Introduction to Psychology What IS Psychology? Why should I care about it?

Textbook Definition “Psychology is the science of human nature. It’s all about studying the human mind and behavior so we can figure out why people think, feel and do what they do” - Johnston, 4, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Psychology

4 goals of Psychology 1.To describe what people do 2.To explain why people think, feel and act the way they do 3.To predict what, when and how they will do it 4.To change the parts of human behavior that cause us pain Goals taken from: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Psychology

How do we achieve the 4 goals?

1. Describing what people do Not as easy as it looks. Why? “No matter how hard we try not to, we see each other through the filters of out prior experiences, our cultural values, and our beliefs” The Complete Idiots Guide to Psychology. Example: After you’ve been dumped…

Let’s try it! We’ll start by making predictions about……..ME!

Observe MY artifact kit Take a few moments to look at my artifact kit closely Use a sheet of notebook paper and draw a line down the middle Number your paper 1-5 like so……. On the left column, write what you think each object is. On the right column write what you think the object represents about me. Take minutes to finish your paper.

How did you do? We’re your predictions about me accurate based on your observations of the 5 objects?

It’s not so easy! It’s not easy to gain an accurate understanding people based simply on observations. BUT that’s what psychologists try to do.

JOURNAL -Answer the following questions in your journal: -Journal: What is the point of psychology? Why would psychologists want to understand human nature? Why is it not an exact science? Homework: Make your own “Me Kit” Bring in 3 things that represent you to help your classmates and Ms. Rebecca understand you better. -Get class contract signed!

2. Why do people think, feel and act the way they do? “Psychologists look for connections between things that happen and how people respond”(Johnston,5). “People often seek therapy to make sense out of a painful situation. Even if we can’t change what has happened to us, understanding the reason it happened gives us a sense that maybe we can prevent it from happening again” (Johnston, 5).

3. Predicting what people will do The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Why would that be useful in everyday life? Relationships Problem: NOT always accurate. Real life doesn’t always follow theory.

4. Change behaviors that cause pain Psychologists want to help people to control behavior so they can run their lives more effectively. Example: stop drinking, communicate more effectively, cope with memories of a painful childhood etc.

Let’s start to apply some Psychology on ourselves! Think of the most upsetting thing that’s happened to you in the past 6 months. 1. Describe what happened (think about it like it happened to someone else so you can be objective. Write down who, what, when, where and how. 2. Explain what happened. WHY do you think this happened to you? What is the relationship between your own behavior and the situation?

Keep on writing! 3. Predict. Has this event happened before? Knowing yourself and those around you, how likely is it to happen again? How could you respond effectively if it did? 4. Control: What have you learned from this situation? What could you do to prevent it from happening again? How could you respond more effectively if it did? The Complete Idiots Guide to Psychology

It’s all about the science People used to think that human nature was a spiritual matter. In the late 1800s the first psychological laboratory was created and psychology as a science was born. Now researchers must look at evidence to prove or disprove their ideas about human beings. The Complete Idiots Guide to Psychology

How do we answer Psychological questions in a scientific way? 1. Be skeptical 2. Keep your values and opinions separate from your ideas and beliefs about the question at hand 3. Only ask questions that you can answer yourself 4. Show other people your results 5. Make sure other people can check your answers The Complete Idiots Guide to Psychology

Testing THEORIES and HYPOTHESES Theory: a set of assumptions used to explain or predict something. Example: Mental illness is a result of painful childhood experiences Hypothesis: what we would expect to happen if our theory is true Example: Abused children have problems when they grow up The Complete Idiots Guide to Psychology

Research Methods Descriptive studies: the researcher describes the behavior of a person or group of persons. Questions often start with “How often” or “How much” Example: How much violence does the average child see on television? The Complete Idiots Guide to Psychology

Correlational Research: Tries to assess the relationship between two aspects of human behavior. Example: Is there a relationship between watching violent television and a child’s aggressive behavior? Problems: How do you measure something like aggression? Correlation doesn’t necessarily mean that one thing causes another. The Complete Idiots Guide to Psychology

Experiments: Are used to see if there is a cause and effect relationship between things. The researcher does this by changing one thing (independent variable) and see what effect it has on the other (dependent variable). Example: If we want to find out if exposure to violent television caused children to be more aggressive, we might show children violent television one hour this week, ten hours the next, and five hours the week after that. At the end of each week we’d see how changing the tv watching time (independent variable) affected aggression levels (dependent variable)

Nothing’s perfect Even when psychologists do experiments, their results may be flawed. One reason for this is confounding variables: things that aren’t supposed to be a part of the experiment but creep in anyway and influence the results. The Complete Idiots Guide to Psychology

Different perspectives The human mind is really complicated. So, psychologists have a lot of different ideas about why people act and think the way they do. The next slide lists the 7 most popular perspectives today. In practice, psychologist apply the perspective that best deals with the problem at hand.

7 Perspectives 1. Biological Perspective 2. Psychodynamic Perspective 3. Behaviorist Perspective 4. Humanist Perspective 5. Cognitive Perspective 6. Sociocultural Perspective 7. Evolutionary Perspective

What do these perspectives mean? Your job is to choose one of the perspectives, explain the main idea of the perspective, and think of a problem that would be addressed using this perspective.