Introduction to
PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY
The scientific study of
behavior and the mental
process.
What are the
characteristics of
an excellent
Psychologist?
H ow do psychologists think?
“…I feel my self a naturalist and a phy sician both; and that I am equally
interested in diseases and people; perhaps too, that I am equally , if
inadequately , a theorist and a dramatist, am equally drawn to the
scientific and the romantic and continually see both in the human
condition…”
Oliver Sacks
The central question addressed in this Psychology class is “how do psychologists
think?” Oliver Sacks, a brilliant neuroscientist, identifies a dual role played by
effective psychologists: Good psychologists
are both empathic counselors and
objective scientists. The course objectives of this class stem from this essential
question and acknowledge this complicated role.
Stay Or Switch?!
Stay Or Switch
Intuition – The act of knowing without
use of rational processes, a capacity for
guessing accurately, what ‘feels’ right.
Empiricism – Relying on information
derived from observation or
experimentation.
STEP 1: Presenting the problem
STEP 2: The critical question: stay or
switch?
STEP 3: The experiment
STEP 4: Debriefing
What is left?
- Expectations
- Fact or Fiction Quiz?
“We are what we
repeatedly do.
Excellence, then is a not
an act but a habit”
-AristotleYOU ALL CAN EXPIRIENCE EXCELENCE.
Neuroplasticity:
changing the brain through practice
BILL GATES
OUTLIERS by
Malcolm Gladwell
Mental Toughness Training
Mental Toughness Training
Marshmallow Test
Lets look at memory
WHAT DO YOU SEE?
It depends on your perspective
• PYSCHOANALYTIC/PSYCHODYNAMIC
• BEHAVIORISM
• HUMANISM
• COGNITIVE
• SOCIOCULTURAL
• BIOLOGICAL/NEUROSCIENTIFIC
• EVOLUTIONARY
The Biopsychosocial Approach
Human
Behavior
Do we need it?
Hindsight Bias
• The tendency to believe, after learning the
outcome, that you knew it all along.
THE WORST COACHING CALL
IN NFL HISTORY?!?!
Overconfidence
We tend to think we know
more than we do.
• 82% of U.S. drivers consider
themselves to be in the top 30% of
their group in terms of safety.
• 81% of new business owners felt they
had an excellent chance of their
businesses succeeding. When asked
about the success of their peers, the
answer was only 39%. (Now that's
overconfidence!!!)
Quarter Flip
Which of the three patterns is most likely?
1. HHHTTT
2. HTTHTH
3. HHHHHH
WHY?
Scientific attitude: curiosity, skepticism,
humility. CRITICAL THINKING.
“To believe with certainty, we must begin
by doubting.” –Polish proverb
FINDING MEANING IN THE METHOD
Five steps of the scientific Method
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Developing a Hypothesis
Performing a controlled test
Gathering objective data
Analyzing the results
Publishing, criticizing and replicating the results
HAWTHORNE EFFECT
(Another confounding variable)
• SIMPLY KNOWING YOU
ARE IN AN EXPERIMENT
MAY CAUSE A CHANGE
IN BOTH CONTROL AND
EXPERIMENTAL GROUP.
Whether the lights were brighter or
dimmer, production went up in the
Hawthorne electric plant.
How Do Psychologists Observe and
Describe Behavior?
Descriptive/Correlational
Methods of Research
(Note, this is not an experiment)
1.Case Studies
2.Naturalistic
Observation
3.Surveys
• Examines one individual in depth in hopes of revealing
things true of all of us. What does this mean?
The famous case of Phineas Gage
survived an accident in which a
large iron rod was driven
completely through his head,
destroying much of his brain's
left frontal lobe, and for that
injury's reported effects on his
personality and behavior.
Careful, usually prolonged
observation of behavior in its natural
setting, without direct intervention.
• Example: Humans laugh 30 times more often in social
situations than is solitary situations. (Have you noticed
how seldom you laugh when you’re alone?)
• IF you were to conduct a naturalistic observation in the
dining hall, what kinds of things would you notice?
• Use of Questionnaire to gather
information about specific aspects
of participants’ behavior. attitudes,
opinions and beliefs
Sampling
1. Identify the population you want to study.
2. The sample must be representative of the
population you want to study.
3. GET A RANDOM SAMPLE.
TODAY
ANOUNCEMENTS:
• I ALWAYS, accept late work
• Notes: Can we do them differently?
• RADIO LAB!
1. QUIZ (6Q’s – 4 mins total)
2. Correlation
3. Understanding Experimentation
1. Gotta do them, to get ‘em
Correlation Method
Measure of the extent to which two
variables change together NATURALLY.
(How well either variable predicts the other)
DOES NOT SHOW CAUSATION
As the population sleeps
longer, fewer car
accidents occur.
Does more sleep cause fewer accidents, or fewer accidents cause more sleep?
