What Is Psychology?

What Is Psychology?

What is psychology? • discipline concerned with behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism’s physical state, mental state, and external environment • Empirical - relies on evidence gathered by careful observation, experimentation, and measurement

Notable People In Psychology

1. William Wundt (1832-1920) • In 1879 opened first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany • Considered founder and father of psychology

2. William James (1842-1910) • Taught 1st psychology class at Harvard and published first widely used psychology textbook. • Considered father of American psychology • Functionalism – How and why a person’s actions help them to adapt. Inspired by Darwin

3. G. Stanley Hall 1844-1924 • Established America’s 1st psychology lab

4. Sigmund Freud 1856-1939 • Established psychoanalysis perspective. • develop theories about the unconscious mind and the mechanism of repression • inspire the development of many other forms of psychotherapy

5. Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930) • 1st woman president of the American Psychological Association.

6. Edward Thorndike (1874–1949) • Conducted first experiments on animal learning. • He applied animal to human educational experience; he was once the leader in this field.

7. Margaret Floy Washburn (1871–1939) • First woman to receive a Phd in Psychology

Major psychological perspectives Biological perspective Learning perspective Cognitive perspective Sociocultural perspective Psychodynamic perspective Humanist Perspective

1. Biological perspective • focuses on how bodily events affect behavior, feelings, and thoughts • Involves: Hormones Brain chemistry Genes Evolutionary influences

2. The learning perspective • Concerned with how the environment and experience affect one’s actions • Involves Behaviorists Social-cognitive learning theorists

3. The cognitive perspective • Emphasizes what goes on in people’s heads • Focuses on inferring mental processes from observable behaviors

4. The sociocultural perspective • Emphasizes social and cultural forces outside the individual that shape various aspects of behavior

5. The psychodynamic perspective • Emphasizes unconscious dynamics within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts, or the movement of instinctual energy • Freud’s psychoanalysis

6. The Humanist perspective • Emphasizes personal growth and achievement of human potential rather than a scientific understanding of behavior • Rejected behaviorism and psychoalalysis

What do you think? Melissa is a psychologist who studies the phenomenon in which people are less likely help out in situations when they are in groups rather than by themselves. What type of psychologist is she? • Learning • Cognitive • Sociocultural

Your turn The psychological perspective that emphasizes the deep, internal causes of people’s behavior is: 1. Biological perspective 2. Learning perspective 3. Cognitive perspective 4. Psychodynamic perspective 5. Sociocultural perspective

What do psychologist do?

Psychologists activities fall into 3 categories: • Teaching and/or doing research in college • Providing health or Mental-health services • Research in nonacademic settings Ex. Industry

Differences between therapists: • Psychotherapists – unregulated, anyone can be one • Psychoanalyst – practices psychoanalysis • Psychiatrist - medical doctor • Social Worker / Counselor – usually a master’s in social work or psychology • Clinical psychologist – PhD or EdD or PsyD but not an MD

Critical and Scientific Thinking in Psychology

Critical thinking The ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments on the basis of well-supported reasons rather than emotion and anecdote

Critical thinking guidelines Ask questions; be willing to wonder Define your terms Examine the evidence Analyze assumptions and biases Avoid emotional reasoning Don’t oversimplify Consider other interpretations Tolerate uncertainty

Conducting Research in Psychology

1. Descriptive methods • Methods that yield descriptions of behavior, but not necessarily causal explanations Include • Case studies • Observational studies • Psychological tests • Surveys

A. Case studies • A case study is a detailed description of a particular individual being studied or treated. • Most commonly used by clinicians, but occasionally used by academic researchers • Pros? Cons?

B. Observational studies • Researchers carefully and systematically observe and record behavior without interfering with behavior. • Naturalistic observation • Purpose is to observe how people or animals behave in their natural environments. • Laboratory observation • Purpose is to observe how people or animals behave in a more controlled setting. • Pros? Cons?

C. Psychological tests • Procedures used to measure and evaluate personality traits, emotional states, aptitudes, interests, abilities, and values • Characteristics of a good test include • Standardization • Reliability • Validity

Standardized tests • The test is constructed to include uniform procedures for giving and scoring the test Reliability • In test construction, the consistency of test scores from one time and place to another Validity • The ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure

D. Surveys • Questionnaires and interviews that ask people about experiences, attitudes, or opinions • Requires attention to proper sampling procedures • Popular polls and surveys rely on volunteers • Volunteers Bias = volunteers may differ from those who did not volunteer.

2. Correlational study • A descriptive study that looks for a consistent relationship between two phenomena Correlation A numerical measure of the strength and direction of the relationship between two things

Variables • Characteristics of behavior or experiences that can be measured or described by a numeric scale • Variables are manipulated and assessed in scientific studies.

Direction of correlations 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

Scatterplots Correlations can be represented by scatterplots.

Coefficient of correlation • The statistic used to express the relationship between two variables • Can range from -1.00 through 0.0 to +1.00 Correlations close to -1.00 or +1.00 are strong, whereas correlations close to 0 are Weak.

Explaining correlations Start with three variables (X, Y, Z) X might cause Y Y might cause X X might be correlated with Y, which alone causes Z A correlation does not establish causation.

Which is correct? A study of married couples showed that the longer they had been married, the more similar their opinions on social and political issues were. • Positive correlation • Negative correlation

Which is correct? An intelligence test was given to all of the children in an orphanage. The results showed that the longer children had lived in the orphanage, the lower their IQ scores were. • Positive correlation • Negative correlation

Which is correct? In a study of American cities, a relationship was found between the number of violent crimes and the number of stores selling violence-depicting pornography. • Positive correlation • Negative correlation

Which is correct? A college professor found that the more class absences students have, the lower their grades in the course tend to be. • Positive correlation • Negative correlation

Your turn What kind of correlation is this? 1. Positive 2. Negative 3. No correlation

What Is Psychology?