Unit 1: Sections 1

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Unit 1 Sections 1 2

• Psychology What is it and where did it come
  from?

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Psychology What is it?

• Definition The book defines Psychology as the
  study of behavior and cognitive (private)
  process.
• What does that mean?
• Is it the same for everyone?
• How is it tested?

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The Goals of Psychology

• Description
• -Describe or gather info about a behavior.
• Explanation
• -Why do people behave as they do?
• Prediction
• -An attempt to predict, as a result of
  accumulated knowledge, what people will think
  or feel in various situations.
• Influence
• - Finding a way to influence behavior in
  positive ways.

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Some Definitions (booooo!)

• Hypothesis an assumption or prediction about a
  behavior that is tested through scientific
  research.
• Theory A set of assumptions used to explain
  phenomena and offered for scientific study.
• Basic Science The pursuit of knowledge about
  natural phenomena for its own sake.
• Applied Science Discovering ways to use
  scientific findings to accomplish practical goals.

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The Scientific Method

• See Text Pg. 12 for chart!
• Question
• Hypothesis
• Experiment
• Results
• Conclusion
• Theory

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Differences in Opinion

• Throughout time, many psychologists have had a
  wide variety of views as to what psychology is
  and what it should study.

• Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
• Founded the first psychological lab in 1879 at
  Leipzig in Germany.
• He saw Psychology as the study of conscious
  experience.
• He did this through introspection, asking a
  person to describe what was going on in his mind.
  This is an attempt to study Psychology, much as
  a chemist would study substances.
• He was a structuralist, which means he was
  interested in the basic elements of human
  experience.

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Another Opinion

• William James (1842-1910)
• The first American psychologist.
• He was more interested in how the mind functions,
  than how the body reacts.
• Believed that the mind should be viewed as a
  whole and that you miss the point when you try
  to break it down into different parts.
• He developed functionalism as an answer to the
  problems he encountered with introspection and
  structuralism.
• Functionalism The study of how animals and
  people adapt to their environments. The
  function, rather than the structure.

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More Opinions

• John Watson (1878-1958)
• Watson said You cant see the mind so how can
  you study it?
• According to Watson, all we can see is
  observable behavior and that is what psychology
  should study. Skinner is also widely known for
  this view.
• Watson was a behaviorist.
• Behaviorist Psychologists who stress
  investigating observable behavior rather than the
  mind. How do organisms behave in response to
  their environment?

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And now for a little break
Whats going on in this clip? Hmmmmmm
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And now back to the Show!

• Mary Calkins (1863-1930)
• The first woman to make a career in Psychology.
• Unfortunately, because of prejudices against
  women in 1895, she never received a PhD.
• An understudy of William James.
• Side note The first female psychologist with a
  PhD was Margaret Washburn.

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Im asleepbut awake? Odd

• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
• Was a physician who practiced in 1938.
• He was more interested in the unconscious mind
  than the conscious mind. Huh? What the heck
  does that mean?
• He believed Consciousness was only the tip of
  the ice burg and that our unconscious mind and
  biological urges are in conflict with the
  requirements of society and morality.
• According to Freud, these unconscious conflicts
  are responsible for most human behavior.

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Ok, last bioFor now muahahaha!

• Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
• Russian
• Pavlovs Dog experiment. Pavlov rang a tuning
  fork each time he gave a dog some meat powder.
  When the powder reached the dogs mouth, it would
  salivate. After Pavlov repeated this procedure
  several times, the dog would salivate when he
  heard the tuning forkEven if there was no food.
  The dog had been conditioned to associate the
  sound with food.

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Odd..
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YupA few more definitions

• Psychoanalyst A psychologist who studies how
  unconscious motives and conflicts determine
  behavior.
• Behaviorist A psychologist who analyzes how
  organisms learn or modify their behavior based on
  their response to events in the environment.
• Humanist A psychologist who believes that each
  person has freedom in directing his or her future
  and achieving personal growth.
• Cognitivist A psychologist who studies how we
  process, store, retrieve, and use information and
  how cognitive processes influence our behavior.
• Psychobiologist A psychologist who studies how
  physical and chemical changes in our bodies
  influence our behavior.