Correlation and Causation
(1)
LOW SELF-ESTEEM
Could Cause
DEPRESSION
Or
(2)
DEPRESSION
Could Cause
LOW SELF-ESTEEM
Or
(3)
Distressing events
or biological
predispositions
Could Cause
DEPRESSION
LOW SELF-ESTEEM
Positive or Negative Correlation?
(SCATTER PLOT)
Positive Correlation
Studying and
grades hopefully
has a positive
correlation.
The variables go in the SAME direction.
Negative Correlation
Heroin use and
grades probably has
a negative
correlation.
The variables go in opposite directions.
NO Correlation
A QUESTION LIKE THIS WILL VERY
WELL BE ON THE AP EXAM
Correlation Coefficient
• A number that measures
the strength of a
relationship.
• Range is from -1 to +1
• The relationship gets
weaker the closer you
get to zero.
Which is a stronger
correlation?
• -.13 or +.38
• -.72 or +.59
• -.91 or +.04
Positive or Negative Correlation
1. The more children and youth used various media,
the less happy they were with their lives.
2. The less sexual content teens saw on TV, the less
likely they were to have sex.
3. The longer children were breast-fed, the greater
their later academic achievement.
4. The more income rose among a sample of poor
families, the fewer psychiatric symptoms their
children experienced.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT AN EXPERIMENT
THAT ALLOWS US TO ISOLATE CAUSE
AND EFFECT?
• INDEPENDENT
VARIABLE 
• The experimental factor
that is manipulated
• It is the variable whose
effect is being studied
• DEPENDENT
VARIABLE 
• The variable that may
change in response to the
manipulations of the
independent variable.
SCREWING AROUND
IN PSYCHOLOGY!!
CONFOUNDING VARIABLE
• The object of an experiment is to prove A causes B
• CV = Anything that could cause change in B that is
not A.
If I was trying to prove that smoking causes heart
issues, what are some confounding variables?
Experimenter Bias
(Another confounding variable)
• Influencing the experiment unconsciously.
DOUBLE BLIND
Placebo Effect
(Another confounding variable)
Change not due to
the Independent
Variable but is due to
the patient's belief in
that they received
the Independent
Variable.
Social scientists study the backgrounds of
children who have been assigned to foster
care. They discover that the majority of
children who receive foster care have
experienced physical punishment methods in
their prior homes that would be severe
enough to qualify as abuse.
Conclusion derived from correlational
study or experiment? Why?
MATH OF CHOICE
CHEMISTRY ……… Algebra
PHYSICS ……………
Calculus
&
PSYCHOLOGY……. Statistics
Descriptive Statistics
Numerical data used to measure and
describe characteristics of groups. (Central
tendency and measures of variation)
The Elusive “Average”
Measures of central tendency:
Mean – arithmetic average = x/n
Median – the halfway point
Mode – the most common answer
The Elusive “Average”
Measures of central tendency:
Variability
Range – Overall difference between the
highest and lowest scores.
Variance – Average difference from the mean.
Standard Deviation can tell you how similar
the data is (Higher the SD, the less similar and
vice versa.)
DISTRIBUTION: The Normal Curve
WHY STANDARD DEVIATION MATTERS
WHY STANDARD DEVIATION MATTERS
No antidepressant
Drug 1
Drug 2
Drug 3
INFERENTIAL STATISTICS
Numerical data that allows one to generalize
(to infer) a truth about a population.
Better to do when:
• You have a representative Sample
• Data is less variable (Low SD)
• You have a lot of cases.
STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
How likely it is that an obtained result
occurred by chance.
• How two groups’ means are different.
• If you graph two groups… and they
overlap… there is no significance.
• IF THEY DON’T! THEN….
P Value
(Measurement of Statistical Significance)
P value -- The probability that a
particular set of data was gained by
chance alone.
Statistical Significance – Any P value of
less than .05 (5% by chance, 95% by IV)
In Sum…
■
Central tendency – median, mean, mode
■ Median – falls exactly in the center of a group of scores
■ Mean – average of the scores
■ Mode – most frequent score in a distribution
■
Variability – how much the scores vary from each other
and the mean.
■ The Standard Deviation is an index of the AMOUNT of
variability in a set of data
■ When variability is great, SD will be too.
■
Correlation
■ How closely related (not different) data is
Free Write
Is deceptive research
justifiable?
Why or Why Not
Ethics
• APA’s Ethical guidelines 3 principles and 6 norms
• Institutional Review Boards (IRB)review and
approves all research
• Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
(IACUC)approves all research using animals
• Controversy about deceptive research
• Controversy about animal research
• Genie: Secrets of the Wild Child case study
Ethics
1) Obtain potential participant’s informed
consent
2) Protect them from physical or emotional
harm and discomfort
3) Keep information about individual
participants confidential
4) Fully debrief people
Ethics
“… I feel myself a naturalist and a physician
both; and that I am equally interested in
diseases and people; perhaps too, that I am
equally, if inadequately, a theorist and a
dramatist, am equally drawn to the scientific
and the romantic and continually see both in
the human condition…”
– Oliver Sacks (Neuroscientist)
Extreme Unethical Experiments
Milgram
Watson
Zimbardo