Unit One Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods, and Critical Thinking

Psychology’s Major Perspectives A Story; On June 20 th, 2001, after her husband had left for work, Andrea Yates, drowned her 5 children in the family bathtub. She told the police that she drowned the children to save them from burning in hell. A jury rejected her insanity defense, and she was sentenced to serve life in a psychiatric prison…

The Andrea Yates Story …In January 2005, a Texas Appeals Court Overturned her conviction because a psychiatrist for the prosecution had falsely testified that he had consulted for a Law and Order episode. The Appeals Court stated that the false testimony may have contributed to the jury’s rejection of Yates insanity defense. Prosecutors declined to discuss whether Yates would be retried. Her defense attorney said he would not seek her immediate release, because she was receiving “excellent mental health care.”

What Do You Think? Why do you think Andrea Yates murdered her children?

Perspectives Is the cause in her private mental functioning (cognitive perspective)? –She clearly had low self esteem –She believed she was possessed and that her scalp was marked with a 666. –She told the police that her children were not “developing correctly” and that drowning them was the only way to save them.

Perspectives Do we find the cause in her mental disorder that may have a biological basis? (neuroscience and behavior genetics perspectives)? –Mood disorders run in families and did in Andrea’s. –A sister an two brothers were on antidepressants –Research indicates that brain chemistry plays a role in psychological disorders. –Serotonin appears scarce in depression and Andrea took herself off of her medicine about a month before the murders. –Andrea’s husband claimed he had been pleading with doctors to prescribe his wife Haldol, used to treat individuals who hear voices or have delusional thoughts.

Perspectives Do we find the cause in her social environment (behavioral and socio-cultural perspectives)? –Why did her doctor take her off of ant-psychotic medicine? –Was it a family issue? –Andrea’s in-laws report that her husband Russell was not socially supportive. He claimed he had never changed a diaper. –How could he leave her alone with 5 children when she could barely take care of herself? –Why, after doctors strongly recommended no more children, did he continue to get her pregnant again? –Where was her extended family while all of this was going on?

What important idea does this case convey? Many factors shape human behavior! Why Did She Do It?

Are things Biological, Psychological, Social? What is the number one health threat in the United States? Obesity Two-Thirds of American adults are considered overweight and over half of them obese, double the rate of 40 years ago.

Are things Biological, Psychological, Social? The biology of obesity questions the notion that being overweight is simply a matter of weak will. –Evolutionary advantage? –Early humans who could store the most food were the most likely to survive. Was this passed on in genes? –“Hardwired to expend as little energy as possible.” (Psychologist Paul Rozin) –Twin Studies – Identical Twins? (body weight) –Genetics influence the number of fat cells

Are things Biological, Psychological, Social? A variety of Psychological factors may also contribute to obesity. –Clean our plate! “Eyes rule our bellies.” (Barbara Ralls) –Eat until it’s gone? M&M’s study. Small vs. Jumbo pack? –The more we restrain ourselves from eating, the more we will eat when we become anxious, depressed, or break a diet. We then binge.

Are things Biological, Psychological, Social? Finally, socio-cultural factors contribute to overeating as well. –America: “A culture of bigness.” “When someone comes to your house, the worst thing you can do is not give them enough food.” (Paul Rozin) –Quantity, not quality –Compared to the French, Americans eat much more, but enjoy it much less, often hurrying through every meal. –What kind of food is the most easily accessible? Healthy or unhealthy?

So…Are things Biological, Psychological, Social? “Everything is related to everything else.”

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Case Studies Definition: A detailed study of a single individual, group, or event. There are 4 major uses of the case study in behavioral research:

Case Studies 1.) A case study can be used as a source of insights and ideas, particularly in the early stages of investigating a specific topic. –Freud and his therapy clients (Psychoanalysis) –Piaget and his own children (Cognitive Development) -All case studies.

Case Studies 2.) Case studies may be used to describe particularly rare phenomena. –The study of presidential assassins is limited to case studies of a few people who have killed or tried to kill U.S. Presidents. –Investigations of mass murderers are also limited to case studies. –“The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.”

Case Studies 3.) Case studies can be used as psycho- biographies. –These involve using psychological theories in an attempt to understand the lives of famous people. Ghandi Da Vinci Martin Luther Nixon

Case Studies 4.) Case studies provide illustrative anecdotes. –Researchers and teachers often use case studies to illustrate general principles to students. –Scientists must often convince others and case studies help to do so.

Case Studies There are also at least 2 major limitations to case studies: –1.) They are virtually useless in providing evidence to test behavioral theories or treatments. The lives and events studied often occur in an uncontrolled fashion and without comparison information. No matter how reasonable a researchers explanations may be, you cannot rule out alternative explanations.

