1. Chapter 1: What Is Psychology?

2. Correcting Common Misconceptions
Psychology is about how you feel
Psychology is just the study of mental illness
Psychology is common sense

3. The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Defining Psychology
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Psychologists use the scientific method
Real-life application
Media portrayals
« Discussion Tip
Lead an in-class discussion on portrayals of psychologists in movies, newspapers, books, and television. Ask students how these portrayals reinforce the common misconceptions about the field of psychology.

4. Psychology Will Teach You About Critical Thinking
Analyze and evaluate information
Distinguish psychological information from pseudoscience
Be skeptical
Be a savvy consumer of information
Apply what you learn to your own life
« Teaching Tip
Have students locate a magazine or Internet article that presents pseudoscientific findings. Ask them to write a short paper addressing how the findings are not based on scientific procedures and how the conclusions of the study go beyond the actual data.
Goal 3 – Critical Thinking Skills. The concepts of critical thinking are presented in this section of the text.

5. Theories… what are they good for?
Benefits of theories
Criteria for good theory

6. Theories of Psychology
Early approaches
Structuralism, Functionalism, Psychoanalysis
Behaviorism
Humanists
Cognitive Psychology
« Teaching Tip
Provide students with a roll of paper. In groups, have the students create a timeline of the history of psychology, noting important events, places, and people.

7. Modern Perspectives and the Eclectic Approach
Seven orientations/views
Eclectic
Integration of several perspectives, more complete and complex picture of behavior
« Discussion Tip
Before outlining the field of psychology, ask students to identify what psychologists do, and write their comments on the board. Have students review this list and add to it after they have a better understanding of the specialties in the field.
Show students a short video that describes a person with a psychological disorder. Have students discuss how the person’s behavior would be interpreted from each of the modern psychological perspectives and from the eclectic approach.
« Teaching Tip
Have students find a newspaper or magazine article that discusses a particular behavior such as depression, obesity, or attraction. Ask them to write a brief paper that identifies which perspective(s) the author(s) suggest as the cause of the behavior.

8. Figure 1.2  Psychological Perspectives
Just as a photograph or a piece of art can be examined from many different angles, so too can behavior. We call these angles perspectives. Each offers a somewhat different picture of why people behave as they do. Taken as a whole, these perspectives underscore the complex nature of behavior.

9. Training to Be a Psychologist
Ph.D., Psy.D.
5-7 years past undergraduate
Trained in research
Basic
Applied
Bachelor’s and Master’s
Training and job opportunities
Work settings
Not psychiatry
« Technology Tip
Marky Lloyd’s Careers in Psychology Web site contains several resources for helping students plan careers and make choices.
A Student’s Guide to careers in the Helping Professions covers careers both within and outside psychology and provides information on typical job duties, job outlook, potential earnings, and required degrees.
« Discussion Tip
Have students identify how a general psychology course might be useful to different careers. Ask for examples of common jobs, and have the class generate a list of ways this class would be helpful in those careers. This should help students understand the practical uses for learning the material.

10. « Teaching Tip
Ask students to write a short paper indicating which specialty area of psychology they are most interested in and why. Have them address how their choice reflects their interests, hobbies, and/or personality.
« Discussion Tip
Have students identify how a general psychology course might be useful to different careers. Ask for examples of common jobs, and have the class generate a list of ways this class would be helpful in those careers. This should help students understand the practical uses for learning the material.
Goal 10 – Career Planning and Development. The various subfields of psychology are first presented on this slide. This should help students in better understanding the breadth and diversity of career fields in psychology.

11. « Teaching Tip
Ask students to write a short paper indicating which specialty area of psychology they are most interested in and why. Have them address how their choice reflects their interests, hobbies, and/or personality.
« Discussion Tip
Have students identify how a general psychology course might be useful to different careers. Ask for examples of common jobs, and have the class generate a list of ways this class would be helpful in those careers. This should help students understand the practical uses for learning the material.
Goal 10 – Career Planning and Development. The various subfields of psychology are first presented on this slide. This should help students in better understanding the breadth and diversity of career fields in psychology. 11

12. Control or change behavior
Goals of Psychology
Describe behavior
Predict behavior
Explain behavior
Control or change behavior
« Discussion Tip
To illustrate just how difficult it can be to describe behavior, ask students to describe what date rape is. How might psychologists’ difficulty in describing a behavior influence research on that topic?
« Technology Tip
Frostburg State University’s Cyberlab website links to tutorials, activities, and quizzes related to research in psychology.

13. Set of rules for gathering and analyzing information Steps
Scientific Method
Set of rules for gathering and analyzing information
Steps
Define and describe issue
Form a testable hypothesis
Types of hypothesis
Choose research strategy
Strategies fit with hypothesis
Populations and samples
Conduct study to test hypothesis
Analyze data

14. Strategies
Naturalistic
Case Study
Correlational
Experimental

15. Figure 1.7  Correlation
Correlation, a research method used for prediction, shows how two variables are related.

16. Correlation Coefficients
Number indicates strength of relationship
-1.00 to +1.00
Stronger correlations indicate greater relationship (away from 0); closer to 0 the weaker the relationship
Positive sign
As one variable increases the other increases
Negative sign
As one variable increases other decreases; inverse relationship

17. Cautions About Correlations
Does not show cause and effect relationship
Only shows that variables have a relationship, not what is the nature of that relationship
Relationship may be caused by a third variable
« Discussion Tip
To illustrate the nature of correlation and to make it more relevant to students’ lives, ask students to identify what variables would be related to their grade in your course. The variables should include factors both inside the classroom and outside the classroom (number of hours work, number of stressors experience, etc.). List these variables on the board. Then have students identify whether the variable is likely to show a negative or positive relationship with their grade. When students see all the variables that correlate with their grade, they can often then appreciate why causal statements cannot be made with correlational data.

18. Tests causal hypotheses
Experiments
Tests causal hypotheses
Characterized by control of variables and random assignment of participants
Independent (IV)
Dependent (DV)
Confounding are those that may influence relationship between IV and DV
Quasi-experiments
« Teaching Tip
Have students locate a psychological journal article in which an experiment is described, or bring some examples to class. In small groups, have students identify the independent, dependent, and controlled variables. Is the research a treu experiement or a quasi-experiment? Can they identify any confounding variables in the study?

19. Figure 1.9  Elements of an Experiment
The two main ingredients of an experiment are (1) that the variables in the study are controlled or manipulated and (2) that participants are randomly assigned to the conditions of the study. When these two conditions have been met, causal conclusions may be drawn.

20. Experiments: Advantages and Disadvantages

21. Ethical Guidelines for Participants
Institutional Review Boards
American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct
Informed consent
Confidentiality
Use of deception
– Debriefing
–Milgram study
« Technology Tip
Hanover College’s Psychological Research on the Net website allows interested students to take part in ongoing research projects that are collecting data over the Internet.
The American Psychological Association website details the Ethical Principles for Psychologists.

22. © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers
Ethics, cont.
Milgram Experiment:
© 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers