THE SCIENCE OF
PSYCHOLOGY
CHAPTER 1
WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY
SECTION 1
INTRODUCTION
• Psychology: the scientific study of behavior and mental
process
• Seek to explain how we perceive, learn, remember, solve
problems, communicate, feel and relate to other people
• Late 20th century psychology expanded dramatically—
specializations, new behavior studies, etc.
FIELDS OF PSYCH
• Developmental Psych
• study human mental and psychical growth from prenatal period
until old age
• Interested in universal patters—patterns of everyone, and cultural
patterns
• Physiological Psychology
• Investigate the biological basis of human behavior, thoughts, and
emotions
• Look at heredity
• Experimental Psych
• Conduct research on basic psychological processes,
including learning, memory, sensation, perceptions,
cognition, motivation, and emotion
• How do they remember and why do they forget?
• They focus on the brain
• Personality Psychology
• Study the differences among individuals in such traits as
anxiety, sociability, self-esteem, and the need for
achievement and aggressiveness
• Try to determine what causes peoples moods
• Clinical and Counseling Psych
• Clinical--Interested in the diagnose, cause, and treatment
of psychological disorders
• Counseling—deals with eh “normal’ problems that many of
us face like choosing a career or dealing with martial
problems.
• Social Psych
• Study how people influence one another
• Industrial and Organizational Psychology
• Issues like selecting and training personnel, improving
productivity and working conditions
PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE
• Psychologists rely on the scientific method when seeking
answers to questions.
• Scientific Method: collecting data, generating a theory to
explain the data, producing a testable hypothesis based on
the theory, and testing those hypotheses
• Theory: explanation of a phenomena, it organized facts,
and predicts new facts
• Hypothesis: specific testable predictions derived from a
theory
THE GROWTH OF
PSYCHOLOGY
SECTION 2
THE “NEW” PSYCHOLOGY: A SCIENCE OF THE MIND
• Psychology was “born” in 1879 the year Wilhelm Wundt founded the
first psychological lab in Germany
• Voluntarism and Structuralism
• Wundt believed that our mental processes could not be studied
scientifically, but set out to find ways that it could be studied
scientifically
• Voluntarism: attention is actively controlled by intentions and
motives
• Moved psych out of the realm of philosophy to the world of science
• Edward Bradford Titchener
• Student of Wundt
• Ideas differed from Wundt
• Structuralism: stressed the basic units of experience and
the combinations in which they occur
• William James: Functionalism
• First academic to challenge structuralism
• Functionalism Theory: mental life and behavior that is
concerned with how an organism uses its perceptual
abilities in its environments
• We act out of habit, and the more we do something it
becomes easier than the time before
• Sigmund Freud: Psychodynamic Psychology
• Most well know and controversial
• We are motivated by unconscious desires
• Saw unconscious as a mixture of primitive sexual and aggressive
desires, forbidden desires, nameless fears and wishes, and
traumatic childhood memories
• Although repressed, they still come out in forms of dreams,
mannerisms, slips of the tongue, and mental illness
• Psychodynamic Theory: personality theories contending that
behaviors result from psychological forces that interact within the
individual, often outside the conscious awareness
REDEFINING PSYCH: THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOR
• John B. Watson: Behaviorism
• Idea of mental life was superstition
• You cannot see or define consciousness and if you cannot
locate or measure something, it cant be studied
scientifically
• Behaviorism: studies only observable and measurable
behavior
• We can train, or condition people to do the thing we
want them to do
• B.F. Skinner: Behaviorism Revisited
• Leader in behaviorists school of psychology
• Added to the theory by rewarding his subjects for behaving
the way he wanted them to
THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION
• Gestalt and Humanistic Psychology
• Gestalt: studies how people perceive and experience objects as
whole patterns
• When we look at a tree that is what we see, we don’t see
various branches and thousands of leaves individually
• Humanistic: emphasizes nonverbal experiences and altered states
of consciousness as a means of realizing one’s full human potential
• Importance of love, belonging, self-esteem, self-expression,
• Cognitive Psychology
• Devoted to studying the mental processes but in the
broadest sense
• Thinking, feeling, learning, remembering, making decisions,
and judgments
• How people process information
NEW DIRECTIONS
• Evolutionary Psychology
•
Concerned with the evolutionary origins of behaviors and mental processes, their adaptive value, and the
purpose that continue to serve
•
How did we get to where we are today?
• Positive Psychology
•
Focuses on positive experiences, including subjective well-being, self determination, the relationship between
positive emotions and physical health, and that factors that allow individuals, communities, and society to
flourish
WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY
• Many contributions to psychology came from women
• They presented papers and joined the national professional
association when it was formed in 1892
• Often faces much discrimination:
• Some universities and colleges did not grant degrees to women
• Professional journals were reluctant to publish their work
• Teaching positioned where often closed to them
CLASSWORK
• In your textbook:
• Read page 22
• Answer the following questions using the reading and the notes we just
discussed
• 1. What are 3 ways women were discriminated against in psychology?