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Unit 1, Section 2 3

• Perspectives of Psychology Psychology as a
  Profession

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Perspectives of Psychology

• Today most psychologists believe overt behavior
  is central to the field. What leads to behavior
  is debated however. Therefore, there are a
  variety of perspectives on what the focus of
  study should be.

• Cognitive Perspective
• Cognition means thinking. The cognitive
  perspective holds that to understand how people
  behave you have to understand how they think,
  remember, and decide. That is what determines
  how they act.
• Physiological Perspective
• Our brain is a complex biochemical organ that
  affects how we think and behave. To understand
  behavior you must understand the roots of
  behavior, the working of the brain and nervous
  system.

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• Sociocultural Perspective
• Behavior is strongly influenced by social and
  cultural factors. To fully understand behavior,
  you have to take into consideration the social
  and cultural environment in which it occurs.
• Psychodynamic Perspective
• This is based on the work of Sigmund Freud.
  Freud saw psychology as the study of unconscious
  because he believed unconscious motivation
  controlled behavior.
• Behavioral Perspective
• Probably the most dominant perspective today.
  This is the continuation of Watsons idea that
  overt behavior is the most important thing to
  study. A combination of this and the cognitive
  perspective is also popular.

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Psychology as a Profession
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Training

• Psychologist vs. Psychiatrist
• Many People get these confused.
• They are similar in that both may work in the
  diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.
• They are different in that a psychiatrist is a
  medical doctor who may prescribe medicine. A
  psychologist generally has a PhD and cannot
  prescribe medicine.
• Major difference Drugs

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So you wanna job?
Clinical Psychology This is what most people
think of when they hear the work psychologist.
They diagnose and treat mental disorders.
Counseling Psychology The book says they
treat people who do not have mental disorders,
but in reality they do the same work as clynical
psychologists although they are less likely to
work with people with severe psychopathology. Dev
elopmental Psychology They study how people
change physically, cognitively, and socially over
the lifespan. School Psychology This is the
third of the three main applied areas. They
diagnose and treat children with learning,
behavioral, and emotional problems with an
emphasis on the school envirionment.
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• Educational Psychology They study psychological
  principles within an educational environment.
  They are different from school psychologists
  because they generally do not work with
  individual children but focus more on
  instruction, techniques, etc
• Cognitive Psychology their focus is on
  thinking, reasoning, language, and decision
  making.
• Industrial/Organizational Psychology Studies
  aspects of behavior in work setting such as
  personnel selection, employee evaluation, work
  motivation, and leadership.
• Psychobiology Also called physiological
  psychology. They are interested in the brain and
  how it works.
• Social Psychology They are interested in social
  behavior. How do we act and react based on the
  social information we receive.
• Experimental Psychology This covers almost all
  of the basic areas such as perception, learning,
  motivation, and animal behavior.

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The endof this Section!
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Psychological Research Methods and Statistics
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Methodology

• What is Methodology?
• - According to the text, methodology simply
  refers to the methods that we use to conduct an
  investigation.
• The goals of research are to describe behavior,
  to explain its causes, to predict the
  circumstances under which certain behaviors may
  occur again, and to control certain behaviors.
  Psychologists use various methods of research to
  accomplish each of these goals.

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The different types of research

• Naturalistic Observation A research method in
  which the psychologist observes the subject in a
  natural setting without interfering. (In other
  wordsWatch, but do not touch!)
• - Note This is frequently informal and is
  usually the first step to allow you to get a
  better understanding of the behavior which allows
  further, more in depth investigation.
• Case Studies A research method that involves an
  intensive investigation of one or more
  participants. (long term, very involved.)
• - Note By itself, a case study does not prove
  or disprove anything. The researchers
  conclusions may not be correct. This was the
  technique used by Freud.
• Surveys A research method in which information
  is obtained by asking many individuals a fixed
  set of questions. This is usually used to get an
  idea of the populations attitudes toward
  something.
• - Note These are only accurate if they are
  representative of the population as a whole.