Case Studies –2.) Most case studies rely on the observations of a single investigator. We often have no way of assessing the reliability of that single researcher’s observations and interpretations. Because the researcher may have some sort of vested interest in the outcome of the study, one must always be concerned about the self-fulfilling prophecy.

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Flaws in Surveys What are some of the flaws that you can think of with surveys? –Wording –Audience –Order –Who is asking?

Flaws in Surveys Wording: –How can the wording of a survey influence the responses given? –“ Sex” vs. “Relations” –“Hate” vs. “Dislike” –“Love” vs. “Like”

Flaws in Surveys Audience: –How can the audience to which the survey is given influence the responses? Location and topic How are the questions asked?

Flaws in Surveys Order: –How can the order in which the questions are asked influence the responses? -1.) Do you think the actions of the Sept. 11 th attacks were wrong? -2.) Does is anger you that American soldiers are dying in Iraq? -3.) Do you think people in the Middle East are generally violent?

Flaws in Surveys Who is asking? –How could the person asking influence the answers given? Race Gender Background Inflection

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Random Samples Why is it important to have random samples in survey research? –Some fun statistics: 68% of people roll toilet paper over the spool 79% squeeze toothpaste from the top 7% look behind the shower curtain when using someone else’s bathroom 80% of people eat corn on the cob in circles instead of rows 10% of people have seen a ghost 7% of people have flossed their teeth with their own hair

Random Samples What was wrong with each one of those statistics? –Those responses were the results of only about 7,000 people out of 25,000 surveyed.

Random Samples Acquiring random samples is not as easy as it looks, but is very important to at least “attempt” to do with any survey. –American Idol (ughhh) How are their “phone or text in” surveys not as random as they seem? You better feel strong enough about your vote to want to pay $1.00 or whatever it is.

Random Samples Obtaining random samples for any purpose is difficult. The government has had no more success than the private sector. –The 1970 lottery to determine the order of the military draft was almost certainly unfair. –The 31 capsules for January were placed in the bin first, then the 29 for February, and so on until the 31 for the next December. –What do you think happened when the bin was not turned enough? The December Birthdays were drawn much earlier.

Correlation and Cause/Effect Misinterpretations What is Correlation? Seriously, who here knows? RELATIONSHIP….Not cause! Correlation should not be interpreted as a cause and effect. It is very easy to misinterpret correlation studies as a cause an effect issue, but this is not accurate. Pellagra example.

Correlation and Cause/Effect Misinterpretations A Story; In the early twentieth century, thousands of Americans in the South died from Pellagra, a disease marked by dizziness, lethargy, running sores, and vomiting.

Correlation and Cause/Effect Misinterpretations Finding that families struck with the disease often had poor plumbing and sewage, many physicians concluded that pellagra was transmitted by poor sanitary conditions. In contrast, Surgeon General Joseph Goldberger thought that the illness was caused by an inadequate diet.

Correlation and Cause/Effect Misinterpretations He felt that the correlation between sewage conditions and pellagra did not reflect a casual relationship, but that the correlation arose because the economically disadvantaged were likely to have poor diets, as well as poor plumbing. So, how was the controversy resolved?

Correlation and Cause/Effect Misinterpretations Well, the answer demonstrates the importance of the scientific method. To prove he was right, Goldberger not only had himself injected with the blood of a victim with sores all over his body, he found a victim with diarrhea and….ate his excrement! He did NOT come down with pellagra!

Correlation and Cause/Effect Misinterpretations To further make his case, Goldberger asked two groups from a Mississippi state prison farm to volunteer for an experiment. One group was given a high carbohydrate, low protein diet that Goldberger suspected to be the culprit, while the other received a balanced diet. Within months, the first group was ravaged by pellagra, while the second showed no signs of the disease.

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Mean, Median, Mode, and Range MEAN: The MEAN is the arithmetic average, the average you are probably used to finding for a set of numbers - add up the numbers and divide by how many there are: ( ) / 6 = 89 1/6.

Mean, Median, Mode, and Range MEDIAN: The MEDIAN is the number in the middle. In order to find the median, you have to put the values in order from lowest to highest, then find the number that is exactly in the middle: ^ since there is an even number of values, the MEDIAN is between these two, or it is 90. Notice that there is exactly the same number of values ABOVE the median as BELOW it!

Mean, Median, Mode, and Range MODE: The MODE is the value that occurs most often. In this case, since there are 3 90's, the mode is 90. A set of data can have more than one mode

Mean, Median, Mode, and Range RANGE: The RANGE is the difference between the lowest and highest values. In this case = 20, so the range is 20. The range tells you something about how spread out the data are. Data with large ranges tend to be more spread out.