INTROPSY - Lesson 1: The Science of Psychology

Do not rely on this primarily, read as well.

Psychology

is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

Behavior

includes all of our outward or overt actions and reactions, such as talking, facial expressions, and movement.

Mental Processes

refere to all the internal, covert (hidden) activity of our minds, such as thinking, feeling, and remembering.

Scientific

Why ____? To study behavior and mental processes in both animals and humans, researchers must observe them.

Psychology’s Four Primary Goals

1. Description

2. Explanation

3. Prediction

4. Control

Description

• What is happening?

• First step in understanding anything

• Involves observing a behavior and noting everything about it: what is happening, where it happens, to whom it happens, and under what circumstances it seems to happen.

Explanations

• Why is it happening?

• Finding ____ is a very important step in the process of forming theories of behavior

Theory

is a general explanation of a set of observations or facts. The goal of description provides observations, and the goal of explanation helps to build the ____.

Prediction

• When will it happen again?

• Determining what will happen in the future is a _____.

Control

• How can it be changed?

• The focus of ___, or the modification of some behavior, is to change a behavior from an undesirable one to a desirable one.

Wilhelm Wundt

• a physiologist, attempted to apply scientific principles to the study of the human mind

• believed that consciousness, the state of being aware of external events, could be broken down into thoughts, experiences, emotions, and other basic elements.

Leipzig, Germany

It all started to come together in a laboratory in ________, in 1879

Objective Introspection

the process of objectively examining and measuring one’s own thoughts and mental activities (Rieber & Robinson, 2001)

Objectivity

is important because scientists need to remain unbiased.

Observations

need to be clear and precise, but unaffected by the individual observer’s beliefs and values.

Father of Psychology

This attention to objectivity, together with the establishment of the first true experimental laboratory in psychology, is why Wundt is known as the __________.

Edward Titchener

• an Englishman who eventually took Wundt’s ideas to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

• also believed that objective introspection could be used on thoughts as well as on physical sensations.

Structuralism

the focus of study was the structure of the mind. He believed that every experience could be broken down into its individual emotions and sensations. (Brennan, 2002)

Structuralism

as a dominant force in the early days of psychology, but eventually dies out in the early 1900s, as the structuralists were busily fighting among themselves over just which key elements of experience were the most important.

William James

• was more interested in the importance of consciousness to everyday life rather than just its analysis

• believed that the scientific study of consciousness itself was not yet possible

Functionalism

focused on how the mind allows people to function in the real world — how people work, play, and adapt to their surroundings

Functionalism

• offered an alternative viewpoint to the structuralists

• can find elements in of ___ in the modern fields of educational psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, as well as other areas in psychology.

• also play a part in the development of evolutionary psychology.

Max Wertheimer

• believed that psychological events such as perceiving and sensing could not be broken down into any smaller elements and still be properly understood.

• “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Gestalt

german word meaning “an organized whole” or “configuration”

Gestalt Psychology

focus on studying whole patterns rather than small pieces of them

Cognitive Psychology

related to Gestalt Theory/Psychology

Sigmund Freud

• Austrian physician and neourologist specializes in disorders of the nervous system

Freud

• He proposed that there is an unconscious (unaware) mind into which we push, or repress, all of our threatening urges and desires. He believed that these repressed urges, in trying to surface, created the nervous disorders in his patients.

• stressed the importance of early childhood experiences, believing that personality was formed in the first 6 years of life; if there were significant problems, those problems begun in the early years.

Psychoanalysis

the theory and therapy based on Freud’s ideas, has been the basis of much modern psychotherapy (a process in which a trained psychological professional helps a person gain insight into and change his or her behavior), but another major and competing viewpoint has actually been more influential in the field of psychology as a whole.

John B. Watson

• challenged the functionalist viewpoint, as well as psychoanalysis, with his own “science of behavior” or behaviorism

• wanted to bring psychology back to a focus on scientific inquiry, and he felt that the only way to do that was to ignore the whole consciousness issue and focus only on observable behavior — something that could be directly seen and measured.

• read of Pavlov’s work

• Freud believed that all behavior stems from unconscious motivation, whereas ___ believed that all behavior is learned.

• “Little Albert”

Psychodynamic Perspective

Focuses on the role of the unsconscious mind and its influence on conscious behavior, early childhood experiences, development of sense of self, and other motivations.

Behavioral Perspective

Focuses on how behavioral responeses are learned through classical or operant conditioning

Humanistic Perspective

Focuses on human potential, free will, and possibility of self-actualization

Cognitive Perspective

Focuses on memory, intelligence, perception, thought processes, problem solving, language, and learning

Sociocultural Perspective

Focuses on the behavior of individuals as the result of the presence (real or imagined) of other individuals, as part of groups, or as part of a larger culture

Biopsychological Perspective

Focuses on influences of hormones, brain structures and chemicals, disease, etc.; human and animal behavior is seen as direct result of events in the body

Evolutionary Perspective

Focuses on the biological bases for universal mental characteristics, such as why we lie, how attractiveness influences mate selection, the universality of fear, and why we enjoy things like music and dance.

Psychologist

• Has a doctorate degree (Ph.D., Psy.D., or Ed.D.) and works with either humans or animals in a variety of settings based on the area of specialization

• Must be licensed to practice independently; typically does not prescribe medications but can go through specialized training only

Psychiatrist

Medical doctor who specializes in diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders; can prescrible medication

Basic research

is research for the sake of gaining scientific knowledge

Applied research

which is research aimed at answering real-world, practical problems

The Scientific Methodology

1. Perceiving the Question

2. Forming a Hypothesis

3. Testing the Hypothesis

4. Drawing Conclusions

5. Report your results

Descriptive Methods

• Naturalistic Observation

• Laboratory Observation

• Case Studies

• Surveys

Correlation

• a statistical technique, a particular way of organizing numerical information so that it is easier to look for patterns in the information.

• is a measure of the relationship between two or more variables.

Correlation Coefficient

represents two things: the direction of the relationship and its strength

Positive correlations

exist when increases in one variable are matched by increases in the other variable

Negative correlations

exist when increases in one variable are matched by decreases in the other variable

Placebo

is a treatment that does not have active properties or a treatment that is “fake”

Single-blind studies

Experiments in which the subjects do not know if they are in the experimental or control groups

Double-blind studies

Experiments in which neither the experimenters nor the subjects know this information

Critical thinking

ability to make reasoned judgements