CH1 Flashcards
Psychology Is a Science (part 1)
- Psychology
- Employs empirical approach
- Attempts to explore and understand without misleading or
being mislead - Requires a scientific attitude: curiosity, skepticism, and humility
Psychology Is a Science (part 2)
*Critical thinking
* Examines assumptions
* Appraises the source
* Discerns hidden biases
* Evaluates evidence
* Assesses conclusions
Psychological Science
Is Born (part 1)
- Psychology’s first laboratory (1879)
- Wundt:
- Sought to measure “atoms of the mind”
- Psychology’s first schools of thought
- Titchener:
- Structuralism
- Technique of introspection
Psychological Science
Is Born (part 2)
- Psychology’s first schools of thought
- James (influenced by Darwin):
- Functionalism
- Adaptive thinking and stream of
consciousness - Principles of Psychology (1890)
Psychological Science Is Born (part 3)
- Psychology’s first women
- Calkins:
- Pioneering memory researcher
- First female APA president
- Washburn:
- First woman to receive a Ph.D.
- Synthesized animal behavior; The Animal Mind (1908
Psychology’s Increasing
Diversity
a. 1964 meeting of the
Society of Experimental
Psychologists
b. Women are now 61% of
APS members, including
75% of its psychology
student affiliates
Psychological Science
Matures (part 1)
- Major forces from the 1920s to the 1960s
- Behaviorism
- Introspection and psychology now viewed as scientific study
- Behavior scientifically defined, conditioned, observed, and
measured - Watson, Rayner, Skinner: Championed scientific study of behavior;
fear can be learned
Psychological Science
Matures (part 2)
- Major forces from the 1920s to the 1960s
- Freudian (psychoanalytic) psychology
- Emphasized ways that the unconscious mind and childhood
experiences affect behavior - Personality theorist and psychiatrist
Psychological Science
Matures (part 3)
- Major forces from the 1960s
- Humanistic psychology
- Found behaviorism and Freudian psychology too limiting
- Emphasized human growth potential
- Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow: Focus on need for
love, acceptance, and an environment that nurtures or
limits personal growth
Contemporary Psychology
*Psychology:
*Science of behavior and
mental processes
*Roots in many disciplines
and countries
*Growing and globalize
Contemporary
Psychology (part 2)
- The cognitive revolution begins in the 1960s (simultaneous with
humanistic psychology). - Cognitive psychology: Study of mental processes, such as those that
occur when we perceive, learn, remember, think, communicate, and
solve problems - Cognitive neuroscience: Interdisciplinary study of the brain activity
linked with cognition, including perception, thinking, memory, and
language
Contemporary Psychology (part 3)
- Evolutionary psychology
- Study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using natural
selection principles - Nature–nurture issue
- Natural selection
- Behavior genetics
- Study of relative power and limits of genetic and
environmental influences on behavior
Contemporary
Psychology (part 4)
- Cross-cultural and gender
psychology - Culture: Shared ideas and
behaviors passed from one
generation to the next; shapes
behaviors - Gender identity: Sense of being
male, female, neither, or some
combination of male and female - Socially and biologically defined
Contemporary
Psychology (part 5)
- Positive psychology
- Centers on happiness as by-product of a
pleasant, engaged, and meaningful life - Uses scientific methods to support development
of a good life - Seligman and others: Focus research on
human flourishing
Biopsychosocial approach integrates 3 levels of analysis:
Biological
social-cultural
psychological
Integrating Perspectives: Example
- Aggression
- Biological
- Evolutionary
- Behavioral
- Cognitive
- Socio-cultural
- Clinical
- Individual differences
Contemporary Psychology (part 7)
- Psychology’s main subfields
- Common quest: Describing and explaining behavior and the mind
underlying it - Professions
- Research: Basic and applied
- Counseling psychologists
- Clinical psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- Community psychologists
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The Need for Psychological Science
- Roadblocks to Critical Thinking
- Hindsight bias: I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon
- Overconfidence: Tendency to think we know more than we do
- Perceiving patterns in random events: Random sequence is
unsettling: making sense creates calm - Scientific inquiry can help us sift reality from overestimated
intuition and illusion
Psychological Science in a Post-Truth World
- Why are we so vulnerable to believing
untruths? - Fake news: Intentionally provided
misinformation - Repetition: Repeated statements become more
believable - Availability of powerful examples: Vivid images
and stories gain more attention - Group identity and the echo chamber of the
like-minded: Groups and news that affirm our
views are accepted; news sources that do not
are demonized
The Scientific Method
Psychologists support scientific attitudes with the scientific method
Theory
Hypothesis
Data
Terms to know
Theory
Hypothesis
Operational
Replication
Research Strategies
Research Strategies
*Testing hypotheses and
refining theories
* Description
* Correlation
* Experiments
- Case studies
- Examines one individual or group
in-depth - Suggest fruitful ideas for future
research - About unique/unusual cases
- No generalizations or universal
truths - Example: Phineas Gage and changes
in personality after accident
- Naturalistic observation
- Recording behavior in natural
environment - Does not control all factors
- Describes and sometimes illuminates,
but does not explain behavior - Often involves new technology (move
to “big data”) - Example: Jane Goodall and
observations of chimpanzee behavior
Descriptive method
surveys
- Correlation
- A measure of the extent to which two factors
vary together (how well the factors predict
each other) - Usually explains only part of the variation
among individuals - Uncovers naturally occurring relationships
Correlation coefficient
- A statistical index of the relationship between two things
- Positive correlation (>0 to +1.00) indicates a direct relationship.
- Negative correlation (<0 to –1.00) indicates an inverse relationship
Experiments enable researchers to isolate the effects of
one or more factors.
- Manipulates the factor of interest to determine its
effect. - Holds constant (controls) other factors.
- Can explain behavior (conclusions about cause-and-
effect). - Random sampling: creates a representative survey
sample.
- Groups
- Variables
- Groups
- Experimental group: receives treatment.
- Control group: does not receive treatment.
- Random assignment: equalizes the experimental and control groups.
- Variables
- Independent variable: factor that is manipulated; its effect is being studied.
- Confounding variable: factor that might influence a study’s results.
- Dependent variable: outcome that is measured; it may change when the
independent variable is manipulated.
Procedures:
Procedures:
* Double-blind procedure
* Neither those in the study or those collecting the data
know which group is receiving the treatment.
* Treatment’s actual effects can be separated from
potential placebo effect.
* Placebo effect
* Experimental results caused by expectations alone.
* Any effect on behavior caused by the administration of
an inert substance or condition, which the recipient
assumes is an active agent.
Experimental Methods
- Experiment purpose
- Test theoretical principles, not re-creation of exact everyday life behaviors
- Resulting principles
- Help explain everyday behaviors
- Psychological science
- Focuses primarily on seeking general principles that help explain many
behaviors and less on a particular behavior
Descriptive
correlational
experimental
case study
collect data
manipulate
psychology research eithics
- Ensuring scientific integrity
- Honesty is most important scientific value.
- Fake science can cause great harm; vaccine misinformation.
- Researcher values
- Influence topic choices.
- Color the facts of observations and interpretations.
- May be hidden or unconscious
