EXPLORING
PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Edition)
David Myers
PowerPoint Slides
Aneeq Ahmad
Henderson State University
Worth Publishers, © 2008
1
Thinking Critically With
Psychological Science
Chapter 1
2
COMMONLY HELD
PSYCHOLOGICAL BELIEFS
• Decide if the statements are true or false
based on your experiences and beliefs
• Compare your answers to the correct
answers based on empirical research
• What are your conclusions?
3
PERSON PERCEPTION ACTIVITY
1. How comfortable were you doing this activity?
Why?
2. Did you ask someone to be in your group or did
you wait to be asked? Is this your typical
behavior?
3. Which was harder, to evaluate or be evaluated?
4. How accurate were you in your assessments?
What did you base your perceptions on?
5. How similar or dissimilar is this to how we form
impressions? Explain
6. How easy is it to change first impressions?
Why?
4
Psychology’s Roots
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
http://faculty.washington.edu
Aristotle suggested that the soul and body are not
separate and that knowledge grows from
experience.
5
Psychological Science is Born
Wundt (1832-1920)
Wundt and psychology’s
first graduate students
studied the “atoms of the
mind” by conducting 1st
psychological experiments
at Leipzig, Germany, in
1879. Considered the birth
of psychology as we know
it today.
Used introspection
6
(activity).
INTROSPECTION
• Structuralism was a school of psychology
that explored the elemental structures of
the human mind.
• Introspection = self-reflective examination
of immediate sensations, images and
feelings. Introspection was a technique
used by structuralists.
7
Psychological Science is Born
Mary Calkins
James (1842-1910)
American philosopher William James wrote an important
1890 psychology textbook. Mary Calkins, James’s
student, became the APA’s first female president. 8
William James
• James rejected structuralism and
emphasized functionalism.
• Functionalism was a school of psychology
that focused on how mental and
behavioral processes function, in other
words how they enable the organism to
adapt, survive, and flourish.
• What function could a desire to eat sweet
foods serve?
9
Psychological Science is Born
Freud (1856-1939)
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian physician, and his
followers emphasized the importance of the
unconscious mind and its effects on human behavior.
10
Psychological Science Develops
Behaviorists
Skinner (1904-1990)
Watson (1878-1958)
Watson and later Skinner emphasized the study of
overt behavior as the subject matter of scientific
psychology. Emphasis is on learned behavior;
11
rewards and punishments.
Psychological Science Develops
Rogers (1902-1987)
http://www.carlrogers.dk
http://facultyweb.cortland.edu
Maslow (1908-1970)
Humanistic Psychology
Maslow and Rogers emphasized current
environmental influences on our growth potential
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and our need for love and acceptance.
SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY
• Complete handout “Schools of
Psychology”
• 1 = strongly agree to 7 = strongly disagree
• Add your numerical score for questions
#3,#4, #8, and 10 = Psychodynamic
• Add your numerical score for questions
#5, #9, #11, and #2 = Behavioral
• Add your numerical score for questions
#1, #6, #7, and #12 = Humanistic
13
SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY
• Your lowest number equals your school of
psychology
• Your guru is
– Psychodynamic = Freud
– Behavioral = Skinner or Watson
– Humanistic = Maslow or Rogers
14
Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Perspective
Focus
Sample Questions
Neuroscience
How the body and brain
enables emotions?
How are messages
transmitted in the body? How
is blood chemistry linked with
moods and motives?
Evolutionary
How the natural selection
of traits the promotes the
perpetuation of one’s
genes?
How does evolution influence
behavior tendencies?
Behavior genetics How much our genes and
our environments
influence our individual
differences?
To what extent are
psychological traits such as
intelligence, personality,
sexual orientation, and
vulnerability to depression
attributable to our genes? To
our environment?
15
Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Perspective
Focus
Sample Questions
Psychodynamic
How behavior springs
from unconscious drives
and conflicts?
How can someone’s
personality traits and
disorders be explained in
terms of sexual and
aggressive drives or as
disguised effects of unfulfilled
wishes and childhood
traumas?
