CH.1 Flashcards
Psychology
Psychology - scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Behavior
outward or overt actions and reactions.
Mental processes
internal, covert activity of our minds.
Psychology’s Four Goals
Description
Explanation
Prediction
Control
Theory
general explanation of a set of observations or facts
Structuralism
focused on structure or basic elements of the mind.
Wilhelm Wundt’s psychology laboratory
Germany in 1879
Developed the technique of objective introspection – process of objectively examining and measuring one’s thoughts and mental activities.
Edward Titchener
Wundt’s student; brought structuralism to America.
Margaret Washburn
Titchener’s student; first woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology.
Structuralism died out in…
early 1900s.
Functionalism
how the mind allows people to adapt, live, work, and play.
Proposed by William James.
Influenced the modern fields of:
Educational psychology
Evolutionary psychology
Industrial/organizational psychology
Gestalt
“good figure” psychology.
- Started with Wertheimer, who studied sensation and perception.
- Gestalt ideas are now part of the study of cognitive psychology, a field focusing not only on perception but also on learning, memory, thought processes, and problem solving.
Psychoanalysis
- the theory and therapy based on the work of Sigmund Freud.
- Freud’s patients suffered from nervous disorders with no found physical cause:
- Freud proposed that there is an unconscious (unaware) mind into which we push, or repress, all of our threatening urges and desires.
- He believed that these repressed urges, in trying to surface, created nervous disorders.
- Freud stressed the importance of early childhood experiences.
Behaviorism
-the science of behavior that focuses on observable behavior only.
-Must be directly seen and measured.
-John B. Watson.
-Based much from work of Ivan Pavlov who demonstrated that a reflex could be conditioned (learned).
-Watson believed that phobias were learned.
Case of “Little Albert” – taught to fear a white rat
Modern Perspectives
Psychodynamic perspective Behavioral perspective Humanistic perspective Cognitive perspective Sociocultural perspective Biopsychological perspective Evolutionary perspective
Psychodynamic perspective
modern version of pychoanalysis.
-More focused on the development of a sense of self and the discovery of other motivations behind a person’s behavior than sexual motivations.
Behavioral perspective
B. F. Skinner studied operant conditioning of voluntary behavior.
- Behaviorism became a major force in the twentieth century.
- Skinner introduced the concept of reinforcement to behaviorism.
Humanistic perspective
-Owes far more to the early roots of psychology in the field of philosophy.
-Humanists held the view that people have free will, the freedom to choose their own destiny.
-Early founders:
Abraham Maslow
Carl Rogers
Emphasized the human potential, the ability of each person to become the best person he or she could be.
Self-actualization
achieving one’s full potential or actual self.
Cognitive perspective
focuses on memory, intelligence, perception, problem solving, and learning
Sociocultural perspective
focuses on the relationship between social behavior and culture.
Biopsychological perspective
-attributes human and animal behavior to biological events occurring in the body, such as genetic influences, hormones, and the activity of the nervous system.
Evolutionary perspective
focuses on the biological bases of universal mental characteristics that all humans share.
Looks at the way the mind works and why it works as it does.
Behavior is seen as having an adaptive or survival value.
Types of Psychological Professionals
Psychiatrist
Psychoanalyst
Psychiatric social worker
Psychologist
Psychiatrist
a medical doctor who has specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders.
Psychoanalyst
either a psychiatrist or a psychologist who has special training in the theories of Sigmund Freud and his method of psychoanalysis.
Psychiatric social worker
-a social worker with some training in therapy methods who focuses on the environmental conditions that can have an impact on mental disorders, such as poverty, overcrowding, stress, and drug abuse.
Psychologist
- a professional with an academic degree and specialized training in one or more areas of psychology.
- Can do counseling, teaching, and research and may specialize in any one of a large number of areas within psychology.
- Areas of specialization in psychology include clinical, counseling, developmental, social, and personality, among others.
Scientific method
system of gathering data so that bias and error in measurement are reduced.
Steps in the Scientific Method:
- Perceive the question.
- Form a hypothesis – tentative explanation of a phenomenon based on observations.
- Test the hypothesis.
- Draw conclusions.
- Report your results so that others can try to replicate - repeat the study or experiment to see if the same results will be obtained in an effort to demonstrate reliability of results.
Descriptive Methods
Naturalistic observation
Laboratory observation
Case study
Surveys
Naturalistic observation
-watching animals or humans behave in their normal environment. Major Advantage: -Realistic picture of behavior. Disadvantages: -Observer effect -Participant observation -Observer bias -Blind observers -Each naturalistic setting is unique and observations may not hold.
Observer effect
tendency of people or animals to behave differently from normal when they know they are being observed.
Participant observation
a naturalistic observation in which the observer becomes a participant in the group being observed (to reduce observer effect).
Observer bias
tendency of observers to see what they expect to see.
Blind observers
people who do not know what the research question is (to reduce observer bias).
Laboratory observation
watching animals or humans behave in a laboratory setting.
Advantages:
-Control over environment.
-Allows use of specialized equipment.
Disadvantage:
-Artificial situation that may result in artificial behavior.
Descriptive methods lead to the formation of testable hypotheses.
Case study
-study of one individual in great detail.
Advantage: tremendous amount of detail.
Disadvantage: cannot apply to others.
Famous case study: Phineas Gage.
Surveys
-researchers will ask a series of questions about the topic under study.
-Given to a representative sample - randomly selected sample of subjects from a larger population of subjects.
-Population - the entire group of people or animals in which the researcher is interested.
Advantages:
-Data from large numbers of people.
-Study covert behaviors.
Disadvantages:
-Have to ensure representative sample (or results not meaningful).
-People are not always accurate (courtesy bias).
Correlation
- a measure of the relationship between two variables.
- Measures of two variables go into a mathematical formula and produce a correlation coefficient (r), which represents two things:
- direction of the relationship.
- strength of the relationship.
- Knowing the value of one variable allows researchers to predict the value of the other variable.
Variable
anything that can change or vary
Positive correlation
- variables are related in the same direction.
- As one increases, the other increases; as one decreases, the other decreases.
Negative correlation
variables are related in opposite direction.
CORRELATION DOES
NOT PROVE CAUSATION!!!
Experiment
a deliberate manipulation of a variable to see if corresponding changes in behavior result, allowing the determination of cause-and-effect relationships.
Operational definition
definition of a variable of interest that allows it to be directly measured.
Independent variable (IV)
- variable in an experiment that is manipulated by the experimenter.
Dependent variable (DV)
- variable in an experiment that represents the measurable response or behavior of the subjects in the experiment.
Experimental group
subjects in an experiment who are subjected to the independent variable.
Control group
subjects in an experiment who are not subjected to the independent variable and who may receive a placebo treatment (controls for confounding variables).
Random assignment
- process of assigning subjects to the experimental or control groups randomly, so that each subject has an equal chance of being in either group.
Controls for confounding (extraneous, interfering) variables.
Placebo effect
the phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can influence their behavior.
Single-blind study- subjects do not know if they are in the experimental or the control group (reduces placebo effect).
Experimenter effect
tendency of the experimenter’s expectations for a study to unintentionally influence the results of the study.
Double-blind study
- neither the experimenter nor the subjects knows if the subjects are in the experimental or control group (reduces placebo effect and experimenter effect).
Quasiexperimental designs
not considered true experiments because of the inability to randomly assign participants to the experimental and control groups (for example, if age is the variable of interest).
Ethics committees
groups of psychologists or other professionals who look over each proposed research study and judge it according to its safety and consideration for the participants in the study
Animal research
- answers questions we could never do with human research.
- Focus is on avoiding exposing them to unnecessary pain or suffering.
- Animals are used in approximately 7% of psychological studies.
Critical thinking
-making reasoned judgments about claims.
Four Basic Criteria:
.There are very few “truths” that do not need to be subjected to testing.
.All evidence is not equal in quality.
.Just because someone is considered to be an authority or to have a lot of expertise does not make everything that person claims automatically true.
.Critical thinking requires an open mind.
Pseudopsychologies
systems of explaining human behavior that are not based on or consistent with scientific evidence.
Phrenology
reading bumps on the skull.
Palmistry
reading palms.
Graphology
analysis of personality through handwriting.
