Class notes chapter 1 psyc 2301

Chapter 1 The Science of Psychology Notes

RAPID REVIEW

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology laboratory in Germany in 1879 and developed the method of objective introspection in an attempt to study human thought processes. Edward Titchener, a student of Wundt, expanded Wundt’s ideas and brought the method of introspection to the United States, calling his approach structuralism. William James focused on discovering how our mental processes help us function in our daily lives and began to promote his viewpoint known as functionalism. Gestalt psychologists studied how sensation and perception create a pattern that is greater than the sum of the individual components. Sigmund Freud developed his theory of psychoanalysis, assigning a primary role to the unconscious. John Watson expanded the findings of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov to promote the perspective of behaviorism. Today the following seven major perspectives make up the field of psychology: psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, sociocultural, biopsychological, and evolutionary. The field of psychology offers a range of professional opportunities, many based on direct practice. For example, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and psychiatric social workers provide varying forms of mental health care with varying specializations and training. Psychologists might also perform clinical work but can specialize in many other areas and work in many different settings.

Critical thinking is a skill that is important in evaluating claims in everyday life. Psychologists, like all scientists, use the scientific approach. The goals of psychology are to describe, explain, predict, and control the behaviors and mental process of both humans and animals. Specific research techniques include naturalistic observation, participant observation, laboratory observation, case studies, surveys, and strategies that take a correlational approach. In an experiment, the researcher manipulates an independent variable and measures some response from the participants on the dependent variable. To accomplish this, the researcher usually observes two groups: an experimental group and a control group. The researcher will most likely use random assignment to determine which participants will go into each group. Often the control group receives a bogus treatment in order to control for the placebo effect. Normally, the participants are not told which group they are in (single-blind study). To control for any expectations the experimenter might have (the experimenter effect), the study might be designed so that neither the experimenter nor the participants know who is in which group (double-blind study). Relying on the scientific method can help foster a more general attitude of critical thinking.

LECTURE GUIDE

I. THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics

• 1.1 How Do We Know What We Know?

• 1.2 Psychology and Common Sense

• 1.3 African Americans in the History of Psychology in America

• 1.4 Women in the History of Psychology in America

• 1.5 Brief Biographical Profiles of Major Contributors to Psychology

• 1.6 Scandal in Psychology—John B. Watson’s Fall from Grace

• 1.7 The Study of Bumps on the Head

Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises

• 1.1 Psychology’s Goals Applied to Your Many Questions

• 1.2 Pseudopsychology and the Mozart Effect

• 1.3 A Jigsaw Approach to Learning the Early History of Psychology

• 1.4 Which Famous Psychologist Am I?

Learning Objective 1.1 Describe the contributions of some of the early pioneers in psychology.

A. The history of psychology

1. Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

a. Psychology is a hub science with research findings that are cited and used in meaningful ways in other fields.

b. Behavior includes our outward actions and reactions, whereas mental processes include the internal or hidden activities of our minds.

B. In the beginning: Wundt, Titchener, and James

1. In 1879, psychology as a science was first practiced in Germany.

a. Wilhelm Wundt developed the method of objective introspection, the process of objectively examining and measuring one’s own thoughts and mental activities.

b. Wundt is known as the father of psychology because of his attention to objectivity and the establishment of the first experimental laboratory in psychology.

2. Titchener and structuralism in America

a. Edward Titchener brought psychology to America in the form of structuralism, a viewpoint in which the focus of study is the structure or basic elements of the mind.

b. Margaret Washburn, one of Titchener’s students, was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in psychology in 1894.

3. William James and functionalism

a. James focused on how the mind allows people to function in the real world and adapt to their surroundings in a viewpoint called functionalism.

b. Elements of functionalism can be found in the modern fields of educational, industrial/organizational, and evolutionary psychology.

Learning Objective 1.2 Summarize the basic ideas and the important people behind the early approaches known as Gestalt, psychoanalysis, and behaviorism.

C. Three influential approaches: Gestalt, psychoanalysis, and behaviorism

1. Gestalt psychology: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

a. Max Wertheimer and others believed sensation and perception could not be broken down into any smaller elements and still be properly understood.

b. This new perspective called Gestalt psychology focused on perception and sensation, particularly the perception of patterns and whole figures.

2. Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis

a. Freud proposed the unconscious mind controls much of our conscious behavior and stressed the importance of early childhood experiences.

b. Psychoanalysis is an insight therapy based on Freud’s theory of personality, emphasizing the revealing of unconscious conflicts.

