The Story of Psychology Prologue: The Story of Psychology

What is Psychology? Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes Scientific? Not just common sense or guesses Psychology uses the scientific method Scientific Method is careful observations and the experimental testing of hypothesis Behavior – what people do on the outside Mental Processes – What is going on inside someone's head. We call this cognition. Psychology includes the study of both humans and animals

Prologue: Psychology’s Roots Prescientific Psychology Is the mind connected to the body or distinct? Are ideas inborn or is the mind a blank slate filled by experience?

Prologue: Psychology’s Roots

Prologue: Psychology’s Roots Psychological Science Is Born Empiricism Knowledge comes from experience via the senses Science flourishes through observation and experiment

Waves of Psychology The science of psychology has gone through about 5 different waves since it started. Waves are different ways of thinking over time.

Wave One: Structuralism Started with William Wundt’s first psychological laboratory and his concept of structuralism. Basic structure of thought and the brain. Edward Titchner: Use Introspection, self reflection to learn about yourself. What are your thoughts and experiences as you look at a rose?

Wave One (cont.): Functionalism Focused on the function or purpose of the conscious mind as well as behaviors. William James: Smelling is what the nose does, thinking is what the brain does; why? These things develop because they have adapted to help our survival and the survival of our ancestors. Based heavily on Darwinist thinking.

Wave Two: Gestalt Psychology Led by Max Wertheimer, these guys focused not on how we feel, but on how we experience the world. The whole of an experience can be more than the sum of its parts. Think for a moment of all the reasons that you love your mom. If you add all those reasons up, do they equal your love for your mom? Hopefully not!!! This may seem like one picture, but it can be perceived as 3 different faces. Can you find them?

Wave Three: Psychoanalysis This wave of thinking started with Sigmund Freud (in the early 1900’s). In a nutshell, during this time period people believed that most of your feelings come from a hidden place in your mind called the unconscious. We protect ourselves from our real feeling by using defense mechanisms.

Wave Four: Behaviorism During this time period (early to mid 1900s), people started to ignore how you feel inside. All that mattered was how you acted. B.F. Skinner was forerunner of Behaviorism. If you could change your behavior, who cares how you feel. Very popular during the conservative 1950’s when social appearance mattered more than self expression.

Wave Five: Eclectic We are now in wave five….which is about variety. Psychologists pick and choose what theories to use depending on the situation and the client.

Wave Five is made up of about 7 different perspectives. In other words, psychologists today, pick and choose from about 7 schools of thought to help you with your problems. Thus we have: THE SEVEN SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Biopsychology (Neuroscience) Perspective All of your feelings and behaviors have an organic root. In other words, they come from your brain, body chemistry, neurotransmitters, etc… Let us imagine for a second that your dog died. You become depressed. You stop eating and sleeping. What would a psychologist from this school say is going on and how might they help you?

Behavioral Perspective Focuses on observable behaviors while putting feelings to the side. We behave in ways because we have been conditioned to do so. To change behaviors, we have to recondition the client. B.F. Skinner Pretend that you fail psychology class. You become depressed. In turn, you begin to binge and gain weight. What do you think a behaviorist may do? They would probably ignore the fact that you are depressed and just focus on your overeating. Maybe make you run a mile every time you eat over 2000 calories.

Cognitive Perspective Focuses on how we think (or encode information) How do we see the world? How did we learn to act to sad or happy events? Cognitive Therapist attempt to change the way you think. She rejects you…don’t even get a phone number. You meet a girl… Hopes are high!!! How do you react to the rejection? Some learned get back on the horse And try again. Some learned to give up and live a lonely life of solitude.

Humanist Perspective Peaked in the late 1960’s and 70’s….so it focused on spirituality and free will. We have to strive to be the best we can be “self-actualization”. Happiness is defined by the distance between our “self-concept” and “ideal self”.

Psychoanalytic Perspective If a man has intimacy issues and cannot form relationships with others. What do you think someone from this school may think? Focuses on the unconscious mind. We repress many of our true feelings and are not aware of them. In order to get better, we must bring forward the true feelings we have in our unconscious. Perhaps they may delve into the man’s unconscious and discover that he was bullied when he were younger. The bullying may have caused fear in getting close to others.

Social-Cultural Perspective Says that much of your behavior and your feelings are dictated by the culture you live in. Some cultures kiss each other when greeting, some just bow. Does your culture place value on individual or the group?

Evolutionary Perspective Focuses on Darwinism. We behave the way we do because we inherited those behaviors. Thus, those behaviors must have helped ensure our ancestors survival.

Prologue: Contemporary Psychology Psychology’s Perspectives

Prologue: Contemporary Psychology Psychology’s Perspectives A lot depends on your viewpoint

Experimentation and Research Methods It is actually way more exciting than it sounds!!!!

Why do we have to learn this stuff? Psychology is first and foremost a science. Thus it is based on experiments and research.

Applied V. Basic Research Applied Research has clear, practical applications. YOU CAN USE IT!!! Looking for a cure for cancer Basic Research explores questions that you may be curious about, but not intended to be immediately used. Studying how kissing changes when you get older is interesting…but that’s about it. Research on therapies for drug addicts has a clear purpose.

