Download Basic Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences

Chapter 1
Introduction to Psychology and
Research Methods
What Is Psychology?
• Psychology
– Psyche: mind
– Logos: knowledge or study
– Both a science and a profession
• Definition: the scientific study of behavior and
mental processes
– Behavior: overt (i.e., can be directly observed, as
with crying)
– Mental processes: covert (i.e., cannot be directly
observed, as with remembering)
Empiricism: The Goals
• To improve on “commonsense” knowledge
using scientific observation rather than casual
observation
• Scientific observation: yields empirical
evidence through direct observation and
measurement that is
– systematic (carefully planned)
– intersubjective (confirmable by more than one
observer)
Research Method
• A systematic procedure for answering
scientific questions
What Are the Goals of Psychology?
• Description: being able to name and classify
various observable, measurable behaviors
• Understanding: being able to state the causes
of a behavior
• Prediction: being able to forecast behavior
accurately
• Control: being able to alter the conditions that
influence behaviors
Critical Thinking
• Type of reflection involving asking if a belief is
supported by scientific theory and systematic
observation
• Critical thinkers are willing to challenge
conventional wisdom
• Often used in research
Critical Thinking: Basic Principles
• Few “truths” transcend the need for logical
analysis and empirical testing
• Critical thinkers often wonder what it would
take to show that a “truth” is false
• Authority or claimed expertise does not
automatically make an idea true or false
• Judging the quality of evidence is crucial
• Critical thinking requires an open mind
Pseudopsychologies
• Pseudo means “false”
• Any unfounded “system” that resembles
psychology and is NOT based on scientific
testing
– Pseudopsychologies are types of superstitions
Pseudopsychology Examples
• Phrenology: personality traits revealed by
shape of skull
• Palmistry: lines on your hands (palms) predict
future and reveal personality
• Graphology: personality traits are revealed by
your handwriting
• Astrology: the positions of the stars and
planets at birth determine personality traits
and affect your behavior
Why Does Astrology Survive?
• Uncritical acceptance: tendency to believe
positive or flattering descriptions of yourself
• Confirmation bias: tendency to notice and
remember information that confirms our
expectations (and ignore the discrepancies)
• 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!
The Scientific Method
• Form of critical thinking based on careful
collection of evidence, accurate description
and measurement, precise definition,
controlled observation, and repeatable results
The Scientific Method (cont’d)
• Six basic elements
– Making observations
– Defining a problem
– Proposing a hypothesis
– Gathering evidence/testing the hypothesis
– Theory building
– Publishing results
Testing Hypotheses
• Hypothesis: scientifically testable predicted
outcome of an experiment or educated guess
about the relationship between variables
• Operational definition: defines a scientific
concept by stating specific actions or
procedures used to measure it
Theory Building
• Theory: a system of ideas that interrelates
facts and concepts, summarizes existing data,
and predicts future observations
– A good theory is potentially falsifiable (i.e.,
operationally defined) so that it is open to
disconfirmation
History of Psychology: Beginnings
• Wilhelm Wundt: “father” of psychology
– 1879: set up first lab to study conscious
experience
– Introspection: looking inward (i.e., examining and
reporting your thoughts, feelings, etc.)
History of Psychology: Structuralism
• Wundt’s ideas brought to the US by Edward
Titchener and renamed structuralism; dealt
with structure of mental life
• Structuralists often disagreed; there was no
way to use introspection to determine who
was correct
History of Psychology: Functionalism
• William James and functionalism
– Mental structure is less important than mental
function
– Functionalists admired Charles Darwin’s theory of
natural selection: animals keep physical features
through evolution that help them adapt to
environments.
– How the mind functions may also help us adapt
and survive
Educational Psychology
• Promoted by functionalists as the discipline
that studies mental adaptation
• Study of learning, teaching, classroom
dynamics, and related topics
History of Psychology: Behaviorism
• John Watson, Ivan Pavlov, and B. F. Skinner
– Psychology must study observable behavior
objectively
– Studied relationship between
• stimuli: environmental events
• responses: any identifiable behavior(s)
– Watson studied classical conditioning, which was
discovered by Pavlov
– Skinner studied operant conditioning; although
Skinner studied animals, he believed humans
learn the same way
History of Psychology: Cognitive
Behaviorism
• Radical behaviorism: mental events, such as
thinking, are not necessary to explain
behavior
• Cognitive behaviorism: together, cognition
(thinking) and conditioning better explain
behavior
– 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”
– Max Wertheimer studied thinking, learning, and
perception in whole units, not by analyzing
experiences into parts
History of Psychology: Freud
• Psychoanalytic perspective
– Sigmund Freud believed that behavior is largely
influenced by unconscious wishes, thoughts, and
desires, especially sex and aggression
– Repression occurs when threatening thoughts are
unconsciously held out of awareness
– Freud created psychoanalysis, the first
psychotherapy, to explore unconscious conflicts
and emotional problems
History of Psychology: Neo-Freudians
• Some of Freud’s students eventually broke
away to promote their own neo (new)Freudian theories
• Key names: Alfred Adler, Anna Freud, Karen
Horney, Carl Jung, Otto Rank, Erik Erikson
History of Psychology: Humanism
• Goal of psychology is to study unique aspects
of the person
• Focuses on human experience, potentials,
ideals, and problems
• Each person has innate goodness and is able
to use free will (in contrast with the
determinism of Skinner and Freud)
• Key names: Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
Humanism: Some Key Concepts
• Self-image: your perception of your own body,
personality, and capabilities
• Self-evaluation: positive and negative feelings
you have about yourself
• Frame of reference: mental perspective used
for interpreting events
• Self-actualization (Maslow): fully developing
one’s potential and becoming the best person
possible
Diversity in Early Psychology
• Most early psychologists were Caucasian men,
but there were women and ethnic minority
pioneers
• Margaret Washburn: first woman awarded a
Ph.D. in psychology (1894)
• Francis Cecil Sumner: first African-American
man awarded a Ph.D. in psychology (1920)
• Inez Beverly Prosser: first African-American
woman awarded a Ph.D. in psychology (1933)
Psychology Today
• Three broad views, biopsychological,
psychological, and sociocultural, offer
complementary perspectives on behavior
• Most psychologists are eclectic, drawing
insights from a variety of perspectives since a
single perspective is unlikely to explain all
human behavior
Psychology Today: The Biological
Perspective
• Biopsychological view: behavior is shaped by
internal physical, chemical, and biological
processes
– Neuroscience: interdisciplinary field formed by
biopsychologists, biologists and other scientists
who share the perspective of biopsychology
• Evolutionary view: behavior is shaped by the
process of evolution
Psychology Today: The Psychological
Perspective
• Behavioral view: behavior is shaped by one’s
environment
• Cognitive view: behavior is shaped by mental
processing of information
• Psychodynamic view: behavior is shaped by
unconscious processes
• Humanistic view: behavior is shaped by selfimage, subjective perception, and needs for
personal growth
Psychology Today: The Sociocultural
Perspective
• Sociocultural view: behavior is shaped by
one’s social and cultural context
– Because of cultural relativity, behavior must be
judged relative to the values and social norms of
the culture in which it occurs
– Social norms: rules that define acceptable and
expected behavior for members of various groups
– Psychologists need to be aware of the impact
cultural diversity may have on our behaviors
Many Flavors of Psychologists
• Psychologists: usually have master’s or
doctorate degree; trained in methods,
knowledge, and theories of psychology
– Clinical psychologists: treat more severe
psychological problems or do research on mental
disorders
– Counseling psychologists: treat milder problems,
such as school or work troubles
– Not all psychologists perform therapy
What Might a Psychologist Research?
• Development: course of human growth and
development
• Learning: how and why it occurs in humans
and animals
• Personality: traits, motivations, and individual
differences
• Sensation and perception: how we come to
know the world through our five senses
What Might a Psychologist Research?
(cont’d)
• Comparative: study and compare behavior of
different species, especially animals
• Cognitive: primarily interested in thinking
• Biopsychology: how behavior is related to
biological processes, especially activities in the
nervous system
• Gender: study differences between males and
females and how they develop
• Social: human and social behavior
What Might a Psychologist Research?
(cont’d)
• Cultural: how culture affects behavior
• Evolutionary: how our behavior is guided by
patterns that evolved during our history
Animals and Psychology
• Psychologists study the behavior of all
organisms
– Animal model: when an animal’s behavior is used
to derive principles that may apply to human
behavior
– Animal research can also benefit animals directly
(e.g. when it benefits conservation efforts)
Other Mental Health Professionals
• Psychiatrist: M.D. who treats mental disorders
with psychotherapy and/or medications
• Psychoanalyst: receives additional training in
psychoanalysis post-Ph.D. or M.D.
• Counselor: person with master’s (MA) degree
who helps solve problems with marriage, school,
and so on
• Psychiatric social worker: person with Masters of
Social Work (MSW) who applies social science
principles to help people in clinics and hospitals
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
Subjects and Variables
• Subjects: animals or people (also called
participants) whose behavior is investigated
• Variables: any conditions that can change and
might affect an experiment’s outcome
Three Types of Variables
• Independent variables: condition altered by
the experimenter; experimenter sets their
size, amount, or value; these are suspected
causes for behavioral differences
• Dependent variables: demonstrate effects that
independent variables have on behavior
• Extraneous variable: condition that a
researcher wants to prevent from affecting
the outcomes of the experiment
Experimental and Control Group
• Experimental group: the group of participants
exposed to the independent variable
• Control group: the group of participants
exposed to all variables that the experimental
group is exposed to EXCEPT the independent
variable
Experimental Control
• Random assignment: participant has an equal
chance of being in either the experimental or
control group, evenly balancing extraneous
personal variables
• Other extraneous variables are made exactly
alike between the two groups
• Resulting dependent variable differences
between the experimental and control groups
MUST be due to independent variable
Evaluating Experiments’ Results
• Statistically significant: results gained would
occur very rarely by chance alone
– The difference must be large enough so that it
would occur by chance in less than 5 experiments
out of 100
• Meta-analysis: study of results of other
studies
Research Participant Bias
• Research participant bias: changes in participants’
behavior caused by the influence of their
expectations
– Placebo: fake pill (sugar) or injection (saline)
– Placebo effect: changes in participants’ behavior
caused by belief that they have taken a drug or
received some other treatment
• If placebo has any effect, might be based on
suggestion, not chemistry
• Single-blind experiment: participants have no
idea whether they get real treatment or placebo
Researcher Bias
• Researcher bias: changes in behavior caused
by the unintended influence of the researcher
• Self-fulfilling prophecy: a prediction that leads
people to act in ways to make the prediction
come true
• Double-blind experiment: the participants
AND the researchers have no idea whether
the subjects get real treatment or placebo
Naturalistic Observation
• Observing behavior in a natural setting (typical
environment in which the observed person or
animal lives)
Limitations of Natural Observation
• Observer effect: changes in subject’s 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 fallacy: attributing human
thoughts, feelings, or motives to animals,
especially as a way of explaining their behavior
(e.g., “Anya, my cat, is acting lethargic because
she’s feeling depressed today.”)
Correlational Studies
• Studies designed to measure the degree of a
relationship (if any) between two or more
events, measures, or variables
Coefficient of Correlation
• Statistic ranging from –1.00 to +1.00; the sign
indicates the direction of the relationship
– The 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 (cont’d)
• Positive correlation: increases in one variable
are matched by increases in the other variable
• Negative correlation: increases in one variable
are matched by decreases in the other
variable
• 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 on all aspects of a
single person
• Natural clinical tests: natural events, such as
accidents, that provide psychological data
The Survey Method
• Survey: public polling technique applied to
answer psychological questions
Sampling
• 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)
• Internet surveys: Web-based research; low
cost and can reach many people
Social Desirability in Survey Research
• Courtesy bias: in research; a tendency to give
“polite” or socially desirable answers
Psychology in the Media:
Separating Fact from Fiction
• Be skeptical
• Consider the source of information
• Beware of oversimplifications, especially those
motivated by monetary gain
• Remember, “for example,” is not proof!
• Ask yourself, “Was there a control group?”
• Look for errors in distinguishing between
correlation and causation
• Be sure to distinguish between observation
and inference