WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?
SPRING 2014
PSYCHOLOGY
• Psychology is defined as a
scientific discipline concerned
with behavior and mental
processes and how they are
affected by an organism’s
physical state.
PSYCHOLOGY, PSEUDOSCIENCE, AND
COMMON SENSE
• Psychology is not Pop Psychology. This often
refers to self-help books or talk shows that
offer suggestions or guidance to people.
• Another term to describe this is
Psychobabble, which is defined as
Pseudoscience and quackery… otherwise
known as things that are false (pseudo) and
untrue.
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
• Psychologists today rely on empirical evidence,
which is evidence gathered by careful observation,
experimentation, and measurement.
• Psychology is not:
1. Psychobabble
2. Graphology (handwriting analysis)
3. Fortune telling
4. Numerology (study of symbolic meaning of
numbers)
5. Astrology
COMMON SENSE
• Psychology is not a fancy name for
common sense.
• More often than not, psychological research
directly contradicts prevailing beliefs of most
people.
• Examples: If you play Beethoven tapes to
your baby he/she will become smarter, All
abused children will become abusive
parents, etc.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER…
1. Psychology is not what the same as Pop
Psychology.
2. Serious Psychology differs greatly from
nonscientific competitors.
3. Psychology is not fancy name for common
sense.
THE BIRTH OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY
• Great thinkers wanted to know how people
take in information through their senses, use
information to solve problems, and become
motivated to act in brave or villainous ways.
• They wanted to know if people could
control their emotions.
• They wanted to be able to describe,
predict, understand, and modify behavior.
WHAT THEY DIDN’T DO CORRECTLY…
• Great thinkers in history often only used
information from observations and
anecdotes of individual cases, they did not
use empirical evidence.
• Why is this not the best way to study
something? Discuss!
Hippocrates
(Hip-ock-rotees)
• Known as the father of modern medicine,
began observing patients with head injuries.
• What he discovered – The brain is the source
of our “pleasures, joys, laughter and jests as
well as our sorrows, pains, grief, and tears.”
• What was determined – People don’t
become sad, angry, or upset because of
actual events but because of their
explanation of those events.
THE HUMAN BRAIN
WILLIAM WUNDT
(VIL-HELM VOONT)
• Opened the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig,
Germany.
• Trained in medicine and philosophy and was the
first to use the scientific method.
• Promoted Trained Introspection, in which volunteers
were taught to carefully observe, analyze, and
describe their own sensations, mental images, and
emotional reactions.
• The conclusion was to break down behavior into its
most basic elements.
• This type of research is refuted today but Wundt is
still credited for making psychology a science.
FUNCTIONALISM
• Early approach that emphasized the function or
purpose of behavior and consciousness
• Interested in how and why something happens
• Functionalists broadened field of psychology to
include the study of children, animals, religious
experiences, and stream of consciousness
WILLIAM JAMES
• Functionalist view point.
• Inspired by Charles Darwin, James sought to
figure out how various actions help a person
or animal adapt to the environment.
• This emphasis on the causes and
consequences of behavior was to set the
course of psychological science.
PSYCHOANALYSIS
• A theory of personality and a method of
psychotherapy, originally formulated by
Sigmund Freud.
• Emphasizes unconscious motives and
conflicts.
SIGMUND FREUD
• Was an obscure neurologist who began studying his
patients reports of depression, nervousness, and
obsessive habits.
• Freud believed that their symptoms had mental, not
bodily causes.
• Believed that patient distress was due to conflicts and
emotional traumas that had originated in early
childhood and were too threatening to be remembered
consciously.
• This became known as Psychoanalysis.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
• The various approaches to psychology
have no been categorized into five
major fields.
1. The Biological Perspective
2. The Learning Perspective
3. The Cognitive Perspective
4. The Sociocultural Perspective
5. The Psychodynamic Perspective
BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
• Focuses on how bodily events affect behavior, feelings,
and thought.
• There are physical events occurring in your body
(hormones flowing, electrical impulses from nerves, etc.)
• Psychologists study how physical events interact with
events in the environment around us to produce
perceptions, memories, and behaviors.
• Evolutionary Psychology: focuses on how genetically
influence behavior that was functional or adaptive
during the evolutionary past may be reflected in in our
present behaviors, thought process, and traits.
LEARNING PERSPECTIVE
• Concerned with how the environment and
experience affect a person’s actions.
• Behaviorists focus on the environmental rewards
and punishers that maintain or discourage specific
behaviors.
• Behaviorists believe that people learn not only by
adapting their behavior to the environment but also
by in imitating others and thinking about the events
happening around them.
• For example, if you had trouble sticking to a schedule, a
behaviorist would study possible distractions around you
that prevent you from meeting your scheduled tasks.
COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE
• Emphasizes what goes on in people’s heads.
• This refers to reasoning, remembering, and
understanding language.