• 2. Select one of the following women and discuss who they are and
why they are famous.
• Christine Ladd-Franklin
• Mary Whiton Calkins
• Margret Floy Washburn
• 3. Because many women found the doors closed to academic careers
closed, what did they do instead?
• 4. What historical event changed the cultural climate for women?
RESEARCH METHODS IN
PSYCHOLOGY
SECTION 4
INTRODUCTION
• All sciences—psychology, sociology, economics, political science, biology, and
physics re quire empirical evidence
• Empirical Evidence: information derived from systematic, objective
observation
• Various Research methods to gather Empirical Evidence
• Naturalistic Observation
• Case Studies
• Surveys
• Correlation Research
• Experimental Research
NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION
• Systematic study of animal or human behavior in natural
settings rather in the laboratory
• Advantage—behavior observed in everyday life is likely to be
more natural, spontaneous, and varied then in a lab
• Disadvantage—Observer Bias: expectations or biases of the
observer that might distort of influence his or her
interpretations of what actually happened
• What twist what actually happened to fit your prediction of
what would happen
CASE STUDIES
• Intensive description and analysis of a single individual or just
a few individuals
• Similar to naturalist observations, but uses a variety of
methods to receive information—doesn’t just watch them
• Disadvantages
• Observer Bias
• Cant draw general conclusion from just one person because
everyone is different
SURVEYS
• RESEARCH TECHIQUE IN WHICH QUESTIONAIRES OR
INTERVIEWS ARE ADMINISTERED TO A SELECT GROUP OF
PEOPLE
• CAN BE DONE FACE-TO FACE OR ON A QUESTIONAIRE
CORRELATION RESEARCH
• Research technique based on the naturally occurring
relationship between 2 or more variables
• Ex: The Air Force, is asked to predict which applicants for pilottraining program will make good pilots
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
• Experimental Method: research technique in which an
investigator deliberately manipulates selected events or
circumstances and then measures the effects of those
manipulations on subsequent behavior
• First step is to selecting participants—individuals whose
reactions or responses are observed in an experiment
• Then you follow the Scientific Methods to organize an
experiment
• Independent Variable: variable that is manipulated to test
its effects on the other, dependent variables
• Dependent Variable : variable that is measured to see how
it is changed by manipulations
• There are 2 groups of participants in an experiment
• Experimental Group: the group subjected to a change in
the independent variable
• Control Group: the group not subjected to the change in
independent variable
ETHIC IN PSYCHOLOGY
• American Psychological Association first published the Code of
Ethics in 1953
• The code is assed each year
• Outlines the ethical outlines for research and teachings
psych
• Set ethical standards for psychologists who offer therapy
and other profession services
APA CODE OF ETHICS
• Participants must be informed of the nature of research in clearly understandable language
• Informed consent must be documented
• Risk, possible adverse effects, and limitations on confidentiality must be spelled out in advance
• If participations is a condition of course credit, equitable alternative activities must be offered
• Participants cannot be deceived about aspects of the research that would affect their willingness to
participate, such as risks or unpleasant emotional experiences
• Deceptions about the goals of the research can be used only when absolutely necessary to the integrity
of the research
CAREERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
SECTION 5
ACADEMICS AND APPLIED PSYCH
• Pursue advances degrees in psych—master’s degree or
doctorate
• Usually works with colleges and universities
• Work in applied settings like schools, health, industrial,
commercial, and educational psych
• Nearly half of all doctoral psychologists are clinicians or
counselors who treat people experiencing mental, emotional
or adaptation problems
CLINICAL SETTING
• Licensed Social Workers (LSW)
• Counseling Psychologists (MFCC)—help cope with situational problems
• Clinical Psychologists (Ph.D or Psy.D.)—asses and treat mental, emotional and behavioral disorders
• Psychiatrists (M.D.)—diagnoses and treatment of abnormal behavior
• Psychoanalysts—psychiatrists with additional specialization in psychoanalytical theory
EXIT SLIP: VARIABLES
• An experiment to see how the mass of the ball effects the
distance it travels.
• Independent Variable:
• Dependent Variable:
• An experiment to decide if you are more attracted to a person
because they share similar interests in you.
• Independent Variable:
• Dependent Variable:
IDENTIFY THE INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT
VARIABLES.
1. Students want to test the whether listening to music while testing will
increase your test scores or lower them.
2. A student wants to set up an experiment where they want to know if
the number of visible tattoos a person has will determine the
likelihood of getting a job.
3. Students wanted to know if a certain type of dog treat is more
affective to use while training their pet to sit.
4. Teachers wanted to determine if the amount of students that came to
class on time would increase if they were given a reward.