General Psychology (PY110)
Chapter 1
The Science of Psychology
Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and
mental processes

Psychologists attempt to understand
1. Observable Behavior (Overt): Actions or
reactions such as speech and physical movement
2. Mental Processes (Covert): Actions or
reactions such as remembering and thinking,
which cannot be directly observed
Four Perspectives
Biological
Cognitive
Behavioral
Sociocultural
The four perspectives fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw
No one perspective is “better” than another
Each provides information on behavior and mental processes
Perspectives Emphasizing Internal
(Covert) Factors

Biological perspective
◦ Concerned with our physiological hardware
 The brain, nervous system, and glands

Cognitive perspective
◦ Emphasizes our
mental processes
 Perception, memory, and
problem solving
Perspectives Emphasizing External
(Overt) Factors

Behavioral perspective
◦ Explains that we behave as we do because of
our past history of conditioning

Sociocultural perspective
◦ Focuses on the impact of other people and
cultures
Behavioral Perspective
Two types of conditioning:
Classical
Conditioning
Operant
Conditioning
How we learn fear and
emotional responses,
taste aversions, and
certain other behaviors
Involves the relationship
between our behavior
and its environmental
consequences
Four Goals of Psychology
Describe
What
Explain
Why
Predict
Anticipate
Control
Change or
Modify
Major Research Perspectives
in Psychology
Research Methods
•Observation
•Naturalistic Observation
•Participant Observation
•Case Study
•Survey
•Experimental
Descriptive Methods:
Observational Techniques

The researcher directly observes the behavior
of interest
◦ Naturalistic observation: The observation
occurs in its natural setting, without the researcher
intervening.
◦ Participant observation:The observer becomes
part of the group being observed.
Descriptive Methods:
Case Studies




The researcher studies an individual in depth
over an extended period of time to attempt to
learn as much as possible about the individual
being studied
Scope is Low, but Detail is High
Often used in clinical settings to gather
information that will help in the treatment of the
patient
Results of case studies cannot be generalized to
other people
Descriptive Methods:
Survey Research
Uses questionnaires and interviews to collect information about
the behavior, beliefs, and attitudes of particular groups of people
 Scope is High, but Detail is Low


It is critical to note that the wording, order, and structure of the
survey questions may lead the participants to biased answers
◦ For instance, some questions might evoke socially-desirable responses in
an effort to make certain impressions on the researchers

A representative (sample) of the total population must be
selected at random to avoid biased results and allow results to
be generalized across whole population
Experimental Research
 Experimental
Research is
observations under controlled
conditions

This control allows the researcher to isolate
cause-and-effect relationships from the
experimental
results
Experimental Research
•Experimental research seeks to establish cause
and effect relationships between two variables.
Cause
Effect
Designing an Experiment (Change)


When a researcher designs an experiment, the
researcher begins with a hypothesis about the causeand-effect relationship between two variables
One of the variables is assumed to be the cause, and
the other variable is the one to be affected
◦ The independent variable is
the hypothesized cause, and the
experimenter manipulates it
◦ The dependent variable is the
variable that is hypothesized to
be affect by the independent
variable and thus is measured by
the experimenter
Designing an Experiment
Problem
Hypothesis
State Problem
Suggest Cause & Effect Relationship
Select Random Sample
Experimental
Design
Divide Sample in two groups
Experimental Group
Manipulate with IV
Collect, Analyze,
& Interpret
Data
Results
Record Data
Control Group
Give Placebo or do nothing
Record Data
Analyze Statistically
Was Hypothesis Correct?
The Placebo



A placebo is a harmless pill that has no active
ingredients
They are used to make the control group believe they
are receiving the same ‘treatment’ as the experimental
group
The placebo effect is improvement due to the
expectation of improving because of receiving
treatment
The Double-Blind Procedure
A control measure in which neither the
experimenter nor the participants know
which participants actually got the treatment
(experimental group) and or got the placebo
(control group)
 If the experimenter OR the participant does
not know which group they are in, the
experiment is called single-blind

Summary of Research Methods
Data Analysis - Averages
Designed to summarize a set of data with a single number
 Three measures of central tendency

1. The mean is the numerical average for a distribution of score
2. The median is the score that is positioned in the middle of the
distribution of scores when scores are listed from lowest to
highest
 If there is an odd number of scores,
the median is the middle score
 If there is an even number of scores, the
median is the average of the two center scores
3. The mode is the most frequently-occurring
score in a distribution of scores
 If two scores occur with equal
frequency, both can be the mode
Data Analysis - Variation


Provides an idea of how scattered a set of results are
Two measures of variability
1. The range is the difference between the highest and lowest
scores in a distribution of scores
 Like the mean, the range can be greatly distorted by
extremely high or extremely low scores
2. The standard deviation is the average extent to which the
scores vary from the mean of the distribution
 A small standard deviation means that scores do not vary
very much from the mean
 A larger standard deviation means that scores tend to vary
greatly from the mean
Summary of
Descriptive Statistics
The Normal Distribution