Psychology Quiz (true or false)

1. Psychology Quiz(true or false) • Psychologists can read people’s minds. • The closer the genetic relationship between two people, the closer their IQ scores are likely to be. • Psychologists manipulate people like puppets. • People cannot change-they are the way they are. • Substance abuse may be a sign of mental illness.

2. A therapist may prescribe medication to patients who are diagnosed with a mental illness. • An estimated 54 million Americans suffer from some form of mental disorder in a given year. • Many people develop fears of various creatures even though they have had no direct negative experiences with them. • Body temperature does not remain a steady 98.6 degrees throughout the day. • The world wide web was modeled on the way the human brain works.

3. Hypothesis: If students are given mint gum while taking a quiz, then they will get a larger number of correct responses than their non-mint gum chewing classmates. Results:

4. Mint Gum Quiz Results # of correct responses possible =120

5. What is Psychology? Unit 1

6. Overview • The science of psychology • Origins of psychology • Psychological perspectives • What psychologists do • Critical and scientific thinking • Correlations • The experiment • Evaluating findings

7. Psychology is not… • Pop psychology, Psychobabble, (pseudoscience & quackery) • Self-help books, talk shows • Astrology, graphology, psychics… • Common sense Psychology is: The study of behavior and mental processes • Based on empirical evidence- relying on evidence gathered by careful observation, experimentation, or measurement

8. Origins of Psychology • Origins of Psychology • Ancient Egyptians, Aristotle (300 BC), and Greek philosophers • Psychology- combo of two Greek words-psyche meaning “mind” and logos meaning “study” or “knowledge” • Develops out of other fields • Wilhelm Wundt- father of psychology; launched the 1st experiment in Leipzig, Germany in 1879 (birth year of psych) • Introspection; est. structuralism • Edward B. Titchener- • Structuralism- goal is to study conscious experience and its structure through experiments and introspection; explain structure of the mind by breaking it down mental experiences into their component parts Wilhelm Wundt

9. Origins of Psychology • Gestalt psychology-integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes (the whole is different than the sum of its parts) • William James- • How the mind works in allowing an organism to adapt to its environment; wrote 1stpsych text; founded functionalism • Sigmund Freud • Psychoanalysis-explains personality and behaviors through unconscious motives and conflicts • Behaviorism • Study only observable behaviors not mental processes (John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner) • Phrenology– Dr. Joseph Gall • Phineas Gage Freud's couch

10. Origins of Psychology • Old perspectives • Functionalism (William James) • Early approach that emphasized the function or purpose of behavior and consciousness • Interested in how and why something happens • Functionalists broadened field of psychology to include the study of children, animals, religious experiences, and stream of consciousness • Structuralism (Wundt, Titchner) • Structure of the conscious experience could be understood by analyzing the basic elements of thoughts & sensations • Try to understand structure by analyzing intensity, clarity and quality of its basic parts • Psychoanalysis (Freud) • A theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy, originally formulated by Sigmund Freud • Emphasizes unconscious motives and conflicts

11. Contemporary Psychological Perspectives Choose a celebrity with outrageous behavior. Focus in on a specific behavior. Examine and record why the celebrity exhibits this behavior from all six perspectives. • Biological perspective • Learning (behavior) perspective • Cognitive perspective • Sociocultural perspective • Psychodynamic perspective • Humanist Perspective How do we choose mates? Who do you find attractive?

12. The Biological Perspective ~Psychological approach that focuses on how bodily events affect behavior, feelings, and thoughts • Follows the tradition of functionalism This perspective involves: • Hormones & glands • Brain chemistry • Heredity-genetic factors • Evolutionary influences Evolutionary Psychology- functional behavior of the past is reflected in present behaviors, mental processes, & traits • adaptation

13. Learning Perspective (Behavioral Perspective) A psychological approach that emphasizes how the environment and experience affect a person’s or animal’s actions. This perspective involves: • Behaviorism • Rewards and punishments maintain or discourage specific behaviors

14. The Cognitive Perspective • Psychological approach that emphasizes what goes on in people’s heads (mind) Involves: • Interpretation of mental images, thinking, language • Perceptions and thoughts influence our behavior

