1. What is Psychology? Chapter 1 Prepared by Michael J. Renner, Ph.D.
These slides ©2002 Prentice Hall Psychology Publishing.

2. Defining Psychology
Psychology is a discipline concerned with behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism's physical state, mental state, and external environment.
Discipline, refers to a specific branch of knowledge or learning.
Biology, Ancient History, Philosophy, Health Sciences, Forestry, Religion, Physics
All disciplines have in common a search for rules about how to believe and how to find “truth”.
Each discipline is committed to their rules as to how one finds “truth”. Psychology is a science.

3. The Science of Psychology
Science in the broadest sense refers to any system of objective knowledge. In a more restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on the scientific method (discussed later), as well as to the organized body of knowledge humans have gained by such research.
Fields of science are commonly classified along two major lines:
Natural sciences, which study natural phenomena
Social sciences, which study human behavior and societies.

4. Psychology, Pseudoscience, and Common Sense
Scientific Psychology bears little relationship to "Pop" Psychology
Fortune telling, numerology, graphology, and astronomy are not part of psychology
Psychology is not just a fancy name for common sense
Psychological research often produces findings that contradict popular beliefs
Again, psychology is based on empirical evidence which is: evidence gathered by careful observation, experimentation, and measurement.

5. The Birth of Modern Psychology
The Great Thinkers and Others
Aristotle (before 300 BC)–Theorized that a meal makes us sleepy by causing gas and heat to collect around the source of our personality (heart).
Hippocrates (c. 460 BC- c. 370 BC)
Observed patients with head injuries.
Franz Joseph Gall (around 1800)
Phrenology (see next slide)
Wilhelm Wundt
First psychological laboratory (atoms of the mind)
Trained Introspection

6. Bumpy Logic Phrenology was a 19th-century pseudoscience
No scientific basis
Phrenology linked bumps on the skull with character traits
From
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

7. Wundt argued that: "we learn little about our minds from casual, haphazard self-observation...It is essential that observations be made by trained observers under carefully specified conditions for the purpose of answering a well-defined question." (Principles of Physiological Psychology, translated by Edward Titchener, 1904)

8. The Birth of Modern Psychology
William James
Functionalism: An early psychological approach that emphasized the function or purpose of behavior and consciousness (focus on cause and consequences of behavior).
Sigmund Freud
Psychoanalysis: A theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy, originally formulated by Sigmund Freud, which emphasizes unconscious motives and conflicts

9. Five Major Theoretical Perspectives
Psychology's Present
Five Major Theoretical Perspectives
Biological Perspective
Learning Perspective
Cognitive Perspective
Sociocultural Perspective
Psychodynamic Perspective

10. The Five Perspectives Biological Perspective Learning Perspective
A psychological approach that emphasizes bodily events and changes associated with actions, feelings, and thoughts.
Learning Perspective
A psychological approach that emphasizes how the environment and experience affect a person's or animal's actions: It includes behaviorism and social-cognitive learning theories
Cognitive Perspective
A psychological approach that emphasizes mental processes in perception, memory, language, problem solving, and other areas of behavior

11. The Five Perspectives Sociocultural Perspective
A psychological approach that emphasizes social and cultural influences on behavior
Psychodynamic Perspective
A psychological approach that emphasizes unconscious dynamics within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts, or the movement of instinctual energy

12. What Psychologists Do Psychological Research
Basic- the study of psychological issues in order to seek knowledge for its own sake rather than for its practical application
Applied- The study of psychological issues that have direct practical significance; also the application of psychological findings.
Psychology in the Community
Athletics, animals, noise pollution, prevention, etc.
Psychological Practice
(see next slide)

13. Psychological Practice
Psychotherapist
Person who does psychotherapy; credentials and training vary
Clinical Psychologist
Has a doctoral degree: Ph.D., Ed.D., or Psy.D.
Psychoanalyst
Has specific training in psychoanalysis after an advanced degree (usually M.D. or Ph.D.)
Psychiatrist
A physician (M.D.) with specialization in psychiatry
Other professionals
Licensing requirements vary by state; generally at least an M.A. Can be social worker (LCSW), counselor (MFCC), or other.
After Table 1.2 from
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

14. Critical and Scientific Thinking in Psychology

15. Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking: The ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments on the basis of well-supported reasons and evidence, rather than emotion or anecdote
Guidelines for Critical Thinking
Ask Questions: Be willing to wonder
Define Your Terms Clearly and Concretely
Examine the Evidence
Analyze Your Assumptions and Biases
Avoid Emotional Reasoning
Don't Oversimplify
Consider Other Interpretations
Tolerate Uncertainty

16. The Scientific Method The goal of science is to develop general laws
The scientific method can lead to general laws
The scientific method consists of four steps
Observing a phenomenon
Formulating testable explanations
Further observing and experimenting
Refining and retesting explanations
The scientific method can be tedious and time consuming but the results are worth the effort
Note how the scientific method is applied in the Steps of the Research Process (see next slide)

