Psychology: An Introduction Benjamin Lahey 11th Edition Slides by Kimberly Foreman 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Why Are You Taking This Course?

What careers use psychology and how?

One-on-one and small group communication As you enter the job market, consider jobs that require the skills you obtained during your psychology education. These abilities include: Critical thinking One-on-one and small group communication Effective written communication skills Understanding of individual human behavior Knowledge of group and organizational behavior Creative thinking skills Careers: Teacher, Human Resources, Advertising Agent, Doctor, Counselor, Lawyer, Journalist, Police Officer, Research Assistant, Nurse, Animal Trainer

Introduction to Psychology Chapter One: Introduction to Psychology 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Psychology as a Science By Payal Jain

Claim #1 Autism is caused by vaccines. True or false?

Claim #2 Beer before liquor, never been sicker; Liquor before beer, you’re in the clear. True or False?

Claim #3 Students who cram and pull all-nighters often perform better than students who don’t study at all. True or False?

Claim #4 Masturbation can lead to blindness in males.

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD A set of steps that are taken in a science to acquire new knowledge.

SCIENCE The systematic process by which we gain new knowledge using an establish method

PSYCHOLOGY Psychology: The scientific investigation of behavior and mental processes Behavior: overt actions that others can directly observe Mental processes: private thoughts, emotions, feelings, and motives that cannot be directly observed 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

PSEUDOSCIENCE A discipline or approach that pretends to be or has a close resemblance to science 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

SCIENTIFIC METHOD A set of steps that are taken in a science to acquire new knowledge

What purpose do Psychology and Science serve? Psychology helps us scientifically evaluate assumptions or claims about behaviors and mental processes through experiments and observations

CAN YOU IDENTIFY WHICH OF THE ASSUMPTIONS ON THE FOLLOWING SLIDES ARE TRUE OR FALSE?

TRUE OR FALSE The best way to learn and remember information is to “cram,” or study it intensively during one concentrated period

False! Research shows this is the worst way to prepare for an exam! Students who cram often perform more poorly than those who do not study at all (Wheeler, 2012)

TRUE OR FALSE Misery loves company

True! Research shows depressed people are more likely to seek emotional support from persons who are also depressed (Ambady, 2011)

Conclusion You can’t just assume your beliefs are true. You need to have evidence! The information that you learn in this class – whether it will be on feelings, memory, language, mental illness – all of it is based upon the scientific method. Psychologists are scientists!

Do you agree Psychology is a Science? Why or why not? 

Psyche + Science = Psychology - Aristotle used the term psyche to refer to the essence of life - means “mind” in Greek - emphasis on observation is basis for methods of contemporary science 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Psyche + Science = Psychology (cont.) Goals of psychology: describe predict understand influence 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.) Functions of the conscious mind (cont.): cognitive psychology: perceiving, believing, thinking, remembering knowing, deciding, etc. 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.) Behaviorism and social learning theory: - behaviorism: - Ivan Pavlov: - classical conditioning - John B. Watson - Little Albert 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.) Behaviorism and social learning theory (cont.): - social learning theory: - Albert Bandura: - most important aspects of our behavior are learned from other persons in society 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.) Nature of the “unconscious mind”: - psychoanalysis: - Sigmund Freud: - unconscious mind - emotional conflicts - motives: - sexual - aggressive 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.) Nature of the “Unconscious Mind” (cont.): - humanistic psychology: - Abraham Maslow - Carl Rogers - Viktor Frankl: - self-concept 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.) Psychometrics: Alfred Binet: - measurement of mental functions - Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.) Neuroscience perspective: - structures of the brain that play roles in: - emotion - reasoning - speaking - other psychological processes - heredity 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Contemporary Perspectives and Specialty Areas in Psychology Sociocultural perspective: derived from social anthropology cultural relativity Diversity 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Gesture: Thumbs up What you think it means: "It's all good!" What it means in Thailand: A serious side-eye (or similar). Some say it's very offensive, while others contend it's more childish than obscene, like sticking your tongue out. Best just to play it safe and keep your hands in your pockets.

Gesture: Giving something with your left hand What you think it means: "I'm giving you something... and I just happen to be using my left hand" What it means in many parts of the world: In a lot of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, the left hand is strictly reserved for wiping one's @ss, while the right hand is used for just about everything else. So handing someone an item with your pooping hand's pretty inconsiderate -- who says lefties are smarter?

Gesture: The "OK" (or "Rabbit", if you're making shadow animals on the wall) What you think it means: "Everything's all good!" What it means in Greece and Turkey: "You're a man, and you're attracted to other men". We see the letters "O" and "K", while they see a well-dressed dude who moisturizes and is well-versed in the works of Streisand.

Contemporary Perspectives and Specialty Areas in Psychology (cont.) Basic areas of modern psychology: - biological psychology - sensation and perception - learning and memory - cognition - developmental psychology - motivation and emotion - personality - social psychology - sociocultural psychology 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Contemporary Perspectives and Specialty Areas in Psychology (cont.) Applied areas of modern psychology: - clinical psychology - counseling psychology - educational and school psychology - industrial and organizational psychology - health psychology 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Contemporary Perspectives and Specialty Areas in Psychology (cont.) Relationship between psychiatry and psychology: - psychiatrists: - M.D. - can prescribe drugs - psychologists: - Ph.D or Psy.D - not licensed to prescribe drugs in most states 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Research Methods in Psychology 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Basic Concepts of Research Scientific method: making observations in a systematic way, following strict rules of evidence and thinking critically about that evidence 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Basic Concepts of Research (cont.) Empirical evidence: evidence from observations of publicly observable behavior Operational definitions: describe the observations in terms of the operations of measurement 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Basic Concepts of Research (cont.) Theories: tentative explanations of observations in science Hypothesis: - prediction based on a theory 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Basic Concepts of Research (cont.) Representativeness of samples: sample: - participants must be representative of the total group 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Basic Concepts of Research (cont.) Importance of replication in research: - replication: - testing a hypothesis in more than one study - research is more sound if outcome is similar in more than one study 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Research Methods Descriptive studies: A descriptive study is one in which information is collected without changing the environment (i.e., nothing is manipulated). - survey method - naturalistic observation - clinical method - correlational method 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Research Methods (cont.) Descriptive studies (cont.): - correlation coefficient: - measures the strength of the correlation between two quantitative variables in statistical terms 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Research Methods (cont.) Formal experiments: - allow researcher to draw conclusions about cause-and- effect relationships 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD CONT. Theory: A well-substantiated explanation acquired through the scientific method and repeatedly tested and confirmed through observation and experimentation.  What is the theory based on the results of the University of Maine’s therapy dog study?

The Experimental method The experimental method is the method in which the research randomly assigns participants to the different conditions in an experiment.

The Experimental method cont. Involves two key aspects: Independent Variable—variable that is systematically changed (manipulated) in an experiment. Dependent Variable—variable that is measured in an experiment. Random Assignment of Participants to Groups.

Randomly assign into control and experimental groups The experimental method Cont. Full population of interest Randomly assign into control and experimental groups Control group: exposed to the dependent variable: Students who did not play with the therapy dog Experimental group: exposed to independent variable: Students who played with the therapy dog

The experimental method Cont. Hypothetical Findings A significant finding is one that is not likely due to chance. What do our findings say about The University of Maine’s study on therapy dogs?

The Experimental method Cont. Confounding Variables- Undesirable variables that influence the relationship between the IV and DV.

Research Methods (cont.) Elements and logic of formal experiments (cont.): - blind formal experiments: - experimenter bias - double blind 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Ethical Principals of Research Ethics of research with human participants: - freedom from coercion - informed consent - limited deception - adequate debriefing - confidentiality 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Ethical Principals of Research (cont.) Ethics of research with nonhuman animals: - necessity - health - humane treatment 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved

Ethical Principals of Research (cont.) Human diversity: equal representation in research The U.S. National Institutes of Health require that all new research grants involving human subjects study diverse samples that include both sexes and members of the major racial and cultural groups. 2008 McGraw-Hill Co., Inc. All rights reserved