Chapter 1 What is Psychology

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Chapter 1What is Psychology?

• The fields of psychology
• Enduring Issues
• Psychology as Science

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Roots Their Meanings

• Psycho-
• Of the mind
• -ology
• the scientific study of
• PSYCHOLOGY
• the scientific study of behavior and mental
  processes

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True or False?

• Most psychologists study mental and emotional
  problems and work as psychotherapists.

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What do psychologists do?

• Psychologists
• A person who studies behavior and mental
  processes
• APA (American Psychological Association)
• Governing body of psychology
• The object of the American Psychological
  Association shall be to advance psychology as a
  science and profession
• http//www.apa.org

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Fields of Psychology

• APA has 53 divisions see Table 1-1
• Represents major fields of psychological inquiry
• Specialized research
• Professional interests
• 7 major sub-fields
• Developmental
• Neuroscience and Physiological
• Experimental
• Personality
• Clinical and Counseling
• Social
• Industrial and Organizational (I/O)

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Developmental

• Study of human mental and physical growth
• Prenatal through childhood, adolescence,
  adulthood and old age
• Interested in universal patterns of development
  and in cultural and individual variations
• Child Psychologists
• Focus on infants and children
• Adolescent Psychologists
• Specialize in teenage years
• Life-span Psychologists
• Focus on the adult years

Jean Piaget
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Child Psychologist

• Whether babies are born with distinct
  personalities and temperaments
• How infants become attached to their parents and
  caretakers
• Acquire language and develop morals
• How and when sex differences in behavior emerge
• How to evaluate changes in the meaning and
  importance of friendship during childhood

Issues include.
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Adolescent psychologists

• Specialize in the teenage years
• Puberty
• Changes in relationships with peers and parents
• Search for identity
• Difficulties which may arise during this period

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Life-span psychologists

• Focus on the adult years and the different ways
  individuals adjust to
• Partnership and parenting
• Middle age
• Retirement
• The prospect of death

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Neuroscience and Physiological

• Investigate the biological basis of human
  behavior, thought, and emotions
• Study the effects of both natural substances that
  act as chemical messengers (hormones) and
  synthetic chemical messengers, including
  psychoactive medications (antidepressants) and
  social drugs (alcohol, marijuana, cocaine)
• How the brain and nervous system develop,
  function, and/or malfunction
• Behavior geneticists
• Investigate the impact of heredity on both normal
  and abnormal traits and behavior

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Experimental

• Research on
• Basic psychological processes
• Learning, memory, sensation, perception,
  cognition, motivation, and emotion
• HMMM. I wonder..
• Questions
• How do people remember,and what makes them
  forget?
• Do men and women approach complex problems
  differently?
• Why are some people more motivated than
  others?
• Are emotions universal?
• Do different cultures emphasize some
  emotions and dismiss others?
• How do we make decisions and solve
  problems?

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Personality

• Anxiety
• Sociability
• Self-esteem
• Need for achievement
• Aggresiveness
• ?
• Nervous vs. easygoing
• Cautious vs. impulsive
• Inborn vs. learned

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Clinical and Counseling
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Social

• Issues include
• How do people influence one another?
• First impressions interpersonal attraction
• How are attitudes formed, maintained, or changed?
• Prejudice and persuasion
• Conformity and obedience to authority
• Does behavior change when working in a group or
  on their own?
• What do they do?
• Social psychologists are researchers and
  theorists
• Work with support groups, such as cancer
  patients, substance abusers, compulsive gamblers,
  family conflict, sensitivity training

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Industrial and Organizational

• Issues include
• Selecting and training personnel
• Improving productivity and working conditions
• Computerization vs. automation on workers
• ???
• Who will be an effective employee and who will
  not?
• Does male or female leadership positions make a
  difference in the work place?
• Can managers use strategies to improve group
  morale?
• Who will study for the chapter 1 test and who
  will not?

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Enduring Issues(Mrs. Zungoli thought that this
was very important!!!! Hint, hint!)

• All psychologists share a common interest in 5
  enduring issues that override their areas of
  specialization and cut to the core of what it
  means to be human.

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1. PersonSituation

• Masters
• of
• our
• fate
• or
• victims
• of
• circumstance

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2. NatureNurture

• Heredity or genes
• Vs.
• Environment or experience

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3. StabilityChange

• Can you teach old dogs new tricks?

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4. DiversityUniversality

• Does our understanding of behavior apply equally
  to every human being?
• Do we need different psychologies to account
  for the wide diversity of human behaviors?
• To what extent is every
• person like all others, like
• some others, or like no
• others?

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5. MindBody

• Relationship between
• What we experience
• (thoughts feelings)
• and
• biological processes
• (activity in the
• nervous system).

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Moving forward

• While philosophers have pondered these issues for
  centuries, psychologists look at these topics
  through scientific lens.

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Psychology as Science

• Scientific Method
• State the Problem
• Generate a QUESTION t be answered by scientific
  inquiry
• e.g. Do carrots improve eyesight?
• Form a Theory
• A general PREDICTION based on previous research
• e.g. Based on Watsons (2003) and Jones (2002)
  findings on the effects of eating carrots on
  visual acuity, carrots should have a positive
  impact on the visual system.

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Scientific Method

• Develop a Hypotheses
• Create an if-then statement you will research
• e.g. IF subjects consume 8oz. of carrots each
  day for a two month period, THEN they will
  perform better on a test of visual acuity.
• Observation
• Conduct experiment and collect data
• e.g. 40 subjects consumed the carrots during the
  two month period and showed statistically
  significant levels of improvement in a visual
  acuity test.

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Scientific Method

• Replicate Results
• Do your experiment over and over with different
  test subjects to see if you get consistent
  result!
• Conclusion
• After replication, summarize and analyze your
  data. What does it all mean?