Chapter 1
The Search for Understanding
Table of Contents
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Key Questions
• What is psychology?
• What do psychologists hope to achieve?
• How did psychology emerge as a field of knowledge?
• What are the major perspectives in psychology?
• What roles and specialties are found in psychology and related
fields?
• What is critical thinking?
• How does psychology differ from false explanations of
behavior?
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Psychology
Overt behaviors
Covert behaviors
Empirical evidence
Data
Scientific observation
Research method
Developmental psychologists
Learning theorists
Personality theorists
Sensation & perception
psychologists
Comparative psychologists
Biopsychologists
Gender psychologists
Social psychologists
Cultural psychologists
Description
Understanding
Prediction
Psychometrics
Control
Key Terms
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Philosophy
Stimulus
Introspection
Experimental self-observation
Structuralists
Functionalism
Natural selection
Educational psychology
Industrial psychology
Behaviorism
Stimuli
Responses
Conditioned response
Cognitive Behaviorism
Behavior modification
Gestalt psychology
Unconscious
Repressed
Psychoanalysis
Neo-Freudians
Psychodynamic theories
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Humanism
Determinism
Free will
Self-Image
Self-evaluation
Frame of reference
Self-actualization
Eclectic
Cognitive psychologists
Psychologists
Clinical psychologists
Counseling psychologists
Scientist practitioner model
Psychoanalyst
Counselor
Psychiatric social workers
Basic Research
Applied research
Critical thinking
Palmistry
Phrenology
What is Psychology?
• Psychology
• Psyche: Mind
• Logos: Knowledge or study
• Definition: The scientific study of human and
animal behavior
• Behavior: Overt, i.e. can be directly observed (crying)
• Mental Processes: Covert, i.e. cannot be directly
observed (remembering)
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Empiricism: The Goals
• To measure and describe behaviors
• To gather empirical evidence: Information
gained from direct observation and
measurement
• To gather data: Observed facts
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Fig. 1.1 Results of an empirical study. The graph shows that horn honking by frustrated motorists
becomes more likely as air temperature increases. This suggests that physical discomfort is associated
with interpersonal hostility. Riots and assaults also increase during hot weather. Here we see a steady
rise in aggression as temperatures go higher. However, research done by other psychologists has shown
that hostile actions that require physical exertion, such as a fist fight, may become less likely at very high
temperatures. (Data from Kenrick & MacFarlane, 1986.)
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Scientific Observation
• Definition: Designed and structured to answer questions
about the world
• Research Method: A systematic procedure for answering
scientific questions
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What Might a Psychologist
Research?
• Development: Course of human growth and
development
• Learning: How and why it occurs in humans and
animals
• Personality: Traits, motivations, and individual
differences
• Sensation and Perception: How we come to
know the world through our five senses
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What Might a Psychologist
Research? (cont.)
• Comparative: Study and compare behavior of
different species, especially animals
• Biopsychology: How behavior is related to
biological processes, especially activities in the
nervous system
• Gender: Study differences between males and
females and how they develop
• Social: Human and social behavior
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What Might a Psychologist
Research? (cont.)
• Cultural: How culture affects behavior
• Animals: Natural laws governing the
behavior of any living creature
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What Are the Goals of Psychology?
• Description of Behaviors: Naming and classifying various
observable, measurable behaviors
• Understanding: The causes of behavior(s), and being able to
state the cause(s)
• Prediction: Predicting behavior accurately
• Control: Altering conditions that influence behaviors in
predictable ways
• Positive Use: To control unwanted behaviors, (e.g., smoking, tantrums,
etc.)
• Negative Use: To control peoples’ behaviors without their
knowledge
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Article
• Indian girl 2002
A Brief History of Psychology
• Wilhelm Wundt: “Father" of Psychology
• 1879: Set up first lab to study conscious
experience
• Introspection: Looking inward (i.e.,
examining and reporting your thoughts,
feelings, etc.)
• Experimental Self-Observation:
Incorporates both introspection and
objective measurement; Wundt’s
approach
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History of Psychology:
Structuralism
• Wundt’s ideas brought to the U.S. by
Tichener and renamed Structuralism
• Structuralists often disagreed, and no way
to prove who was correct!
• Structuralists: Introspection was a poor
way to answer many questions
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History of Psychology:
Functionalism
• William James (American) and Functionalism
• How the mind functions to help us adapt and
survive
• Functionalists admired Darwin and his Theory
of Natural Selection: Animals keep features
through evolution that help them adapt to
environments
• Educational Psychology: Study of learning,
teaching, classroom dynamics, and related
topics
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History of Psychology: Behaviorism and
Cognitive Behaviorism
• Behaviorism: Watson and Skinner
• Psychology must study observable behavior objectively
• Watson studied Little Albert with Rosalie Raynor;
Skinner studied animals almost exclusively
• Cognitive Behaviorism: Ellis and Bandura
• Our thoughts influence our behaviors; used often in
treatment of depression
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B.F. Skinner
• Pigeons playing table tennis
• Watson’s life
History of Psychology: Gestalt
• Gestalt Psychology: “The whole is greater
than the sum of its parts.”
• Studied thinking, learning, and
perception in whole units, not by
analyzing experiences into parts
• Key names: Wertheimer, Perls
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Fig. 1.2 The design you see here is entirely made up of broken circles. However, as the Gestalt
psychologists discovered, our perceptions have a powerful tendency to form meaningful patterns.
Because of this tendency, you will probably see a triangle in this design, even though it is only an
illusion. Your whole perceptual experience exceeds the sum of its parts.
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History of Psychology: Freud
• Psychoanalytic: Freud
• Our behavior is largely influenced by our unconscious
wishes, thoughts, and desires, especially sex and
aggression
• Freud performed dream analysis and was an
interactionist (combination of our biology and
environment makes us who we are)
• Repression: When threatening thoughts are
unconsciously held out of awareness
• Recent research has hypothesized that our
unconscious mind is partially responsible for our
behaviors
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History of Psychology: NeoFreudians
• New or recent; some of Freud’s
students who broke away to promote
their own theories
• Key names: Adler, Anna Freud,
Horney, Jung, Rank, Erikson
• Psychodynamic theories: Which
emphasize internal motives,
conflicts, and unconscious forces
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History of Psychology:
Humanism
• Humanism: Rogers and Maslow
• Goal of psychology is to understand subjective human experience
• Each person has innate goodness and is able to make free choices
(contrast with Skinner and Freud)
• Determinism: Behavior is determined by forces beyond our
control
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History of Psychology:
Humanism
• Humanists helped stimulate interest in psychological needs for
love, self-esteem, belonging, self-expression, creativity, and
spirituality.
• Such needs, they believe, are as important as our biological
needs for food and water.
• For example, newborn infants deprived of human love may die
just as surely as they would if deprived of food
Humanism: Some Concepts
• Self-image: Your perception of your own body,
personality, and capabilities
• Self-evaluation: Positive and negative feelings
you have about yourself
• Frame of Reference: Mental or emotional
perspective used for evaluating events
• Self-actualization (Maslow): Fully developing
one’s potentials and becoming the best person
possible
• Free will: The human ability to make choices
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Psychology Today
• Biopsychology: Our behavior can be explained
through physiological processes
• Uses brain scans to gather data (MRI, PET)
• Looks at neurotransmitters
• Cognitive: Study thoughts, memory,
expectations, perceptions, and other mental
processes
• Eclectic: Drawing from many sources
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5 ways to Look at Behavior
• Psychodynamic View
• Behavioristic View
• Humanistic View
• Biopsychological View
• Cognitive View
• Read page 15-16
Critical Thinking
• Imagine that you are a
psychologist. You client, Linda,
who is Native American, tells you
that spirits live in the trees near
her home. Is Linda suffering from
a delusion? Is she abnormal?
Cultural Awareness
• Many thoughts and behaviors are influenced by our culture
• Psychologists need to be aware of the impact cultural
diversity may have on our behaviors
• What is acceptable in one culture might be unacceptable in
another
• Cultural Relativity: Behavior must be judged relative to the
values of the culture in which it occurs
• Norms: Rules that define acceptable and expected behavior
for members of various groups
Many Flavors of Psychologists
• Psychologists: Usually have masters or
doctorate; Trained in methods,
knowledge, and theories of psychology
• Clinical Psychologists: Treat more severe
psychological problems
• Counseling Psychologists: Treat milder
problems, such as adjustment disorders
• Not all psychologists perform therapy!
Specialties in Psychology
• Psychiatrists: MD; usually use medications to treat problems;
Generally do not have extensive training in providing “talk”
therapy
• Psychoanalysts: Receive post-PhD. or M.D. training in
Freudian psychoanalysis at an institute
• Clinical: Treat psychological problems or do research on
clinical topics
• Counselor: Adviser who helps solve marriage, career, work, or
school problems
• Psychiatric Social Workers: Many have masters degrees and
perform psychotherapy
• Presently a very popular profession
• PAGE 19
Critical Thinking: Key
Principles
• Few truths transcend the need for empirical testing
• Evidence varies in quality
• Authority or claimed expertise does not automatically make
an idea true
• Critical thinking requires an open mind
Critical Thinking
• Ability to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information
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What would you expect to see if the claim were true?
Gather evidence relevant to the claim
Evaluate the evidence
Draw a conclusion
• Oftentimes used in research
Pseudo-Psychology
• An unfounded system that resembles psychology
• Schemes that give an appearance of science, but are actually
false
• P.T. Barnum: “Always have a little something for everybody”
• Barnum Effect: A tendency to consider personal descriptions
accurate if they are stated in very general terms
• Horoscopes http://shine.yahoo.com/astrology
• Palm readings
• Fortunes
Pseudo-Psych
Not on handout
Uncritical Acceptance: Tendency to believe
positive or flattering descriptions of yourself
Fallacy of Positive Instances: When we
remember or notice things that confirm our
expectations and forget the rest
Crossing over with John Edward
Assignment
• Horoscope assignment
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Review your horoscope for 3 straight days.
Write horoscope
Write interpretation of horoscope
Write belief of horoscope
Write where horoscope was from.
Quiz
• Quiz next class over Chapter 1