Behavioral
How we learn observable
responses?
How do we learn to fear
particular objects or
situations? What is the most
effective way to alter our
behavior, say to lose weight or
quit smoking?
16
Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Perspective
Focus
Sample Questions
Cognitive
How we encode, process,
store and retrieve
information?
How do we use information
in remembering? Reasoning?
Problem solving?
Social-cultural
How behavior and
thinking vary across
situations and cultures?
How are we — as Africans,
Asians, Australians or North
Americans – alike as members
of human family? As products
of different environmental
contexts, how do we differ?
17
PERSPECTIVES
Andrea Yates case study
18
PERSPECTIVES
• In a small groups, decide on a social
problem to analyze according to the major
psychological perspectives
• Use page 8 in your textbook to complete
the graphic organizer
– Write a few key words to describe the
perspective
– Develop one or two questions that a
psychologist practicing this perspective might
ask about the problem (You’re trying to get at
the WHY of the problem)
19
Psychology’s Subfields: Research
Psychologist
Biological
Developmental
Cognitive
Personality
Social
What she does
Explore the links between brain and
mind.
Study changing abilities from womb to
tomb.
Study how we perceive, think, and solve
problems.
Investigate our persistent traits.
Explore how we view and affect one
another.
20
Psychology’s Subfields: Research
Other 11.5%
Experimental
14.1%
Biological
9.9%
Developmental
24.6%
Psychometrics
5.5%
Cognitive
8.0%
Social 21.6%
Personality
4.8%
Data: APA 1997
21
Psychology’s Subfields: Applied
Psychologist
Clinical
What she does
Studies, assesses, and treats people with
psychological disorders
Counseling
Helps people cope with academic,
vocational, and marital challenges.
Educational
Studies and helps individuals in school
and educational settings
Industrial/
Organizational
Studies and advises on behavior in the
workplace.
22
Psychology’s Subfields: Applied
Industrial
6%
Educational
9%
Other
3%
Counseling
15%
Clinical
67%
Data: APA 1997
23
Perspectives vs. Subfields
• Perspectives (approaches)
• General theory: “lens” through
which one views psychology
• Neuroscience (biological)
• Evolutionary
• Behavior Genetics
• Psychodynamic
• Behavioral
• Cognitive
• Social –Cultural
• Humanistic
• (could be different # or name)
• Subfields
• Psychologists focus
(specialize) on certain
behaviors or mental processes
• Basic research – experiments,
collect data to expand
knowledge in field
• Applied research – solving
specific, practical problems
• * Subfields change as new
research develops or trends
change
24
Clinical Psychology vs. Psychiatry
A clinical psychologist (Ph.D.) studies, assesses,
and treats troubled people with psychotherapy.
Psychiatrists on the other hand are medical
professionals (M.D.) who use treatments like drugs
and psychotherapy to treat psychologically
diseased patients.
25
Psychology Today
We define psychology today as the scientific
study of behavior (what we do) and mental
processes (inner thoughts and feelings).
26
Psychological Associations &
Societies
The American Psychological Association is the
largest organization of psychology with 160,000
members world-wide, followed by the British
Psychological Society with 34,000 members.
27
Psychology’s Big Question
Nature versus Nurture
The controversy over the relative contributions of
biology and experience.
Nurture works on what nature endows.
28
Psychology’s Three Main Levels of
Analysis
29
Personality
An individual’s characteristic pattern of
thinking, feeling, and acting.
Each dwarf has a distinct personality.
30
Psychoanalytic Perspective
Culver Pictures
In his clinical practice,
Freud encountered
patients suffering from
nervous disorders.
Their complaints
could not be explained
in terms of purely
physical causes.
Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939)
31
Psychodynamic Perspective
Culver Pictures
Freud’s clinical
experience led him to
develop the first
comprehensive theory
of personality, which
included the
unconscious mind,
psychosexual stages,
and defense
mechanisms.
Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939)
32
Exploring the Unconscious
A reservoir (unconscious mind) of mostly
unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and
memories. Freud asked patients to say whatever
came to their minds (free association) in order to
tap the unconscious.
http://www.english.upenn.edu
33
Dream Analysis
Another method to analyze the unconscious
mind is through interpreting manifest and
latent contents of dreams.
The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli (1791)
34
Psychoanalysis
The process of free
association (chain of
thoughts) leads to
painful, embarrassing
unconscious memories.
Once these memories
are retrieved and
released (treatment:
psychoanalysis) the
patient feels better.
35
Model of Mind
The mind is like an iceberg. It is mostly hidden;
and below the surface lies the unconscious
mind. The preconscious stores temporary
memories.
36
Personality Structure
Personality develops as a result of our efforts to resolve
conflicts between our aggressive, pleasure seeking
biological impulses (id) and social restraints (superego).
37
Id, Ego and Superego =
personality structure
The ego functions as the “executive” and
mediates the demands of the id and superego.
Operates on the reality principle, gratifying the
id’s impulses in a realistic manner.
The Id unconsciously strives to satisfy basic sexual
and aggressive drives, operating on the pleasure
principle, demanding immediate gratification.
38
PERSONALITY STRUCTURE
(CONT.)
The superego provides standards for judgment
(the conscience) and for future aspirations.
Operates on the morality principle. Includes the
ego ideal striving for perfection , constantly
judging and producing pride or guilt.
39
SKITS
• Divide into groups of four or five.
• Read the hypothetical situation provided.
• Develop a skit in which you “act out” the
scenario described and what other events
might occur next
• Everyone should have a speaking part
• Be sure the role of the id, ego, and
superego are clear to the audience.
40
Personality Development
Freud believed that personality formed during the first
few years of life and was divided into psychosexual
stages.
Adult problems are often rooted in unresolved conflicts
from this time.
During these stages the id’s pleasure-seeking energies
focus on pleasure sensitive body areas called erogenous
zones.
Children may fixate due to strong conflicts at a
particular stage, leading to later problems.
41
Psychosexual Stages
Freud divided the development of personality
into five psychosexual stages.
42
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
• What are the consequences of unresolved conflicts at
each stage?
– Oral
– Anal
– Phallic
– Latency
– Genital
43
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
• Oral: weaning is the conflict; problems: overly
sarcastic, eating disorders, smoking, alcoholism,
overly dependent
• Anal: toilet training thus control is the conflict;
problems: stingy or overly generous, extremely
organized, stubborn, overly neat, detailed or
very sloppy, sticking rigidly to the rules or very
rebellious
44
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
• Phallic: conflict is relationship with parents;
• Additional points:
– Electra complex in girls
– Superego gains strength
– Fear of retaliation (castration anxiety) leads to
identification
– Penis envy in girls
45
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
• Phallic problems: difficulties with authority
figures, problems in love relationships,
socially disapproved sexual behavior,
gender role problems, extreme guilt,
anxiety, depression
46
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
• Latency: sexual impulses are dormant
• Genital: seeking relationships; no new
conflicts/old conflicts resurface
47
Oedipus Complex
A boy’s sexual desire for his mother and
feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival
father. A girl’s desire for her father is called the
Electra complex.
http://www.gigglesugar.com/626457
48
Identification
From the K. Vandervelde private collection
Children cope with
threatening feelings by
repressing them and
by identifying with
the rival parent.
Through this process
of identification, their
superego gains
strength that
incorporates their
parents’ values.
49
Defense Mechanisms
The ego’s protective methods of reducing
anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.
1. Repression banishes anxiety-arousing
thoughts, feelings, and memories from
consciousness.
2. Regression leads an individual faced with
anxiety to retreat to a more infantile
psychosexual stage.
3. Defense Mechanisms
50
Defense Mechanisms
3. Reaction Formation causes the ego to
unconsciously switch unacceptable
impulses into their opposites. People may
express feelings of purity when they may be
suffering anxiety from unconscious feelings
about sex.
