PSY 2012 General Psychology
Samuel R. Mathews, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The Department of Psychology
The University of West Florida
What is Psychology?
• Science of mind and behavior
• Science with multiple subspecialties
• Science with focus on both generation and
application of knowledge
What psychology is and what it is not
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What it is NOT
Common sense
Faith or belief
Personal hunch
Folk lore
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What it IS
Scientific
Skeptical
Publicly evaluated
Empirical
Systematic
Analytic
Student Learning Objectives (Chap1)
• Understand the roles of psychologists;
• Understand historic (text only) and
contemporary perspectives (text & lecture) held
by those in the field of psychology;
• Understand the scientific approaches used by
those conducting research in the field of
psychology;
• Understand the ethical considerations as they
apply to the science and practice of psychology
Roles of Psychologists
• Researchers
– Basic Researchers
– Applied Researchers
• Professors/Teachers
– University
– Community/Junior College
– High School
• Applied Fields
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Industrial/Organizational Psychologist
Human Factors Psychologist
Clinical Psychologists (different from Psychiatrists)
School Psychologists
Sports Psychologists
Contemporary Perspectives on
Psychology
• Biological—understanding how evolutionary,
genetic, and physiological, forces impact one’s
thoughts, feelings and behavior
• Developmental—understanding how the
individual’s processes of maturation interact with
the culture to impact one’s thoughts, feelings,
and behavior
Contemporary Perspectives on
Psychology
• Cognitive—understanding how the mind
senses, interprets, and processes information
from the environment and from our memories;
related topics include:
– Memory
– Decision-making
– Problem-solving
Contemporary Perspectives on
Psychology
• Clinical—understanding mental health and
mental disorders
– Psychoanalytic—mental disorders derive from
the unconscious;
– Humanistic—individuals are self-directed and
their behavior is related to inner feelings, self
concept, etc.,
– Cognitive Behavioral—mental disorders are
based on one’s interpretations of events and
behavioral responses to those interpretations
Contemporary Perspectives on
Psychology
• Behavioral—understanding how events in the
environment impact our behaviors; little or no
concern with internal states
• Trait—understanding how stable dimensions of
personality relate to behaviors
• Sociocultural—understanding how the social
and cultural forces impact mental and behavioral
outcomes
Contemporary Perspectives on
Psychology
• Biopsychosocial—this perspective reflects
much of the current thinking in psychology,
particularly among cognitive behavioral,
developmental, sociocultural, and biological
perspectives
Current
Perspective
Sociocultural
Biological
Psychological
The Science of Psychology
• Science:
– systematic inquiry into natural phenomena
• Psychology:
– science of mind and behavior
Science of Psychology:
– systematic inquiry into the mind and behavior
Values of a Psychological Scientist
• Empirical—can be observed or measured
• Skeptical—never quite completely convinced
• Public—methods and results are made public
• Evaluative—research findings and conclusions are
evaluated by others
• Tentative—always seek to know more
• Rational—logically consistent
Variables
• A variable is any construct that can
assume more than one value
• Independent Variable—a variable that is
the potential cause of a change in some
other variable
• Dependent Variable—a variable that can
be modified through a change in the
independent variable
• Confounding variable—a variable not
under control of the researcher that
causes an unexplained outcome
Scientific Method
• Develop the hypothesis or research
question
• Perform a test of the hypothesis or study
to answer the question
• Gather and tabulate data
• Analyze data
• Interpret findings
• Publish and subject study to critique
Categories of Psychological Research
• Experimental:
– Manipulation of key independent variables
(the causes of a change in the dependent
variable)
– Control of other related variables
– Measurement of dependent variable (the
variable affected by the independent variable)
– Random assignment of participants to various
manipulations of the independent variable.
– With a true experiment, cause-effect
relationships can be inferred.
Example of Experiment
• Rschr is interested in how a study strategy
effects students in a statistics course:
– Randomly assigns students to two groups
• Group A receives a problem-solving based strategy
from Professor A
• Group B receives a strategy on memorizing
formulae from Professor B
– Students are tested on statistical concepts
following exposure to the strategies
Example of Experiment
• Which is the independent variable (hint: what did
the experimenter control?)?
• Which is the dependent variable (hint: what did
the experimenter predict would be different
based on the independent variable?)?
• What is the counfounding variable (hint: what is
a difference between the groups outside the
independent variable?)?
Categories of Psychological Research
• Correlational Studies
– Usually designed to assess
• The strength of the relationship between two or
more variables
• The direction of the relationship between two
variables (positive, negative, or zero correlation)
– Variables typically cannot be manipulated
– Participants typically cannot be randomly
assigned
– Cause-effect can NOT be inferred
Example of a Correlational Study
• Rschr wishes to understand the relationship
between stress and grades on a test of
mathematical skills.
– Researcher measures stress prior to the test;
– Students complete a test of college algebra;
– Researcher discovers that scores of those who have
higher stress are lower than those who have lower
stress.
– Researcher concludes that stress causes lower test
grades.
– What other factors might be at the root of the
relationship?
Categories of Psychological Research
• Other Methods of Conducting Psychological
Research
– Surveys—self reports by the participants about their
thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, etc.; can lead to
large numbers of respondants;
– Naturalistic Observations—individuals observe
participants in their natural setting (e.g. classroom,
park, store) with no intent on manipulating the setting.
– Case Studies—researcher gathers indepth data on a
single individual, group, or organization.
Sources of Bias in Research
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Personal bias
Observer bias
Expectancy bias
Bias could affect the way an experimenter
designs a study, collects data, or interprets
results
• Researchers must also attempt to control
confounding variables
Ethical Issues in Psychological
Research
• For human participation:
– Researcher must guarantee that
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Participation is Voluntary
Results are confidential
Results are anonymous
Participant may withdraw from study at any time
with no penalty
• Benefits of the research outweigh the risks
• Participants may receive final report of the study
Ethical Issues in Psychological
Research
• Protected classes may not give voluntary
consent:
– Minors under the age of eighteen;
– Individuals who have been judged not
competent to give consent (e.g. mental health
issues)
– Prisoners
• In these cases those with legal custody
must provide consent in addition to the
participant.
Thought Questions: Chapter 1
• If a psychologist held the view that all
human conflicts arose as a result of
internal drives, how would you classify that
individual based on our discussion and the
text? Why?
• A psychological researcher was interested
in how individuals’ problem-solving skills
changed as the individual matured across
the lifespan. How would you classify that
individual? Why?
Thought Questions: Chapter 1
• In a popular newspaper, a report held that
a survey indicated children who came from
homes at or below the poverty level
performed more poorly in school and were
involved in more crimes.
• What is your interpretation of that finding?
• What questions would you have of the researcher?
• One of your friends who read the same article said “All
we need to do is get those people to work…then all our
problems would be solved.”
– How would you respond?
Thought Questions: Chapter 1
• If you wanted to better understand the
findings in the study and its implications,
what might you do?
• What sources might you try to access?