1. 7 Themes of Psychology

2. Theme One: Psychology Is Empirical
Knowledge acquired through observation
Research to test ideas
Requires skepticism
Data, documentation – where is the evidence?

3. Theme 2: Psychology Is Theoretically Driven
Theory: A system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations.
Theories link unrelated observations and tries to explain them.
Theoretical diversity – no single theory can adequately explain everything about a behavior.

4. Theme 3: Sociohistorical Context
Trends, events, issues, and values in society influence psychologies evolution
Progress in psychology affects trends
Cultural values can drive psychological study

5. Theme 4: Multiple Causes of Behavior

6. 5: Behavior Is Shaped By Cultural Heritage
Cultural influences exerts considerable influence over behavior
Culture: widely shared customs, beliefs, values, norms, institutions, and other products of a community that are transmitted socially across generations

7. 6. Heredity, Environment Influence Behavior

8. 7. People’s Experience is Highly Subjective
Sensation processing can be subjective
People see what they want to see
People see what they expect to see

9. Types of Psychology Biological Clinical – treatment
Cognitive – information processing
Counseling
Developmental: Prenatal until death
Educational
Industrial / Organizational
Personality
Psychometric – measurement
Social

10. Theoretical Approaches To Behavior
Psychoanalytic
Humanism
Behaviorism
Evolutionary
Cognitive
Biopsychosocial

11. Types of Research
Experimental: empirical, test hypothesis, use of Independent, Dependent, and Control Variable
Correlational Studies: Do Not Test causal relationships, test for relationship between two variables. - No Hypothesis to test
Surveys, Naturalistic Observation, Case Studies

12. RESEARCH Random Sample: Randomly choose participants
Random Assignment: Randomly assign participants into Control and Testing Group.