Chapter 2 Psychology Notes

PSYCHOLOGY 100
Lecture 01
Chapter 01: Introducing the world of psychology

Lecture outline
• The importance of p y p psychology gy • History of psychology
• Contemporary psychology
• Psychological research methods

The importance of psychology
• Understanding and applying the p g pp y g principles of p y p psychology gy can affect us in critical ways
• Psychology can help us understand other people and

ourselves
• Psychology can help us improve our lives

The importance of psychology
• Psychology: y gy

• Mental activity lets us perceive the world
• Behavior refers to all of our actions that result from sensing and g interpreting information

The importance of psychology
• Psychology teaches critical thinking: y gy g • Three questions involved in critical thinking
1. What
1 “What am I being asked to believe or accept?” accept? 2. “What evidence is provided to support the claim?”
3. “What are the most reasonable conclusions?”

The importance of psychology
• Psychology can foster academic and p y gy professional success
• Academic success: learning about psychology's major issues,

theories, theories and controversies will help you succeed in your academic work • Professional success: studying psychology will also prepare you for success in your professional life

Lecture outline
• The importance of p y p psychology gy • History of psychology
• Contemporary psychology
• Psychological research methods

History of psychology
• The goal of understanding human thought and behavior g g g originated in philosophy
• Philosophical issues related to psychology
• Nature/nurture of mind and behavior
• Mind/brain problems
• What is consciousness?

History of psychology
• Aristotle and Plato
• Nature/nurture debate: both nature and nurture influence our psychological development • Mind/body problem: are the mind and the body separate and distinct?
• Descartes’s dualism: the mind and the body are separate yet intertwined History of psychology
• There have been several schools of thought in g psychology
• After a school of thought emerged, it would dominate until

the flaws of that approach became apparent and then a new school of thought would emerge

History of psychology
• Experimental p y p psychology began in 1879 gy g
• Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology laboratory
• The objective was to identify the basic parts, or structures, of the conscious mind
• Methodologies included reaction time and introspection

History of psychology
• Structuralism:

• Titchener and Wundt were

founders of structuralism
• Based on the idea that conscious experience can be y g broken down into underlying parts History of psychology
• Functionalism:

• William James was the

founder of functionalism
• Goal was to describe how the conscious mind aids adaptation to an environment

History of psychology
• Evolutionary theory
• Charles Darwin’s concept of natural selection: those who inherit characteristics that help them adapt to their particular environments have a se ect e ad a tage o e selective advantage over those who do not

History of psychology
• Psychoanalytic theory:

• Sigmund Freud founded

psychoanalytic theory
• Freud used psychoanalysis to treat unconscious mental forces that conflicted with acceptable behavior and produced psychological d d h l i l disorders History of psychology
• Gestalt psychology:

• Max Wertheimer and

Wolfgang Kohler founded gestalt psychology in opposition t structuralism iti to t t li
• The idea that the whole of personal experience is different from simply the sum diff tf i l th of its parts

History of psychology
• Behaviorism:

• Founded by John B. Watson
• Dominate school into the

early 1960s

History of psychology
• Cognitive psychology:

• George Miller and Ulrich

Neisser founded in opposition to behaviorism

History of psychology
• Social Psychology:

• Kurt Lewin was a founder

Lecture outline
• The importance of p y p psychology gy • History of psychology
• Contemporary psychology
• Psychological research methods

Contemporary psychology
• Four levels of analysis used by contemporary y y p y

psychologists
• Biological: how the physical body influences thoughts and behavior
• Individual: individual differences in personality and mental

processes that affect perception and understanding
• Social: investigating how groups affect people's interactions and people s people's influence on each other
• Cultural: how people's thoughts, feelings, and actions are similar or different across cultures

Contemporary psychology
• Psychologists’ careers involve predicting behavior or y g p g

understanding mental activity
• Researchers who study the brain, the mind, and behavior may work

in schools businesses universities or clinics schools, businesses, universities,

Contemporary psychology
• When psychologists conduct research, they must p y g , y consider the ethical issues involved
• Institutional Review Boards (IRBs): groups of people responsible

for reviewing proposed research to ensure that it meets the accepted standards of science and provides for the physical and emotional well-being of research participants

Contemporary psychology
• For research to be ethical, five main issues must be
,

addressed
1.
2.
2
3.
4.
5.

Privacy: researchers must respect participants’ privacy
Confidentiality: participants’ information must be kept secret participants Informed consent: people must be told about the research, and they can choose to participate or not
Deception: k
D
ti knowing a study‘s specific goals can sometimes alter i t d ‘ ifi l ti lt participants’ behavior
Risks: researchers cannot ask participants to endure unreasonable pain or di bl i discomfort f t

Lecture outline
• The importance of p y p psychology gy • History of psychology
• Contemporary psychology
• Psychological research methods

Psychological research methods
• Psychologists do not answer questions based on their y g q beliefs, hearsay, rumor, or expert opinions
• Psychology is a science
• Scientific method:

• This process involves theories, hypotheses, and research methods

Psychological research methods
• Five steps in the scientific method p 1. Theory: interconnected ideas or concepts that explain what is observed and makes predictions
2.
2 Hypothesis: a specific prediction of what should be observed if a theory is supported
3. Testing the hypothesis: three main types of research methods to test hypotheses: descriptive correlational and experimental descriptive, correlational,
4. Analyze data: summarize raw data using descriptive statistics, then use inferential statistics to determine whether differences really exist
5. Report results and embark on further inquiry

Psychological research methods
• Descriptive method is one of three main types of research p yp

methods:
• Descriptive methods include observational studies, self-

reports, and case studies

Psychological research methods
• Observational study: y • Self-report:

• Questionnaires or surveys can be used to gather data from a large

number of people in a short time
• Self-report bias

•C
Case studies: t di

Psychological research methods
• The correlational method is the second of three major j types of research:

• Researcher makes no attempt to alter the variables p • Examining the relationship between two or more factors
• Correlational does not imply causation (because of limitations of

correlational studies)

Psychological research methods
• Limitations with correlational designs g • Directionality problem: Researchers find a relationship between two variables (X and Y) but cannot determine which variable may have caused changes in the other variable g • X causes Y or Y causes X?

• Third variable problem: Researchers cannot be confident that an

unmeasured variable is not the actual cause of differences in the variables of interest
• Z could cause X and Y

Psychological research methods
• The third major type of research is the experimental j yp p method:

• Independent variable: variable that the experimenter manipulates to p p p examine its impact on the dependent variable
• Dependent variable: variable that is affected by the manipulation of p the independent variable
• Operational definition:

Psychological research methods
• Experiments often have g p groups of p p participants p • Control group:

• Experimental group

• Control is necessary to determine causality
• A properly performed experiment depends on rigorous control
• Confound:

Psychological research methods
• Random assignment removes confounds g • Random assignment: placing research participants in the conditions of an experiment such that each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any level of the independent variable g g y p
• Sampling
• Random sample: a sample that fairly represents the population by allowing each member of the population an equal chance of being included Conclusions
• Psychology is the study mental activity and behavior (which

are based on brain processes)
•P
Psychology h roots i philosophy and h several schools h l has t in hil h d has l h l

of thought
• Psychology is a science that employs the scientific method
• Theories, hypotheses, and research
• Many types of studies are conducted by psychologists
• Descriptive correlational and experiments
Descriptive, correlational,