Aim: How does the field of psychology attempt to explain human behavior?

1. Topic: Introduction to Psychology Aim: How does the field of psychology attempt to explain human behavior? Do Now:What exactly is psychology? What does psychology study? *Get Syllabus signed

2. Talking Points About This Class: • You chose this class – take it seriously – if you’re here to hang out please drop class – you don’t have to be in here. • Maturity of topics in Psychology • Purpose of films and video clips – not a waste of time. • Active participation and engagement in class – this is not a lecture course! • One of the most common college electives/majors – want people to get good idea of what Psychology is before college/applied psych

3. What is Psychology? The scientific study of behavior (actions) and mental processes (internal thoughts and brain patterns). Uses the scientific method Includes the study of both humans and animals

4. So how can Psychology be used in our lives?

5. Psychology can help you learn about yourself: • Why am I shy or outgoing? • Why do I like or dislike certain types of foods? • Why am I attracted to certain types of people and not others? • Why do I always worry? Or, why am I so calm all the time? • Why are my moods so different from day to day? • Why do I choose the types of friends that I do • Why am I afraid of certain things that other people are not?

6. Psychology can help guide your future jobs/careers (not just in Psychology) Criminal Justice: What motivates people to commit crimes? Why would someone confess to a horrible crime that they didn’t commit (Central Park 5, West Memphis 3, etc). Why, after hearing a false confession, is it nearly impossible for people to change their opinion of perpetrators guilt, even in the face of physical evidence? Politics Why does image matter so much to voters? What motivates people to vote or not vote? Journalism To what extent do people believe everything they read? How much of an influence does media have over perception, thought, and behavior? Why does choice of media say about personality and intelligence? (e.g. – reading news on Facebook vs. the Wall Street Journal)

7. Psychology is everywhere in our lives… • Why do you think stores put so many candies and sweet snacks on the center shelves of most isles?

8. Psychology helps us understand our own cognition (though processes)…for example

9. Survivorship Bias: • Success is made more visible to us than failure, therefore we OVERESTIMATE our chances of success is certain areas. The millions of people who fail don’t write books, they don’t appear on T.V., and they don’t travel the country giving lectures on how they didn’t accomplish their goals! How do you think this works with celebrity success stories? Think of Mark Zuckerberg and FB, or a successful hip-hop artist, or a famous athlete?

10. Survivorship Bias in the media…

11. Social Proof (aka ‘herd instinct’): • People feel something is the correct thing to do/say when they are doing the same as others. Why? Evolutionary psychologists believe it was a survival strategy from Neolithic days. How do you think advertising and businesses take advantage of this?

13. The Clustering Illusion: • The human brain craves patterns to make sense of the world – we are oversensitive to patterns that don’t exist. We see shapes in the clouds, patterns in your scantron test answers, patterns in lottery winnings/slot machines!

14. Sunk Cost Fallacy: • When we hold onto bad things because we feel like we’ve invested so much into them. • How do you think this works with relationships? • Businesses? • Even something like reading a book or watching a movie?

15. Reciprocity (first give, then take): • Psychologist Robert Cialdini studied the tendency for people to be very uncomfortable being in other’s debt. • Giving presents? • Charitable organizations who want you to donate to them? • Inviting people to events you have?

16. Confirmation Bias: • We have beliefs about the world we live in, and we tend to only listen to information that confirms those beliefs, and disregard information the contradicts them. • How we feel about people? • How you feel about SHS? • Religious or philosophical beliefs?

17. What is the difference between the fields of “Psychology” and “Psychiatry”?

18. Psychology vs. Psychiatry: • Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that utilizes the use of medication. Psychiatrists are MD’s (medical doctors) - psychologists are not - they have college degrees in Psychology • Psychopharmacology: the scientific study of the actions of drugs and their effects on mood, sensation, thinking, and behavior.

20. Psychology starts with questions…(how would you attempt to answer these questions scientifically?) • Does involvement in HS athletics improve academic performance? • Does excessive texting impede face-to-face relationships? • Does personality influence musical preferences? • Do ads portraying unrealistic body types reduce the self-image of the viewer? • Does student consumption of caffeine in the morning improve first period grades? Do teacher websites improve student performance in class? • Does focus on minor rules (flip-flops and hats) reduce student adherence to major rules (insubordination or class cutting)?

21. So how exactly do psychologists study all those things? • How do you think psychologists go about finding answers to questions about human behavior, the human brain, human emotions, and other aspects of human activity?

22. 6 Psychological Methodologies: • Observation • Research • Therapy • Analysis of case studies (Freud’s “Rat Man”, for example) • Analysis of brain biochemistry • Experimentation

23. Naturalistic Observation Observation in natural setting Negative of this is observer bias(What do you think this means?) Observing and recording behavior of animals in the wild, to recording self-seating patterns in lunch rooms in a multiracial school constitutes naturalistic observation. Has anyone bothered to observe interesting behaviors in the hallways between classes or the cafeteria?

24. Surveys: A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes, opinions or behaviors of people usually by questioning a representative, random sample of people. EXAMPLE: Would you rate how much you care about your education as A.) very much B.) Somewhat C.) Not a lot D.) I don’t care at all

26. Personality Survey Testing: Sample Self-Esteem Personality Questions: • “On the whole, I’m satisfied with myself” T/F • “I feel useless at times” T/F • “I feel that I have a number of good qualities” T/F Sample Jealousy Test (Imagine you are in a relationship with person X) • “I suspect that X may be attracted to someone else” T/F (How would you react to the following emotionally?) • “X hugs and kisses a member of the opposite sex” • “X comments to you how attractive a member of the opposite sex is”

27. If you were to create a story as to what happened in this picture, what you say?

28. Developed by Henry Murray, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.

29. The Placebo Effect: • When people show a reaction to a drug or treatment that isn’t real because they believe that it is real and will help them. • Used in psychological lab experiments

30. Examples of Psychological Tests:

31. Describe what you see in this picture?

32. Describe what you see in this picture?

33. 9 dots: connect the 9 dots using 4 straight lines, never lifting your pen, and never retracing any lines “A century of research has established that in the laboratory, at most 5 percent of participants manage to crack it, and very likely fewer manage to do so.” -Scientific American Mind, December 2012 “Think Like a Genius” issue

34. Solving this requires letting go of the idea that the dots form the border of an imaginary grid (which they don’t!). We tend to see the dots as forming a square with rigid boundaries.

35. The Stroop Effect: Volunteer??? • Read the colors, not the words!

37. Free Association Activity: • For each word below, write down in your notebook what you immediately think of when you see the word. Don’t think too much! • Parents • School • Love

38. Problems with Psychological Research: Think of all the psychological research methods we discussed (observation, lab experiments, etc.) - what are some problems with this type of research?

39. Correlation Research: What is the difference between a correlation and causality? • Correlation: There is a relationship between 2 variables – doesn’t mean one causes the other • Causality: One variable causes the other to happen Correlated variables: homosexuality and older brothers, cavities and test scores, price of stocks and women’s skirt lengths…it goes on and on

40. Examples of Correlations • Cities with a lot of murders also tend to have a lot of police officers • Some of the most talented doctors have the highest mortality (death) rate of their patients

41. Correlation Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships could cause (1) Low self-esteem Depression or (2) Depression could cause Low self-esteem or Low self-esteem (3) Distressing events or biological predisposition could cause and Depression

42. Correlation is not Causation:It only predicts!!!! Children with big feet reason better than children with small feet. (Children who are older have bigger feet than younger children; thus they can reason better) Study done in Korea: The most predictive factor in the use of birth control use was the number of appliances in the home. (Those who have electrical appliances probably have higher socioeconomic level, and thus are probably better educated.)

43. Correlation is not Causation:It only predicts!!!! People who often ate Frosted Flakes as children had half the cancer rate of those who never ate the cereal. Conversely, those who often ate oatmeal as children were four times more likely to develop cancer than those who did not. Cancer tends to be a disease of later life. Those who ate Frosted Flakes are younger. In fact, the cereal was not around until the 1950s (when older respondents were children, and so they are much more likely to have eaten oatmeal.)

44. How would you define a ‘case study’? • What purpose do you think case studies serve in Psychology? Case Studies:

45. Case Studies Detailed in-depth description and analysis of one or a few people Prominent in psychology Takes advantage of nonreplicable situations Observer bias is a problem Unable to make generalizations past person being studied “Little Albert” fear experiment - 1920

46. The Lost Children of Rockdale County Studied a Syphilis epidemic at a high school in an affluent suburb of Atlanta in 1996 - affected over 200 students, some as young as 12!

47. Phineas Gage: • Phineas P. Gage (July 9, 1823 through May 21, 1860) was an American railroad construction foreman now remembered for his improbable survival of an accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head, destroying much of his brain's left frontal lobe, and for that injury's reported effects on his personality and behavior effects so profound that friends saw him as "no longer Gage".

48. Chris Costner Sizemore is a woman who, in the 1950s, was diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder, now known as dissociative identity disorder (DID). Her case, with a pseudonym used, was depicted in the 1950s book and film The Three Faces of Eve by her psychiatrists, Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley

49. Genie is the pseudonym for a feral child who spent nearly all of the first thirteen years of her life locked inside a bedroom strapped to a potty chair. She was a victim of one of the most severe cases of social isolation ever documented. Genie was discovered by Los Angeles authorities on November 4, 1970.Psychologists, linguists and other scientists exhibited great interest in the case because of its perceived ability to reveal insights into the development of language and linguistic critical periods.

50. Kitty (Catherine) Genovese: