chapter1.pptx

PSYCHOLOGY 201
• Syllabus
• Reserve the right to
change the
schedule and
structure of the
course as needed
• Grading options
• Who am I?

Getting to know you
Find someone who has:
Taken a psychology class
Has green eyes
Been to Asia
Does an “extreme sport”
Has interacted with the law
before
Is nervous about taking this
class
Has more than three children
Feels this class will be no
problem
Has run a marathon

Introductions
• Talk to your partner and learn
• Why they are in this class
• What they want to do when they finish
their time at RCC
• What they do when they aren’t in class
• One other unique or interesting thing about
them
• Exchange e-mail addresses with them

Chapter 1
Introduction to Psychology
and Research Methods

What is Psychology?
• Psychology
– Psyche: Mind
– Logos: Knowledge or study
• Definition: The scientific study of behavior and
mental processes
– Behavior: Overt (i.e., can be directly
observed, as with crying)
– Mental Processes: Covert (i.e., cannot be
directly observed, as with remembering)

What Might a Psychologist Research?
• Development: Course of human growth and
development
• Learning: How and why it occurs in humans and
animals
• Personality: Traits, motivations, and individual
differences
• Sensation and Perception: How we come to
know the world through our five senses

(cont)
• Comparative: Study and compare behavior of
different species, especially animals
• Cognitive: Primarily interested in thinking
• Biopsychology: How behavior is related to
biological processes, especially activities in the
nervous system
• Gender: Study differences between males and
females and how they develop
• Social: Human and social behavior

• Evolutionary: How our behavior is guided by
patterns that evolved during our history
• Cultural: How culture affects behavior
• Imagine that you are a psychologist. Your client Linda, tells
you that spirits live in the trees near her home. Is Linda
suffering from a delusion? Is she abnormal?
• Linda is Native American. Obviously, you will misjudge Linda’s
mental health if you fail to take her cultural beliefs into
account. Cultural relativity (the idea that behavior must be
judged relative to the values of the culture in which it occurs)
can greatly affect the diagnosis of mental disorders. Cases like
Linda’s teach us to be wary of using inappropriate standards
when judging others or comparing groups

Animal Model
• When an animal’s behavior is used to derive
principles that may apply to human behavior
• For example, rats learn better when reinforced
with food instead of punished by electric shock.

What Are the Goals of Psychology?
• Description of Behaviors: Naming and
classifying various observable, measurable
behaviors
• Understanding: Being able to state the causes of
a behavior
• Prediction: Predicting behavior accurately
• Example of counter intuitive studies:
• Seminary speech on “good samiratans”

p. 15
Some of the most
interesting research
with animals has
focused on attempts to
teach primates to
communicate with sign
language.
Psychologist Penny
Patterson has spent
35 years teaching
Koko more than 1,000
signs. One of Koko’s
favorite signs (“stink”)
is shown here. Such
research has helped
illuminate the origins
of human language
and has even
suggested better
methods for teaching
language to children
with serious language
impairment.

More Goals of Psychology
• Control: Altering conditions that influence
behaviors
– Positive use: To control unwanted behaviors
(e.g., smoking, tantrums, etc.)
– Negative use: To control people’s behaviors
without their knowledge
– What are some examples of this?
– In a classroom

Critical Thinking
• Ability to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize
information
– What would you expect to see if the claim
were true?
– Gather evidence relevant to the claim
– Evaluate the evidence
– Draw a conclusion
• Often used in research
• Most important thing you will learn in this class

Critical Thinking: Key Principles
• Few truths transcend the need for empirical
testing
• Evidence varies in quality
• Authority or claimed expertise does not
automatically make an idea true
• Critical thinking requires an open mind
• For example: Let’s see if the drug amphetamine (a
stimulant) affects learning. Before studying,
members of our experimental group take an
amphetamine pill. Control group members get
nothing. Later, we assess how much each subject
learned. Does this experiment seem valid?

Pseudopsychologies
• Pseudo means “false.” Any unfounded “system”
that resembles psychology and is NOT based on
scientific testing
– Palmistry: Lines on your hands (palms)
predict future and reveal personality
– Phrenology: Personality traits revealed by
shape of skull

p. 17
Phrenology was an attempt to
assess personality
characteristics by examining
various areas of the skull.
Phrenologists used charts
such as the one shown here as
guides. Like other
pseudopsychologists,
phrenologists made no attempt
to empirically verify their
concepts.

