Unit 1 - Scientific foundations of Psychology

Unit 1: Scientific Foundations of Psychology

Psychology: Study of behavior and mind

Behavior: Observable actions

Mind: Sensations, memories, motives, emotions, thoughts – Not directly observable – subjective

  • Psychology is science: use systematic collections, observation of data to describe, predict, and explain behavior

History & Approaches

The Ancient Greeks: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

  • Plato: possess innate knowledge – nature argument

  • Aristotle: truth is derived from the physical world – nurture argument

    • Systematic observation of the world (basis for scientific method)

Pre-Psychology

  • John Locke (1632-1704): humans are part of the observable and predictable world

    • Tabula rasa: human as blank state (nothing)

    • Nurture over Nature

  • Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): mind, soul, spirit is meaningless (Materialism)

    • Consciousness: by-product of the brain

    • Greatly influence behaviorism – all nurture

  • Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

    • Natural selection: adapt to the environment to reproduce more

    • Evolutionary psychology (behavioral aspect is more worth studying)

WAVE1 – Introspection

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920): founder of psychology

  • First laboratory to study consciousness in Leipzig Germany

  • Introspection: Recording of cognitive reactions to simple stimuli to examine basic cognitive structure

  • Structuralism: mind operates by combining subjective emotions and objective sensations

William James (1842-1910):

  • Functionalism: examines how those structures function in our lives

  • Function of a behavior -> survival technique

  • “The Principle of Psychology” – The first psychology textbook

  • First American Psychology lab at Harvard

Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930): studied with William James

  • President of the APA

G. Stanley Hall (1863-1930): 1st president of APA

- pioneer of child psychology

WAVE2 – Gestalt Psychology

Max Wertheimer (1880-1943): human behavior cannot be divided into discrete structure

  • Context becomes relevant

WAVE3 – Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

  • Conscious mind: state of awareness that we have access to

  • Unconsciousness mind: mental processes that we do not have access to

  • Interaction of the two-shape behavior

  • Childhood experience is important

  • Goal: resolution of conflicts by uncovering information that are repressed in the unconscious

WAVE4 – Behaviorism

John Watson (1878-1958): must be observable phenomena

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1958): behaviorism (stimuli & response)

B. F Skinner (1904-1990):

  • added reinforcement

  • mind and mental events are not important

  • used for behavior modification

WAVE5 – Multiple Perspective

Humanistic Perspective: role of consciousness, free will, awareness

  • developed in response to behaviorism

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970):

  • self-actualization: the need for one to reach their full potential while accepting one’s limits

Carl Rogers (1902-1987):

  • unconditional-positive regard: necessary in interaction for positive self-concept and adaptive cognition and behavior

Approaches

  • Biopsychology (Neuroscience perspective)

  • Study of physiology of nervous systems and brain anatomy

    • Genes, Hormone, Neurotransmitter (explaining it using these)

    • CAT scan, MRIs, EEGs, PET scan, fMRI

  • Cognitive: understanding how humans construe their environment

    • Combination of structuralism & Functionalism

    • Reaction-time task, computer model, self report

    • CBT – cognitive behavioral therapy*

  • Evolutionary: based on theories of Darwin

    • Human behavior: understood based on how adaptive that behavior is to our survival

    • Person’s personality: explained by its contribution to individual’s chance of survival

  • Sociocultural: the environment influences one’s behavior greatly*

  • Multiple perspective: eclectic approach

Research Methods

  • Hindsight bias: tendency to think they knew it all along

Types of research:

  1. Applied research: has clear practical application

  2. Basic research: explores questions of interest

  • Laboratory Experiment: controlled environment

  • Field Experiment: more realistic (but still manipulate the independent variable)

  • Naturalistic observation: experiment done without any interaction

  • Experiment: investigation to understand relations of cause (independent variable) and effect (dependent variable)

    • Only method that establishes causal relationship

  • Operational definition: precise measurable description of the dependent variable (explanation of how to measure it)

    • Valid/Reliable

  • Population: people/subject being in the experiment

    • Must do sampling

    • Representative sample drawn (random selection (no hand))

    • Stratified sampling: ensure that sample represents the population

    • Random assignment, Group matching

    • Confound variables: any difference between experimental and control condition that might affect the dependent variable -> participant relevant confounding variable/Situation relevant confounding variable

  • Experimenter bias (확증 편향: 일반적으로 내가 원하는 바 대로 정보를 수용하고 판단한다)

  1. Single-blind design: subjects do not know whether they are in the control or experimental group

  • Minimize demand characteristics

  • Response bias / participant bias

  • Social desirability

  1. Double-blind design: both subjects and experimenters do not know whether they are in the control or experimental group

  • Use placebo effect (The phenomenon that the medicinal effect appears when you feel that you took the real medicine even though you took the fake medicine)

  • Hawthorne effect: As a kind of reaction phenomenon, when individuals become aware that their behavior is being observed, they adjust and purify their behavior as a reaction to it.

  • Counterbalancing

  • Correlational research: measuring the association between two or more variables

    • No direct manipulation

    • Ex post facto study (Quasi-experimental study): control all other aspect except for independent variable

  • Case study: intensive study of a single individual

    • Used on unique subjects

    • Applicable to similar circumstances

Statistics

  1. Descriptive statistics: only describes data, cannot make other conclusions

  • Summarize data, describe the situation

  • Measure of central tendency

  • Mean, mode, median

  1. Inferential statistics: test hypotheses determine their level of confidence about the inference they can make to the general population

  • Outlier: extreme score

Ethics

  • APA: set standards for research guidelines

  • Publishes DSM

  • IRB (Institutional Review Board): organization for reviewing ethical aspects of research methods

  1. Animal research:

  • Clear scientific purpose

  • Must answer an important scientific question

  • Choose best suited animal

  • Must be humane to them

  • Acquire animal legally

  • Trapped in humane manner

  • Least amount of suffering

  1. Human research:

  • No coercion

  • Informed consent

  • Can use deception but not too far off from informed consent

  • Cannot be placed in a significant mental or physical risk

  • Required for interpretation by IRB (Stanley Milgram)

  • Debriefing (participants should be told after the experiment)