17. Steps of the Research Process I.
Develop an idea and a hypothesis
Choose an appropriate research design
Choose an appropriate subject population
Decide on what to observe and how you will gather evidence
Conducting a study
Analyzing and summarizing data
Reporting results

18. Steps of the Research Process (II.)
Develop an idea and a hypothesis
Hypothesis- A statement that attempts to predict or to account for a set of phenomena; scientific hypotheses specify relationships among events or variables and are empirically tested
Principle of Falsifiability- The principle that a scientific theory must make predictions that are specific enough to expose the theory to the possibility of disconfirmation; that is, the theory must predict not only what will happen, but also what will not happen.
Choose an appropriate research design
There are two basic types
Correlational
Experimental

19. The Correlational Design
Correlation: A measure of how strongly two variables are related to one another
Variables: Characteristics of behavior or experience that can be measured or described by a numeric scale

20. Types of Correlations
Figure 1.02 from
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Positive correlation: Increases in one variable are associated with increases in the other; decreases are likewise associated
Negative correlation: Increases in one variable are associated with decreases in the other

21. The Experimental Design
Experiment: A controlled test of a hypothesis in which the researcher manipulates one variable to discover its effect on another.
Characteristics of the Experimental Design
Manipulation of one or more variables while holding all other variables constant.
Random Assignment- A procedure for assigning people to experimental and control groups in which individuals have the same probability as an other of being assigned to either group. This balances individual differences across the treatment conditions
Allow for testing of cause and effect

22. Experimental Variables
Independent Variable: A variable that an experimenter manipulates.
Dependent Variable: A variable than an experimenter predicts will be affected by manipulations of the independent variable.

23. Experimental & Control Conditions
Experimental Condition: In an experiment, a condition in which subjects are exposed to manipulations of the independent variable.
Control Condition: A comparison condition in which subjects are not exposed to the same treatment as in the experimental condition.

24. Experimental Design
Hypothesis: Nicotine in cigarettes impairs driving.
All conditions kept the same for both groups except nicotine.
Control condition is given placebo (inactive) cigarettes
Number of collisions is measured.
Figure 1.03 from
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

25. Placebo
An inactive substance or fake treatment used as a control in an experiment or given by a practitioner to a patient.

26. Experimenter Effects
Unintended changes in subjects’ behavior due to cues inadvertently given by the experimenter
Double-Blind Study: Experiment where neither subjects nor people running the study know which subjects are in the control group and which are in the experimental group until after results are tallied.

27. Advantages and Limitations of Experiments
Experiments allow conclusions about cause-effect relationships.
Participants in experiments are not always representative of larger population.
Much psychology research is carried out using colleges students as participants.
Field Research: Descriptive or experimental research conducted in a natural setting outside the laboratory.

28. Steps of the Research Process (II.)
Choose an appropriate subject population
Animals or Humans
Consider Your Sample
Decide on what to observe and how you will gather evidence
Operational Definition- A precise definition of a term in a hypothesis, which specifies the operations for observing and measuring the process or phenomenon being measured.

29. Methods of Gathering Evidence (I.) (Descriptive Studies)
Case Study Method
A detailed description of a particular individual being studied or treated.
Observational Study Method
Studies in which the researcher carefully and systematically observes and records behavior without interfering with that behavior; it may involve either naturalistic or laboratory observation.

30. Methods of Gathering Evidence (II.) (Descriptive Studies)
Test Method
Procedures used for measuring and evaluating personality traits, emotional states, aptitudes, interests, abilities, and values.
Standardize: To develop uniform procedures for giving and scoring a test.
Norms: Established standards of performance.
Reliability: Consistency of scores derived from a test.
Validity: The ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure.

31. Methods of Gathering Evidence (III.) (Descriptive Studies)
Survey Method
Using surveys or questionnaires and interviews that ask people directly about their experiences, attitudes, or opinions.
Representative Sample- A group of subjects, selected from a population, which matches the population on important characteristics.
Volunteer Bias- A shortcoming of findings derived from a sample of volunteers instead of a representative sample; the volunteers may differ from those who did not volunteer.

32. Steps of the Research Process (III.)
Conduct the study
Analyze and Summarize the data
Descriptive Statistics
Organize and summarize data
Arithmetic Mean- average
Interpretation needs to be looked at carefully as the mean describes overall group not individuals
Inferential Statistics
Assesses how likely the results of the study occurred by chance
Significance Test- out of 100 repetitions of the study what is the likelihood that the results were by chance
Usual acceptance or “significance level” is .05 or p= .05
Statistical significance does not prove that a result is important, only that it is reliable

33. Steps of the Research Process (IV.)
Analyze and Summarize the data (continued)
Data is used to form or change existing theory
Theory- An organized system of assumptions and principles that purports to explain a specified set of phenomena and their interrelationships.
Report Results
Scientific Journal
Professional Conference
Books

34. Different Research Methods
Cross-Sectional Study: Subjects of different ages are compared at a given time.
Longitudinal Study: Subjects are followed and periodically reassessed over a period of time