PSYC 101 UBC

psychology

1. A science - empirical approach with objective measures (evidence based, not opinion)

2. Not a dogma - a way of collecting info abt the world

What is the scientific attitude? (3 pts)

1. Curiosity (of the world)

2. Scepticism (interrogate & quality of evidence)

3. Humility (not wanting to be right)

Aristotle (before 300 B.C.E)

Rationalism:

- No systematic observation or testing

- Thinking really hard & then writing about it

- Interested in mind & body relationship

Descarte (1596-1650)

Dualism:

- Body and mind are separate

- Still a thing today

- Physical vs. psychological (eg. addiction)

Spinoza (1632-1677)

Double Aspect Theory:

- Mental world corresponds to physical world

- Everything can be observed & is subject to cause and effect

- Mental reality = physical reality

Locke & Hume (1632-1776)

Empiricism:

- Truth can only be sought through experience and information

- Objective observation & recording

Von Helmholtz (1821-1894)

Perception:

- The interface / link btw physiology & psychology

- Organization & interpretation of sensory stimulus

- Diff btw sensation & perception exists

Weber (1795-1878)

Psychophysiology:

- Relationship btw physical & mental realms (non-linear)

- Work led to method for objectively measuring human perception

- Diff btw physical stimuli & associated perception was informative (eg. pain, volume)

Wilhelm Wundt & Titchener (1832-1927)

Structuralism:

- What are the atoms of the mind, what is the structure?

- Too subjective (not enough empirical measures)

- Used introspection (think about your thoughts) & trained participants how to look inside their minds to find component parts (sketchy...)

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Natural Selection:

- Published 'The Origin of Species' (1859) detailing natural selection as the mechanism of evolution

- Evolutionary perspective on emotions & success (emotions must have strong fitness)

- Created specialist fields

William James (1842-1910)

Functionalism:

- Filtering psychology through lens of evolutionary function that it serves (thoughts, feelings, behaviours)

- Wrote 'Principles of Psychology'

- Problems with objectively capturing measures of 'mind'

European School of Psychology (influential people & discoveries)

Q: What are the components of the mind?

- Wilhelm Wundt & Titchener (Structuralism)

- Psychology's first lab (1879)

American School of Psychology (influential people & discoveries)

Q: What are the functions of these components?

- William James (Functionalism)

- Heavily influenced by Darwin

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) - 3pts

The Unconscious:

1. Most mental processes are below the level of our consciousness

2. Emergence & popularization of talk therapy

3. Recognizing that mental illness can be thought of like a physical illness

Behaviourism (contributors, definition, outcomes)

Pavlov, Rayner, Watson, Skinner (1920-1960)

- Psychology = the scientific study of observable behaviour (there is no mind)

- Only study what you can directly & empirically observe

- Study the mind by not studying the mind (no reference to mental processes)

- Assumes only objectively measurable things can be studied (ie. behaviour) & mind is blank when born

- Criticized structuralists

Behavioural Determinism

Actions are solely the product of environmental conditioning

- No influence of nature

- People have unlimited potential & are not inherently doomed

- Education is VIP

Pavlov (1903)

Classical Conditioning:

- Learning by association

- Salivating dog experiment

- Linking together two stimuli (doesn't have to be consciously known to be expressed in behaviour)

Watson & Rayner (1920)

Applications of Classical Conditioning:

- Little Albert Experiment (baby + mice + fear)

- Took findings into marketing

B.F Skinner (1904)

Operant Conditioning:

- Learn by consequences, not association

- Good & bad consequences

- Applications to parenting

Humanism (contributors, definition, outcomes)

Carl Rogers & Abraham Maslow (1910-1980)

- Revived interest in the study of mental processes

- Ways that current environments nurture or limit growth potential

- The importance of having the needs for love and acceptance satisfied

Tolman (1948)

Latent Learning:

- Subconscious learning that becomes apparent when incentive is introduced

- Life is more than consequences & associations (can learn without pos & neg stimuli)

- If simply learning series of actions, then can't adapt & infer mental processes

Cognitive Psychology (definition, outcomes)

Experimental techniques were devised which enabled scientific investigation of mental processing

- Scientifically explored ways in which information is perceived, processed & remembered

- Thinking, categorization, memory, sensation & perception

- Eg. Measuring attention in terms of reaction time

Cognitive Neuroscience (definition, outcomes)

- Scientific study of cognition and behaviour by looking at the level of the brain & neural functioning

- Technological advancements change the types of questions you can ask (usually non-invasive imaging)

- Links science of the mind (cog psych) w/ science of brain (neuro)

Cognitive Revolution (1960)

Tolman (1948)

- Interest in mental processes returned

Psychology (modern definition)

Science of behaviour and mental processes

Behaviour (modern definition)

Any action that can be observed or recorded

- Committing some action or response to the world

- Physiological measurements

Mental processes (modern definition)

Internal, subjective experience inferred from behaviour

- Not easy to quantitatively measure or directly observe

Cross-cultural & Gender psychology (implications)

Psych studies often conducted on WEIRD participants leads to problems creating accurate universalities

- Emotions diff rep by various cultures

- Shared biological heritage contributes to underlying universal processes

- Socially defined gender & biologically defined sex contribute to deeper understanding