Pseudopsychologies (cont)
• Graphology: Personality traits are revealed by
your handwriting
• Astrology: The positions of the stars and planets
at birth determine personality traits and affect
your behavior
• How many people believe in astrology?
• See hand out

Astrology Debriefing
• 1-3 Aries
• 4-6 Taurus
• 7-9 Gemini
• 10-12 Cancer
• 13-15 Leo
• 16-18 Virgo
• 19-21 Libra
• 22-24 Scorpio
• 25-27 Sagittarius
• 28-30 Capricorn
• 31-33 Aquarius
• 34-36 Pisces
1. How many people
circled the 3 adjectives
that describe their sign?
2. How many people
circled adjectives that
describe other signs?
3. This list came from
research from eleven
astrology books.

The Barnum Effect
• Barnum effect: Tendency to consider personal
descriptions accurate if stated in general terms
• Always have a little something for everyone.
Make sure all palm readings, horoscopes, etc.
are so general that something in them will
always apply to any one person!
If pseudo-psychologies have no scientific
basis, how do they survive and why are
they so popular? Answer: There are
several reasons, all of which can be
demonstrated by a critique of astrology. If
you have ever had your astrological chart
done, you may have been impressed
with its apparent accuracy. Many
astrological charts are made up of mostly
flattering traits. Naturally, when your
personality is described as desirable, you
want to believe it is accurate.

Separating Fact from Fiction
(cont)
• Be sure to distinguish between observation and
inference (e.g., Robert is crying, but do we know
why he is crying?)
• Beware of oversimplifications, especially those
motivated by monetary gain
• For example is not proof!

p. 44
Firewalking is
based on
simple
physics, not
on any form
of
supernatural
psychological
control. The
temperature
of the coals
may be as
high as
1,200º F.
However,
coals are like
the air in a
hot oven:
They are very
inefficient at
transferring
heat during
brief contact.

Some Terms
• Hypothesis testing: Scientifically testing the
predicted outcome of an experiment or an
educated guess about the relationship between
variables
• Operational definition: Defines a scientific
concept by stating specific actions or procedures
used to measure it
• Example: Research regarding “difficult teachers”
• Difficult because the teacher’s grading is so
challenging or difficult to stay awake because
the class is too boring and unchallenging

Theory
• Theory: A system of ideas that interrelates facts
and concepts, summarizes existing data, and
predicts future observations
– A good theory must be falsifiable (i.e.,
operationally defined) so that it can be
disconfirmed

History of Psychology: Beginnings
• Wilhelm Wundt: “Father” of psychology
– 1879: Set up first lab to study conscious
experience
– Introspection: Looking inward (i.e., examining
and reporting your thoughts, feelings, etc.)

p. 22
Wilhelm Wundt, 1832–1920.
Wundt is credited with
making psychology an
independent science,
separate from philosophy.
Wundt’s original training
was in medicine, but he
became deeply interested in
psychology. In his
laboratory, Wundt
investigated how
sensations, images, and
feelings combine to make up
personal experience.

History of Psychology: Structuralism
• Wundt’s ideas brought to the US by Titchener
and renamed structuralism; dealt with structure
of mental life
Attempted to discover the “building blocks” of
conscious thought. This was based on a pure,
immediate sensory experience

Structuralism Activity
• Identify the most basic taste sensations
• How to you explain the taste of water using
these sensations?
• Structuralism is based on the truthfulness of
your own sensory experiences
• 6 volunteers
• In partners, one will be the “introspectionist”
and the other is the recorder

Structuralism
• The introspectionist gets 10 seconds to look at
the object and say whatever comes to mind
about the qualities of the object. Not
emotional responses.
• Example: This object is “round, soft, sweet,
juicy, etc…”
• Recorder writes down everything they say.

Discussion
• Should we rely on this methodology as a way
of obtaining consistent and unbiased data?
• What problems exist with interpreting data
based on this methodology?
• What problems exist with regard to studying
certain types of psychological phenomena
using the method of introspection? (altruism,
aggression, psychopathology?
• To what degree or how does this methodology
violate the basic tenants of empiricism?

History of Psychology: Functionalism
• William James (American) and functionalism
– How the mind functions to help us adapt and
survive
– Functionalists admired Darwin and his theory
of natural selection: based on the idea that
Animals keep features through evolution that
help them adapt to environments

p. 23
William James,
1842–1910. William
James was the son
of philosopher
Henry James, Sr.,
and the brother of
novelist Henry
James. During his
long academic
career, James
taught anatomy,
physiology,
psychology, and
philosophy at
Harvard University.
James believed
strongly that ideas
should be judged
in terms of their
practical
consequences for
human conduct.

