Chapter 1: What is Psychology?

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Chapter 1 What is Psychology?
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Questions to Ponder

• Can laboratory experiments Illuminate everyday
  life?
• Psychologists are less concerned with particular
  behaviors than general principles that help
  explain many behaviors.
• Does behavior depend on ones culture?
• Does behavior vary with gender?
• Is psychology free of value judgments?
• Is psychology potentially dangerous?

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Animal Research

• Why do psychologists study animals?
• Is it ethical to experiment on animals?
• Is it right to place the well-being of humans
  above the well-being of animals?
• Do we value animals according to their perceived
  kinship with us?
• Are there ethical guidelines concerning the
  experimentation with animals?
• Do animals benefit from animal research?

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Is it ethical to experiment on people?

• Are there ethical principles that guide research
  involving humans?
• Obtain the informed consent of participants
• Protect them from harm and discomfort
• Treat information about individual participants
  confidentially
• Fully explain the research afterwards
• Institutional review boards (IRBs)
• Is it ethical to use deception in research?

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Distinguishing Between TermsBeginning with the
Letters,
P
S
Y
C
H

• Psychology the scientific study of behavior and
  mental processes. Scientific means...
• beliefs are based on empirical
  evidencecareful, systematic observations.
• Psychiatry the branch of medicine concerned
  with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of
  mental disorders. Most similar to clinical
  psychology.
• Psychotherapy the treatment of psychological
  disorders using psychological rather than
  biological methods.
• Psychoanalysis a field introduced by Sigmund
  Freud consisting of a theory of personality and a
  method of psychotherapy emphasizes the
  unconscious mind.

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Some Specialty Areas Within Psychology

• Clinical Psychology concerned with the diagnosis
  and treatment of relatively severe mental and
  behavioral disorders.
• Counseling Psychology deals with problems of
  adjustment in everyday life (marital, social,
  occupational).
• Developmental Psychology focuses on how people
  change and grow over the lifespaninfancy,
  childhood (child psychology), adolescence,
  adulthood, and old age (gerontology).
• Social Psychology studies how an individuals
  thoughts, feelings, and behavior are affected by
  other people. Industrial/Organizational
  Psychology (I/O) focuses on behavior in the
  workplace.
• Psychometrics designs tests to measure mental
  abilities, personality traits, and symptoms of
  psychological disorders.

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Characteristics of a ScientificApproach to
Psychology

• Qualifies its statements about human nature
  states the conditions under which a
  generalization holds up.
• Quantifies its statements about human nature
  uses numbers to describe how much of something
  there is.
• Follows rules of evidence to establish facts
  key point...
• We must distinguish between observations
  (facts) and interpretations (theories).

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History of Psychology
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Ancient Greece

• Plato (428-348 BCE)
• A student of Socrates, Plato recorded (wrote
  down) Socrates advice Know thyself
• This means a careful examination of ones thoughts
  and feelings
• Today this is called introspection
• Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
• Peri-Psyches about the mind
• People are motivated to seek pleasure and to
  avoid pain
• A view still believed in today
• Hippocrates (460-377 BCE)
• Went against popular thought that the Gods caused
  confusion and madness
• He believed such problems were caused by
  abnormalities in the brain
• This view would not be accepted for another 2,000
  years

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The Middle Ages

• Most Europeans believed that problems like
  confusion were caused by demons (possession)
• The Water Float Test
• Based on the idea that pure metals sink and
  impure metals float during smelting
• People who floated were in league with the devil
• People who sunk were considered pure
• And the problem was??????

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William Wundt (1832-1920)

• 1st psychology lab
• Founded the field of psychology
• Structuralism
• Basic elements of conscious experience
• Objective Sensations (sight, taste, sound, etc.)
• Subjective Feelings (emotional responses and
  mental images)

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William James (1842-1910)

• Experience is a fluid stream of consciousness
• Focus on experience and behavior
• 1st psychology text The Principles of Psychology
• Functionalism
• How mental processes help organisms adapt to
  their environment
• What are the purposes (functions) of behavior and
  mental processes
• Adaptive behavior patterns are learned, repeated
  and eventually become habits

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John B. Watson (1878-1958)

• Behaviorism
• Psychology as the scientific study of observable
  behavior
• Concern with the consciousness as well as
  behavior
• Consciousness is a private event known only to
  the individual
• Psychology must be limited to observable and
  measurable

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B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

• Reinforcement
• People learn to behave certain ways because they
  have been reinforced for doing so
• Reward for performing actions or events increase
  the likelihood of occurrances
• Animals doing special things

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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

• Psychoanalysis
• Focuses on the motives and internal conflicts in
  the unconscious
• Believed unconscious motives determine human
  behavior slip of the tongue or the meaning of
  a dream

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Gestalt Psychology

• Perception is more than the sums of their parts
• The wholes give meaning to the parts
• Rejected behaviorism because learning is
  accomplished by insight, not just mechanical
  repeatition

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Pseudopsychologies

• Pseudopsychologies are unreliable approaches that
  do not use the scientific method
• Examples of pseudopsychologies include
• Astrology system that tries to relate
  personality to the movement of the stars
• Palmistry idea that reading a persons character
  from the lines on their palms
• Psychokinesis notion that humans can move
  objects through mental concentration
• Follicology notion that personality
  characteristics are related to hair color