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Psychology
Refers to the scientific study of the mind and behaviour
a researcher with a question about how or why something happens will propose a tentative explanation, called a hypothesis, to explain the phenomenon
How is the scientific method applied?
Hypothesis
A tentative explanation to explain a phenomenon
Scientific theory
a broad explanation or group of explanations for some aspect of the natural world that is consistently supported by evidence over time. The best understanding we have of that part of the natural world.
A researcher makes observations or carries out an experiment
How is a hypothesis validated?
Question, tentative explanation (hypothesis)
Hypothesis fits into the context of a scientific theory
Makes observations or carries out tests (experiements)
Results are published or presented so that others can replicate or build on results
Steps (order) of the scientific method: [4]
perceivable and measurable
Scientists test that which is ______ and ______
empirical
Psychological science is ____, meaning it is based on MEASURABLE data
Empirical method
Method for acquiring knowledge is one based on observation, including experimentation, rather than a method based only on forms of logical argument or previous authorities
Late 1800s
When was psychology known as its own academic discipline?
No biological organism exists in isolation, and our behaviour is influenced by our interactions with others.
How is psychology a social science?
Critical thinking
The active application of a set of skills to information for understanding and evaluation of that information. Involves maintaining an attitude of skepticism, recognizing internal bias, making use of logcial thinking, asking appropriate questions and making observations.
Critical thinking skills
trained in use of scientific method
Better communication skills
increase scientific literacy
understand complex factors that shape behaviour
Appreciate interaction of our biolgy, environment, and exeriences in determining how we behave
Recognizing diversity that exists across individuals and cultural boundaries
Pros of studying psychology (in notes):
Wilhelm Wundnt and William James
Credited as the founders of psychology as a science and academic discipline that was distinct from philosophy.
Principles of Physiological Psychology
Famous book published in 1873 by Wundt
a scientific study of conscious experience, and he believed that the goal of psychology was to identify components of consciousness and how those components combined to result in our conscious experience
Wundt’s view of psychology
Introspection (Wundt)
a process by which someone examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible, making the human mind like any other aspect of nature that a scientist observed (+scientist responsible)
Voluntarism (Wundt)
that people have free will and should know the intentions of a psychological experiment if they were participating (+scientist responsible)
experimental introspection; he used instruments such as those that measured reaction time.
Wundt’s version of psychological experiments:
Structuralism (Edward Titchener, student of Wundt)
Its focus was on the contents of mental processes rather than their function (+scientist involved)
Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection
idea that this leads to organisms that are adapted to their environment, including their behaviour
Adaptation
means that a trait of an organism has a function for the survival and reproduction of the individual, because it has been naturally selected
psychology’s purpose was to study the function of behaviour in the world
James’ view of psychology:
Functionalism (James)
View of psychology that focused on how mental activities helped an organism fit into its environment. More interested in the operation of the WHOLE MIND rather than INDIVIDUAL parts (+scientist)
Hysteria
Ancient diagnosis for disorders. primarily of women with a wide variety of physical and emotional symptoms with no apparent cause.
The unconscious mind
Freud theorized that hysteria symptoms arose from where?
The unconscious mind
In Freud’s view, this was a repository of feelings and urges of which we have no awareness. Gaining access to this was crocial in successful resolution of patient’s problems.
Dream analysis
Examination to the first words that came to people’s minds
Seemingly innocent slips off the tongue
According to Freud, how could the unconscious mind by accessed?
Psychoanalytic theory (Freud)
Theory that focuses on the role of a person’s unconscious, as well as early childhood experiences (+scientist)
Psychoanalysis
involves the patient talking about their experiences and selves. Popularized by Freud.
Gestault psychology
deals with the fact that although a sensory experience can be broken down into individual parts, how those parts relate to each other as a whole is often what the individual responds to in perception. In terms of the whole, rather than the individual parts comprising the whole. Contrandicts structuralism.
Structuralism, Freud, and the Gestalt psychologists
These theories/theorists were concerned in one way or another with describing and understanding inner experiences. [3]
Conditioned reflex
in which an animal or human produced a reflex (unconscious) response to a stimulus and, over time, was conditioned to produce the response to a different stimulus that the experimenter associated with the original stimulus.
salivation in response to the presence of food using a second stimulus, such as a specific sound, that was presented in association with the initial food stimulus several times.
Reflex Pavlov worked on:
Pavlov’s “classical conditioning”
The only one form of learning behaviour studied by behaviourists:
Behavourism (Watson)
approach of observing and controlling behaviour (+scientist)
learned behaviour and its interaction with inborn qualities of the organism.
