What is Psychology?

Definition of psychology Philosophical issues in psychology What psychologists do Historical figures in Psychology

Definition of Psychology Psychology can be broadly defined as

the systematic study of behavior and experience.

Researchers use scientific methods to study behavior Psychologists study both humans and animals Researchers main goal is to understand human

behavior, and the factors that cause that behavior. The definition from your book

The science of behavior and mental processes. Keep in mind mental processes can only be inferred

from behavior

Philosophical Issues in Psychology

Free Will vs Determinism The Mind Brain Problem Nature-Nurture Issue

Freewill vs Determinism

Determinism the assumption that everything that

happens has a cause, or determinant, in the observable world.

Freewill belief that behavior is caused by a

person’s independent decisions, not be external determinants.

The Mind-Brain Problem

The philosophical question of how experience is related to the brain. Also known as the Mind-Body Problem

Dualism The idea that there is a Mind that is

separate from the Brain Descartes

Mind-Brain problem

Most modern scientists are monists. The mind and brain are one entity. Most biological scientists would say

that it is the function of the brain that produces the sensation of mind.

Many people probably still maintain a dualistic position.

The Nature-Nurture issue What are the roles of heredity and

environment in the development of various behaviors.

Do we act the way we do because- we were born that way we learned to act that way

What Psychologists Do

Psychologists in Teaching and Research

Clinical Psychologists and Other Psychotherapists

Nonclinical Applied Psychology

Psychologists in Teaching and Research Biological Psychology

Tries to explain behavior in terms of biological factors

electrical and chemical activities in the nervous system

effects of drugs and hormones genetics evolutionary pressures Brain damage

Right Parietal Lobe Contralateral neglect

Learning and Behavior

How do we learn and remember things? Studies how behavior depends on the

outcomes of past behaviors and on current motivations.

How do the consequences of an action affect behavior?

reward? punishment?

Cognitive Psychology Cognitive Psychology is concerned with

the internal mental processes that affect behavior. Reaction against strict behaviorism. Our internal mental representations can

affect how we think and act as much as external variables.

How does a person think through a problem? Do they use certain strategies? The cube study

Developmental Psychology

Studies the behavioral capacities typical of different ages and how behavior changes with age. Piaget - Conservation of volume

study. Preschooler may not do well a seven year old should do well

Social Psychology

The study of how others influence the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of the individual. Milgram’s authority studies The bystander effect

Clinical Psychologists and other Psychotherapists

Clinical psychologists Psychiatrists Psychoanalysts

Clinical Psychologists

A type of psychotherapist that specializes in helping people with psychological problems

Have an advanced degree in psychology (Ph.D.)

Psychiatry A branch of medicine that deals with

emotional disturbances. First earn an M.D. Then four years residency in psychiatry

Psychiatry and clinical psychology perform similar services - listen, and try to help. Psychiatrist can prescribe drugs,

psychologist cannot.

Psychotherapists who rely heavily on the theories and methods of Sigmund Freud mostly psychiatrists, but some clinical

psychologists also adhere to Freudian theory.

Psychoanalyst

Nonclinical applied psychology

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Ergonomics School Psychology

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

The study of people at work. Who to hire, who to fire, who to

promote how to make work conditions better how to increase productivity how to decrease employee absence

Ergonomics An ergonomist attempts to facilitate

the operation of machinery so that the average user can use it as efficiently and as safely as possible.

Combines psychology and engineering Cockpits of fighter planes Operations of a stove Doors

School Psychology Specialists in the psychological

condition of students, usually kindergarten through highschool.

Administer tests for psychological and scholastic aptitude

Implement programs to help students that are having trouble, and make school better for those that are gifted.

Psychology Then and Now

Early Psychology (1879-1920) Behaviorism(1920-1960’s) Current era (1960’s - on)

Early Psychology

Wundt Titchener William James Darwin

Wilhelm Wundt

Set up first psychology laboratory in 1879

considered the father of psychology used introspection

presented subjects with stimuli (lights, tones, textures), and asked them to think about and explain how they felt when experiencing these things.

