1.1 - Introducing Psychology

• Psychology is a more complex science because people change, so it is hard to study

• Wilheim Wundt

  • Father of psychology

  • Founded the first psychology lab (1879)

    • Defined psychology as a separate branch of science

• Edward Titchener

  • Wundt’s student

  • Took Wundt’s ideas back to the US

  • Coined the term structuralism

    • Studying the mind by trying to look at what it is made of

    • The problem with this approach is the research method to study it; introspection

    • Introspection is asking a person to observe themselves think

    • A person cannot actively pay attention to more than one thing at a time

• William James

  • Wrote the first psychology textbook

• Functionalism - attempt to study what the mind does or its function

• Structuralism vs. functionalism

• How to approach a multi-sided subject?

  • Many ways to study it; perspectives & approaches

    • Psychodynamic approach

      • Many people think of this

      • Lying on a couch, hypnosis, dream analysis

      • One of the oldest approaches

      • Developed by Sigmund Freud

      • Aka psychoanalytic theory

      • unconscious

    • Behavioral approach

      • Observing behaviors and reflexes

      • Ivan Pavlov

        • Studied digestion in dogs and discovered their reflex that they would salivate at something other than food if that thing was served routinely before food

        • reflexive/classical conditioning

If a reflex can be associated with anything with any random stimulus, then any reflex can be associated with anything, even if it isn’t normally scary

• Operant conditioning

Focused on behavior

Every behavior has a consequence; might be a reward or punishment

• Cognitive approach

  • Focuses on thoughts

  • Everything in the world is related to thoughts

  • problem - many thought processes are flawed and based on shortcuts, emotions, and limited experience

• How to approach a complicated subject?

  • Perspectives & approaches

  • Biological approach

    • (more in unit 2)

    • Mind is what the brain does

    • You can’t have thoughts and emotions without the brain doing something

    • Chemical and electrical signals being sent/received

• Humanistic approach

  • Focuses on how people are unique and special

  • Optimistic approach, strengths of an individual

  • Rejects pessimistic idea that unconscious is in conflict with society’s beliefs and that people should be trained with rewards and punishments

  • freewill

• Sociocultural approach

  • We all come from somewhere

    • Family, religion, neighborhood, culture, society

  • Your likes/dislikes exist because of what you are surrounded by and the media you consume

1.2 - Research Methods In Psychology

• Research is not done in the same way

• methods of research

  • Surveys

    • Questionnaires to gather data

      • Data is raw and has to be processed to be useful

• Naturalistic observation

  • Go to people’s environments and observe them

• Case study

  • Gather lots of deep data about a specific group/individual

• Experiments (in next video)

• Different ways to do these methods

  • Longitudinal

    • Follows one group

    • Long time of data collection

    • Can data be generalized?

  • Cross-sectional

    • Compares different groups

    • Gathers data at one point in time (snapshot), doesn’t give full picture

• These methods are correlational, not causal

• Could have third or fourth variables or other confounding variables

1.3 - Defining Psychological Science: The Experimental Method

• Experimental method

  • Experiments are the only way to find a causal relationship (one thing causes another)

  • One thing (independent variable) causes a change in something else (dependent variable)

  • Independent variable is what you do, dependent variable is what you get

• Hypothesis

  • A prediction; if, then statement

  • If we manipulate the independent variable and hold everything else constant, then the dependent variable will change because of the independent variable

• Experimental control

  • Holding everything else constant

• Placebo effect

  • Change because of the belief in the independent variable

• Placebo

  • Something that is close to the independent variable as possible but it is missing something important

1.4 ~ Selecting a Research Method

• participant/subject bias

  • consciously/unconsciously behaving in a way to ensure research outcome fit their expectations of whatever the researcher wants to find

• single-blind procedure → to prevent participant bias

  • Subjects are not aware if they are in the control or experimental group

• experimenter/researcher bias

  • consciously/unconsciously conducting research that ensures the outcome fits the expectations

• Double-blind procedure → to prevent experimenter bias

  • Neither researcher or subjects know if subject is in control of experimental group

• Hawthorne effect

  • A study to identify what conditions would boost worker productivity

  • independent variable - length of rest periods, work day, work week

  • dependent variable - productivity

  • Results:

    • Productivity increased with increase of rest periods

    • But when workers returned to original schedules, productivity was the same

  • dependent variable stayed the same because subjects were being observed

1.5 ~ Statistical Analysis in Psychology

• Quantitative data

  • Deals with numbers

• Qualitative data

  • Deals with descriptive data

• Descriptive statistics

  • Organizing and describing data

• inferential statistics

  • Predicting how data and independent variable relates to larger population

• frequency distribution table

  • Way to organize data and determines how often data occurs

• Discrete data

  • Data which can be counted

  • Nominal scale

    • Data without any structure or order

  • Ordinal scale

    • Count and order but not measure

• Continuous data

  • Data which can be measured

  • Interval scale

    • Degrees of difference but not the ratio between them

  • Ratio scale

    • Meaningful measurement with 0 value

• Dichotomy scale

  • Two categories when organizing data

• Trichotomy scale

  • Three or more categories

• Central tendency

  • Identifying an estimated center of the distribution of data

• Mean

  • Average of the data set

• Mode

  • Most occurring value in the data set

• Median

  • Score found at the exact middle of the data set

• Range

  • Difference between highest and lowest values

• standard deviation

  • Allows researchers to indicate average from the mean for a set of scores

  • Higher standard deviation → less similar the score

• Normal distribution/bell curve

  • symmetrical distribution is produced

• Positive skew

  • When scores pull mean toward higher end of the score

• Negative skew

  • When scores pull the mean toward lower end of scores

• Correlational studies DO NOT imply causation, but allows researchers to determine relationships between variables

• Correlation coefficient

  • Strengthen of two variables

  • The closer the value is to +1 or -1, the stronger the relationship

• Positive relationship

  • 0 → +1

  • Both variables or increasing or decreasing together

• negative relationship

  • 0 → -1

  • One variable is increasing while other is decreasing

• No correlation

  • No relationship between variables and data is scattered

• Statistical significance

  • Likelihood data collection is a result of manipulation of independent variable and not left to chance

1.6 ~ Ethical Guidelines in Psychology

• American Psychological Association was first established in 1892

• Principle A: Beneficence and Nonmaleficence

  • Researchers must conduct experiments that are helpful to others and doesn’t harm

• Principle B: Fidelity and Responsibility

  • Cultivate a positive atmosphere and a scientific environment built on trust, accountability, and ethical consideration

• Principle C: Integrity

  • Psychologists must engage trust and transparent practices within all aspects of psychology

  • Exception → can deceive subjects when conducting social psychology experiments

• Principle D: Justice

  • Must prevent unjust practices by remaining aware of their biases, level of competence, and areas and limits of expertise

• Principle E: Respect for People’s Rights and Dignity

  • Subjects have informed consent and rights to privacy

• Ethical codes for animals

  • Researchers must acquire, care for, use, and dispose of animals in accordance to federal, state, and local laws