W.E.I.R.D Acronym meaning

W - Western

E - Educated

I - Industrialized

R - Rich

D - Democratic

Cross-Cultural Psychology (definition)

Focuses on how culture shapes behaviour, but recognizes that some underlying processes are universal

Gender Psychology (definition)

Focuses on differences & similarities across genders & sexes

Martin Seligman & Others (1942+)

Positive Psychology:

- Uses scientific methods to investigate building:

1. A good life - engages a person's skill

2. A meaningful life - extends beyond oneself

- Relationship btw money & happiness is not linear (after basic needs met)

- More rigorous version of humanists

Positive Psychology (definition)

Focuses on human flourishing

Evolutionary Psychology (definition)

Focuses on how humans are alike because of common biology & evolutionary history

Behaviour Genetics (definition)

Focuses on differences related to differing genes & environments

Nature & Nurture (modern take)

View both as important:

- Not nature vs. nurture

- Violin & violinist

- Genes have to be expressed in our environment (cannot study one in isolation)

- Strong environmental influence (education access!!)

Nature over nurture (historical support)

- Plato (character & intelligence inherited, some ideas unborn)

- Descartes (some ideas are intuitive)

- Darwin (some traits, behaviours & instincts are part of species - natural selection)

Nurture over nature (historical support)

- Aristotle (content of the mind comes through the sense)

- Locke (mind is a blank slate)

Biopsychosocial Model of Behaviour - 3pts

Approach with multiple lenses / influences bc doesn't work if treated only like an illness:

1. Biological

2. Psychological

3. Social-Cultural

Biological Influences on behaviour - 4pts

- Genetic predispositions

- Mutations

- Natural selection

- Genes responding to environment

Psychological influences on behaviour - 4pts

- Learned fears & expectations

- Emotional responses

- Cognitive processing

- Perceptual interpretations

Social-Cultural influences on behaviour - 4pts

- Presence of others

- Cultural, societal & family expectations

- Peer & other group influences

- Compelling models (eg. media)

How does research become Public & Repeatable? - 4pts

Peer Review:

- Editor handles paper

- Selects anonymous reviewers

- Systematically comment on research

- Editor receives & makes decision to accept, revise & submit or reject

Why study Research Methods? - 5pts

- Health (don't get sold on random things)

- Wallet (don't wase money)

- Career (designing cities, politics, etc)

- Edification (changing how you see the world)

- Community (knowledge to support)

What are the Research Methods? - 4pts

How do we acquire correct info about the world?

- Authority

- Intuition

- Observe

- Test

Authority (as a method of acquiring knowledge)

- Weakest form of knowledge (not based on info, only trust, often exploited)

- Sometimes useful if authority trustworthy source (mistakes & teachings of others)

Problems with Authority

Lots of bullshit (separating truth from reality)

- Differs from lies

Intuition (as a method of acquiring knowledge)

- Great place to start, bad place to end

- Draws from anecdotal life experience

Problems with Intuition - 7pts

1. Illusory correlation (correlation does not equal causation)

2. Susceptible to bias

3. Overconfidence (Danning-Kruger effect)

4. We struggle with probability

5. Confirmation bias

6. Hindsight bias

7. Post-hoc explanations

Observation (as a method of acquiring new knowledge) - 2pts

- Limited explanatory power

- Works best with objective measures

Scientific Skepticism - 5pts

- Question authority, intuition, senses, knowledge, beliefs

- Systematic doubt & continual testing

The Scientific Method - 10pts

1. Observation

2. Idea

3. Consult past research

4. Hypothesis

5. Design study

6. Ethical approval

7. Collect data

8. Analyze data

9. Modify & repeat

10. Consider result implications, build theories

Principles of Good Science - 5pts

- Materialism

- Universalism

- Communality

- Disinterestedness

- Organized skepticism

Materialism (definition)

Everything in the universe without exception is material (matter or energy)

- Can be observed

- Adheres to the laws of nature

- Follows principles of cause & effect

Universalism (definition)

The idea that we use objective measures to systematically observe the world through a universally accepted measurement

Communality (definition)

Insofar as possible, your methods and results should be publicly available

Disinterestedness (definition)

Insofar as possible, you do not care about the results of your experiment

Organized skepticism (definition)

We evaluate science based on the quality of the research & its scientific merit, not the authority who wrote it

What is a Theory? (scientific definition)

Organizes a bunch of scientific information together to explain a variety of facts / descriptions / observations

- Falsifiable (can be tested)

- Parsimonious (simpler tends to be correct)

Pseudoscience problems - 9pts

- Often relies on authority

- Emphasis on scientific-sounding jargon

- Not falsifiable

- Poor / no methodology or anecdotal evidence

- Not peer reviewed

- Ignores conflicts with existing evidence

- Vague claims

- Often reinforces status quo or a worldview

- Does not facilitate further research

Four Goals of Psychological Research

Of behaviour:

1. Describe (systematically & quantitatively)

2. Predict

3. Determine causes of (underlying mechanisms)

4. Influence or control

Two types of Research

1. Basic (foundational science)

2. Applied (applications)

Conceptual Variable (definition according to research design)