3. Pavlov, Watson, and the dawn of behaviorism

a. Ivan Pavlov showed that a reflex could be caused to occur in response to a formerly unrelated stimulus through conditioning (e.g., Pavlov’s dogs).

b. John Watson proposed a science of behavior called behaviorism, which focused on observable behavior only.

c. Watson and Rosalie Rayner demonstrated that a phobia could be learned through conditioning (e.g., “Little Albert”).

d. Mary Cover Jones later demonstrated that learned phobias could be canceled through counterconditioning (“Little Peter”).

II. THE FIELD OF PSYCHOLOGY TODAY

Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics

• 1.8 Psychology in the Framework of Emerging Transdisciplinary Science

• 1.9 Over the Edge

Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises

• 1.5 Perspectives in Psychology

• 1.6 Thinking About Your Interests in Psychology

Learning Objective 1.3 Summarize the basic ideas behind the seven modern perspectives in psychology.

A. Modern perspectives

1. Psychodynamic perspective

a. Freud’s theory has been modified for contemporary use.

b. The psychodynamic perspective is focused on the development of a sense of self and the discovery of motivations behind a person’s behavior other than sexual motivations.

2. Behavioral perspective

a. Operant conditioning became a major force in the twentieth century.

b. B. F. Skinner introduced the concept of reinforcement to behaviorism.

3. Humanistic perspective

a. Developed as a reaction to behaviorism and psychoanalysis, the humanistic perspective focuses on those aspects of personality that make people uniquely human, such as subjective feelings and freedom of choice.

b. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers are two of humanism’s most famous founders.

4. Cognitive perspective

a. The cognitive perspective focuses on memory, intelligence, perception, thought processes, problem solving, language, and learning.

b. This perspective includes the field of cognitive neuroscience, the study of the physical changes in the brain and nervous system during thinking.

5. Sociocultural perspective

a. Combining social psychology and cultural psychology, the sociocultural perspective focuses on the influence of social interactions, society, and culture on an individual’s thinking and behavior.

b. This approach examines the impact of social interactions, community, and culture on a person’s thinking, behavior, and emotions (e.g., “bystander effect”).

6. Biopsychological perspective

a. Biopsychological perspective attributes human and animal behavior to biological events occurring in the body, such as genetic influences, hormones, and the activity of the nervous system.

b. Research in biopsychology includes the topics of sleep, emotions, aggression, sexual behavior, learning and memory, and disorders.

7. Evolutionary perspective

a. Evolutionary perspective focuses on the biological bases of universal mental characteristics that all humans share.

b. Behavior is seen as having an adaptive or survival value.

Learning Objective 1.4 Differentiate between the various types of professionals within the field of psychology.

B. Psychological professionals and areas of specialization

1. A psychologist is a professional with an academic degree and specialized training in one or more areas of psychology.

2. A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders.

3. A psychiatric social worker has training in therapy methods and focuses on environmental conditions that can have an impact on mental disorders, such as poverty, overcrowding, stress, and drug abuse.

4. Psychologists engage in research, teaching, and application.

a. Basic research focuses on adding information to the scientific knowledge base.

b. Applied research focuses on finding practical solutions to real-world problems.

III. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics

• 1.10 Online Polls

• 1.11 Correlation and Causality

• 1.12 Damned Lies, Damned Statisticians

• 1.13 Basic Research versus Applied Research

• 1.14 Size Matters

• 1.15 The (Tobacco) Road from Hypothesis to Conclusion

Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises

• 1.7 Contradictory Beliefs

• 1.8 Name That Research Method

• 1.9 Observational Research in the Dining Hall

• 1.10 Understanding Correlations

• 1.11 Wonder Horse Dials 911 to Save Boy’s Life

• 1.12 When a Photo Vanishes from Snapchat, It Is Gone Forever

• 1.13 Testing Random Assignment

Learning Objective 1.5 Recall the basic criteria for critical thinking that people can use in their everyday lives.

A. Thinking critically about critical thinking

1. Critical thinking means making reasoned judgments.

2. There are four basic criteria for critical thinking.

a. There are very few “truths” that do not need to be subjected to testing.

b. All evidence is not equal in quality.

c. Just because someone is considered to be an authority or to have a lot of expertise

does not make everything that person claims automatically true.

d. Critical thinking requires an open mind.

Learning Objective 1.6 Recall the five steps of the scientific approach.

B. The scientific approach

1. The scientific approach is a system of gathering data so that bias and error in measurement are reduced.

2. Psychology’s goals

a. Description: What is happening?

b. Explanation: Why is it happening? A theory is a general explanation of a set of observations or facts.

c. Prediction: When will it happen again?

d. Control: How can it be changed?

