Introduction to Psychology Concepts and Methods

Psychology

The study of behavior and mental processes.

Behavior

Observable actions of individuals.

Mental Processes

Internal experiences such as thoughts, feelings, and memories.

Father of Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt.

Wilhelm Wundt's major contribution

He established the first psychology laboratory and used introspection to study the mind.

Structuralism

An early school of thought focused on breaking down mental processes into their basic components.

Functionalism

A school of thought focused on how mental and behavioral processes function in adaptation to the environment.

Behaviorism

A perspective that studies observable behaviors and dismisses mental processes.

Psychoanalysis

A theory emphasizing unconscious motives and conflicts developed by Freud.

Gestalt Psychology

A psychological perspective emphasizing that the whole is different from the sum of its parts.

Modern perspectives in psychology

Biological, cognitive, behavioral, psychodynamic, humanistic, sociocultural, evolutionary.

Behavioral perspective

Focuses on observable behaviors.

Psychodynamic perspective

Focuses on unconscious motives.

Cognitive perspective

Focuses on how people think, process, and store information.

Scientific attitude elements

Curiosity, skepticism, humility, and critical thinking.

Critical thinking importance

It helps avoid biases and make objective conclusions based on evidence.

Goals of psychology

Describe, explain, predict, and control behavior and mental processes.

Steps of the scientific method

Ask a question, form a hypothesis, conduct an experiment, analyze data, draw conclusions, report results.

Independent variable

The variable that is manipulated in an experiment.

Dependent variable

The variable that is measured in an experiment.

Naturalistic Observation

A research method observing subjects in their natural environment.

Strength of Naturalistic Observation

Provides authentic behavior in a real-world setting.

Limitation of Naturalistic Observation

Lack of control over variables.

Case Study

An in-depth study of an individual or a small group.

Strength of Case Studies

Provides detailed and rich qualitative data.

Limitation of Case Studies

Findings may not be generalizable.

Survey

A research method using questionnaires to gather data from a large group.

Strength of Surveys

Can collect data from many people efficiently.

Limitation of Surveys

Responses may be biased or inaccurate.

Correlation does not imply causation

Just because two variables are related does not mean one causes the other.

Spurious correlation example

Ice cream sales and drowning rates both increase in summer but are not causally related.

Ethical principles in psychological research

Informed consent, debriefing, confidentiality, protection from harm, voluntary participation.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

To ensure ethical standards are met in psychological research.

Central tendency

A measure that represents the center of a dataset.

Mean

The average of a set of numbers.

Median

The middle value in an ordered set of numbers.

Mode

The most frequently occurring value in a dataset.

Measures of variation

Statistics that describe the spread of data, such as range and standard deviation.