Educational Psychology
• Educational Psychology
– Study of learning, teaching, classroom
dynamics, and related topics
– Promoted by functionalists
– What I’ve been doing by default in the
teaching role

History of Psychology: Behaviorism
• Watson and Skinner
– Psychology must study observable behavior
objectively
– Studied relationship between
• Stimuli: Environmental events
• Responses: Any identifiable behavior(s)
– Watson studied Little Albert with Rosalie
Raynor; Skinner studied animals almost
exclusively

p. 23
John B. Watson, 1878–1958.
Watson’s intense interest in
observable behavior began
with his doctoral studies in
biology and neurology.
Watson became a
psychology professor at
Johns Hopkins University in
1908 and advanced his
theory of behaviorism. He
remained at Johns Hopkins
until 1920 when he left for a
career in the advertising
industry!

p. 24
B. F. Skinner, 1904–1990. Skinner studied
simple behaviors under carefully controlled
conditions. The “Skinner box” has been
widely used to study learning in simplified
animal experiments. In addition to
advancing psychology, Skinner hoped that
his radical brand of behaviorism would
improve human life.

History of Psychology: Cognitive
Behaviorism
• Ellis and Bandura
– Our thoughts influence our behaviors; used
often in treatment of depression
– Cognition (thinking) and conditioning are
combined to explain behavior
• Gestalt psychology: “The whole is greater than
the sum of its parts”
– Studied thinking, learning, and perception in
whole units, not by analyzing experiences into
parts
– Key names: Wertheimer, Perls

p. 24
Max Wertheimer, 1880–1941.
Wertheimer first proposed the
Gestalt viewpoint to help
explain perceptual illusions. He
later promoted Gestalt
psychology as a way to
understand not only
perception, problem solving,
thinking, and social behavior,
but also art, logic, philosophy,
and politics.

Fig. 1-4, p. 24
The design you see here is
entirely made up of broken
circles. However, as the
Gestalt psychologists
discovered, our perceptions
have a powerful tendency to
form meaningful patterns.
Because of this tendency,
you will probably see a
triangle in this design, even
though it is only an illusion.
Your whole perceptual
experience exceeds the sum
of its parts.

History of Psychology: Freud
• Psychoanalytic Perspective
– Our behavior is largely influenced by our
unconscious wishes, thoughts, and desires,
especially sex and aggression
– All thoughts, actions, and emotions are
determined
– Freud performed dream analysis and was an
interactionist (combination of our biology and
environment makes us who we are)

Repression
• Repression: When threatening thoughts are
unconsciously held out of awareness
• Recent research has hypothesized that our
unconscious mind is partially responsible for our
behaviors

p. 25
Sigmund Freud, 1856–1939.
For more than 50 years,
Freud probed the unconscious
mind. In doing so, he altered
modern views of human
nature. His early
experimentation with a “talking
cure” for hysteria is regarded
as the beginning of
psychoanalysis. Through
psychoanalysis, Freud added
psychological treatment
methods to psychiatry.

Psychoanalysis
• Free Association: Saying whatever comes to mind,
regardless of how embarrassing or unimportant it
may seem
– By doing so without censorship and
censure, unconscious material can emerge
In partners, have a recorder and a subject. The recorder says one of
the following words to the subject:
Mother, father, death, birth, gun, love, failure, breast, rival
The subject then says whatever word comes to mind first.
The recorder writes that word down, then repeates it back to the
subject, the subject then says what word first comes to mind from
that word
Do this 10 times so you each have a word list
Switch partners

Where did you end up?
• Share where you started and where you
ended up with a partner.
• Explain, as much as you can, HOW you
ended up with the word you did.
• Does it relate to what’s going on in your life
currently?
• Analyze the lists for themes: violence,
family, love, sex, money, aggression,
etcetera

History of Psychology: Humanism
• Goal of psychology is to study unique aspects of
the person
• Focuses on human experience, problems,
potentials, and ideals
• Each person has innate goodness and is able to
make free choices (contrast with Skinner and
Freud)
• Key Names: Rogers and Maslow

p. 25
Abraham Maslow, 1908–1970.
As a founder of humanistic
psychology, Maslow was
interested in studying people of
exceptional mental health. Such
self-actualized people, he
believed, make full use of their
talents and abilities. Maslow
offered his positive view of
human potential as an
alternative to the schools of
behaviorism and
psychoanalysis.

Humanism: Some Key Terms
• Self-image: Your perception of your own body,
personality, and capabilities
• Self-evaluation: Positive and negative feelings
you have about yourself
• Frame of reference: Mental perspective used for
interpreting events
• Self-actualization (Maslow): Fully developing
one’s potential and becoming the best person
possible

Scientific Fact
• Modern sciences are built on observations
that can be verified by two or more
independent observers regarding the same
event. This is what gives them validity and
reliability. Which of the psychology theories
meet this standard?