Edward B.Titchener and Structuralism Titchener was Wundt’s student

wanted to know the nature of mental experiences

He called their approach structuralism an attempt to describe the structures that

compose the mind Asked observers to look at an object

and describe it’s separate features. Redness of an apple.

William James and Functionalism The founder of American Psychology Wrote The Principles of Psychology

(1890) Focused on the actions that the mind

performs, rather then the ideas the mind has.

He called his approach functionalism how does the mind produce useful

behaviors

Good psychological questions according to James

How many objects can a person attend to at once?

How can people increase good habits?

How do people recognize they have seen something before?

Charles Darwin Darwin argued that all animals

(including humans) had common ancestors.

It now became logical to study other animals behavior and compare that behavior to other animals and humans.

Things we learn from studying a rat, could now be used to infer things about humans.

Theory of Evolution There is diversity in living things even within

a species We don't all look alike We don't all behave alike

Those traits can be passed on from parent to offspring

Darwin didn't know how. Mendel did = Genes

There is a struggle to survive Many organism mass produce offspring and few

make it. There is high infant mortality for humans as well in

some places

Theory of Evolution Organisms that are best suited to their environment

have a survival advantage Doesn't necessarily mean the strongest At times it might be good to be small and quiet (early

mammals) Survival of the fittest

Those with a survival advantage will produce more offspring and pass their traits on to those offspring, thus the population will begin to have those particular traits

Natural selection Already known from "unnatural selection" breeding

techniques Large boar with large sow = large piglet.

Behaviorism

John B. Watson founded behaviorism - a field of

psychology that concentrates on observable, measurable behaviors, and not on mental processes.

B.F. Skinner implemented behaviorism

Environmental determinism Watson – give me an infant

S-R psychology Mind is a black box Radical behaviorism

Beyond freedom and dignity Walden II

Mind is a locus of variables (poem) Little Albert

Current Era

The rest of this class will discuss the current era of psychology

Scientific Methods in Psychology

Science in General Scientific Methods in Psychology

Science in General

Can we prove things to be true by using scientific methods?

Steps for gathering and evaluating evidence

What makes a good Theory?

Can we prove something by using scientific methods? The simple answer is no.

Proofs are left to philosophers and mathematicians. Scientists are only probably certain about their findings.

However converging evidence moves us toward certainty

Scientists set up situations in such a way that it is very unlikely that their conclusion is wrong, however it is still possible the conclusion is wrong.

Something you haven’t thought of yet is affecting things Discuss Flat Earth – Round Earth – Squashed Earth

Steps for Gathering and Evaluating Evidence

Hypothesis An educated guess Often comes from prior research Must be testable

Method results Interpretation

Replicability Another important concept for science is

replication Replication means repeatability

Anyone should be able to get the same result that you achieved, by following the same methodology (procedures) that you used. Cold fusion (1989)- producing nuclear energy

without using high temperatures, and without dangerous byproducts.

What is a good scientific theory?

Theories - are comprehensive explanations of observable events.

should predict new observations should be falsifiable (discussed

more below) should be parsimonious (discussed

more below)

Theories should be falsifiable

Freud says that one issue all males have to deal with is the fact that they were sexually attracted to their mother when they were young. If I were to meet Freud I would tell him

I don’t remember lusting for my mother.

What would Freud say?

Theories should be parsimonious Principle of Parsimony Scientists should prefer the theory that

explains the results using the simplest assumptions. Try to adhere as much as possible to what we

already believe (conservative approach). Shouldn’t we be open minded?

Yes, be willing to entertain other ideas, but this does not mean all ideas have an equal chance of being true.

Clever Hans - an example of parsimony and open-mindedness

Hans (a horse) could count add, subtract, multiply, and divide add fractions, and convert decimals

to fractions knew the value of German coins

Oskar Pfungst

Is it parsimonious to believe that Hans was indeed this intelligent?

Scientific Methods in Psychology Observational research designs

Naturalistic observations Case Histories Surveys Correlational Studies

Experiments Independent variables

Operational definitions Dependent variables Random Assignment Demand Characteristics Experimenter Bias Ethical considerations

Observational Research Designs

Naturalistic Observation A careful examination of what many

people or nonhuman animals do under more or less natural conditions.

