Psychology: the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

-it’s a science

Behavior: any action that can be directly observed

Mental processes: internal activities in the mind that aren’t directly observable

Ch. 1.1

Greek philosophers were interested in the brain

Dualism: Thoufhts and ideas can exist separately from the mind

Rene Descartes investigated how the mind and body were connected by dissecting animals

-Thought the penal gland was the principle seat of the soul

-thought the soul flowed through tubes (those were nerves)

John Locke: thought the mind at birth was a blank slate

-Early empiricism: knowledge originates through experience

Wilhelm Wundt: thought the mind could be examined scientifically and objectively

Edward Titchener: structuralism and introspection

William James: functionalism

-influenced by Darwin (adaption)

Elements of functionalism are in behaviorism

Gestalt psychology: Max Wertheimer

-About how people organize information into wholes

Ch. 1.2

Freud is the foundation of psychodynamic approach

-very controversial

-Also formed basis of psychoanalysis

John B. Watson developed the behavioral approach

-concentrates on only observable behavior (measured/recorded)

-“Little Albert” experiment (kid + white rat)

Applied behavior analysis: application of learning principles to solve problems

Humanistic approach: people have free will and can control their destinies

-Abraham Maslow (motivation + emotion)

-Self-actualization

-Carl Rogers (personality + psychotherapy)

Cognitive approach: workings of the brain and how we process information from our environment

-Rapidly growing

-brain imaging

Biological approach: biological bases of behavior + structure of the nervous system and its function

Evolutionary approach: explores how human behavior has evolved because of its effects on survival

-Based on Darwin

Sociocultural perspective: focused on the influence of social and cultural factors on behavior

-Race, gender, class, religion, etc.

Eclectic approach: multiple perspectives and theories to gain an understanding of behavior

Ch. 1.3

-1/3 of all psychologists are self employed

Three categories:

-clinical

-academic

-applied

Clinical

-diagnose and treat people

-clinical psychologists are not medical doctors (psychiatrists are)

-Some clinical psychologists can prescribe drugs, many can’t

-typical have a doctoral degree

There are also neuropsychologists, counseling psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, etc.

-Has the most jobs

Applied

-The use of psychological theory and practice to tackle real world problems

-Ex: sports psychologists that help athletes work on their mental health

-Ex: forensic psychologists

Academic

-Teaching students, doing research, etc.

-Teaching at universities is very competitive

-Ex: developmental psychology

-Want to publish research

Ch. 1.4

Hindsight bias: the belief that you knew something all along

-Makes us think the world is more predictable than it is, leads us to making assumptions

False consensus effect: tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs or behaviors

-these both lead people to assume psychology is unnecessary

Scientific method : process for conducting objective inquiry

1. Identify the problem

-Needs to be empirical, investigable

1. Conduct background research.                    -might tell you how to improve research or what needs further studied

2. Formulate a hypothesis (an educated guess) (needs to be specific and a statement)

3. Test the hypothesis (conduct an experiment) (find a way to measure)

4. Analyze results

-repeat an experiment to help analyze (called replication)

-May need to construct new hypothesis or do different experiments

1. Report your results

Ch 1.5

Critical thinking: a way of processing information

-“where’s the evidence?”

Evaluating information:

1. Consider the underlying motives

-Are they unbiased to that claim?

-Would it be advantageous to them for you to believe their claim?

1. Evaluate the quality of evidence used

2. Generative other explanations for the results

-Look for disconfirming info too

1. Avoid using emotions or personal experiences when evaluating

-You may have personal experience that reflects the claim

-Don’t let your personal experience increase legitimacy

-Not all popular claims are accurate

-Disprove theories including your own

Be willing to reject your own theories and be open to unlikely findings

Ch. 1.6

Descriptive study: researchers can observe/describe behaviors without investigating the relationship between specific variables

Naturalistic observation: study of people/animals in their own environment

-Cons: reactivity

Reactivity: participants behavior is different than normal because they’re being observed

Observer bias: observer expects to see a specific behavior and only notices actions that support that theory

-Can avoid this using blind observers: don’t know what the research is about

-Use multiple observers to compare notes

-Can’t repeat scenarios

Laboratory study: participants are in a location set up to collect data and allows control over the environment/conditions

-hard to generalize findings to behavior in real world

-Sometimes researchers do both methods to be more confident in their findings

Ch. 1.7

Case study: researchers study one individual or a few individuals in depth

-Can help provide information that you couldn’t usually get

-Cons: limited examples, may be atypical

Ch. 1.8

Survey: a series of questions about people’s behavior or opinions

Self report questionnaires: people are asked to rate/describe their own behavior

-Uses a standard set of items

Interviews: more open ended

-Use carefully constructed questions and given to a large and random sample

-In interviews, people provide an oral description of themselves

-Some interviewers score responses numerically

-People don’t always answer honestly

Random sampling: need to give everyone an equal chance to be included

Ch. 1.9

Correlational studies: allows researchers to measure the degree to which two variables are related

-Variables are not manipulated, just observed to see if there’s a link

-Perfect correlations are very unlikely in psychological research

Ch. 1.10

Correlation does not equal causation

Ch. 1.11

Experiments: can determine causality by manipulating variables and seeing the effect

Confederate: an actor part of the experiment and knows the aim of the study

Operation definition: provides a precise definition of each variable and specifies how the variables will be measured

-confounding variable: a variable other than the independent variable that could have an impact on the dependent variable

Ch. 1.12

Controlling for bias

-Must address potential bias

-placebo effects

Single blind experiment: research participants don’t know if they’re in the experimental or control group

-their expectations can’t bias the results

Double blind experiment: participants and researchers don’t know which participants are receiving an actual treatment and which are receiving a placebo

Ethics

Institutional review board comprised of independent reviewers will evaluate ethical considerations in an experiment:

1. Obtain informed consent: participants must know about the research so they give fully informed voluntary consent

2. Minimize harm to participants: benefits have to outweigh the risks involved

3. Avoid deception when possible: researchers shouldn’t mislead participants, and minimize deception. Debrief participants after study

4. Voluntary withdrawal from research: participants can leave without consequence

5. Protect confidentiality of participants