Download PSY110 Week 1 Introduction to Psychology

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
Introduction

Course expectations and approach

Exploring Psychology’s Roots

Theories and Research
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 Class
participation is CRUCIAL (and fun!)
 Homework
 Midterm
 Final
and quizzes
(15%) and final (24%)
is cumulative
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 Psychology
is a science
• the scientific study of behavior and mental
processes
• uses the scientific method to acquire knowledge
• scientific method: orderly, systematic procedures
researchers follow
• Science is always under revision
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 Observe
and theorize. Theory: the basis for a
hypothesis. A general principle or set of principles
proposed to explain how a number of separate facts are
related.
 Formulate
a hypothesis.
• specific prediction that can be tested empirically with data
 Design
the study.
 Collect data.
 Apply results to the hypothesis.
• Replication of the study is important.
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 Number
of children 3-17 years of age ever
diagnosed with ADHD: 5.2 million
 Percent of children 3-17 years of age ever
diagnosed with ADHD: 8.4% (CDC)
 Anxiety disorders affect ~40 million adults in
the United States age 18 and older -18% of
U.S. population (ADAA)
 Eleven percent of Americans aged 12 years
and up take antidepressant medication.
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 “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a

profoundly sick society” – Krishnamurti
“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be
found among those who appear to be most normal. Many
of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to
our mode of existence, because their human voice has
been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even
struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic
does. They are normal not in what may be called the
absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in
relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect
adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their
mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal
people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they
were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.”
- Aldous Huxley
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 Basic
Research
• seeks new knowledge
• advances general scientific understanding
 Applied
Research
• solves practical problems
• improves the quality of life
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 Considered
the “father” of psychology
 Studied
cultural and social influences
on human thought
 Established the first psychological
laboratory at the University of Leipzig,
Germany, 1879
 Developed introspection
• analysis of basic elements of conscious
mental experience
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
Edward Bradford Titchener (1867–1927)
• Studied under Wundt
• Established a psychological laboratory at Cornell University
• Named his school of thought “structuralism”

Structuralism
• Aimed at analyzing the basic elements, or structure, of conscious
mental experience
• Criticized for its primary method, introspection
 considered not objective
• Established psychology as a science
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 Functionalism
• how humans and animals use mental processes to
adapt to their environment
 William
James (1842–1910)
• main advocate of functionalism
• clarified definition of mental processes
 fluid
 have continuity
 not the rigid, fixed structures suggested by the Structuralists
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

