1. PSY 2012 General Psychology
Samuel R. Mathews, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The Department of Psychology
The University of West Florida

2. What is Psychology?
Science of mind and behavior
Science with multiple subspecialties
Science with focus on both generation and application of knowledge

3. What psychology is and what it is not
Common sense
Faith or belief
Personal hunch
Folk lore
What it IS
Scientific
Skeptical
Publicly evaluated
Empirical
Systematic
Analytic

4. Student Learning Objectives (Chap1)
Understand the roles of psychologists;
Understand historic (text only) and contemporary perspectives (text & lecture) held by those in the field of psychology;
Understand the scientific approaches used by those conducting research in the field of psychology;
Understand the ethical considerations as they apply to the science and practice of psychology

5. Roles of Psychologists
Researchers
Basic Researchers
Applied Researchers
Professors/Teachers
University
Community/Junior College
High School
Applied Fields
Industrial/Organizational Psychologist
Human Factors Psychologist
Clinical Psychologists (different from Psychiatrists)
School Psychologists
Sports Psychologists

6. Contemporary Perspectives on Psychology
Biological—understanding how evolutionary, genetic, and physiological, forces impact one’s thoughts, feelings and behavior
Developmental—understanding how the individual’s processes of maturation interact with the culture to impact one’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior

7. Contemporary Perspectives on Psychology
Cognitive—understanding how the mind senses, interprets, and processes information from the environment and from our memories; related topics include:
Memory
Decision-making
Problem-solving

8. Contemporary Perspectives on Psychology
Clinical—understanding mental health and mental disorders
Psychoanalytic—mental disorders derive from the unconscious;
Humanistic—individuals are self-directed and their behavior is related to inner feelings, self concept, etc.,
Cognitive Behavioral—mental disorders are based on one’s interpretations of events and behavioral responses to those interpretations

9. Contemporary Perspectives on Psychology
Behavioral—understanding how events in the environment impact our behaviors; little or no concern with internal states
Trait—understanding how stable dimensions of personality relate to behaviors
Sociocultural—understanding how the social and cultural forces impact mental and behavioral outcomes

10. Contemporary Perspectives on Psychology
Biopsychosocial—this perspective reflects much of the current thinking in psychology, particularly among cognitive behavioral, developmental, sociocultural, and biological perspectives

11. Current Perspective
Sociocultural
Biological
Psychological

12. The Science of Psychology
systematic inquiry into natural phenomena
Psychology:
science of mind and behavior
Science of Psychology:
systematic inquiry into the mind and behavior

13. Values of a Psychological Scientist
Empirical—can be observed or measured
Skeptical—never quite completely convinced
Public—methods and results are made public
Evaluative—research findings and conclusions are evaluated by others
Tentative—always seek to know more
Rational—logically consistent

14. Variables
A variable is any construct that can assume more than one value
Independent Variable—a variable that is the potential cause of a change in some other variable
Dependent Variable—a variable that can be modified through a change in the independent variable
Confounding variable—a variable not under control of the researcher that causes an unexplained outcome

15. Scientific Method Develop the hypothesis or research question
Perform a test of the hypothesis or study to answer the question
Gather and tabulate data
Analyze data
Interpret findings
Publish and subject study to critique

16. Categories of Psychological Research
Experimental:
Manipulation of key independent variables (the causes of a change in the dependent variable)
Control of other related variables
Measurement of dependent variable (the variable affected by the independent variable)
Random assignment of participants to various manipulations of the independent variable.
With a true experiment, cause-effect relationships can be inferred.

17. Example of Experiment
Rschr is interested in how a study strategy effects students in a statistics course:
Randomly assigns students to two groups
Group A receives a problem-solving based strategy from Professor A
Group B receives a strategy on memorizing formulae from Professor B
Students are tested on statistical concepts following exposure to the strategies

18. Example of Experiment
Which is the independent variable (hint: what did the experimenter control?)?
Which is the dependent variable (hint: what did the experimenter predict would be different based on the independent variable?)?
What is the counfounding variable (hint: what is a difference between the groups outside the independent variable?)?

19. Categories of Psychological Research
Correlational Studies
Usually designed to assess
The strength of the relationship between two or more variables
The direction of the relationship between two variables (positive, negative, or zero correlation)
Variables typically cannot be manipulated
Participants typically cannot be randomly assigned
Cause-effect can NOT be inferred

20. Example of a Correlational Study
Rschr wishes to understand the relationship between stress and grades on a test of mathematical skills.
Researcher measures stress prior to the test;
Students complete a test of college algebra;
Researcher discovers that scores of those who have higher stress are lower than those who have lower stress.
Researcher concludes that stress causes lower test grades.
What other factors might be at the root of the relationship?

21. Categories of Psychological Research
Other Methods of Conducting Psychological Research
Surveys—self reports by the participants about their thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, etc.; can lead to large numbers of respondants;
Naturalistic Observations—individuals observe participants in their natural setting (e.g. classroom, park, store) with no intent on manipulating the setting.
Case Studies—researcher gathers indepth data on a single individual, group, or organization.

22. Sources of Bias in Research
Personal bias
Observer bias
Expectancy bias
Bias could affect the way an experimenter designs a study, collects data, or interprets results
Researchers must also attempt to control confounding variables

23. Ethical Issues in Psychological Research
For human participation:
Researcher must guarantee that
Participation is Voluntary
Results are confidential
Results are anonymous
Participant may withdraw from study at any time with no penalty
Benefits of the research outweigh the risks
Participants may receive final report of the study

24. Ethical Issues in Psychological Research
Protected classes may not give voluntary consent:
Minors under the age of eighteen;
Individuals who have been judged not competent to give consent (e.g. mental health issues)
Prisoners
In these cases those with legal custody must provide consent in addition to the participant.

25. Thought Questions: Chapter 1
If a psychologist held the view that all human conflicts arose as a result of internal drives, how would you classify that individual based on our discussion and the text? Why?
A psychological researcher was interested in how individuals’ problem-solving skills changed as the individual matured across the lifespan. How would you classify that individual? Why?

26. Thought Questions: Chapter 1
In a popular newspaper, a report held that a survey indicated children who came from homes at or below the poverty level performed more poorly in school and were involved in more crimes.
What is your interpretation of that finding?
What questions would you have of the researcher?
One of your friends who read the same article said “All we need to do is get those people to work…then all our problems would be solved.”
How would you respond?

27. Thought Questions: Chapter 1
If you wanted to better understand the findings in the study and its implications, what might you do?
What sources might you try to access?