3. Steps in the scientific approach

a. Perceiving the question

b. Forming a hypothesis: A hypothesis is a tentative explanation of a phenomenon based on observations.

c. Testing the hypothesis

d. Drawing conclusions

e. Reporting results: To replicate research means to repeat a study or experiment to see if the same results will be obtained in an effort to demonstrate reliability of results.

Learning Objective 1.7 Compare and contrast some of the methods used to describe behavior.

C. Descriptive methods

1. Naturalistic observation

a. Observers who watch animals or people in natural environments must take into account the observer effect, the tendency of people or animals to behave differently from normal when they know they are being observed.

b. Researchers may use a technique called participant observation, a naturalistic observation in which the observer becomes a participant in the group being observed.

c. A disadvantage is the possibility of observer bias, tendency of observers to see what they expect to see.

2. Laboratory observation

a. In laboratory observation, researchers can watch animals or people in an artificial but controlled situation.

b. The main disadvantage is that the artificial setting may lead to artificial behavior.

3. Case studies

a. A case study is the study of one individual in great detail.

b. The main disadvantage is that information gained from case studies may not be applied to other cases.

4. Surveys

a. Surveys involve asking standardized questions of large groups of people but respondents may not always tell the truth or remember information correctly.

b. To conduct a survey researchers use a representative sample, a randomly selected sample of participants from a larger population of participants. The population is the entire group of people or animals in which a researcher is interested.

Learning Objective 1.8 Explain how researchers use the correlational technique to study relationships between two or more variables.

D. Correlations: Finding relationships

1. A correlation is a measure of the relationship between two or more variables.

2. A correlation coefficient is a number that represents the strength and direction of a relationship existing between two variables; it is a number derived from the formula for measuring a correlation.

a. Positive correlations exist when increases in one variable are matched by increases in the other variable.

b. Negative correlations exist when increases in one variable are matched by decreases in the other variable.

3. Correlations cannot be used to prove cause-and-effect relationships.

Learning Objective 1.9 Identify the steps involved in designing an experiment.

E. The experiment

1. An experiment is a deliberate manipulation of a variable to see if corresponding changes in behavior result, allowing the determination of cause-and-effect relationships.

2. Selection

3. The variables

a. Operationalization involves specific description of a variable of interest that allows it to be measured.

b. An independent variable is the variable in an experiment that is manipulated by the experimenter.

c. A dependent variable is the variable in an experiment that represents the measurable response or behavior of the participants in the experiment.

d. The experimental group includes participants in an experiment who are subjected to the independent variable, whereas the control group includes participants in an experiment who are not subjected to the independent variable and who may receive a placebo treatment.

4. The importance of randomization

a. Random assignment is the process of assigning participants to the experimental or control groups randomly, so that each participant has an equal chance of being in either group.

b. Randomization is the best way to ensure control over other extraneous variables.

Learning Objective 1.10 Recall two common sources of problems in an experiment and some ways to control for these effects.

F. Experimental hazards and controlling for effects

1. The placebo effect and the experimenter effect

a. The placebo effect is the phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can influence their behavior.

b. The experimenter effect is the tendency of the experimenter’s expectations for a study to unintentionally influence the results of the study.

2. Single-blind and double-blind studies

a. A single-blind study is a study in which the participants do not know if they are in the experimental or the control group.

b. A double-blind study is a study in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know if the participants are in the experimental or the control group.

IV. ETHICS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics

• 1.16 Using Animals in Psychological Research

Learning Objective 1.11 Identify some of the common ethical guidelines for doing research with people.

A. The guidelines for doing research with people

1. Protection of rights and well-being of participants

2. Informed consent

3. Justification when deception is used

4. The right of participants to withdraw at any time

5. Protection of participants from risks

6. Debriefing of participants at the conclusion of the study

7. Confidentiality

8. Remediation of ill effects

Learning Objective 1.12 Explain why psychologists sometimes use animals in their research.

B. Animal research

1. Animals make useful models because they are easier to control than humans, have simpler behavior, and can be studied in ways that are not permissible with humans.

2. Ethical considerations are also important in animal research.

V. APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY TO EVERYDAY LIFE: CRITICAL THINKING AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics

• 1.17 The Characteristics of Good Reasoners

Learning Objective 1.13 Identify strategies for critically evaluating news and other information shared on social media.

A. Strategies for evaluating claims or information posted on social media involve various aspects of critical thinking.

B. For example, questions to ask involve evaluating the qualifications of the person making the claim, what kind of evidence is being presented, how many studies have provided evidence, and whether the information suggests a correlational or causal relationship.