• First step is to selecting participants—individuals whose reactions or responses are observed in an experiment

• Then you follow the Scientific Methods to organize an experiment • Independent Variable: variable that is manipulated to test

its effects on the other, dependent variables • Dependent Variable : variable that is measured to see how

it is changed by manipulations

• There are 2 groups of participants in an experiment • Experimental Group: the group subjected to a change in

the independent variable• Control Group: the group not subjected to the change in

independent variable

ETHIC IN PSYCHOLOGY

• American Psychological Association first published the Code of Ethics in 1953• The code is assed each year• Outlines the ethical outlines for research and teachings

psych • Set ethical standards for psychologists who offer therapy

and other profession services

APA CODE OF ETHICS

• Participants must be informed of the nature of research in clearly understandable language

• Informed consent must be documented

• Risk, possible adverse effects, and limitations on confidentiality must be spelled out in advance

• If participations is a condition of course credit, equitable alternative activities must be offered

• Participants cannot be deceived about aspects of the research that would affect their willingness to participate, such as risks or unpleasant emotional experiences

• Deceptions about the goals of the research can be used only when absolutely necessary to the integrity of the research

CAREERS IN PSYCHOLOGY

SECTION 5

ACADEMICS AND APPLIED PSYCH

• Pursue advances degrees in psych—master’s degree or doctorate

• Usually works with colleges and universities • Work in applied settings like schools, health, industrial,

commercial, and educational psych • Nearly half of all doctoral psychologists are clinicians or

counselors who treat people experiencing mental, emotional or adaptation problems

CLINICAL SETTING

• Licensed Social Workers (LSW)

• Counseling Psychologists (MFCC)—help cope with situational problems

• Clinical Psychologists (Ph.D or Psy.D.)—asses and treat mental, emotional and behavioral disorders

• Psychiatrists (M.D.)—diagnoses and treatment of abnormal behavior

• Psychoanalysts—psychiatrists with additional specialization in psychoanalytical theory

EXIT SLIP: VARIABLES• An experiment to see how the mass of the ball effects the

distance it travels.• Independent Variable: • Dependent Variable:

• An experiment to decide if you are more attracted to a person because they share similar interests in you. • Independent Variable:• Dependent Variable:

IDENTIFY THE INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT VARIABLES.

1. Students want to test the whether listening to music while testing will increase your test scores or lower them.

2. A student wants to set up an experiment where they want to know if the number of visible tattoos a person has will determine the likelihood of getting a job.

3. Students wanted to know if a certain type of dog treat is more affective to use while training their pet to sit.

4. Teachers wanted to determine if the amount of students that came to class on time would increase if they were given a reward.