15. The Sociocultural Perspective • Psychological approach that emphasizes social and cultural forces outside the individual This perspective involves: • Ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic status influence our behavior • Social psychology or the study of rules, roles, groups, and relationships • Cultural psychology or the study of cultural norms, values, and expectations

16. The Psychodynamic Perspective • Psychological approach that emphasizes unconscious dynamics within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts, or the movement of instinctual energy; f This perspective involves: • Unconsciousthoughts, desires, conflicts • Early childhood experiences • Self-awareness

17. The Humanist Perspective • emphasizes personal growth and the achievement of human potential, rather than the scientific understanding of behavior This approach involves: • Self-concept • People make free and conscious choices based on their unique experiences • Emphasized creativity and achieving potential

18. What Psychologists Do • Basic Research- seeks knowledge for its own sake; teach and conduct research • Biological psychologists (neuropsychologists) • Developmental psychologists • Cognitive psychologists • Experimental/research psychologists • Social psychologists • Applied Research- tackles practical problems; concerned with finding uses for knowledge • Industrial/organizational, forensic, sports, educational, school, & consumer psychologists • Counseling psychologists- help people cope with challenges • Clinical psychologists (clinician) - assess and treat mental, emotional & behavioral disorders; most common 52% of psychologists • Psychiatrists- provide psychotherapy, MD’s licensed to prescribe drugs & treat physical causes of psychological disorders

19. Critical and Scientific Thinking • Critical thinking- does not accept arguments and conclusions. Does examine assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assess conclusions. • Scientific Method- • In psych the question should be in an If…then Format.

20. Research Strategies Include: • Case studies • Observational studies • Correlational study • Surveys • Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Studies • experiments

21. Case Studies- • A research technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles • Prone to bias • May not apply to other people or situations • Examples: Genie-child abuse/language acquisition; patients with brain injury

22. Observational Studies- • Researchers observe and record behavior without interfering with behavior • 2 types: • Naturalistic observation • Observe people or animals in their natural environment • Laboratory observation • Observe behavior in a controlled setting • confirmation bias- tendency to search for information that confirms a preconception • Participant bias-research participants behave in a certain way because they know they are being observed or they believe they know what the researcher wants

23. Correlational study- • A research project strategy that investigates the degree to which two variables are related to each other Correlation- A statistical measure of how strongly two variables are related to one another. Correlational coefficients can range from 0.0 – 1.0. • Positive correlations An association between increases in one variable and increases in another, or decreases in one variable and decreases in the other. • Negative correlations An association between increases in one variable and decreases in another. • Correlations show patterns, not causes.

24. Correlations can be represented by scatterplots.

25. Surveys- • Allows researchers to collect a large amount of data efficiently through questionnaires and/or interviews • Survey method- research technique that questions a sample of people to collect information about their attitudes or behaviors • Random sample- represents a population because each member of the population has an equal chance of being included

26. Longitudinal and Cross-sectional studies • Useful to developmental psychologists to study how individuals change throughout the lifetime • Longitudinal study- research that follows the same group of individuals over a long period of time • Cross-sectional study- research that compares individuals from different age groups at one time.

27. Experiments • A research method in which the researcher manipulates and controls certain variables to observe the effect on other variables. An experiment includes variables of interest, control conditions, and random assignment. • Experiment Steps • Hypothesis-testable prediction • Operational definitions: explanation of the exact procedure • Random selection • Random assignment (experimental & control) • Experiment • Identify the effects of the variables • analysis

28. Variables: • Independent variables -variables the experimenter manipulates; the variable that should cause something to happen • Dependent variables -variables the experimenter predicts will be affected by manipulations of the independent variable(s); variable that should show the effect of changing the independent variable • Confounding variable- variable that could change the dependent variable

30. Experimenter effects: Unintended changes in subjects’ behavior due to cues inadvertently given by the experimenter. • Strategies for preventing experimenter effects include: • single- blind studies: • double-blind studies:

31. Control Group: In an experiment, a comparison condition in which subjects are not exposed to the same treatment as in the experimental condition. • In some experiments, the control group is given a placebo, an inactive substance or fake treatment. • Experimental Group: participants who are exposed to the treatment.

32. Data Analysis • Is the hypothesis supported? • Are the results statistically significant? • If the result would occur by chance alone is no more than 5% • Can the results be replicated?