What is Psychology?
C. Lack, Ph.D.
PSY 2003
Chapter 1 Outline
Page 1 of 10
Section One:
The Science
What’s ahead…
•Psychology versus common sense
•How old is the science of psychology?
•Who were the founders of scientific psychology?
•What are the five major perspectives in psychology?
Definition of Psychology
•The discipline concerned with __________ and mental processes and how they are
affected by an organism’s physical state, mental state, and external ________
What does that mean?
•What psychology is not:
–“Pop psych”
–Anything on MTV
–“Psychobabble”
–Handwriting analysis
–Pseudoscience
–“Common sense”
–Dr. Phil
•What psychology is:
–Scientific
–Empirical
–Based on rigorous experiments
–_________________
The birth of psychology
•Psychology was the result of a combination of ideas and work in two separate fields
–Philosophy – concerned with how the mind and body interacted
C. Lack, Ph.D.
PSY 2003
Chapter 1 Outline
Page 2 of 10
–Physiology – had the tools to empirically observe the human mind through the
___________________
Wilhelm Wundt
•Founded the first formal psychology lab in 1879 at the University of Leipzig in
Germany
•Commonly referred to as the “Father of Psychology”
Early schools of psychology
•Structuralism
–Based on Wundt’s ideas
–Felt psychology should study the basic structures of the human mind
•Main method of examination was ____________
–Did not survive Wundt’s death
–Main contribution was insistence that psychology use research and the scientific
method
•Functionalism
–Based on the ideas of William James
–Felt psychology should study the functions of the human mind
–Heavily influenced by Darwin’s theory of _________
–Main contribution was it’s practical orientation and influence on evolutionary
psychology
Charles Darwin
•Naturalist who proposed a theory of evolution that involved three basic components
–Variation
–Inheritance
–Selection
C. Lack, Ph.D.
PSY 2003
Chapter 1 Outline
Page 3 of 10
Why Darwin? Why psychology?
•Evolutionary theory contains ideas at the very basis of psychology
– __________ being inherent in organisms
–Adaptation to the environment
–Opened way for comparative psychology
Evolutionary psychology
•Branch of psychology that says, due to evolution, humans have possession of many
evolved psychological mechanisms that either help or did help with survival
–The interaction of these mechanisms and the environment determine whether these
mechanisms actually become expressed
–Not all behavior is predetermined, rather there is room for individuality and change
•Behavioralism
–Key figures are J.B. Watson and B.F. ________
–Felt psychology should only study observable and _________ actions that could be
measured scientifically
–Became the dominant school for many decades, up to the late 1960’s
Emergence of cognitivism
•Even during the ‘behavioral years’ there was a significant minority who were
concerned with _________ processes
–Sigmund Freud and psychoanalyses
–Carl Rogers and humanistic movement
•The cognitive revolution during the 1960’s renewed interest in all aspects of cognition
Psychology’s Present
•Five major theoretical approaches
C. Lack, Ph.D.
PSY 2003
Chapter 1 Outline
Page 4 of 10
•Biological– stresses the role of biology
•Learning– emphasizes overt behavior
•Cognitive– focuses on thoughts
•Sociocultural– focuses on differences between cultures
•Psychodynamic– stresses role of internal motives
Section Two:
What Psychologists Do
What’s ahead…
•If someone tells you that he/she is a psychologist, why can’t you assume he/she is a
therapist?
•If you decided to call yourself a “psychotherapist,” would you breaking the law?
•What’s the difference between a clinical psychologist and a psychiatrist?
Fields of Psychology
•Clinical
•Cognitive
•Counseling
•Industrial/Organizational
•Developmental
•Psychobiology and evolutionary
•Educational
•Social
•Experimental
Psychological Research
•Basic vs. Applied
•Basic – “knowledge for knowledge’s sake”
•Applied – Has direct __________ significance or applies findings from basic research
Psychological Practice
C. Lack, Ph.D.
PSY 2003
Chapter 1 Outline
Page 5 of 10
•Goal is to understand and improve physical and mental health
•Work in a variety of settings
•Many different types of practitioners
•Counseling psychologists
•School psychologists
•Clinical psychologists
•Types of degrees – Ph.D., Ed.D., Psy.D.
