Myers EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY 7th Ed

1
Myers EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY (7th Ed)

• Chapter 1
• Thinking Critically with Psychological Science
• James A. McCubbin, PhD
• Clemson University
• Worth Publishers

2
What is Psychology?

• Psychology
• the science of behavior and mental processes
• Nature-Nurture Issue
• the long-standing controversy over the relative
  contribution of genes (nature) and experience to
  the development of psychological traits and
  behaviors (Nurture)

3
What is Psychology?
Psychologys Current Perspectives
Perspective Focus
Neuroscience How the body and brain create
emotions, memories, and sensory experiences
Evolutionary How nature selects traits that
promote the perpetuation of ones genes
Behavior How much our genes, and our
environment, influence our genetics individual
differences
Psychodynamic How behavior springs from
unconscious drives and conflicts
Behavioral How we learn observable responses
Cognitive How we encode, process, store, and
retrieve information
Social-cultural How behavior and thinking vary
across situations and Biopsychosocial cultures
4
What is Psychology?

• Basic Research
• pure science that aims to increase the scientific
  knowledge base
• Applied Research
• scientific study that aims to solve practical
  problems
• industrial/organizational psychologists

5
What is Psychology?

• Clinical Psychology
• a branch of psychology that studies, assesses,
  and treats people with psychological disorders
• Psychiatry
• a branch of medicine dealing with psychological
  disorders
• practiced by physicians who sometimes provide
  medical (for example, drug) treatment as well as
  psychological therapy
• Medical Model When in doubt - cut it out or
  drug it.

6
Why do Psychology?

• Hindsight Bias
• tendency to believe, after learning an outcome,
  that one would have foreseen it
• the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon
• Overconfidence
• we tend to think we know more than we do
• Generalizing
• we tend to over generalize with vivid cases
• best bases is not (vivid) exceptional cases but
  from a representative sample size

7
Why do Psychology?

• Critical Thinking
• thinking that does not blindly accept arguments
  and conclusions
• examines assumptions
• discerns hidden values
• evaluates evidence
• assesses conclusions

8
Critical Thinkers

• Open-minded.
• Ability to identify inherent biases and
  assumptions.
• Have attitude of skepticism.
• Distinguish facts from opinions.
• Do not oversimplify.
• Use the processes of logical inference.
• Review all the available evidence before reaching
  a conclusion.
• Albert Einstein, 1941 science without religion
  is lame, religion without science is blind

9
The Scientific Method

• Theory
• an explanation using an integrated set of
  principles that organizes and predicts
  observations
• Hypothesis
• a testable prediction often implied by a theory

10
The Scientific Method
11
The Scientific Method

• Operational Definition
• a statement of the procedures (operations) used
  to define research variables
• for example, intelligence may be operationally
  defined as what an intelligence test measures

12
The Scientific Method

• Replication
• repeating the essence of a research study to see
  whether the basic finding generalizes to other
  participants and circumstances
• usually with different subjects in different
  situations
• Case Study
• an observation technique in which one person is
  studied in depth in the hope of revealing
  universal principles

13
The Scientific Method

• Survey
• technique for ascertaining the self-reported
  attitudes or behaviors of people
• usually by questioning a representative, random
  sample of them

14
The Scientific Method

• Population
• all the cases in a group, from which samples may
  be drawn
• Random Sample
• a sample that fairly represents a population
  because each member has an equal chance of
  inclusion

15
The Scientific Method

• Naturalistic Observation
• observing and recording behavior in naturally
  occurring situations without trying to manipulate
  and control the situation

16
The Scientific Method

• Correlation Coefficient
• a statistical measure that indicates the extent
  to which two factors vary together and thus how
  well either factor predicts the other

17
Correlation and Causation ( Correlation does not
prove causation)

• Three possible cause-effect relations

could cause
18
Correlation example

• People how often eat Frosted Flakes as children
  have half the cancer rate of those who never ate
  the cereal.
• People how often eat oatmeal as children were
  four times more likely to develop cancer than
  those who did not.
• Does this mean that Frosted Flakes prevents
  cancer while oatmeal causes it?

19
Correlation Finding?

• Cancer tends to be a disease of later life.
  Those who ate Frosted Flakes are younger.
• Cereal was not around when older respondents were
  children, and so they are much likely to have
  eaten oatmeal.

20
Illusory Correlation

• the perception of a relationship where none
  exists
• Do you believe that previously infertile couples
  become more likely to conceive a child after
  adopting a baby?

21
Random SequencesWhich hand is more likely?

• Your chances of being dealt either of these hands
  is precisely the same 1 in 2,598,960.

22
The Scientific Method

• Experiment
• a research method in which an investigator
  manipulates one or more factors (independent
  variables) to observe their effect on some
  behavior or mental process (the dependent
  variable)
• by random assignment of participants the
  experiment controls other relevant factors

23
The Scientific Method

• Placebo
• an inert substance or condition that may be
  administered instead of a presumed active agent,
  such as a drug, to see if it triggers the effects
  believed to characterize the active agent
• Placebo Effect
• any effect on behavior caused by a placebo

24
The Scientific Method

• Double-blind Procedure
• an experimental procedure in which both the
  research participants and the research staff are
  ignorant (blind) about whether the research
  participants have received the treatment or a
  placebo
• commonly used in drug-evaluation studies

25
The Scientific Method

• Experimental Condition
• the condition of an experiment that exposes
  participants to the treatment, that is, to one
  version of the independent variable
• Control Condition
• the condition of an experiment that contrasts
  with the experimental treatment
• serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect
  of the treatment

26
The Scientific Method

• Random Assignment
• assigning participants to experimental and
  control conditions by chance
• minimizes preexisting differences between those
  assigned to the different groups

27
The Scientific Method

• Independent Variable
• the experimental factor that is manipulated
• the variable whose effect is being studied
• Dependent Variable
• the experimental factor that is being measured
• in psychology it is usually a behavior or mental
  process
• may change in response to manipulations of the
  independent variable

28
The Scientific Method
Comparing Research Methods
Research Method Basic Purpose
How Conducted What is
Manipulated
Descriptive To observe and
Case studies, surveys, Nothing record
behavior and naturalistic
observations
Correlational To detect naturally
Computing statistical Nothing occurring
relationships association, sometimes to
assess how well among survey one variable
predicts responses
Experimental To explore cause Manipulating
one or Independent and effect more
factors and using variable(s) random
assignment to eliminate preexisting diff
erences among subjects
29
The Scientific Method

• Culture
• enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and
  traditions shared by a large group of people
  transmitted from one generation to the next

30
What do you see?

• Our preconceptions can bias our observations and
  interpretations

31
Studying Psychology

• SQ3R
• a study method incorporating five steps
• Survey
• Question
• Read
• Rehearse
• Review