Week 1: Introduction to Psychology Flashcards
Navigating Principles of Psychology; Why Science; Thinking Like a Psychological Scientist; History of Psychology
Academic Adjustment
One’s ability to adequately cope with the demands of post-secondary education
Large research literature - concept encompasses much more than doing well in courses; includes one’s motivation to learn, satisfaction with uni life, and a sense of goals/purpose (e.g., Baker & Siryk, 1986) - social/emotional adaption to uni
Challenges to navigating academic adjustment
Loneliness, financial stress, class format, freedom, social opportunities, personal/emotional problems
Psych is a …
The study of psychology is firmly grounded in empiricism and the scientific method
In order to understand/ interpret research in psych, it’s critical to have a firm grasp of research design, hypothesis testing, and statistics.
RDOC project
One example of drawing on information from diverse fields is the National Institute of Mental Health’s influential Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project - psych is interdisciplinary
Launched in 2008, the RDoC framework has shaped how scientists study the causes and symptoms of mental illnesses.
A core RDoC tenant is that mental illness must be classified and studied at multiple “units of analysis” (e.g., molecules, cells, brain circuits, behaviours).
Psych is …. …..
Very Broad - Sensation and Perception, Clinical Psychology, Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology, Learning/Behavioural Psychology, and Cognitive Psychology - history/research methods/statistics
Human processes
How we perceive, think, feel, and behave
University Mental Health
Late 2014, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Mental Health International College Student (WMH-ICS) surveys were launched.
More than 1 in 3 (35.3%) of first year students reported at least one diagnosable mental illness - Among these, the most common were Major Depressive Disorder (21.2%) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (18.6%), mental illnesses characterized by low mood and/or a lack of pleasure and persistent, frequent anxiety, respectively.
Critically, more than 80% of these mental illnesses began prior to the start of university, and fewer than 1 in 5 students with at least one mental illness reported receiving even minimally adequate treatment in the year prior to being surveyed.
Trigger Warnings
In balance, we think trigger warnings likely do very little to make tough content easier to consume. Further, we are concerned about the potential unintended side effects of such warnings. For those reasons, trigger warnings are not used in Principles of Psychology.
Fight or Flight system
Our bodies are equipped with something called the fight or flight system, which is activated when we are under stress. This response consists of a series of biochemical changes that prepare our bodies to deal with threat or danger
Our bodies are also equipped with a relaxation response which can counter the activation of our fight/flight response.
People who have made positive contributions to humanity
Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, Edward Jenner, Norman Borlaug, Fritz Haber
Jenner, Borlaug, and Haber
Jenner, Borlaug, and Haber were scientists whose research discoveries saved millions, and even billions, of lives.
Jenner - father of immunology (vaccinations - small pox)
Haber and Bourlag - green revolution (hybrid agricultural crops and synthetic fertilizer)
Systematic Observation
The careful observation of the natural world w the aim of better understanding it - observations provide the basic data that allow scientists to track/tally/organize info about the natural world
Science is the use of systematic observation in order to acquire knowledge
Empirical Methods
Approaches to inquiry that are tied to actual measurement and observation
ex. children in a science class might combine vinegar and baking soda to observe the bubbly chemical reaction
Essential elements of science
- Systematic Observation - core of science; measure phenomenon we are observing, record observations so that memory biases are less likely to enter in to our conclusions - systematic in that we try to observe under controlled conditions & also systematically vary the conditions of our observations so that we can see variations in the phenomena and understand when they occur/don’t
- Observations lead to hypotheses we can test - when we can develop HYPOTHESES & THEORIES, we state them in a testable way
- Science is democratic - people are more likely to want to be able to form their own opinions/debate conclusions these days; scientists are skeptical/have open discussions about observations/theories - debates often occur as scientists publish competing findings w the idea that best data will win the argument
