Karen Siyuan Chen
What is psychology?
 Philosophy
 Science
 About human
 Not physical aspects, but mental and behavioral things
What makes human as human?
 Genes
 We are similar, but also unique.
 We think, feel, behave differently
 We have various personal talents
 Outer environment
 School education, social groups, parental raising
methods
 Illness
 Physical
 Mental
Look, learn and “I found it”!
Public and private behavior?
Goals in our class
 Learn essential concepts
 Know yourself better
 Use in daily life
Examples in life
 Two same dolls with different color, black and white.
 Which is your favorite? Which one you want to play
most? Which is the most pretty doll? Which is the bad
one?
 How to quit smoking or other additions?
 Connect something bad with your behavior
Examples in life
 Relationships between order of children and their
personalities
 Raising ways, parental expectation and family
responsibilities make it different
 Why children are more willing to express their ideas to
dolls or puppets?
 Because they are only cute?
Do you want to know these?
 How can I deal with all troubles in my life better?
 How does memory store in our brains?
 How to train a dog to do as what I said?
 Why can’t I recall the knowledge I already knew?
 What made people different?
 How the pressure of peer works?
 What do the infants know about the world?
 Why I feel so frustrated for my job?
 Why I get sick before exams every time? …
What could psychology do?
 Assess --- intelligence, personality
 Control --- behaviors, mind
 Educate --- knowledge, operation process
 Explain --- cause, phenomenon, symptom
 Predict --- criminal behavior, performance
 Influent --- way of thinking, value system
 Improve --- toys, software, website, mental health
 Notice --- bias, stereotypes, cultural differences
Quick history
 In 1879, Wihelm Wundt founded
the first formal laboratory devoted
to experimental psychology in
Germany
 In 1892, G.Stanley Hall founded the
American Psychological
Association (APA).
 William James was the first
American psychologist, published
famous textbook Principles of
Psychology.
  structuralism Vs. functionalism
Structuralism
 WHAT the contents of mind are?
 ALL human mental experience could be understood as
the combination of simple events or elements
 Reductionistic --- reduce to simple sensations
 Elemental --- combine parts into a whole
 Mentalistic --- only verbal report
Functionalism
 HOW mental processes function?
 “stream of consciousness”--- functions to help humans
adapt to environment
 Broadened the scope of psychology
 Allowed study of normal people, animals and patients
 Focused on applied or practical use in life
Schools of thoughts
 Behaviorism
•
John B. Watson
•
Baby theory
•
Pattern format Training
•
e.g. If you are scared of taking elevator, you can
overcome it after training step by step. The more you
face it, the more possibilities you have to get rid of it.
Schools of thoughts
 Psychoanalysis
• Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung,
Alfred Adler
• Unconscious
• Desire / trauma  unconscious
 repress / change  conscious
• e.g. the past early family ignorance
experience influenced the way of
love and caring in future
unconsciously.
Schools of thoughts
 Humanistic psychology
• Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow
• Positive human nature
• Negative, depressed thoughts 
unconditional concern,
encouragement, positive exceptions
 build up self-confidence
• e.g. what you experienced was
absolutely terrible, but you are so
brave to come here to see me. This is
your first step to success.
Schools of thoughts
 Cognitive psychology
• Gestalt psychology
•
•
Whole, form, pattern
Small parts  a whole unit  function
• Information-Processing Theory
•
•
Computer model
Input  process  output
Schools of thoughts
 Biological perspective
• Genetic, biochemical bases
 Evolutionary
• The natural selection
 Cultural psychology
• Cross-cultural differences
Theories
 Not all theories are truth
 Even it is true now, it might not work forever
 Observation  Critical Thinking  Practice
Half or Full?
 If you saw an empty cup first?
 If you saw a full cup first?
 Why they are different?
 What’s in your mind?
Are they happy?
 How do you know whether they are
happy or not?
 How do you define “happy” in these
photos?
 Can your definition be generalized to
other cases?
 Is your definition precise or not?
Research Methods
 Descriptive research methods
• Naturalistic observation --- most case studies
• Laboratory observation --- most experiments
• Experiment --- cognitive process, medical effects
• Case study --- psychotherapy, counseling, special
education
• Survey --- collect information
Key research concepts
 Observer bias
 Errors due to personal expectation and motivation by
observers
 e.g. half or full cup of water
 Operational definition
 The concept which used to define and measure, through
specific operation or process
 e.g. smiling face and happiness
Key Statistic Concepts
 Population
 Sample
 Representative sample
race
Key Statistic Concepts
 Correlational method
• Establish the degree of relationship
 Correlation coefficient
• Range from -1.00 to +1.00
• -1.00: a perfect negative correlation
• 0.00: no relationship
• +1.00: a perfect positive correlation
• False correlation??
• e.g. efficiency and pressure, light and romance, disaster and
high birth rate??
Key Statistic Concepts
 Experimental method
 Control  identify cause-effect relationships
 Hypothesis
 Your prediction about the relationship
 Independent variable
 Suppose to cause a change
 Dependent variable
 Be measured and be affected by independent variables
Key Statistic Concepts
 Confounding variables
 Not independent variables
 But could cause changes
 Selection bias
 Happens in assignment
 May not reflect the real changes
 Random assignment
 Avoid selection bias
 Each participant has an equal probability of being assigned to
any groups
Key Statistic Concepts
 Placebo effect
 Participant’s expectation  response to treatment
 Placebo
 A control for the placebo effect
 Experimenter bias
 Researcher’s expectation  voice, gestures, facial
expressions
 Double-blind technique
 instructor--|assistance | -- participants
Which produced violence?
 One student wants to exam whether the violence in TV
shows is the direct reason of violent behavior on
children?
 Do you have any ideas for that study?
 Who is the subject (participant)? Which is measured?
How can the violent behavior be defined? Can we find
direct connections between TV shows and behavior?
What else will possibly influence children’s violence?
I saw, I imitated, and I hit!
 Children will imitate whatever you act, so please be
careful of your words and behaviors.
Ethical issues
 Animals = human beings?
 Sign contract for participants
 Predict the risk
 No cheating
Homework
 Find out some work positions for people learning
psychology
 Review your research and statistic terms
 Go to www.apa.com and find your interest in those 50
specialties in psychology.