The Need for Psychological Science Critical Thinking thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions examines assumptions discerns hidden values evaluates evidence The Amazing Randi--Skeptic

The Need for Psychological Science Theory an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations Hypothesis a testable prediction often implied by a theory

The Need for Psychological Science

Experimentation Experiment an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe their effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable) by random assignment of participants the experiment controls other relevant factors

The Need for Psychological Science Replication repeating the essence of a research study to see whether the basic finding generalizes to other participants and circumstances usually with different participants in different situations

The Need for Psychological Science Operational Definition a statement of procedures (operations) used to define research variables Example- intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures

Experimentation Independent Variable Dependent Variable the experimental factor that is manipulated the variable whose effect is being studied Dependent Variable the experimental factor that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable in psychology it is usually a behavior or mental process

Independent Variable Whatever is being manipulated in the experiment. Hopefully the independent variable brings about change. If there is a drug in an experiment, the drug is almost always the independent variable.

Dependent Variable Whatever is being measured in the experiment. It is dependent on the independent variable. The dependent variable would be the effect of the drug.

Psychologists describe behavior using case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation

Description Case Study Psychologists study one or more individuals in great depth in the hope of revealing things true of us all Is language uniquely human?

Description Survey technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people usually by questioning a representative, random sample of people

Description Naturalistic Observation observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation

Experimentation Experimental Condition Control Condition the condition of an experiment that exposes participants to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable Control Condition the condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental treatment serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment

Description Population Random Sample all the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study The entire target you want to learn about Random Sample Those from the population that you select for the study Everyone from the population has an equal chance of being chosen

Experimentation Random Assignment Once chosen, those in the sample of an equal chance of being placed in either the experimental of control group minimizes pre-existing differences between those assigned to the different groups

Single-Blind vs. Double-Blind Single-Blind study: participants do not know whether they are in the experimental or control group Double-Blind study: both subjects AND experimenters are kept uniformed Why conduct a blind studies? To reduce experimenter bias

Beware of Confounding Variables The object of an experiment is to prove that A causes B. Factors which can influence or compromise the results of the experiment If I wanted to prove that smoking causes heart issues, what are some confounding variables? Lifestyle and family history may also effect the heart.

Confounding Variables Placebo effect: Just thinking you are getting the drug can causes changes in a patient Experimenter Bias: error in research study due to the predisposed beliefs of the researcher Not a conscience act Order Effects: effects of the order of presenting treatment has on dependent variable

The Need for Psychological Science Hindsight Bias we tend to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would have foreseen it the “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon Overconfidence we tend to think we know more than we do False Consensus Effect tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors

Hawthorne Effect But even the control group may experience changes. Just the fact that you know you are in an experiment can cause change. Whether the lights were brighter or dimmer, production went up in the Hawthorne electric plant.

Correlational Method Correlation expresses a relationship between two variable. Does not show causation. As more ice cream is eaten, more people are murdered. Does ice cream cause murder, or murder cause people to eat ice cream?

Correlation Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships or or could cause (1) Low self-esteem Depression or (2) Depression could cause Low self-esteem or Low self-esteem (3) Distressing events or biological predisposition could cause and Depression

Types of Correlation Negative Correlation Positive Correlation The variables go in opposite directions. Positive Correlation The variables go in the SAME direction. Studying and grades hopefully has a positive correlation. Heroin use and grades probably has a negative correlation.

(positive or negative) Correlation Correlation Coefficient a statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus how well either factor predicts the other Indicates direction of relationship (positive or negative) Correlation coefficient r = +.37 Indicates strength of relationship (0.00 to 1.00)

Correlation Scatterplot a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables the slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship the amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation little scatter indicates high correlation also called a scattergram or scatter diagram

Scatterplots, showing patterns of correlations Perfect positive correlation (+1.00) No relationship (0.00) Perfect negative correlation (-1.00) Scatterplots, showing patterns of correlations

Height and Temperament of 20 Men Correlation Height and Temperament of 20 Men 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 80 63 61 79 74 69 62 75 77 60 64 76 71 66 73 70 68 90 42 81 39 48 72 57 30 84 Subject Height in Inches Temperament

Scatterplot of Height and Temperament Correlation 95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 Temperament scores Height in inches 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 Scatterplot of Height and Temperament

Statistical Reasoning Mode the most frequently occurring score in a distribution Mean the arithmetic average of a distribution obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores Median the middle score in a distribution half the scores are above it and half are below it

Distributions Outliers skew distributions. If group has one high score, the curve has a positive skew (contains more low scores) If a group has a low outlier, the curve has a negative skew (contains more high scores)

Statistical Reasoning A Skewed Distribution 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 90 475 710 70 Mode Median Mean One Family Income per family in thousands of dollars

Statistical Reasoning Range the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution Standard Deviation a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean

Central Tendency Mean, Median and Mode. Watch out for extreme scores or outliers. Let’s look at the salaries of the employees at Dunder Mifflen Paper in Scranton: $25,000-Pam $25,000- Kevin $25,000- Angela $100,000- Andy $100,000- Dwight $200,000- Jim $300,000- Michael The median salary looks good at $100,000. The mean salary also looks good at about $110,000. But the mode salary is only $25,000. Maybe not the best place to work. Then again living in Scranton is kind of cheap.

Statistical Significance You create an experiment to measure the effect of protein shakes on max bench press. Workout group – 155 pounds Non-workout group – 150 pounds Can we now say that drinking protein shakes makes you stronger? NO Statistical Significance: results must differ by a certain amount, otherwise they could be due to random chance alone