Jane Goodall The homeless

Case Histories

A thorough description of a rare condition, or unusual person. It focuses on a single individual.

It is an observational technique. Relies on the skills of the observer

- as does naturalistic observation.

Surveys

A study of the prevalence of certain beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors, based on people’s responses to specific questions. Sampling is very important here.

Samples of the population Random Sample

every individual in the population has an equal chance of being selected

Random samples are Representative Samples closely resembles the entire population

in its percentage of gender, race, age, or whatever other characteristics are likely to affect the results.

Samples continued

Convenience sample A sample that is chosen simply

because it was easy to get them to participate.

Why would you ever use random sampling if convenience sampling is so easy? External Validity or Generalizability

Correlational Studies A measure of the relationship

between two variables, which are both outside the investigators control (simply measured). Correlation varies from -1 to +1 Closer to +1 or -1 the stronger the

correlation Correlation between height and weight Correlation between height and IQ

Correlation and Causation

Let’s say I have found a negative correlation between a measure of self esteem and number of sessions required for therapy to be effective.

Would a subject with high self-esteem require more or less therapy sessions then a person with low self esteem?

Correlation Cont.

Does this mean that level of self esteem determines how much therapy a person might need?

Direction of causality problem 3rd variable problem.

Experiments

A study in which the investigator manipulates at least one variable while measuring at least one other variable.

Must have at least two groups. Groups are treated exactly the same

except for one thing. That one thing that differs among groups is your Independent Variable

Independent Variable

The item that an experimenter manipulates (changes or controls) is the independent variable Question: does caffeine cause

nervous behavior? What would be the Independent

Variable? It needs an operational definition?

Operational definition

A definition that specifies the operations (or procedures) used to produce or measure something, a way to give it a numerical value. What is Hunger? What is Aggression? What is Intelligence? What is caffeine exposure?

Dependent Variable The behavior (variable) that an

experimenter measures to determine how it was affected is the dependent variable

question: does caffeine cause nervous behavior?

What is the dependent variable? Does it need an operational

definition?

Experimental Group, Control Group, and Random Assignment

In a simple experiment with 2 levels of one Independent variable we have…. an Experimental Group

the group that receives the treatment that an experiment is designed to test.

A Control Group a set of individuals treated in the same way

as the experimental group except for the procedure that the experiment is designed to test.

Experimental vs Control groups continued

For our caffeine example it would be simplest to give one group a caffeine pill (experimental group), and give a second group a pill made up of all the same stuff except for the caffeine (control group).

Would it matter how we assigned individuals to groups?

Random Assignment

What if we assigned the front half of the room to the experimental condition and the back half of the room to the control condition?

To control for differences of people in the front vs. people in the back, we must use random assignment.

Demand Characteristics An issue that one must look out for when

running experiments is the issue of demand characteristics

cues that tell subjects what is expected of them and what the experimenter hopes to find.

Another term for demand characteristic is the placebo effect

Studies on demand characteristics by Martin Orne

The paper study sensory deprivation

Experimenter Bias

Another issue that experimenter’s must look out for is experimenter bias This occurs when the experimenters

expectations affect the results of the study.

Robert Rosenthal IQ test in grade school class room Told teacher it identified intellectual

bloomers The bloomers were selected at random

They were average students Rosenthal told the teacher who the

bloomers were He came back at the end of the year and

measured all of the students IQs again

Rosenthal and experimenter bias cont.

Student experimenters Maze bright rats Maze dull rats

Which group did better?

Experimenter Bias Cont. Why do we get experimenter bias? What can we do about it?

Single blind studies, a study where either the observer or the subjects are unaware of which subjects received which treatment.

Double blind studies, a study where both the observer and the subjects are unaware of which subjects received which treatment.

Ethical considerations

Human studies Informed consent deception debriefing

Animal studies Institutional animal care and use

committee (IACUC). American Psychological Association (APA)

guidelines.