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
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
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
So how can Psychology
be used in our lives?
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?
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)
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?
Psychology helps us understand our
own cognition (though
processes)…for example
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?
Survivorship Bias in the media…
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?
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!
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?
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?
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?
• What is the difference between
the fields of “Psychology” and
“Psychiatry”?
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.
Psychology starts with questions…(how
would you attempt to answer these
questions scientifically?)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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)?
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?
6 Psychological Methodologies:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Observation
Research
Therapy
Analysis of case studies (Freud’s “Rat Man”,
for example)
5. Analysis of brain biochemistry
6. Experimentation
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?
Surveys:
– A technique for ascertaining the selfreported 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
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”
• If you were to create a story as to
what happened in this picture,
what you say?
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.
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
Examples of Psychological Tests:
Describe what you see in this
picture?
Describe what you see in this
picture?
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
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.
• The Stroop Effect: Volunteer???
• Read the colors, not the words!
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!
1. Parents
2. School
3. Love
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?
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
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
Correlation
Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships
(1)
Low self-esteem
could cause
Depression
or
(2)
Depression
could cause
Low self-esteem
or
Low self-esteem
(3)
Distressing events
or biological
predisposition
could cause
and
Depression
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.)
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.)
Case Studies:
1. How would
you define a
‘case study’?
2. What purpose
do you think
case studies
serve in
Psychology?
• 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
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!
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".
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
• 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.
Kitty (Catherine) Genovese:
David
Reimer
The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment
Questions Psychology Asks…
• Nature vs. Nurture: Is
it biology or
environment that most
determines who we are
and how we act?
1. What is your opinion?
2. What group of people do
you think psychologists
study in order to answer
this question?
“To these scientists, and to
biomedical researchers all over the
world, twins offer a precious
opportunity to untangle the
influence of genes and the
environment of nature and
nurture. Because identical twins
come from a single fertilized egg
that splits in two, they share
virtually the same genetic code.
Any differences between them one twin having younger looking
skin, for example must be due to
environmental factors such as less
time spent in the sun.”
“…Jim Springer and Jim Lewis were put up for adoption as babies and
raised by different couples…When Jim Springer reconnected with his
brother at age 39 in 1979, they uncovered a string of other similarities
and coincidences. Both men were six feet tall and weighed 180 pounds.
Growing up, they'd both had dogs named Toy and taken family
vacations in St. Pete Beach in Florida. As young men, they'd both
married women named Linda, and then divorced them. Their second
wives were both named Betty. They named their sons James Alan and
James Allan. They'd both served as part-time sheriffs, enjoyed home
carpentry projects, suffered severe headaches, smoked Salem cigarettes,
and drank Miller Lite beer.”
Though these two men are
genetically identical, they
were separated at
birth. The man on the left
was malnourished for
years. Bone structure
changes brought about by
environmental factors is
thus one of many ways
(physical and behavioral) in
which the environment can
dramatically affect the way
in which the genes express
themselves
Types of Psychology
1. Biological Psychology
• Investigates the biological basis of human behavior,
thoughts and emotions. Looks at how the
following biological mechanisms effect your
behavior and mental processes.
– Brain
– Neurotransmitters
– Hormones
– Drugs
– Gender differences in brain structure and
function
2. Evolutionary Psychology
• Asks the question: How did our species get to be the
way we are?
– Language – Why do we talk?
– Altruism – Why are we nice to each other?
– Sexual attraction / mate selection – Why are some
people considered beautiful?
• Answers these questions by looking at what would most
help us pass on our genetic code. Very concerned with
reproduction!
3. Behavioral
Psychology
• Focuses on how we learn, react and manipulate
our environment.
• We learn observable responses through
conditioning or by trying to get rewards/avoid
punishments.
• Believe that the mind is a BLACK BOX. Can’t see it? Don’t
study it.
• Big names
 Pavlov – Dogs
 Watson – Little Albert
 Skinner – Operant Conditioning
4. Cognitive Psychology
• Studies mental processes:
– Thinking, feeling, remembering, making
decisions and judgments
• Studies how we encode, process, store,
and retrieve information.
• Studies behavior and makes inferences
about the mental processes behind the
behavior
• Thanks to new technologies like CAT
scans, MRIs and fMRIs, we can open the
black box.
5. Psychoanalysis:
• Behavior springs from unconscious drives and
conflicts (primitive drives, forbidden desires
and nameless fears)
• Psychoanalysis – patient lies on a couch and
recounts dreams and conducts free
association.
• Sigmund Freud
Freud & the Self:
• Sigmund Freud argued that
every personality has a large
unconscious, or unaware,
component.
• Believed experiences were
stored in the unconscious. These
experiences affect our behavior
(e.g. – the oedipal complex,
female ‘penis’ envy,
psychosexual development)
1.
2.
3.
•
The ID: instinctual and biological urges that operates on the
“pleasure principle”
The EGO: the rational, thoughtful personality process that
operates on the “reality principle”
The SUPEREGO: serves to advocate what you should do,
operates on the “moral principal, or conscience”
According to Freud, certain personality traits can be
determined by the correct or incorrect development of the
ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO
6. Socio-cultural Psychology:
• Study of how people influence one another
• Topics include:
– First impressions
– Interpersonal attraction
– Attitude formation
– Prejudice
– Behavior in a group
– Obedience to Authority
• Some Applications include:
– Support groups
– Family Therapy
– Sensitivity Training
Topic: Needs, Motivation and Emotion
Aim: How is our behavior driving by
emotions and motivation?
Do Now: Do you care about doing well in
school? Why or why not?
What do each of these people have in common?
What is the most important things that they
want/need?
Hurricane Sandy: What do you think the
people of Breezy Point were most concerned
with immediately after the storm?
What about these people?
1) Physiological: hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, etc.
2) Safety/security: out of danger
3) Belongingness and Love: affiliate with others, be accepted
4) Esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval and
recognition.
Psychoanalytic Theory:
• According to Psychoanalytic
theory, everything we do,
every thought we have,
and every emotion we
experience has one of
two goals: to help us survive
or to prevent our destruction.
• So, according to
psychoanalytic theory,
why do you go to school?
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation:
• Intrinsic Motivation- we engage in certain behaviors
because they are personally rewarding. Examples?
• Extrinsic Motivation- Certain behaviors for external
reward. Examples?
Emotion Discussion:
1. How would you define an emotion?
2. What are some basic human
emotions?
3. What are the different ways
emotions/feelings can be expressed?
4. Is there a certain emotion that you feel
more than others?
5. Does culture matter when discussion
emotions?
6. Does gender matter? (do women or
men express emotions differently?
How so?)
Does species even matter? Interpret the following dog
emotions based on body language
Emotions:
• Feelings that underlies
behavior. 8 basic emotions
include:
1. Surprise
2. Fear
3. Sadness
4. Disgust
5. Anger
6. Anticipation
7. Joy
8. acceptance
Flat and Inappropriate Affects:
• Certain people with
disorders such as
Autism (boys on left),
or Schizophrenia have
a flat affect (show no
emotion), or show
inappropriate
emotional responses
(laughing or yelling at a
funeral, for example)