• Using specific methods, cognitive psychologists
infer mental processes from observable behavior.
• Our ideas may not always be realistic or sensible but
they continually influence our behavior.
SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
• Focuses on social and cultural forces outside the
individual, forces that shape every aspect of
behavior… from how we kiss to how we eat!
• How we perceive the world, express joy or grief,
manage our households, and treat our friends and
enemies has to do with the impact of other
people… our social context and cultural rules.
PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE
• Deals with unconscious dynamics within ourselves,
such as inner forces, conflicts or instinctual energy.
• This comes from Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis.
• Psychodynamic psychologists try to dig below the
surface of a person’s behavior to get to the roots of
the personality. They think of themselves as
archeologists of the mind.
HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
• This emphasizes free will, personal growth, resilience,
and the achievement of the human potential and
self-fulfillment.
• Humanists argue that psychology should focus on
what really matters to most people, their uniquely
human hopes and aspirations. Some people argue
this is not a science.
SUMMARY
• Most psychological scientists agree on certain basic
guidelines about what is and what is not
acceptable in their discipline.
• Nearly all reject supernatural explanations of events
(evil spirits, psychic forces, miracles, and so forth).
• Most believe in the importance of gathering
empirical evidence and not relying on hunches or
personal belief.
CRITICAL AND SCIENTIFIC THINKING
IN PSYCHOLOGY
• Critical Thinking is the ability and willingness to
assess claims and make objective judgments on the
basis of well-supported reasons and evidence
rather than emotion or anecdote.
• This includes the ability to be creative and
constructive, to come up with alternative
explanations for events, think of implications of
findings, and apply new knowledge to problems.
8 CRITICAL-THINKING GUIDELINES
1. Ask Questions; Be willing to Wonder
2. Define Your Terms
3. Examine the Evidence
4. Analyze Assumptions and Biases
5. Avoid Emotional Reasoning
6. Don’t Oversimplify
7. Consider Other Interpretations
8. Tolerate Uncertainty
ASK QUESTIONS, BE WILLING TO
WONDER
• It is important to ask many questions about the
theories and findings presented to you while
studying psychology.
• There are never too many questions to ask about
human nature, it is important to be curious and to
wonder.
DEFINE YOUR TERMS
• When asking questions, be very clear about what
you are trying to answer.
• Defining meaning means being precise about what
is being studied.
• Hypothesis: a statement that attempts to describe
or explain a given behavior.
• A Hypothesis leads to explicit predictions about
what will happen in a particular situation.
• Operational Definitions: A precise definition of a
term in a hypothesis, which specifies the operations
for observing and measuring the process or
phenomenon being defined.
EXAMINE THE EVIDENCE
• Evidence must be backed by empirical evidence if
it is to be taken seriously.
• Accepting a conclusion without evidence, or
expecting others to do so, is lazy thinking.
ANALYZE ASSUMPTIONS AND BIASES
• Assumptions are beliefs that are taken for granted.
• Biases are assumptions that keep us from
considering the evidence fairly or that cause us to
ignore the evidence entirely.
• Some of the greatest scientific advances have
been made b those who dared to doubt what
everyone else assumed to b e true.
• Principle of falsifiability: The principle that a
scientific theory must make predictions that are
specific enough to expose the theory to the
possibility of disconfirmation.
AVOID EMOTIONAL REASONING
• Emotional conviction alone cannot settle
arguments.
• It motivates people to think boldly and defend
unpopular ideas.
• Disagreement is fine but it is important to rely on
evidence and not get anxious or annoyed if the
results are not what you would want them to be.
DON’T OVERSIMPLIFY
• A critical readers looks beyond the obvious, resists
easy generalizations, and rejects either.
• One common form of oversimplification is argument
by anecdote - generalizing from a personal
experience or a few examples to everyone.
• Example: One person who hates their school
doesn’t mean that everyone that goes their feels
the same way.
• Example: One ex-convict that violates parole
doesn’t mean all will violate.
CONSIDER OTHER INTERPRETATIONS
• In science, the goal is to arrive at a theory, an
organized system of assumptions and principles that
sets out to explain certain phenomena and how
they are related.
• Theories that come to be accepted by the scientific
community make as few assumptions as possible
and account for many empirical findings.
TOLERATE UNCERTAINTY
• Learning to think critically teaches us how to live
with uncertainty.
• Sometimes there is little or no evidence to examine.
• Researchers must avoid drawing firm conclusions
until other researches have repeated, or replicated
their studies.
• In science you must be willing to tell others where
you got your ideas and how you tested them so
that others can challenge the findings if they think
they are wrong.
• We must abandon all assumptions, beliefs, and
convictions.
CORRELATIONAL STUDIES:
LOOKING FOR RELATIONSHIPS
JOURNAL PROMPT
• Tell me what items you might pack
in a “go-bag” if you were
evacuated from your home.
Would your items be mostly
practical, sentimental or
financially valuable?