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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