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A few more types of research

• Longitudinal Study A research method in which
  data is collected about a group of participants
  over a number of years to assess how certain
  change or remain the same during development.
• - Note These studies are very time consuming,
  but are the best way to study changes over time.
• Cross Sectional Studies A research method in
  which data is collected from groups of
  participants of different ages and compared so
  that conclusions can be drawn about differences
  due to age.
• - Note Less expensive that Longitudinal
  studies and take less time, yet yield similar
  results.

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What is Correlation?

• Correlation The measure of a relationship
  between two variables or sets of data.
• Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?
• There are 2 types of Correlation. Positive and
  Negative.
• For example, there is a positive correlation
  between IQ scores and academic success. Low IQ
  scores tend to go with low grades.
• Still confusedNo problem! (High score High
  score, Low score Low score)
• Another example, there is a negative correlation
  between the number of hours you practice catching
  a football and the number of times you get hit in
  the face with it. In other words, the more you
  practice, the less you will get hit in the face!
  (High score Low score, Low score High score)
• It is important to remember that while the word
  correlation describes the relationship between 2
  things, it does not always mean that one thing
  causes the other. Why?

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Negative Correlation
Not enough practice Hit in face with football.
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Experimental Terms

• Hypothesis An educated guess about the
  relationship between 2 variables.
• Variable Any factor that is capable of change.
• Note There are 2 types of variables the
  independent variable (the one experimenters
  change or alter so that they can observe its
  effects.), and the dependent variable (the one
  that can only be directly effected by the
  dependent variable.) In other words, The number
  of hours you study effects your academic
  performance.
• Experimental Group The group to which an
  independent variable is applied.
• Control Group The group that is treated in the
  same way as the experimental group except that
  the experimental treatment (the independent
  variable) is not applied.

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Ethical Issues

• Ethics The methods of conduct, or standards,
  for proper and responsible behavior.
• In 1992 the American Psychological Association
  published a set of ethical principles regarding
  the collection, storage, and use of psychological
  data.

• The Principles Published by the American
  Psychological Association
• Psychologists are responsible for the dignity and
  welfare of participants. Psychologists are also
  responsible for all research they perform or is
  performed by others under their supervision.
• Psychologists obey all state and federal laws and
  regulations as well as professional standards
  governing research.

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• Except for anonymous surveys, naturalistic
  observations, and similar research, psychologists
  reach an agreement regarding the rights and
  responsibilities of both participants and
  researcher(s) before research is started.
• When consent is required, psychologists obtain a
  signed, informed consent before starting any
  research with a participant.
• Deception is used only if no better alternative
  is available. Under no condition is there
  deception about (negative) aspects that might
  influence a participants willingness to
  participate.
• Other issues covered include sharing and
  utilizing data, offering inducements, minimizing
  evasiveness, and providing participants with
  information about the study.
• Note Recently the use of animals in research
  has caused much concern and debate. While some
  people oppose subjecting animals to pain for
  research purposes, others point to the enormous
  gains in knowledge and reduction in human
  suffering that have resulted from such research.
• What do you think?

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Animal Testing?
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Problems and Solutions in Research

• Problem 1
• The Self-Fulfilling prophecy A situation in
  which a researchers expectations influence that
  persons own behavior, and thereby influence the
  participants behavior.
• How do you fix it? There are a few options
• Single-blind experiment An experiment in which
  the participants are unaware of which
  participants received the treatment.
• Double-blind experiment An experiment in which
  neither the experimenter nor the participants
  know which participants received which treatment.

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• Problem 2
• The Placebo effect A change in a
  participants illness or behavior that results
  from a belief that the treatment will have an
  effect, rather than the actual treatment.
• How can this be viewed as a positive?
• How can this be viewed as a negative?
• Is this fair to do to someone?
• Should a Person be notified that they are in
  effect being tricked?

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??? Some Questions ???

• Why should psychologists question the results of
  an experiment that they have conducted for the
  first time?
• How do scientists attempt to avoid the
  self-fulfilling prophecy?
• How can a psychologist attempt to justify
  deceiving patients in testing? Should they?