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

2. Why Are You Taking This Course?

3. What careers use psychology and how?

4. 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

5. Introduction to Psychology
Chapter One:
Introduction to Psychology
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6. Psychology as a Science By Payal Jain

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

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

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

10. Claim #4
Masturbation can lead to blindness in males.

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

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

13. 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
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14. PSEUDOSCIENCE
A discipline or approach that pretends to be or has a close resemblance to science
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15. SCIENTIFIC METHOD
A set of steps that are taken in a science to acquire new knowledge

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

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

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

19. 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)

20. TRUE OR FALSE
Misery loves company

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

22. 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!

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

24. 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
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25. Psyche + Science = Psychology (cont.)
Goals of psychology:
describe
predict
understand
influence
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26. Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.)
Functions of the conscious mind (cont.):
cognitive psychology:
perceiving, believing, thinking, remembering knowing, deciding, etc.
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27. Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.)
Behaviorism and social learning theory:
- behaviorism:
- Ivan Pavlov:
- classical conditioning
- John B. Watson
- Little Albert
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28. 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
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29. Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.)
Nature of the “unconscious mind”:
- psychoanalysis:
- Sigmund Freud:
- unconscious mind
- emotional conflicts
- motives:
- sexual
- aggressive
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31. Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.)
Nature of the “Unconscious Mind” (cont.):
- humanistic psychology:
- Abraham Maslow
- Carl Rogers
- Viktor Frankl:
- self-concept
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32. Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.)
Psychometrics:
Alfred Binet:
- measurement of mental functions
- Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
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33. Founding the Science of Psychology (cont.)
Neuroscience perspective:
- structures of the brain that play roles in:
- emotion
- reasoning
- speaking
- other psychological processes
- heredity
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34. Contemporary Perspectives and Specialty Areas in Psychology
Sociocultural perspective:
derived from social anthropology
cultural relativity
Diversity
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35. 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.

36. 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 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?

37. 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.

38. 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
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39. 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
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40. 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
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41. Research Methods in Psychology
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42. Basic Concepts of Research
Scientific method:
making observations in a systematic way,
following strict rules of evidence and
thinking critically about that evidence
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45. 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
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46. Basic Concepts of Research (cont.)
Theories:
tentative explanations of observations in
science
Hypothesis:
- prediction based on a theory
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47. Basic Concepts of Research (cont.)
Representativeness of samples:
sample:
- participants must be representative of
the total group
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48. 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
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49. 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
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50. Research Methods (cont.)
Descriptive studies (cont.):
- correlation coefficient:
- measures the strength of the correlation
between two quantitative variables
in statistical terms
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54. Research Methods (cont.)
Formal experiments:
- allow researcher to
draw conclusions
about cause-and-
effect relationships
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55. 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?

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

57. 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.

58. 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

59. 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?

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

62. Research Methods (cont.)
Elements and logic of formal experiments (cont.):
- blind formal experiments:
- experimenter bias
- double blind
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63. Ethical Principals of Research
Ethics of research with human participants:
- freedom from coercion
- informed consent
- limited deception
- adequate debriefing
- confidentiality
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64. Ethical Principals of Research (cont.)
Ethics of research with nonhuman animals:
- necessity
- health
- humane treatment
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65. 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.
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