•Master’s level practitioners as well
Term Confusion
•What’s the difference between a clinical psychologist and a….
•Psychotherapist?
•Psychoanalyst?
•Psychiatrist?
Psychology in the Community
•Major expansion since WWII
•Role of psychologists is....
•Expanding
•Diverse
•A little fuzzy to most people
Section Three:
Psychology as a Science
What’s ahead…
•What guidelines can help you evaluate psychological claims?
•Why is a psychological theory unscientific if it explains anything that could conceivably
happen?
C. Lack, Ph.D.
PSY 2003
Chapter 1 Outline
Page 6 of 10
•What’s wrong with drawing conclusions about behavior from a collection of
anecdotes?
The Scientific Method
•By adopting and adhering to the scientific method (SM), psychology becomes a
________
•Several values are integral to the SM
–Accuracy
–Objectivity
–Skepticism
–Open-mindedness
C. Lack, Ph.D.
PSY 2003
Chapter 1 Outline
Page 7 of 10
Steps in the SM
•Form a _________ for why something occurs
•Organize existing information and make predictions or ____________
•Test the hypotheses (do research)
•If your hypothesis was correct, it provides support for the theory, otherwise modify
the theory and do more research
•Accept or reject the theory
Parts of the SM
•Ask questions
•Define your terms
–Operational definitions
•Examine the evidence
•Analyze assumptions and __________
–Principle of falsifiability
•Avoid emotions
•Don’t oversimplify
•Consider alternatives
•Tolerate not knowing
Sections Five & Six:
Research Methods in Psychology
What’s ahead…
•Why use observational studies? When?
•What does a correlation mean? What does it not mean?
•Why rely on experimentation?
Answering questions
C. Lack, Ph.D.
PSY 2003
Chapter 1 Outline
Page 8 of 10
•There are three main procedures that scientists use to gather information about
behavior
–Observation
–Correlation
– _________________
Observation
•Descriptive methods involve carefully taking note of events in one of several forms
•Case method – detailed description of a particular individual
•Observation studies – observe and record behavior without interference
Observation
•Psychological tests – measure and evaluate some trait, state, ability, or interest
–Should be standardized (have ___________), have validity and reliability
•Surveys- ask people directly about their experiences, attitudes, opinions
Correlation
•The correlational method examines to what extent variables are related
–This can be used to predict behavior, but the accuracy depends on a variety of factors
–This cannot be used to determine ____________, whether one things causes another
–Can be positive or negative
–Expressed as a coefficient
Experimental method
•The “crown jewel” of research methods
•In experimentation, the research alters one or more ________________
systematically to determine if those changes influence behavior
•Experimentation is the only way to determine causality
C. Lack, Ph.D.
PSY 2003
Chapter 1 Outline
Page 9 of 10
Terms of experimentation
•Independent variable (IV)
–Variable that is _____________ by the researcher in an experiment
•Dependent variable (DV)
–Variable that is _____________ in an experiment
–If the DV changes as a result of the IV, then causality can be inferred
Requirements of experimentation
•Two conditions must be met for causality to be determined through experimentation
–Random assignment of participants to experimental/control conditions
–No confounding of the variables
•To control for experimenter bias, many studies use a double-blind procedure
Limits
•Some question of the generalizability of certain research
•Need for more field research
Section Seven:
Evaluating the Findings
Statistics
•Used to evaluate the results of experiments, surveys, correlational studies and more
•Describe
•Assess
•Explain
Why use Stats?
•Summarize the sample population
–Mean
C. Lack, Ph.D.
PSY 2003
Chapter 1 Outline
Page 10 of 10
–Standard deviation
•Interpret the data
–Inferential statistics
–Significance tests
Lab to the Real World
•Choose the best explanation
–Longitudinal vs. cross-sectional stuies
•Judge the result’s importance
–Meta-analyses