Introducing Psychology and Research Methods

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Chapter 1

• Introducing Psychology and Research Methods

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Section 1 What Is Psychology?

• Psychology
• Psyche Mind
• Logos Knowledge or study
• Basic Definition
• The scientific study of overt behavior (that
  which can be seen and measured, like running or
  crying) and covert mental processes (that which
  can not be seen, like thinking or worrying)
• Considered to be both
• science (process of gaining new knowledge) and a
• profession (application of knowledge)

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Empiricism information systematically collected
from direct observation (focus on the overt)

• Psychology strives to be empirical to keep
  information as valid and provable as possible
  the empirical viewpoint is used
• To measure and describe behaviors
• To gather verifiable evidence and data
• Empirical investigations are structured so that
  they accurately answer questions about the world
• Most non-empirical conclusions (aka common sense)
  are inaccurate see text pg 15
• Some topics are therefore difficult or impossible
  to study due to ethical issues or lack of a
  suitable empirical research method

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What Are the Goals of Psychology?

• Description of Behaviors Naming and classifying
  various observable, measurable behaviors
• Understanding The causes of behavior
• Prediction Forecasting behavior accurately
• Control Altering conditions that affect behaviors

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Section 3 History of Psychology

• Beginning of Psychology as a recognized area of
  study
• 1879 Wilhelm Wundt set up first lab to study
  conscious experience (sensations, thoughts,
  feelings, actions) in Germany
• Systematically observed and measured various
  stimuli using introspection or looking inward
  (i.e., examining and reporting your thoughts,
  feelings, etc. )

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History of Psychology Structuralism

• Wundts ideas brought to the US by Tichener and
  renamed Structuralism
• Structuralism School of thought concerned with
  analyzing sensations and personal experience into
  basic elements

History of Psychology Functionalism

• William James (American) wrote Principles of
  Psychology (1890)
• Functionalism How the mind functions to adapt us
  to our environment
• Functionalists admired Darwin and his theory of
  natural selection (living things keep features
  over time that help them adapt to environments)

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History of Psychology Behaviorism

• Psychology must study observable behavior
  objectively
• John B. Watson studied relationship between
  stimuli and responses
• Used Ivan Pavlovs idea of classical conditioning
  that a natural response can be conditioned to
  any stimulus
• B.F. Skinner studied animals almost exclusively
• Developed the concept of operant conditioning -
  actions are controlled by punishments and rewards
• View that combines cognition and conditioning to
  explain behavior
• Cognitive Behaviorists Ellis and Bandura
• Our thoughts influence our behaviors
• Used often in treatment of depression

History of Psychology Cognitive Behaviorism
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History of Psychology Gestalt Psychology

• The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
• German Max Wertheimer was the first to embrace
  this view, he said that it is a mistake to
  analyze events in pieces as the structualists did
  but rather you must look at the whole to get a
  complete picture
• Studied thinking, learning, and perception in
  whole units, not by analyzing experiences into
  parts
• Influenced study of perception and personality

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History of Psychology Psychoanalytic Psychology

• Sigmund Freud
• Our behavior is largely influenced by our
  unconscious wishes, thoughts, and desires,
  especially sex and aggression
• Among first to appreciate that childhood affects
  adult personality
• Freud created psychoanalysis as a way to treat
  disorders of the mind and behaviors
• Example of Psychoanalytic concepts
• Repression When memories, thoughts, or impulses
  are unconsciously held out of awareness
• Recent research has hypothesized that our
  unconscious mind is partially responsible for our
  behaviors

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History of Psychology Neo-Freudians

• New or recentsome of Freuds students who broke
  away to promote their own theories
• Less emphasis on sex and aggression
• Key Names Alfred Adler, Anna Freud (Freuds
  daughter), Karen Horney, Carl Jung, Otto Rank,
  Erik Erikson

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History of Psychology Humanism

• Key Names Rogers and Maslow
• Goal of psychology is to study unique aspects of
  the person
• Focuses on human experience, problems,
  potentials, and ideals
• Emphasizes free will (each person has innate
  goodness and is able to make free choices) over
  the determinism (behavior is controlled by
  outside forces) embraced by Skinner and Freud
• Key Terms
• Self-Image Perception of our own body,
  personality, and capabilities
• Self-Evaluation Positive or negative feelings
  held toward ones self
• Frame of Reference Mental perspective used to
  interpret events
• Self-Actualization Ongoing process of fully
  developing ones personal potential

