chapter 5: scientific foundations of psychology

• summary page:

  • psychology: study of behavior and mental processes

  • theories: organized sets of concepts that explain phenomena

  • replication: obtaining results using similar methods

roots of psychology

• Hippocrates thought the mind or soul resided in the brain but was not composed of physical substance (mind-body dualism)

• plato agreed but also said that what we are innate, aristotle said the mind/soul come from out anatomy and physiological processes (monism)

• this forms the nature-nurture controversy

schools of psychology—important people

• plato: greek philosopher who argued for the role of nature in psychological development

• aristotle: greek philosopher who argued for the role of nurture in psychological development

• hobbes, descartes, locke, rousseau: french/english philosophers

• gustav fechner: german experimental psychologist who developed the idea of the just noticeable difference (JND) which is considered to be the first empirical psychological measurement

• charles darwin: british naturalist whose theory of natural selection influenced the functionalist school and the field of structuralism

• wilhelm wundt: german psychologist who opened one of the first psychology laboratories and helped develop the field of structuralism

• edward bradford titchener: american psychologist who contributed to the field of structuralism

• g. stanley hall: american psychologist who brought introspection to his lab at john hopkins university, first president of the american psychological association

• margaret floy washburn: first woman to complete PhD in psychology

• william james: american psychologist who opened one of the first psychology labs and helped develop functionalism

• ivan pavlov: russian psychologist who studied ability of people to remember the principles of classical conditioning

• hermann ebbinghaus: german psychologist who studied ability of people to remember lists of nonsense syllables under different conditions

• sigmund freud: austrian psychologist who founded psychodynamic psychology

• john b. watson: american psychologist who contributed to behaviorism

• sir frederic bartlett: british psychologist who studied the cognitive and social processes of remembering

• jean plaget: swiss psychologist who developed an important theory of cognitive development in children

• b.f. skinner: american psychologist who contributed to behaviorism

schools of psychology—important schools

• remember that schools means something different in this context! :)

• wilhelm studied conscious experiences of sensation, using introspection and the structure of the mind using basic elements of conciousness (school of structuralism)

• william james was interested in the function/purpose of behavioral acts, using practical situations and the function of mental operations in adapting to the environment (stream of consciousness) which created functionalism

principal approaches to psychology

• the behavioral approach focuses on measuring and recording observable behavior in relation to the environment, like how Ivan Pavlov trained dogs to salivate in response to the sound of a tone, paving the way to behaviorism

• behaviorism involves the ABCs:

  • Antecendent environmental conditions that proceed a behavior

  • Behavior — action to understand/predict/control

  • Consequences that follow the behavior

• psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach: psychoanalytic theory (proposed by sigmund freud) focused on unconcious internal conflicts to explain mental disorders, personality, and motivation. he also said the unconscious is the below-the-surface of concious awareness

• humanistic approach: in disagreement with both theories, some psychologists thought humans have unique qualities of behavior from other animals

• biological approach: taking behavior processes to a chemical/biological level

• evolutionary approach: explaining behavior patterns as adaptations naturally selected because they increase reproductive success

• cognitive approach: study of consciousness (thinking and memory)

• sociocultural approach: studying cultural differences and why they occur

• biopsychosocial model integrates biology, psychology, and social forces to make a complete picture of mental/behavioral processes (pg 58)

domains of psychology

• after WW2, specialized psychology types began to form, leading to different careers

• clinical psychologists: treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders

• counseling: help people change their lifestyles

• developmental: study how people develop

• educational: focus on how teaching and learning works

• forensic: use psychology legally

• health/positive: concerned with psychology’s role in health

• industrial/organizational: aim to improve productivity and work life

• neuropsychologists: look at brain/behavior relationship

• psychometricians: look at methods for getting psych data

• social psychologists: look at mental health/people relationship

experimental method

• independent variable, control, dependent variable

• population of a study includes all individuals in a group the study applies to, most scientists use sample groups

• random selection keeps samples fair, experimental groups receive the treatment, control groups don’t, random assigning keeps group divisions fair

• between-subjects design—the participants in the experimental group and the contrl group are different individuals

• confounding variables are differences between the groups not related to the IV

• operational definition: the specific procedure used to determine the presence of a variable

• experimenter bias (experimenter expectancy effect) is what occurs when a researcher’s expectations or preferences about the study influence its results

• demand characteristics are things participants hear about the study. to eliminate it single-blind procedure (not saying which group people are in) is used

• to eliminate both experimenter bias and demand characteristics double blind procedure is used (neither experimenter nor participants know which group is which)

• in drug experiments a placebo (drug, pill, etc. is used) and when people think they feel a difference it is a placebo effect

• within-subjects design: using participants as his or her own control

• counterbalancing: assigning half of the subjects to one treatment first while the other get the other treatment first

• quasi-experimental research designs are similar to controlled experiments, but participants are not randomly assigned

correlational research

• naturalistic observation: careful observation of humans/animals in real-life situations

• survey method: using questionnaires for data

  • ex post facto studies: look at an effect and seek the cause

• test method: procedures used to measure attributes of individuals at a particular time and place

  • must be reliable (consistent) and valid (predicting what it’s supposed to)

• case study method: in-depth examination of a specific group or single person that typically includes interviews, observations, and test scores

elementary statistics

• statistics: a field that involves the analysis of numerical data about representative samples of populations

  • descriptive statistics: numbers that summarize a set of research data

  • frequency distribution: an arrangement of scores indicating how frequent they are

  • frequency polygon and histograms are common displays of this data

• central tendency: describes average/typical scores for a set of data

  • mode: most often score, bimodal: 2 or more scores are the most frequent, multimodal: 3+

  • in normal distributions, the mean, median, and mode are the same

  • skewed distributions are shifted (see pg 65)

• variability: spread of dispersion of scores in a data set

  • variance and standard deviation indicate how scores differ from each other and vary by the mean value

  • SD close to zero means scores are smushed together

• standard score/z score: helps scientists compare scores that are initially on different scales

• percentile score: indicates percentages of scores above or below a score

• correlation coefficient: measures the degree of relatedness or association between two sets of data

  • if the CC ( r ) is +1, there is direct correlation, -1 means indirect, and 0 means none. so 0.9 means strong direct correlation, etc.

inferential stats

• inferential stats interpret data and make conclusions

• statistical significance (p) measures how likely a difference between a group and another group is real and not by chance

  • SS is likely with large differences between two groups, low deviations, and large samples

• meta-analysis: statistically combining the results of individual research studies to reach overall conclusion

ethical guidelines

• most institutions have review boards that review tests, tests must be done fairly and safely for participants (humans and animals alike)

• some guidelines:

  • discuss intellectual property frankly (be honest from the beginning)

  • be conscious of multiple roles: avoid relationships that exploit others

  • follow informed consent rules: participants need to know details about studies and also their rights