1. Introduction to Psychology
Chapter 1
Introduction to Psychology
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Psychologists at Work
Learning Outcomes
Define science of psychology
Describe subfields of psychology
Psychologists try to describe, predict, and explain human behavior and mental processes, as well as helping to change and improve the lives of people and the world in which they live.
Subfields of psychology include experimental psychology, cross-cultural psychology, forensic psychology, developmental psychology and social psychology, among others.
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What is Psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes (p. 4)
What you can see
What you can’t see
Describe, predict, explain behavior and mental processes using the scientific method
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
The phrase behavior and mental processes means many things: it
encompasses not just what people do but also their thoughts, emotions,
perceptions, reasoning processes, memories, and even the
biological activities that maintain bodily functioning.
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4. The Subfields of Psychology
Behavioral neuroscience
Experimental psychology
Changes across the lifespan
Physical & mental health
Focus on those around us: social networks
Newer areas of study
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Working at Psychology
About 300,000 psychologists in the U.S.
50% men, 50% women, but number of women is growing
6% from racial minority groups
Most have doctoral degrees (Ph.D. or Psy.D.), while some have Master’s degrees
Psychologists are different from psychiatrists
Although there is no “average” psychologist in terms of personal characteristics, we can draw a statistical portrait of the field.
There are about 300,000 psychologists working today in the U.S. About half are men and half are women, though that is changing. Right now, almost 75% of new psychology doctorate degrees are earned by women.
Psychologists are different from psychiatrists, who are physicians who specialize in the treatment of psychological disorders.
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6. A Science Evolves: The Past, the Present, and Future
Learning Outcomes
Explain the roots of psychology
Discuss today’s perspectives on psychology
Apply psychology to your life
Summarize psychology’s key issues and controversies
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7. The Roots of Psychology
Wilhelm Wundt began the first psychology laboratory in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany
Structuralism
Functionalism
Gestalt psychology
The formal beginning of psychology as a scientific discipline is generally considered to be in the late nineteenth century, when, in Leipzig, Germany, Wilhelm Wundt established the first experimental laboratory devoted to psychological phenomena.
Structuralism: Wundt’s approach, which focuses on uncovering the fundamental mental components of consciousness, thinking, and other kinds of mental states and activities.
The perspective that replaced structuralism is known as functionalism.
Functionalism: An early approach to psychology that concentrated on what the mind does—the functions of mental activity—and the role of behavior in allowing people to adapt to their environments.
Gestalt (geh SHTALLT) psychology is an approach to psychology that focuses on the organization of perception and thinking in a “whole” sense rather than on the individual elements of perception.
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Today’s Perspectives
Neuroscience
Psychodynamic
Behavioral
Cognitive
Humanistic
Neuroscience perspective The approach that views behavior from the perspective of the brain, the nervous system, and other biological functions.
Psychodynamic perspective The approach based on the view that behavior is motivated by unconscious inner forces over which the individual has little control.
Behavioral perspective The approach that suggests that observable, measurable behavior should be the focus of study.
Cognitive perspective The approach that focuses on how people think, understand, and know about the world.
Humanistic perspective The approach that suggests that all individuals naturally strive to grow, develop, and be in control of their lives and behavior.
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9. Psychology and Your Life
Psychology helps solve practical problems
Terrorism
Aggression
Eyewitness accounts of crimes
Driving while using a cell phone
Obesity
See the Psychology Matters website of the American Psychological Association ( for more topics
There are many topics and questions that psychologists address on a daily basis. These can include broad areas such as “what causes terrorism?” and can also be as specific as “does using a cell phone really impair people’s driving ability?”
If you choose to further your study in psychology, it is important to note that it is a diverse area of study.
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10. Psychology’s Key Issues & Controversies
Nature (heredity) vs. nurture (environment)
Conscious vs. unconscious causes of behavior
Observable behavior vs. internal mental processes
Free will (choices) vs. determinism (behavior is produced by factors beyond one’s control)
Individual differences vs. universal principles
The field of psychology is more unified than a first glimpse might suggest. No matter what topical areas a psychologist specializes in, he or she will rely primarily on one of the five major perspectives.