Major object of study for behaviourists:
under the assumption that what was learned using animal models could, to some degree, be applied to human behaviour
Why are animals used in behaviourism exerperiments?
Behaviour modification
Behaviourism technique used in a classroom setting:
B.F. Skinner
American psychlogist (behaviourist) that concentrated on how behaviour was affected by its consequences:
The Skinner box (aka operant conditioning chamber)
a chamber that isolates the subject from the external environment and has a behaviour indicator such as a lever or a button. Focus on positive and negative reinforcement.
Humanism (Maslow and Rogers)
a perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans (+scientists)
the highest-level needs relate to self-actualization, a process by which we achieve our full potential
Highest level of Maslow’s Hierarchy, explained
Humanistic psychologists rejected, on principle, the research approach based on reductionist experimentation in the tradition of the physical and biological sciences, because it missed the “whole” human being
What do humanistic psychologists reject?
Potential for good exists within all people
Carl Rogers emphasized what?
client-centred therapy: the patient taking a lead role in the therapy session
Therapeutic technique used by Carl Rogers
unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and empathy
Three features that Rogers believed therapists needed to display:
Unconditional positive regard
refers to the fact that the therapist accepts their client for who they are, no matter what he or she might say.
cognitive revolution
By the 1950s, new disciplinary perspectives in linguistics, neuroscience, and computer science were emerging, and these areas revived interest in the mind as a focus of scientific inquiry
Noam Chomsky believed that psychology’s focus on behaviour was short-sighted and that the field had to re-incorporate mental functioning into its purview if it were to offer any meaningful contributions to understanding behaviour
Although no one person is entirely responsible for starting the cognitive revolution,__________ was very influential in the early days of the cognitive revolution movement:
male psychologists for constructing the psychology of women entirely out of their own cultural biases and without careful experimental tests to verify any of their characterizations of women
Describe critiques women made of male psychologists in the late 60s
There is a risk that psychological theories and data derived from white, American settings could be assumed to apply to individuals and social groups from other cultures and this is unlikely to be true
Risk of assuming white americans and other cultures yield the same psychological results
Multicultural psychologists
________ develop theories and conduct research with diverse populations, typically within one country
Cross-cultural psychologists
____________________ compare populations across countries, such as participants from the United States compared to participants from China.
Francis Cecil Sumner
first African American to receive a PhD in psychology in the United States. established a psychology degree program at Howard University, leading to the education of a new generation of African American psychologists
Mamie Phipps Clark and her husband, Kenneth Clark
They are best known for their studies conducted on African American children and doll preference, research that was instrumental in the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court desegregation case
, Margaret Floy Washburn
the first woman awarded the doctoral degree in psychology.
American Psychological Association
largest organization of psychologists in the world, and its mission is to advance and disseminate psychological knowledge for the betterment of people
biopsychology
explores how our biology influences our behaviour.
sensory and motor systems, sleep,
drug use and abuse,
ingestive behaviour,
reproductive behaviour,
neurodevelopment,
plasticity of the nervous system,
and biological correlates of psychological disorders
Research interests of biological psychologists: [7]
evolutionary psychology
seeks to study the ultimate biological causes of behaviour. To the extent that a behaviour is impacted by genetics, a behaviour, like any anatomical characteristic of a human or animal, will demonstrate adaption to its surroundings.
One other drawback of evolutionary psychology is that the traits that we possess now evolved under environmental and social conditions far back in human history, and we have a poor understanding of what these conditions were. Makes predictions difficult
Drawback of evolutionary psychology:
memory,
mate choice,
relationships between kin,
friendship and cooperation,
parenting,
social organization,
and status
Where evolutionary psychology can make predictions: [7]
cognitive psychology
the area of psychology that focuses on studying cognitions, or thoughts, and their relationship to our experiences and our actions. broad in its scope and often involves collaborations among people from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds
span a spectrum of topics, ranging from attention to problem solving to language to memory
topics of interest in cognitive psychology
Developmental psychology
the scientific study of development across a lifespan, psychologists are interested in processes related to physical maturation. also focuses on changes in cognitive skills, moral reasoning, social behaviour, and other psychological attributes.
Object permanence
understanding that physical things continue to exist, even if they are hidden from us
Personality psychology
ocuses on patterns of thoughts and behaviours that make each individual unique
Freud proposed that personality arose as conflicts between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind were carried out over the lifespan. Specifically, Freud theorized that an individual went through various psychosexual stages of development.