- Science is cumulative - we can learn the important truths discovered by earlier scientists & build on them; everyone knows mora than Isaac Newton did even though he was most brilliant physicist of all time; crucial aspect of scientific progress is that after we learn of earlier advances, we can build and move farther along path of knowledge
Hypotheses
A logical idea that can be tested
Theories
Groups of closely related phenomena/observations
Francis Galton
Important pioneering researcher
Used patches of colour to test people’s ability to distinguish between them; also invented self-report questionnaire; he was able to use self-reports to examine people’s differing ability to accurately judge distances
Lacked modern understanding of genetics, but had the idea that scientists could look at behaviours of identical/fraternal twins to estimate degree to which genetic/social factors contribute to personality - “nature-nurture question”
Peer Report Measures
Psychologists ask close friends and family members about happiness (or smth)of a target individual; researchers can then compare ratings to self-report ratings and check for discrepancies
Memory Measures
Idea that disposiationally positive people have aneasier time recalling pleasant events & negative people have an easier time recalling unpleasant events
Modern psychologists even use biological measures such as saliva control samples/fMRI images of brain activation
Psychological science is ……
Useful for creating interventions that help people live better lives
Ex. many studies have shown that cognitive behavioural therapy can help many people suffering from depression & anxiety disorders (Butler, Chapman, Forman, & Beck, 2006; Hoffman & Smits, 2008). - contrast, research reveals some types of therapies actually might be harmful on average (Lilienfeld, 2007)
In Organizational Pscyhology…
A number of psychological interventions have been found by researchers to produce greater productivity/satisfaction in the work place (e.g., Guzzo, Jette, & Katzell, 1985)
Human factor engineers have greatly increased the safety and utility of the products we use - Ex. human facors psychologist Alphonse Chapanis and other researchers redesigned the cockpit controls of aircraft to make them less confusing/easier to respond to - led to a decreased in pilot errors and crashes
Forensic Sciences have…
Made courtroom decisions more valid - dramatic cases hinge on psychological findings - Ex. Elizabeth Loftus conducted research demonstrating the limits & unreliability of eyewitness testimony/memory; psychological findings are having practical importance in the world outside the lab
Ethics of Scientific Psychology
Psych differs from natural sciences because researchers conduct studies w human research participants - natural tendency to want to guard research participants against potential psychological harm; Ex. interesting to see how people handle ridicule but might not be advisable to ridicule research participants
- Scientific psychologists follow a code of ETHICS - extensive ethical guidelines for how human participants should be treated in psychological research (Diener & Crandall, 1978; Sales & Folkman, 2000)
- INFORMED CONSENT - people should know when they are involved in research & understand what will happen during study; should be given a free choice as to whether to participate
- CONFIDENTIALITY - info that reserachers learn abt individual participants shouldn’t be made public w/o consent of individual
- PRIVACY - researchers shouldn’t make observations of people in private place (bedrooms) w/o knowledge/consent; shouldn’t seek confidential info from others (x. school authorities) w/o consent of participant/guardian
- BENEFITS - researchers should consider beenfits of proposed research & weigh these against potential risks to participants; people who participate in psych studies should be exposed to risk only if they fully understand risks & only if benefits clearly outweigh risks
- DECEPTION - some researchers need to deceive participants in order to hide true nature of study; typically done to prevent participants from modifying behaviour in unnatural ways; researchers required to “debrief” participants after they’ve completed the study; debriefing is opportunity to educate participants abt true nature of study
Ethics
Professional guidelines that offer researchers a template for making decisions that protect research participants from potential harm & that help steer scientists away from conflicts of interest/ other situations that might compromise integrity of research
Why learn abt scientific pscyhology?
