Chapter 1 - The Science of Psychology

Defining Psychology and Exploring its Roots

• Psychology (2) is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
• Science (2): uses systematic methods to observe human behavior and draw conclusions
  • Goal is to describe, predict, and explain behavior
• Behavior (2): everything we do that can be directly observed
  • Two people kissing, a baby crying
• Mental processes (2): thoughts, feelings, motives that each of us experience privately but that cannot be observed directly
  • Ex: thinking about kissing someone, a baby’s feelings when its mother leaves the room

2. The Psychological Frame of Mind

3. Tests assumptions, bringing scientific data to bear on the questions of central interest to human beings

4. Critical Thinking (3): process of thinking deeply and actively, asking questions and evaluating the evidence

5. Curiosity: asks questions about observations

6. Skepticism: challenge whether a supposed fact is true

7. Objectivity: psychological research is sometimes counterintuitive, being objective involves trying to see things as they are, not just as the observer would like them to be

8. Scientific knowledge ultimately is based on objective evidence

9. Empirical Method (4): gaining knowledge through observation of events, collection of data, logical reasoning

   10. Psychology has advanced as a field because psychologists do not always agree with one another about why mind and behavior work the way they do
   11. Reached a more accurate understanding of human behavior because psychology fosters controversies
   12. psychologists think deeply and examine the evidence of all sides
   13. Psychology as the Science of All Human Behavior
   14. Many settings of psychology → clinical, industrial, private practice, schools, academic
   15. Sigmund Freud: believed most human behavior was caused by dark, unpleasant, conscious impulses pressing for expression
   16. Seeks to understand the truths of human life in all its dimensions (including best and worst experiences)
   17. Ex: studies about forgiveness in the Amish community
   18. Relationship between religious commitment and forgiveness
   19. The cognitive skills required for forgiveness, potential dark side of forgiveness
   20. Some insist that human weakness are the most important aspect of life but the fact is that to be a general science of human behavior
   21. Psychology must address all sides of human experience
   22. Psychology in Historical Perspective
   23. Seeks to answer questions
   24. How do we learn?
   25. What is memory?
   26. Why does one person grow and flourish while another struggles?
   27. Ancient myths attributed to important events to pleasure/displeasure of gods → gave way to philosophy
   28. Rational investigation of the underlying principles of being and knowledge
   29. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle debated nature of thought and behavior - link between mind and  body
   30. Descartes argued that mind and body were completely separate and should focus on the mind
   31. Researchers who study emotion talk about Descartes and scientists who study happiness refer to Aristotle
   32. Wilhelm Wundt: created psychology by combining philosophy and natural sciences
   33. Experiment to measure time lag between hearing a sound and pressed a key showed the idea that mental processes could be measured
   34. Structuralism (6): Wundty focused on discovering the basic elements of mental processes
   35. Focus on identifying the structures of the human mind → introspection
   36. William James: key question is not so much what the mind is (structure) as what it is for (function)
   37. Functionalism (7): probed the functions and purposes of the mind and behavior in the individual adaptation to the environment
   38. Structuralists looked inside the mind and searched for its structures
   39. Functionalists focused on what was going on in human interactions with the outside word and try to understand the purpose of thoughts
   40. Fundamental question: why is human thought adaptive?
   41. Asks why are people better off because they can think than they would be otherwise?
   42. Structuralism - what of the mind
   43. Functionalism: why
   44. James did not believe in existence of rigid structures of the mind (flexible and called it a stream of consciousness)
   45. Functionalism fit well with evolution through natural selection (7) by Darwin on On the origin of Species
   46. Biological Approach (8): evolutionary process in which organisms that are best adapted to their environment will survive and produce offspring
   47. Structuralism won the battle to become the birthplace of psychology but functionalism won the war
   48. Psychologist continue to talk about the adaptive nature of human characteristics

10. Contemporary Approaches to Psychology

11. The Biological Approach

12. Focus on the body (brain and nervous system)

13. Neuroscience (9): study of the structure, function, development, genetics, biochemistry of the nervous system

14. Emphasizes that the brain and nervous system are central to understanding behavior, thought, emotion

15. Believe that thoughts and emotions have a physical basis in the brain

16. Electrical impulses enable us to think, feel and behave

17. The Behavioral Approach (9)

    10. Emphasizes the scientific study of the observable behavioral responses and their environmental determinants
    11. Focuses on organism’s visible interactions with the environment - behaviors, not thoughts or feelings
    12. Developed under John Watson and B.F. Skinner
    13. Behaviorism dominated research during first half of 20th century
    14. Skinner emphasized that it should be about what people do (actions and behaviors)
    15. Not be concerned with things that cannot be seen (thoughts, feelings, goals)
    16. Believed rewards and punishments determine behavior

18. The Psychodynamic Approach (9)

19. Emphasizes unconscious thoughts, conflict between biological drives (drive for sex) and society’s demands and early childhood family experiences

20. Freud theorized that early relationships with parents shape an individual’s personality

21. Psychoanalysis: an analyst’s unlocking a person’s unconscious conflicts by talking with the individual about their childhood memories, feelings

22. Today, less emphasis on sexual drive and more on cultural/social experiences as determinants of behavior

23. The Humanistic Approach (10)

24. Emphasizes person’s positive qualities, capacity for positive growth, freedom to choose one’s destiny

    10. Stress that people have the ability to control their lives and not controlled by environment
    11. The Cognitive Approach (10)
    12. Emphasizes the mental processes involved in knowing
    13. How we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems
    14. Views the mind as active and aware problem solving system
    15. Contrasts the behavioral outlook,
    16. Portrays behavior is controlled by external environmental forces
    17. The Evolutionary Approach (10)
    18. Uses evolutionary ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, natural selection as basis for explaining specific human behaviors
    19. The Sociocultural Approach (11)
    20. Examines the influences of social and cultural environments on behavior
    21. Understanding that a person’s behavior requires knowing about the cultural context in which the behavior occurs
    22. Requires cross cultural research
    23. See FIG 1 for Areas of Specialization in Psychology

25. Psychology’s Scientific Method

26. Science is not defined by what it investigates but how

27. Scientific method is how to gain knowledge about mind and behavior

28. Key theme in the scientific method is that knowledge comes from empirical research

29. Observing some phenomenon: a variable (13) is anything that can change

30. A theory (14): broad idea/set of closely related ideas that attempts to explain observations

31. Scientific theory must be falsifiable

    10. Even a scientist who believes that a theory is true must be able to generate ideas about research that would prove the theory wrong and test those ideas
    11. Formulating hypothesis and predictions: a hypothesis (14) is a testable prediction that derived logically from a theory
    12. A theory can generate many hypotheses
    13. If more and more hypotheses related to a theory turn out to be true, the theory gains in credibility
    14. Testing through Empirical Research: operational definition (15) provides an objective description of how a variable is going to be measured and observed in a particular study
    15. Not just one operational definition for any variable
    16. Coming up with operational definitions for variables in study is crucial because there must be a way to see it or measure it
    17. Data Analysis: data refers to all the information collected → must crunch the numbers to see if they support predictions
    18. Self determination theory: people are likely to feel fulfilled when their lives meet three important needs:
    19. Relatedness (warm relations with others)
    20. Autonomy (independence)
    21. Competence (mastering new skills)
    22. Drawing Conclusions: if results of study support predictions, theory may gain credibility but a theory is always open to revision
    23. If a particular research finding is demonstrated again and again across different researchers and different methods, it is considered reliable (dependable result)
    24. Evaluating Conclusions: published papers and multiple revisions

32. Types of Psychological Research

33. Descriptive Research

34. Involves finding out about the basic dimensions of some variable

35. Describing some phenomenon

36. Determining its basic dimensions and defining what this thing is, how often it occurs

37. Cannot probe what causes some phenomenon but can reveal important information about behavior and attitudes

    10. Observation: need to be systematic
    11. Surveys and Interviews: presents standard set of questions to obtain self reported attitude on particular topic, biased
    12. Case Studies (18): in-depth look at a single individual
    13. Performed when unique aspects of a life cannot be duplicated and tested in other individuals
    14. Allows researchers to get a sense of something but cannot answers about how and why
    15. Correlational Research (20)
    16. Interested in discovering relationships between variables
    17. Research that examines the relationships between variables
    18. Purpose is to examine whether and how two variables change together (co-relationship)
    19. Correlation coefficient (r) - shows strength and direction of relationship
    20. CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION
    21. Third variable problem (21): circumstance where a variable that has not been measured accounts for the relationship between two other variables (confounding)
    22. Some questions may involve variables that can only be measured/observed, also valuable in cases where it would be unethical to do it any other way
    23. Researchers often measure many variables in their studies
    24. This way, they can examine whether a relationship between two variables is explained by a third variable
    25. Experience Sampling Method: people report on their daily experiences in a diary a few times a day
    26. Longitudinal Designs (22): systematic observation involves obtaining measures of the variables of interest in multiple waves over time
    27. Can suggest potential causal relationships because if one variable is thought to cause changes in another
    28. It should at least come before that variable in time
    29. Provides ways by which correlational researchers may attempt to demonstrate causal relations among variables
    30. Still, causal relationships are not completely clear
    31. Consider some studies might not have thought of all the potential third variables that might have explained the results
    32. Experimental Research
    33. Establishing causal relationships between variables
    34. Experiment (23): carefully regulated procedure in which researcher manipulates 1+ variables that are believed to influence some other variable
    35. Random Assignment (23): researchers assign participants to groups by chance
    36. Decreases the likelihood that the experiment’s results will be due to any preexisting differences between groups
    37. Independent Variable (23): manipulated experimental factor, changes to see what its effects are
    38. Confederate (24): a person who is given a role to play in a study so the social context can be manipulated
    39. Dependent Variable (24): outcome, factor that can change in an experiment in response to changes in the independent variable
    40. Experimental Group (24): consists of participants in an experiment who receive the treatment that is of interest to researcher
    41. Control Group (24): treated like the experimental group except for the change
    42. Provides a comparison against which the researcher can test the effects of the independent variable
    43. Within-participant design: participants serve as their own control group, the same group of participants experience various conditions in the study
    44. Quasi-Experimental Design: does not include random assignment of participants to a condition because assignment is impossible or unethical
    45. Validity (25): soundness of the conclusions that a researcher draws from an experiment
    46. External Validity (25): refers to the degree to which an experimental design really reflects the real world issues it’s supposed to address
    47. Internal Validity (25): degree to which changes in the dependent variable are due to the manipulation of the independent variable
    48. Experimenter Bias (25): occurs when the experimenter's expectations influence the outcome of the research
    49. Demand characteristics (25): any aspects of a study that communicate to the participants how the experimenter wants them to behave
    50. Introduces systematic differences between experimental and control groups - creates confounds
    51. Research Participant Bias (25): occurs when the behavior of research participants during the experiment is influenced by how they think they are supposed to behave/expectations about what is happening to them
    52. Placebo Effect (26): when participants’s expectations, rather than experimental treatment, produce an outcome
    53. Placebo (26): harmless substance that has no physiological effect
    54. Double Blind Experiment (26): neither the experimenter administering the treatment nor the participants are aware of which participants are in the experimental group and which are in the control group
    55. Allows researchers to identify the specific effects of the independent variable from possible effects of the experimenters’ and participants’ expectations about it
    56. See FIG. 2 for psychology’s research methods applied to studying social media use

38. Research Samples and Settings

39. The Research Sample

40. Want to be able to draw conclusions that will apply to a larger group of people than the participants they actually study

41. Population (29): entire group about which the investigator wants to draw conclusions

42. Sample (29): the subset of the population chosen by the investigator for study

    10. Sample studied must be representative of the population to which the investigator wants to generalize the results
    11. Random sample (30): sample that gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected
    12. Provides much better grounds for generalizing the results to a population than a nonrandom sample
    13. Random selection improves the chances that the sample is representative of the population
    14. Must strive to minimize bias, including gender bias, and include more people from diverse ethnic groups
    15. The Research Setting
    16. Common settings include the research laboratory and natural settings
    17. Conduct in lab mainly, a controlled setting with many of the complex factors of the real world (potential confounds) removed
    18. Impossible to conduct research in the lab without the participants knowing they are being studies
    19. Lab setting is not the real world, and therefore can cause the participants to behave unnaturally
    20. People willing to go to a university lab may not be representative of groups from diverse cultural backgrounds
    21. Some aspects of the mind and behavior are difficult to examine in the lab
    22. Naturalistic Observation (32): observing behavior in a real world setting (Jane Goodall with chimpanzees)

43. Conducting Ethical Research

44. Ethics Guidelines

45. Notion that a person participating in a psychological research should be no worse off coming out of the study than they was on the way in

46. Institutional Review Board: evaluates the ethical nature of research conducted at their institutions

    10. American Psychological Association developed ethics guidelines for its members
    11. Instructs psychologists to protect their participants from mental and physical harm - participants bests interests need to be kept foremost in the researcher;s mind
    12. Guidelines addresses:
    13. Informed Consent: all participants must know what their participation will involve and what risks might development
    14. Even after informed consent is given, participants must retain the right to withdraw from the study at any given time and for any reason
    15. Confidentiality: researchers must be responsible for keeping all data they gather on individuals completely confidential and anonymous
    16. Debriefing: researchers should inform participants of its purpose and methods they used after study has been completed
    17. Deception: telling the participants beforehand what the research study is about substantially alters the participants behavior and invalidates the data
    18. Federal Office for Protection from Research Risks: devoted to safeguarding well-being of participants in research studies
    19. Vulnerable populations: children, people with psychological disorders, incarcerated individuals
    20. The Ethics of Research with Animals
    21. Psychotherapy techniques and behavioral medicine
    22. Rehabilitation of neuromuscular disorders
    23. Alleviation of the effects of stress and pain
    24. Drugs to treat anxiety and severe mental illness
    25. Methods for avoiding drug addiction and relapse
    26. Treatments to help premature infants gain weight so they can leave the hospital sooner
    27. Methods used to alleviate memory deficits in old age
    28. Researchers are guided by set of standards for housing, feeding, maintaining the psychological and physical well beijing of animal subjects
    29. The Place of Values in Psychological Research
    30. Question asked not only about ethics of psychology but also its values/standards for judging what is worthwhile and desirable

47. Learning About Psychology Means Learning About You

48. Encountering Psychology in Everyday Life

49. Avoid overgeneralizing based on little information: media reports often leave out details of nature of sample (gender, number, ethnic representation)

    10. Distinguish between groups results and individual needs: cannot apply conclusions from a group to an individual
    11. Look for answers beyond single study: safer to assume that no single study will provide conclusive answers to an important question, especially answers that apply to all people
    12. Avoid attributing causes where none have been found: drawing causal conclusions from correlational studies is common mistake
    13. Consider the source of psychological information: studies conducted by psychologists are not automatically accepted by the rest of the research community
    14. Appreciating Psychology as the Science of You
    15. Psychology has come to recognize more and more that the mind and its operations are intricately connected to body
    16. Nature vs nurture: psychologists have wondered which of the two is more important
    17. Nature (genetic heritage) or nurture (social experience)
    18. The influence of genetics on a variety of psychological characteristics and the ways that genetic influence can itself be altered by experience is important

FIG 1.

FIG 2.