Freud and personality psychology explained:
psychosexual stages of development. This theory was controversial and did not lend itself to experimental tests.
According to Freud, adult personality would result from the resolution of various conflicts that centred on the migration of erogenous (or sexual pleasure-producing) zones from the oral (mouth) to the anus to the phallus to the genitals
Personality traits
relatively consistent patterns of thought and behaviour,
“Big Five” or the Five Factor model, and include dimensions of conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion
Five dimensions of personality traits
Social psychology
focuses on how we interact with and relate to others. psychologists conduct research on a wide variety of topics that include differences in how we explain our own behaviour versus how we explain the behaviours of others, prejudice, and attraction, and how we resolve interpersonal conflicts
Industrial-Organizational psychology (I-O psychology)
a subfield of psychology that applies psychological theories, principles, and research findings in industrial and organizational settings.
often involved in issues related to personnel management, organizational structure, and workplace environment. Businesses often seek the aid of I-O psychologists to make the best hiring decisions as well as to create an environment that results in high levels of employee productivity and efficiency.
What do I-O psychologists deal with
Health psychology
focuses on how health is affected by the interaction of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors.
biopsychosocial model
model suggests that health/illness is determined by an interaction of these three factors.
Health psychologists are interested in helping individuals achieve better health through public policy, education, intervention, and research.
How do health psychologists help individuals achieve better health? [4]
sport and exercise psychology
study the psychological aspects of sport performance, including motivation and performance anxiety, and the effects of sport on mental and emotional wellbeing. includes topics that are broader than sport and exercise but that are related to interactions between mental and physical performance under demanding conditions,
fire fighting, military operations, artistic performance, and surgery.
Sport and exercise psychology also includes careers with mental and physical performance, such as:
Clinical psychology
the area of psychology that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and other problematic patterns of behaviour.
Counselling psychology
similar discipline to clinical that focuses on emotional, social, vocational, and health-related outcomes in individuals who are considered psychologically healthy
clinical psychology
By far, this is the area of psychology that receives the most attention in popular media, and many people mistakenly assume that all psychology isc ________
Forensic psychology
a branch of psychology that deals questions of psychology as they arise in the context of the justice system
will assess a person’s competency to stand trial,
assess the state of mind of a defendant,
act as consultants on child custody cases,
consult on sentencing and treatment recommendations,
and advise on issues such as eyewitness testimony and children’s testimony
What do forensic psychologists do? [5]
A dissertation
is essentially a long research paper or bundled published articles describing research that was conducted as a part of the candidate’s doctoral training
dissertation
requirements to earn a PhD vary from country to country and even from school to school, but usually, individuals earning this degree must complete a _________-__
dividing time between teaching, research, and service to the institution and profession
Being on the faculty of a college or university often involves … ?
Adjunct faculty members and instructors, who may not hold a doctoral degree. Most have masters.
These people usually have an advanced degree in psychology, but they often have primary careers outside of academia and serve in this role as a secondary job
Postdoctoral training programs
programs allow young scientists to further develop their research programs and broaden their research skills under the supervision of other professionals in the field.
PsyD.
a doctor of psychology degree that is increasingly popular among individuals interested in pursuing careers in clinical psychology. These programs generally place less emphasis on research-oriented skills and focus more on application of psychological principles in the clinical context
an individual wishing to practice as a licensed clinical or counselling psychologist may complete postdoctoral work under the supervision of a licensed psychologist. fter an individual has met the state requirements, their credentials are evaluated to determine whether they can sit for the licensure exam.
What education is needed to practice as a licensed clinical or counselling psychologist?
While both can conduct therapy and counselling, clinical psychologists have a PhD or a PsyD, whereas psychiatrists have a doctor of medicine degree (MD). licensed clinical psychologists can administer and interpret psychological tests, while psychiatrists can prescribe medications.
Difference between clinical psychologist and psychiatrist
become licensed to serve as various types of professional counsellors. Relevant master’s degrees are also sufficient for individuals seeking careers as school psychologists in some capacities related to sport psychology, or as consultants in various industrial settings. Undergraduate coursework in psychology may be applicable to other careers such as psychiatric social work or psychiatric nursing, where assessments and therapy may be a part of the job.
Psych jobs not requiring a PhD
adaptation
a trait of an organism has a function for the survival and reproduction of the individual
behaviourism
focus on observing and controlling behaviour
-ology
suffix that denotes “scientific study of”
PhD (doctor of philosophy)
doctoral degree conferred in many disciplinary perspectives housed in a traditional college of liberal arts and sciences
structuralism
understanding the conscious experience through introspection
Note 
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