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Women in Psychologys Early Days

• Mary Calkins
• Research on memory
• 1st woman president of American Psychological
  Association
• Christine Ladd-Franklin
• Research on color vision
• Margaret Washburn
• Published The Animal Mind (1908)

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Psychology TodayBiological Perspective

• Biopsychological View
• All of our behavior (psychology) can be explained
  through physiological processes (biology)
• Study the brain and nervous system
• Evolutionary View
• All of our behavior (psychology) can be explained
  through evolutionary processes (change over time)
  and genetics
• Study patterns of change

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Psychology Today Psychological Perspective

• Behavioristic View
• Behavior is shaped and controlled by the
  environment
• Studies observable behaviors
• Cognitive view
• Human behaviors are explained by how information
  is processed in the brain
• Studies thinking, perception, memory
• Psychodynamic view
• Behavior is governed by personality features
  hidden in the unconscious
• Studies internal impulses conflicts
• Humanistic View
• Behavior is guided by the self-image, world view,
  and a need for personal growth
• Studies conscious experiences, problems, and
  potential

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Psychology Today Sociocultural Perspective

• Sociocultural View
• Behavior affected by social and cultural contexts
• Studies cultural relativity (behavior must be
  judged relative to values of the culture in which
  it occurs) and social norms (rules that define
  acceptable and expected behavior)

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Psychology TodayPositive Psychology

• Study of human strengths, virtues, and optimal
  behavior
• Looks at positive side of human behavior such as
  love, creativity, well-being, and optimal
  behavior

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Section 4 Psychologists and Their Specialties

• Psychologists
• Usually have masters degree or doctorate
• Trained in methods, knowledge, and theories of
  psychology
• Clinical Psychologist
• Treats psychological problems or does research on
  therapies and mental disorders
• Counseling Psychologist
• Treats milder emotional and behavioral
  disturbances

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More Helping Professionals

• Psychiatrists
• A medical doctor (M.D.)
• Usually use medications to treat problems
• Generally do not have extensive training in
  providing talk therapy
• Psychoanalysts
• Receive additional training post-PhD. or M.D. at
  an institute for psychoanalysis

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Some More Helping Professionals

• Counselor
• Advisor who helps solve problems with marriage,
  school, and so on
• Requires masters degree
• Psychiatric Social Workers
• Many have masters degrees and perform
  psychotherapy
• Presently a very popular profession
• Not all psychologists perform therapy!

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Section 2 Critical Thinking The Scientific
Method

• Critical Thinking Ability to analyze, evaluate,
  critique, and synthesize information
• What would you expect to see if the claim were
  true?
• Gather evidence relevant to the claim
• Evaluate the evidence
• Draw a conclusion
• Four Basic Principles of Critical Thinking
• Few truths transcend the need for empirical
  testing
• Judging the quality of evidence is crucial
• Authority or claimed expertise does not
  automatically make an idea true
• Critical thinking requires an open mind (but not
  to the point that you will believe anything)

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The Scientific Method

• Six Basic Elements
• Making observations (identify an area of
  interest)
• Defining a problem (narrow observations to a
  specific question to be answered)
• Operational definitions list of the specific
  criteria to measure the concept or behavior (ex.
  Hitting physical contact with a living or
  non-living thing with the intent to cause pain or
  harm)
• Proposing a hypothesis
• An educated guess (statement of believed cause)
  that can be tested
• Gathering evidence/testing the hypothesis
• Scientific experiment (aka experimental method)
• Naturalistic observation
• Correlational study/method
• Case study (aka clinical method)
• Survey study/method
• 5 Publishing results (for review and repetition
  by peers)
• 6 Building a theory (collaborative results of
  multiple studies and be combined to create a
  comprehensive answer to a problem)

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Scientific Theory

• A system of ideas that interrelates facts and
  concepts, summarizes existing data, and predicts
  future observations
• A good theory must be falsifiable
• i .e. , operationally defined so that it can be
  disconfirmed (aka proving the null hypothesis)

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Section 5 The Psychology Experiment

• The purpose of a psychological experiment is to
  identify cause-and-effect relationships
• Parts of an experiment
• Directly vary a condition (variable) you might
  think affects behavior
• Create two or more groups of subjects, alike in
  all ways except the condition you are varying
• Record whether varying the condition has any
  effect on behavior

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Variables

• Independent Variable
• Condition(s) altered by the experimenter
  experimenter sets their size, amount, or value
  these are suspected causes for behavioral
  differences
• Dependent Variable
• Demonstrates effects that independent variables
  have on behavior
• Extraneous Variables
• Conditions that a researcher wants to prevent
  from affecting the outcomes of the experiment
  (e.g., number of hours slept before the
  experiment)

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Groups

• Experimental Group
• The group of participants that gets the
  independent variable
• Control Group
• The group of participants that does NOT get the
  independent variable
• Random Assignment
• Participant has an equal chance of being in
  either the experimental or control group

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Placebo

• Placebo
• A fake pill (sugar), injection (saline), or
  condition
• Placebos alter our expectations about our own
  emotional and physical reactions
• Placebo Effect
• Changes in behavior that result from expectations
  that a drug or other treatment will have some
  effect
• These expectancies then influence bodily
  activities

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Experiment Types

• Single Blind
• Only the subjects have no idea whether they get
  real treatment or placebo
• Double Blind
• The subjects AND the experimenters have no idea
  whether the subjects get real treatment or
  placebo
• Best type of experiment if properly set up

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Experimenter Effects

• Changes in behavior caused by the unintended
  influence of the experimenter
• Robert Rosenthal (1973)
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• A prediction that leads people to act in ways to
  make the prediction come true

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Naturalistic Observation
Section 6 Non-Experimental Research Methods

• Observing a person or an animal in the natural
  environmental context
• Provides descriptions of behavior
• e.g., Jane Goodall
• Problems
• Observer Effect
• Changes in behavior caused by an awareness of
  being observed
• Observer Bias
• Occurs when observers see what they expect to see
  or record only selected details
• Anthropomorphic Error
• Attributing human thoughts, feelings, or motives
  to animals, especially as a way of explaining
  their behavior
• e.g., Java, my dog, is acting like that because
  hes feeling depressed today.

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Correlational Studies

• Determine the degree of a relationship between
  two events, measures, or variables
• Correlation Coefficient
• Statistic ranging from 1.00 to 1.00
• the sign indicates the direction of the
  relationship
• Closer the statistic is to 1.00 or to 1.00, the
  stronger the relationship
• Correlation of 0.00 demonstrates no relationship
  between the variables

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Correlations (Continued)

• Positive Correlation
• Increases in one variable are matched by
  increases in the other variable
• e.g. high school grades and college grades
• Negative Correlation
• Increases in one variable are matched by
  decreases in the other variable
• e.g. hours playing video games and grades
• Correlation does not demonstrate causation
• Just because two variables are related does NOT
  mean that one variable causes the other to occur

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The Clinical Method

• Case Study
• In-depth focus of all aspects of a single person
• Phineas Gage (right) provided info on the effects
  of damage to the frontal lobe, however not all
  cases of this type of injury have the same
  results
• Natural Clinical Tests
• Natural events, such as accidents, that provide
  psychological data

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Survey Method

• Using public polling techniques to answer
  psychological questions
• People in a representative sample are asked
  carefully worded questions
• Problems
• Samples are not representative
• Representative Sample Small group that
  accurately reflects a larger population
• Population Entire group of animals or people
  belonging to a particular category (e.g., all
  married women)
• Courtesy Bias
• A tendency to give polite or socially desirable
  answers

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Section 7 Psychology in the Media

• Separating fact from fiction
• Be skeptical
• Consider the source of information
• Ask yourself, Was there a control group?
• Look for errors in distinguishing between
  correlation and causation
• Be sure to distinguish between observation and
  inference (e.g., Robert is crying, but do we know
  why he is crying?)
• Beware of oversimplifications, especially those
  motivated by monetary gain
• Remember, for example is no proof!

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Separating Fact from Fiction (Continued)

• Be sure to distinguish between observation and
  inference (e.g., Robert is crying, but do we know
  why he is crying?)
• Beware of oversimplifications, especially those
  motivated by monetary gain
• Remember, for example is no proof!