Psychology Today
• Biopsychology: All of our behavior can be
explained through physiological processes
– Uses brain scans to gather data (CT, MRI,
PET)
• Positive Psychology: Study of human strengths,
virtues, and optimal behavior
– Looks at positive side of human behavior
• Sociocultural: Focus on importance of social and
cultural contexts influencing our behavior
• Cognitive: Study thoughts, memory,
expectations, perceptions, and other mental
processes

p. 14
The scientific study of dreaming was made
possible by use of the EEG, a device that
records the tiny electrical signals
generated by the brain as a person sleeps.
The EEG converts these electrical signals
into a written record of brain activity.
Certain shifts in brain activity, coupled with
the presence of rapid eye movements, are
strongly related to dreaming. (See Chapter
6, pages 186–188, for more information.)

Many Flavors of Psychologists
• Psychologists: Usually have master’s or
doctorate degree; trained in methods,
knowledge, and theories of psychology
– Clinical psychologists: Treat more severe
psychological problems or do research on
mental disorders
– Counseling psychologists: Treat milder
problems, such as school or work troubles

More Helping Professionals
• Psychiatrists: MD; usually use medications to
treat problems; generally do not have extensive
training in providing “talk” therapy
• Psychoanalysts: Receive additional training
post-PhD or MD at an institute for
psychoanalysis

Some More Helping Professionals
• Psychiatric social worker: Mental health
professional who applies social science
principles to help people in clinics and hospitals
– Presently a very popular profession
• Counselor: Advisor who helps solve problems
with marriage, school, and so on
• Not all psychologists perform therapy!

Experiments
• To identify cause-and-effect relationships, we
conduct experiments
– Directly vary a condition you might think
affects behavior
– Create two or more groups of subjects, alike
in all ways except the condition you are
varying
– Record whether varying the condition has any
effect on behavior

Types of Variables
• Any conditions that can change, and might affect
an experiment's outcome
• Independent variable: Condition(s) altered by
the experimenter; experimenter sets their size,
amount, or value; these are suspected causes
for behavioral differences
• Dependent variable: Demonstrates effects that
independent variables have on behavior

Extraneous Variables
• Conditions that a researcher wants to prevent
from affecting the outcomes of the experiment
(e.g., number of hours slept before the
experiment)

Evaluating Experiments’ Results
• Statistically significant: Results gained would
occur very rarely by chance alone. The
difference must be large enough so that it would
occur by chance in less than 5 experiments out
of 100
• Meta-analysis: Study of results of other studies
• Random Assignment:
• Subject has an equal chance of being in either
the experimental or control group

• In our daily lives, we often conduct little experiments to
detect cause-and-effect connections. If you are interested in
gardening, for example, you might try adding plant food to
one bed of flowers but not another. The question then
becomes: Does the use of plant food (the independent
variable) affect the size of the flowers (the dependent
variable)? By comparing unfed plants (the control group) to
those receiving plant food (the experimental group) you could
find out if plant food is worth using.
• In groups, think of at least one informal experiment you’ve
done in the last month. What were the variables? What was
the outcome? Did they adequately control for the variables?

Experiment Types
• Single-blind experiment: Only the subjects have
no idea whether they get real treatment or
placebo
• Double-blind experiment: The subjects AND the
experimenters have no idea whether the
subjects get real treatment or placebo
– Best type of experiment, if properly set up

Experimenter Effects
• Experimenter effects: Changes in behavior
caused by the unintended influence of the
experimenter
• Self-fulfilling prophecy: A prediction that leads
people to act in ways to make the prediction
come true
– Common problem

Problems
• Observer effect: Changes in subject’s behavior
caused by an awareness of being observed
• Observer bias: Occurs when observers see
what they expect to see or record only selected
details

Anthropomorphic Fallacy
• Anthropomorphic fallacy: Attributing human
thoughts, feelings, or motives to animals,
especially as a way of explaining their behavior
(e.g., “Anya, my cat, is acting lethargic because
she’s feeling depressed today.”)

Correlational Studies
• Studies designed to measure the degree of a
relationship (if any) between two or more events,
measures, or variables
• How is this measured?
• Coefficient of Correlation
• Statistic ranging from –1.00 to +1.00; the sign
indicates the direction of the relationship
– The closer the statistic is to –1.00 or to +1.00,
the stronger the relationship
– Correlation of 0.00 demonstrates no
relationship between the variables

Correlations (cont)
• Positive correlation: Increases in one variable
are matched by increases in the other variable
• Negative correlation: Increases in one variable
are matched by decreases in the other variable
• Correlation does not demonstrate causation:
Just because two variables are related does
NOT mean that one variable causes the other to
occur

The Clinical Method
• Case study: In-depth focus on all aspects of a
single person
• Natural clinical tests: Natural events, such as
accidents, that provide psychological data
• Survey method: Using public polling techniques
to answer psychological questions

Sampling
• Representative sample: Small group that
accurately reflects a larger population
– Population: Entire group of animals or people
belonging to a particular category (e.g., all
married women)
• Internet surveys: Web-based research; low cost
and can reach many people

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