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

2. Contemporary Approaches to Psychology

3. The Biological Approach

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

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

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

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

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

9. 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

3. The Psychodynamic Approach (9)

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

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

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

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

8. The Humanistic Approach (10)

9. 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

3. Psychology’s Scientific Method

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

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

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

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

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

9. 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

4. Types of Psychological Research

5. Descriptive Research

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

7. Describing some phenomenon

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

9. 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

5. Research Samples and Settings

6. The Research Sample

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

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

9. 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)

6. Conducting Ethical Research

7. Ethics Guidelines

8. 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

9. 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

7. Learning About Psychology Means Learning About You

8. Encountering Psychology in Everyday Life

9. 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.