- To understand ourselves
- To understand other people and groups
- To be better able to influence others (ex. socializing children, motivating employees)
- To learn how to better help others/improve world (ex. effective psychotherapy)
- To learn a skill that will lead to a profession (ex. social worker, professor)
- Learn how to evaluate. the research claims you hear/read abt
- Because it’s interesting/fun - it can be rewarding in itself to study
Data
In research, information systematically collected for analysis and interpretation
Science is a way of using observable data to help explain and understand the world around us in a trustworthy way - determining what info is well informed is a crucial concern/central task of science
Induction
To draw general conclusions from specific observations - scientific/everyday reasoning both employ it
Ex. a person’s opinion that cramming for a test increases performance may be based on memory of passing an exam after an all-nighter; a researcher’s conclusion AGAINST cramming may be based on studies comparing the test performances of people who studied material in different ways - conclusions drawn from a sample
Sample
In research, a number of people selected from a population to serve as an example of that population
Distinguishing Scientific Thinking - How?
- ACCURACY - explanations and theories match real-world observations (Ex. people say “opposites attract,” theories that focus on role of partner similarity do a better job of explaining observed data)
- CONSISTENCY - a theory has few exceptions & shows agreement with other theories within/across disciplines (Ex. theory of evolution explains many findings across biology/ psychology predicting, for ex, humans are better able to solve problems presented in concrete rather than abstract terms)
- SCOPE - extent to which a theory extends beyond currently available data, explaining a wide array of phenomena (Ex. there’s a theory that people use mental “short cuts” when making decisions rather than weighing every single piece of evidence; can be seen in consumer purchasing behaviour, in romantic relationships, charitable donations, health choices)
- SIMPLICITY - when multiple explanations are equally good at explaining data, simplest should be selected (Ex. simplest explanation for why “good” people sometimes do “bad” things is bc they succumb to some outside influence)
- FRUITFULNESS - usefulness of theory in guiding new research by predicting new, testable relationships (Ex. explanation that competition leads to be improved performance can be tested by researching diff types of competition)
Pseudoscience
Beliefs/practices that are presented as being scientific, or which are mistaken for being scientific, but are NOT scientific (ex. astrology - presented as founded in astronomy, but it’s a pseudoscience unable to be falsified)
Falsified
In science, the ability of a claim to be tested and - possibly - refuted; a defining feature of science
In early 20th Century , Karl Popper suggested that science can be distinguished from pseudoscience because scientific claims are capable of being falsified
Popper irritated… Why? Solution?
Irritated abt nonscientific claims bc he believed them a threat to the science of psych - dissatisfied w Freud’s explanations for mental illness (Freud believed mental illness was due to childhood problems - failed to meet principle of falsifiability)
Popper argued against statements that can’t be falsified; claimed they blocked scientific progress
Popper’s solution: if science showed all the possibilities that were not true, we would be left only with what is true; we need to be able to articulate beforehand the kinds of evidence that will disprove our hypothesis & cause us to abandon
Investigating alternative explanations is how we rule out bad claims
Popper’s idea of falsification TODAY
Scientists aren’t solely interested in demonstrating what ISN’T, but also interested in providing descriptions/explanations for the way things ARE; want to describe different causes & various conditions under which they occur;
Explorations required us to draw conclusions from limited samples of data - interpretation and probability required
Probabilities
A measure of the degree of certainty of the occurrence of an event
Inductive reasoning is based on probabilities; always a matter of degree - could be extremely likely/unlikely; science is better at shedding light on probability of something than proving it
Inductive Reasoning
A form of reasoning in which a general conclusion is inferred from a set of observations (Ex. noting that “driver in that car was texting, cut me off ran a red!” (a specific observation), which leads to general conclusion that texting while driving is dangerous
Not exactly proving something though
Deductive Reasoning
A form of reasoning in which a given premise determines the interpretation of specific observations (Ex. all birds have feathers, duck is bird so it has feathers)
General principles that are applied to specific instances
PROOF is more associated w deductive reasoning - when general principles are true, and structure of argument is valid, conclusion is by definition PROVE; deductive truth must apply in all relevant circumstances
Nearly impossible to make these types of broad statements w certainty given the complexity of psychological phenomena
Representative
In research, the degree to which a sample is a typical example of the population from which it is drawn
Anecdotal Evidence
A piece of biased evidence, usually drawn from personal experience, used to support a conclusion that may/may not be correct