James -> believed in “pragmaticism” -the value of any truth
was dependent upon its use to the person who held it; the
world is a mosaic of diverse experiences that can only be
properly interpreted and understood through an application of
"radical empiricism." Radical empiricism (not related to
scientific empiricism) ->the world and experience can never be
halted for an entirely objective analysis; the mind of the
observer and simple act of observation will affect the outcome
of any empirical approach to truth as the mind and its
experiences, and nature are inseparable.
Stream of consciousness; the individual human brain evolved
to filter “consciousness” or “reality” through the tenets of
natural selection
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 “[E]ach
one of us is potentially Mind at Large.
But in so far as we are animals, our business at
all costs is to survive. To make biological survival
possible, Mind at Large has to be funneled
through the reducing valve of the brain and
nervous system. What comes out at the other
end is a measly trickle of the kind of
consciousness which will help us to stay alive on
the surface of this particular planet.” –Aldous
Huxley
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 Schools
of thought
 Perspectives
 Specialties
 Theories
in psychology
in psychology
in psychology
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 Psychology,
neuroscience, and
evolutionary study are very new to human
culture
 Humans were drawing pictures of animals
on cave walls ~40 – 50,000 years ago;
they began forming sedentary agricultural
communities ~10,000 years ago; first
syntactical writing only ~3,000 years ago
 For most of human history, we’ve been
making grunt noises to describe our world
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 Behaviorism
 Psychoanalytic
 Humanistic
 Cognitive
Psychology
Psychology
 Evolutionary
 Biological
 The
Psychology
Psychology
Psychology
Sociocultural Approach
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 Named
by John Watson
 Redefined
psychology as “the science of
behavior”
 Observable,
measurable behavior is the only
appropriate subject matter.
 Environment
 Most
is the key determinant of behavior.
influential school of thought until the 1960s
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 Skinner’s
Key Points
• Mind, consciousness, and feelings are neither
objective nor measurable.
 not appropriate subject matter for psychology
• operant conditioning
 emphasizes the importance of reinforcement in learning, shaping,
and maintaining behavior
 Operant conditioning - type of learning in which an individual's
behavior is modified by its consequences; the behavior may
change in form, frequency, or strength – as opposed to classical
or Pavlovian conditioning
• Behavior that is reinforced is likely to be repeated
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 Personality
theory developed by Sigmund Freud
 Psychoanalysis
• treatment method for psychological disorders
 Psychoanalytic
Theory
• individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior as determined
primarily by the unconscious
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 Freud’s
Followers
• Jung, Adler, and Horney
• disagreed with Freud’s emphasis on sexual and
aggressive impulses
• referred to as “neoanalysts”
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 Humans
have the capacity for choice, growth,
and psychological health.
 Positive View of Human Nature
• People are innately good.
• Humans possess free will.
• …Is it human nature or just human behavior?
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
“Certainly, human nature is fixed. It's universal and
unchanging — common to every baby that's born, down
through the history of our species. But human behavior
— which is generated by that nature — is endlessly
variable and diverse. After all, fixed rules can give rise to
an inexhaustible range of outcomes. Natural selection
equipped us with the fixed rules — the rules that
constitute our human nature. And it designed those rules
to generate behavior that's sensitive to the environment.
So, the answer to 'genetic determinism' is simple. If you
want to change behavior, just change the environment.
And, of course, to know which changes would be
appropriate and effective, you have to know those
Darwinian rules. You need only to understand human
nature, not to change it.“ Dr. Helena Cronin
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Key Contributors:
 Abraham
Maslow
• theory of motivation
• emphasizes hierarchy of needs
 Carl
Rogers
• client-centered therapy
 Client directs a discussion on his or her own view of the
problem.
 The therapist’s analysis is less the focus of therapy.
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 Grew
in response to strict behaviorism. It
is the most prominent school of thought.
 Saw humans as:
• Not passive recipients pushed and pulled by
environmental forces
• Active participants who seek out experiences, who
alter and shape their experiences
• Using mental processes to transform information
in the course of their own cognitive development
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 Ideas
grew from gestalt psychology and
information-processing theory.
• Gestalt Psychology
 The mind interprets events rather than simply reacting to them.
• Information-Processing Theory
 The brain processes information in sequential steps.
 similar to a computer’s serial processing
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 Investigates:
• Human behaviors necessary for survival
• How behaviors adapted in the face of
environmental pressures over the course of
evolution
 Draws
heavily on Darwin’s theory
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 Often
confused with evolutionary psychology
• Evolutionary psychology focuses on universal traits.
• Biological psychology focuses on individual differences.
 Studies
structures of the brain,
neurotransmitters, hormones, effects of heredity
 Biological psychologists often work in
neuroscience.
• Neuroscience includes biology, biochemistry, and
medicine in understanding functions of the nervous
system.
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 How
background and cultural experiences
affect behavior and mental processes
 Important
to understand these factors
when interpreting the behavior of others
 Often
studied within the broader context of
a systems perspective
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 Many
psychologists take an eclectic
position.
• combination of approaches to explain a particular
behavior
 Adopting
multiple perspectives allows
psychologists to:
• Devise more complex theories and studies
• Improve treatment strategies
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 Theories
help psychologists achieve the
goal of prediction.
• generate testable hypotheses
 Theories
lead to the development of
solutions for real-world problems.
 Theories possesses heuristic value.
• make people think
• spur curiosity and creativity
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 What
Critical Thinking Accomplishes
• Objectively evaluates claims, propositions, and
conclusions
• Determines whether they follow logically from the
evidence presented
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 Characteristics
of Critical Thought
• Independent thinking
 not automatically accepting and believing what we read
or hear
• Suspension of judgment
 gathering relevant and up-to-date information on all
sides of an issue before taking a position
• Willingness to modify or abandon prior
judgments
 evaluating new evidence, even when it contradicts
preexisting beliefs
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
A research method used to establish the degree of relationship
(correlation) between two characteristics, events or behaviors.
• A correlation does not prove causation.
 The researcher would make a hypothesis about
causation then test it with the Experimental Method.
• Correlation Coefficient
 A numerical value that indicates the strength and
direction of the relationship between two variables;
ranges form +1.00 (perfect positive) to -1.00 (perfect
negative). A perfect zero means no relationship.
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• Independent Variable
 Exposed to the Experimental Group. The factor or
condition is deliberately manipulated to determine
whether it causes any change in another behavior or
condition. The Control Group is not exposed to the
factor or condition.
• Dependent Variable
 Measured at the end of the experiment, presumed to
vary as a result of the manipulations of the independent
variable.
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• Confounding Variables
 Factors other than the Independent Variable(s) that are
unequal across groups.
• Selection Bias
 The assignment of participants in such a way that
systematic differences among the groups are present at
the beginning of the experiment. It is controlled by using
Random Assignment.
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• Placebo effect
 When a participant’s response to a treatment is due to his or her
expectations about the treatment rather than the treatment itself.
The Control Group might be given a Placebo to control the
placebo effect.
• Experimenter Bias
 When a researcher’s expectations influence participants’
behavior and/or the researcher’s interpretation of the
experimental results. It is controlled by the Double Blind
Technique where neither the participants not the experimenters
know who is in the experimental and control groups.
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