Psychology is a unified science because psychologists of all perspectives agree that the issues must be addressed if the field is going to advance.
Consider opposing viewpoints on each issue as the opposing ends of a continuum, with the positions of individual psychologists typically falling somewhere between them.
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11. Research in Psychology
Learning Outcomes
Define the scientific method, list the steps involved
Describe how psychologists use research to answer questions of interest
Summarize the descriptive research method used by psychologists
Summarize the experimental research method used by psychologists
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The Scientific Method
Systematically acquiring knowledge and understanding about behavior and other phenomena (p. 24)
Step 1: Identifying questions of interest
Step 2: Formulating an explanation (theory – hypothesis)
Step 3: Carrying out research designed to support or refute the explanation
Step 4: Communicating the findings
If we were to rely on common sense to understand behavior, we’d have considerable difficulty, particularly because commonsense views are often contradictory.
One of the major undertakings for the field of psychology is to develop suppositions about behavior and to determine which of those are accurate.
Using the scientific method results in a systematic acquisition of knowledge.
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13. Psychological Research
The central focus of the scientific method is research
Descriptive Research
Archival research
Naturalistic observation
Survey research
Research is the systematic inquiry aimed at the discovery of new knowledge. This is the central ingredient of the scientific method in psychology.
It provides the key to understanding the degree to which hypotheses are accurate.
There are a number of different methods used to conduct research.
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14. Psychological Research (cont.)
Case study: intensive investigation of an individual or small group
Correlational research: two sets of variables are examined to see if they are associated
Positive correlation
Negative correlation
Correlation does not show causation!
When case studies are used as a research technique, the goal is often not only to learn about the few individuals being examined, but also to use the insights gained from the study to improve our understanding of people in general.
The inability of correlational research to demonstrate cause-and-effect relationships is a crucial drawback to its use.
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15. Experimental Research
Establish cause-and-effect relationships using formal experiments: deliberately producing a change in one variable and observing the effects of that change
Experimental group
Control group
Independent variable
All experiments include a set of key elements, which are important to keep in mind as you consider whether a research study is truly an experiment.
They include an independent variable, a dependent variable, a procedure that randomly assigns participants, and a hypothesis.
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16. Experimental Research (cont.)
Dependent variable
Random assignment to condition
Replication
One experiment alone does not forever resolve a question about human behavior. Psychologists require that findings undergo replication – they must be repeated – sometimes using other procedures, in other settings, with other groups of participants, before full confidence can be placed in the results of any single experiment.
Meta-analysis permits psychologists to combine the results of many separate studies into one overall conclusion.
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17. Research Challenges: Exploring the Process
Learning Outcomes
Explain the major ethical issues that confront psychologists conducting research
Discuss the issues related to testing on animals
Identify threats to experimental validity
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The Ethics of Research
Psychologists must follow strict ethical guidelines to protect research participants (see p. 36)
Participants must sign an informed consent document that says they understand the basic outline of the study and any risks, and are aware of what is involved
Psychologists must follow strict ethical guidelines to protect research participants.
Those guidelines involve the following safeguards:
■ Protection of participants from physical and mental harm
■ The right of participants to privacy regarding their behavior
■ The assurance that participation in research is completely voluntary
■ The necessity of informing participants about the nature of procedures
before their participation in the experiment
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19. Should Animals Be Used in Research?
Researchers ethically bound to minimize discomfort, illness, and pain, and to promote the psychological well-being whenever possible
But why use animals at all?
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20. Threats to Experimental Validity: Avoiding Experimental Bias
Experimental bias: factors that distort how the independent variable affects the dependent variable (ex., experimenter or participant expectations)
Placebo: A false treatment, such as a pill, without any significant chemical properties or active ingredients
To guard against participant expectations biasing the results of an experiment, the experimenter may try to disguise the true purpose of the experiments.
Sometimes, it’s impossible to do so. In that case, psychologists typically use a procedure in which all participants receive a treatment, but those in the control group receive a placebo, a false treatment. Because both groups are kept in the dark about whether they’re getting a real or false treatment, any differences in outcome can be attributed to the quality of a drug or treatment and not to any possible psychological effects.
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