PSY 111AR Introduction to Psychology

1. PSY 111AR Introduction to Psychology • Introduction and syllabus • http://www.campus.houghton.edu/depts/psychology /intros01.htm • Questions and discussion • What is psychology? • Where does it fit? • Why do psychologists believe as they do?

2. What isn’t psychology • “Why is there rain?” • “How do bumblebees fly, anyway?” • “Is Kant’s categorical imperative an adequate basis for framing moral and ethical judgments in the 21st century?” • “Comment va dire, ‘The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain?”

3. What is psychology? • “Psychology is the field that studies behavior and mental processes.” • “Psychology is about life.” • “Psychology is about mental illness.” • “Psychology is about how we learn.” • “Psychology is about relationships…and sex.”

4. Fields of Psychology Academic Psychology Applied Psychology Biological Psychology Developmental Psychology Personality Psychology Industrial/ Organizational/ Engineering, Educational, and Health Psychology Cognitive Psych Memory Psycholinguistics Cross-cultural Psychology Behavioral Psych Behavioral Analysis Behavior Genetics Behavioral Medicine Mental health services: Counseling, Clinical, & Community Psych Clinical Social Work Psychiatry

5. Where does psychology fit? • Historical and philosophical roots • Ionian cosmologists and empiricism • Socratic philosophers and rationalism • Rene Descartes (1596-1650) and dualism • John Locke (1632-1704) and environmentalism • George Berkeley (1685-1753) and rational inference • James Mill (1773-1836) and materialism

6. Biological roots of psychology • Descartes’ hydraulic model • Luigi Galvani’s (1737-1798) electrical model • Johannes Muller (1801-1858) and experimental physiology • Pierre Flourens (1774-1867) and ablation • Paul Broca’s (1824-1880) human example • Helmholtz

7. The emergence of psychology • Structuralism and experiment: Wundt • Functionalism: William James • Psychoanalysis: Freud • Behaviorism: Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner • Reactions: • Cognitive psychology • Humanistic psychology

8. Psychology’s ongoing issues • Stability vs. change • Rationality vs. irrationality • Nature vs. nurture • Perspectives of paradigms

9. Critical Thinking in Psychology • Cultivate skepticism and humility • Analyze the source of claims and beliefs • Beware biasing attitudes • Intuition • Hindsight bias • Overconfidence

10. Research methods in psychology • The scientific method • Research strategies • Description • Correlation • Experimentation

11. "When I Heard The Learn'dAstronomer” (Walt Whitman) When I heard the learn'd astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured With much applause in the lecture-room,

12. Whitman, continued... How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

13. The scientific method • 1. Hypothesis formation: • Specify the research question or problem • Study the research literature • Formulate a hypothesis as a possible answer • 2. Design the research • Generate predictions • Select a method

14. Scientific method... • 3. Conduct the study, collect the data • 4. Analyze the data to assess the predictions • 5. Explain what the assessment of the predictions says about the truth of the hypothesis. Communicate your study to the scientific community.

15. Descriptive research • The case study • Depth over breadth • Risk of overgeneralization • May disprove a hypothesis • The survey • Effects of wording and method • Sampling can overcome false consensus • Naturalistic observation

16. Research methods in psychology • Research strategies • Description • Correlation • Experimentation

17. Correlation • What does correlation mean? • Illusory correlation • Confirmation bias • Spurious correlations • Correlation and causation

18. Research methods in psychology • Research strategies • Description • Correlation • Experimentation

19. Experimentation • Random selection for representative sample • Random assignment for equivalent groups • Control or comparison condition • Manipulation of independent variable • Measurement of dependent variable

20. Making explanations • The nominal fallacy and circular explanation • Operational definition of variables • Independent variable: How is it manipulated? • Dependent variable: How is it measured? • Validity of operational definitions • Reliability of measurements • Interrater reliability

21. Confounding variables: Reaction time to shapes How could we use counterbalancing to remove the confounding in this study?

22. Two experiments • Hypothesis one: Speaking out in class will kill you. • Hypothesis two: Men have faster reaction times than women.