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Chapter 1–3: History, Research Strategies, and Statistical Reasoning in Psychology (14th Edition)

The History and Scope of Psychology

  • Psychology is a science focused on exploring and understanding behavior and mental processes without being misled.

  • Scientific attitude: shift fact from fiction; skepticism.

  • Humility: openness to error and new perspectives.

Critical Thinking in Psychology

  • Critical thinking = curiosity + skepticism + humility; smart thinking.

  • Examines assumptions, appraises sources, discerns biases, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.

  • Informed by science to help check biases.

The Biopsychosocial Model and Levels of Analysis

  • Three main levels of analysis: biological, psychological, social-cultural.

  • Biopsychosocial approach integrates all three; no single level explains everything.

  • Each level offers a perspective; combined view is more complete.

Levels of Analysis: Perspectives

  • Perspectives include: Neuroscience, Evolutionary, Behavior genetics, Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Cognitive, Social-cultural.

  • Each perspective provides a lens for analyzing behavior or mental processes. ### Levels of Analysis: Perspectives - Perspectives include: - **Neuroscience**: How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences; focuses on biological processes, especially in the brain, nervous system, and genetics. - **Evolutionary**: How the natural selection of traits promoted the survival of genes; explores how human behavior and mental processes have been shaped by evolution to solve adaptive problems. - **Behavior genetics**: How our genes and our environment influence our individual differences; studies the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior. - **Psychodynamic**: How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts; emphasizes the influence of unconscious psychological processes, early childhood experiences, and interpersonal relationships. - **Behavioral**: How we learn observable responses; focuses on observable behavior and how it is learned through conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment. - **Cognitive**: How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information; explores mental processes such as perception, memory, thought, language, and problem-solving. - **Social-cultural**: How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures; examines how social situations and cultural norms influence our behavior and mental processes. - Each perspective provides a unique lens for analyzing behavior or mental processes, offering a deeper and more comprehensive understanding when combined.

Research Methods in Psychology

  • Case study: in-depth on one person; not necessarily generalizable.

  • Naturalistic observation: records behavior in natural setting; describes but may not explain.

  • Survey/interview: collects data from many people; relies on random sampling for generalizability; wording effects can bias results.

  • Random sampling: important for representative results.

  • Preregistration: publicly sharing planned design and analyses to improve transparency.

  • Replication: repeating studies to verify findings.

  • Ethics: protect participants; honesty and scientific integrity are critical.

Correlation and Causation

  • Correlation measures how two variables vary together; indicates prediction but not causation.

  • Correlation coefficient range: r \in [-1.00, +1.00]; direction and strength.

Describing and Predicting Relationships

  • Scatterplots show patterns of correlation; magnitude and direction matter.

Experimental Design and Procedures

  • Experimental manipulation: manipulate one or more factors to determine effects.

  • Control variables: hold constant other factors.

  • Random assignment: helps ensure groups are equivalent at start.

  • Experimental group vs. control group.

Variables in Experiments

  • Independent variable: manipulated factor; effect studied.

  • Dependent variable: measured outcome.

  • Confounding variable: other factor that could influence results.

Descriptive vs Correlational vs Experimental Methods

  • Descriptive: observe and record behavior; no variables controlled.

  • Correlational: detect relationships; no manipulation; cannot infer causation.

  • Experimental: manipulate variables; use random assignment; can infer causation.

Sampling and Measurement

  • Measures of central tendency:

    • Mode: most frequent score(s)

    • Mean: \text{Mean} = \frac{\sum x_i}{n}

    • Median: middle score

  • Skewed distributions vs. normal distribution: most scores cluster around a central value; bell-shaped curve.

  • The normal curve reference: many tests assume a mean of 100 for some scales (e.g., WAIS).

  • Inferential statistics: determine if a sample difference reflects a population difference.

  • Sampling quality: representative samples are better; bigger samples yield better estimates; generalizations from few unrepresentative cases are unreliable.

Predicting Everyday Behavior and Psychology in Society

  • Experiments test principles to explain broad patterns, not exact life events.

  • Psychology seeks general principles that apply to many behaviors, not just specific findings.

Protecting Research Participants and Scientific Integrity

  • Honesty, curiosity, and perseverance are core scientific values.

  • Fake science can cause harm; replication and scrutiny help protect us.

Statistical Reasoning in Everyday Life (Module 3)

  • Measures of central tendency recap above; focus on using statistics to infer, compare, and generalize.