4. Projection leads people to disguise their
own threatening impulses by attributing
them to others.
51
Defense Mechanisms
5. Rationalization offers self-justifying
explanations in place of the real, more
threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s
actions.
6. Displacement shifts sexual or aggressive
impulses toward a more acceptable or less
threatening object or person, redirecting
anger toward a safer outlet.
7. Sublimation converts unacceptable
impulses into socially acceptable actions.
Example: aggressive desire may appear as
devotion to athletic excellence.
52
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
• Identify the defense mechanism used in
each example.
• Possible defense mechanisms:
repression, regression, displacement,
rationalization, reaction formation,
projection, sublimation
53
CHOICES: repression, regression, displacement,
rationalization, reaction formation, projection,
sublimation
• 1. Three years after being hospitalized for
painful back surgery, the person can only
remember vague details of the ordeal.
• 2. Angered by her boss’s hurtful comments, a
mother spanks her child for spilling some milk.
• 3. After being rejected by a prestigious
university, a student explains he is glad because
he will be happier at a smaller, more personal
college.
54
CHOICES: repression, regression, displacement,
rationalization, reaction formation, projection,
sublimation
• 4. A married woman who is romantically
attracted to a co-worker, accuses him of flirting
with her.
• 5. Threatened by their awakening romantic
attraction to girls, adolescent boys often go out
of their way to tease and torment adolescent
girls.
• 6. After her parents’ bitter divorce, a 10 year old
girl refuses to sleep alone in her room, crawling
into her mother’s bed each night.
• 7. A young man who has gotten into trouble in
school for fighting, goes out for the football team.
55
ANSWERS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
repression
displacement
rationalization
projection
reaction formation
regression
sublimation
56
DEFINITION OF
PERSONALITY
• An individual’s characteristic pattern of
thinking, feeling, and acting.
• How did Freud define personality?
• Note the differences between Freud and
Neo-Freudians such as Adler in their
explanations for how we develop our
personalities.
57
The Neo-Freudians
National Library of Medicine
Like Freud, Adler
believed in childhood
tensions. However, these
tensions were social in
nature and not sexual. A
child struggles with an
inferiority complex
during growth and
strives for superiority
and power.
Alfred Adler (1870-1937)
58
BIRTH ORDER
• Adler theorized that a person’s birth order had
an effect on their personality.
• This concept reflects the Neo-Freudian
viewpoint that childhood influences are not just
aggressive or sexual, but also include social
influence.
• How has your birth order influenced your life?
• Do you think these experiences have shaped
your personality?
59
ANSWERS TO BIRTH ORDER
ACTIVITY:
•
•
•
•
First born
Youngest
Middle
Only
2
4
1
3
3
1
4
2
4
1
2
3
4
3
2
1
60
The Neo-Freudians
The Bettmann Archive/ Corbis
Like Adler, Horney
believed in the social
aspects of childhood
growth and
development. She
countered Freud’s
assumption that
women have weak
superegos and suffer
from “penis envy.”
Karen Horney (1885-1952)
61
The Neo-Freudians
Archive of the History of American Psychology/ University of Akron
Jung believed in the
collective unconscious,
which contained a
common reservoir of
images derived from our
species’ past. This is why
many cultures share
certain myths and images
such as the mother being
a symbol of nurturance.
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
62
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic
Perspective
The scientific merits of Freud’s theory have
been criticized. Psychoanalysis is meagerly
testable. Most of its concepts arise out of clinical
practice, which are the after-the-fact
explanation.
63
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic
Perspective
Freud's psychoanalytic theory rests on the
repression of painful experiences into the
unconscious mind.
The majority of children, death camp survivors,
and battle-scarred veterans are unable to
repress painful experiences into their
unconscious mind.
64
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic
Perspective
Modern Research
1. Personality develops throughout life and is
not fixed in childhood.
2. Freud underemphasized peer influence on
the individual, which may be as powerful
as parental influence.
3. Gender identity may develop before 5-6
years of age.
65
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic
Perspective
Modern Research
4. There may be other reasons for dreams
besides wish fulfillment.
5. Verbal slips can be explained on the basis of
cognitive processing of verbal choices.
6. Suppressed sexuality leads to psychological
disorders. Sexual inhibition has decreased,
but psychological disorders have not.
66
Assessing Unconscious Processes
Evaluating personality from an unconscious
mind’s perspective would require a
psychological instrument (projective tests) that
would reveal the hidden unconscious mind.
67
PROJECTIVE TEST EXAMPLES
•
•
•
•
Draw a Picture examples
Why is this a type of projective test?
Pros and cons of this type of test?
Can you make up a story about these
examples of a TAT?
• Why are these pictures examples of
projective tests?
68
69
70
Thematic Apperception Test
(TAT)
Developed by Henry Murray, the TAT is a
projective test in which people express their inner
feelings and interests through the stories they make
up about ambiguous scenes.
Lew Merrim/ Photo Researcher, Inc.
71
Rorschach Inkblot Test
The most widely used projective test uses a set
of 10 inkblots and was designed by Hermann
Rorschach. It seeks to identify people’s inner
feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the
blots.
Lew Merrim/ Photo Researcher, Inc.
72
PROJECTIVE TESTS
• What do you see in these inkblots?
• Were the inkblots created to show a
specific thing?
• Why is this an example of a projective
test?
• Are the inkblots more or less ambiguous
than the TAT?
73
74
75
Projective Tests: Criticisms
Critics argue that projective tests lack both
reliability (consistency of results) and validity
(predicting what it is supposed to).
1. When evaluating the same patient, even
trained raters come up with different
interpretations (reliability).
2. Projective tests may misdiagnose a normal
individual as pathological (validity).
76
Assessing Traits
Personality inventories are questionnaires
(often with true-false or agree-disagree items)
designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and
behaviors assessing several traits at once.
77
OBJECTIVE TESTS
• You will be completing an example of an
objective personality test today.
• This is a self-scored test. No one else will see
your results.
• The results do NOT deal with any deep seated
personality problems.
• Go to my web page and click on Psych 6.0
Thinking Critically with Psychological Science
link. From today’s date on calendar - follow the
link for the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory.
78
MYERS BRIGGS PERSONALITY
INVENTORY
• Complete the test, determine the 4 letters that indicate
your personality type.
• Read the two type descriptions
• Read about the career that most closely matches your
personality type
• Answer the questions on the sheet/hand in
• Hand in chart
• Shut down your computer
• Be prepared to discuss:
– How accurate did you feel the results were?
– How did the test determine your personality type?
– What are the pros and cons of using this type of personality
assessment?
79
MMPI
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI) is the most widely
researched and clinically used of all personality
tests. It was originally developed to identify
emotional disorders.
The MMPI was developed by empirically
testing a pool of items and then selecting those
that discriminated between diagnostic groups.
80
TRUE OR FALSE
• I wake up fresh and rested most mornings.
• There seems to be a lump in my throat
much of the time.
• I do not always tell the truth.
• I believe I am being plotted against.
• Criticism or scolding hurts me terribly.
• Even when I am with people I feel lonely
much of the time.
81
MMPI Test Profile
82
The Big Five Factors
Today’s trait researchers believe that earlier trait
dimensions, such as Eysencks’ personality dimensions,
fail to tell the whole story. So, an expanded range (five
factors) of traits does a better job of assessment.
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Openness
Extraversion
83
Endpoints
84
STUDY GUIDE REVIEW
1. Progress Test 1, p. 8, #”s 1-11, or
Progress Test 2, p. 10 #’s 1-11
2. Thinking Critically, p. 12 #’s 1-9
3. Check Answers beginning on p. 20
_______________________________________
1. Progress Test 1, p. 348 #’s 1-4, 6, and 15, or
Progress Test 2, p. 350-352, #’s 1-3, 7, 10, 17
2. Thinking Critically, p. 353 #’s 1,2,4,8,9
3. Check Answers beginning on p. 361
85