1. Unit 1: Psychology’s Roots, Big Ideas, & Critical Thinking
Four Big Ideas in Psych
Why Do Psychology?
How do psychologists Ask & Answer Questions?

2. Unit 1: Psych’s Roots, Big Ideas, & Critical Thinking
1.) Objective 1: How has psychology’s focus changed over time?
early philosophers asked big questions about life
Wilhelm Wundt – “father of psychology”
start of psychology
1st psych lab
attempt to measure
Freudian Psychology
Study unconscious thoughts & childhood memories
500 BCE
1879
mental processes
1900
believed psychology was the
science of mental life

3. Objective 1: How has psychology’s focus changed over time?
John Watson & B.F. Skinner
“scientific study of observable behavior.”
no reference to
mental processes

4. Objective 1: How has psychology’s focus changed over time?
Humanistic Psychology
positive environment & growth potential
1990s
Cognitive Psychology
Back to studying mental processes
Study scientifically (brain scans, etc…)

5. Psychology… Science of Behavior Mental Processes AND logos = study of
psyche = soul

6. What event defined the start of scientific psychology?
ANSWER: Scientific psychology began in Germany in
1879 when Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology
Laboratory
ANSWER: It led the field back to its early interest in
mental processes and made them acceptable topics for
scientific study

7. Psychology’s Timeline – PsychSim5
3 pages
MAKE NEAT – use rulers
Slides – 13

8. Objective 2: What are psychology’s current perspectives & its subfields
FOCUS
Neuroscience (Biological)
How the body & brain enable emotions (pain messages, blood chemistry & mood, etc…)
Behavioral
How we learn observable responses (are we simply products of our environment)
Cognitive
How we encode, perceive/interpret, store & retrieve information
Psychodynamic
How behavior springs from unconscious drives & conflicts
Sociocultural
How behavior & thinking vary across situations & cultures
How the effects the mental
All behavior is a result of reward/punishment (no mental process)
How we solve problems – what we remember.
Cause of behavior is rooted in childhood & in unconscious

9. Objective 3: Explain the four big ideas that are themes throughout this course.
Critical Thinking is Smart Thinking
Behavior is a Biopsychosocial Event
We Operate With a Two-Track Mind (dual- processing)
Psychology Explores Human Challenges as Well as Human Strenghts

10. 1. Critical Thinking is Smart Thinking
science supports thinking that examines assumptions,weighs evidence, & tests conclusions
questions smart psychologists ask…
How do we know that?
Who benefits from this?
Is the conclusion based on science or intuition?

11. Critical Thinking & Statistics…
Theory 1:
Emergency room admissions caused by wife abuse increase after the Super Bowl especially in the city of the losing team.
Theory actually made up by group attempting to draw attention to the issue.
Point: Common sense is no substitute for science.
Just b/c something might be true doesn’t mean it is true.

12. Point: Pay attention to the significance of numbers.
Theory 2:
Talking on a cell phone while driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving.
Chances of being killed by a drunk driver are 18 in 1 million.
Chances of making a call on cell phone & being involved in a fatality accident are 13 in 1 million.
Difference of 5 in 1 million…..
Is that statistically significant? Meaning does the difference make a difference? Is 5 a big enough # that it didn’t just occur by chance?
Point: Pay attention to the significance of numbers.

13. You can have true statistics and still have false conclusions.
Theory 3: Men speak 10,000 word per day. Women speak 35,000 words a day; therefore women communicate more than men Is it possible to use many words and not say much? Is it possible to communicate without using words?
Point: It is possible to start with a statistic that is true and draw a wrong conclusion.
You can have true statistics and still have false conclusions.

14. 2. Behavior is a Biopsychosocial Event
psychologists must view behavior from many levels
Biological
Psychological
Social
Everything psychological is simultaneously biological
Nature – Nurture Debate

15. conscious and automatic (dual processing)
3. Two-Track Mind
conscious and automatic (dual processing)
We do things w/o knowing it
4. Exploring Human Strength
Positive Psychology (Martin Seligman)
build a “good life”
build a “meaningful life”

16. Does the finding strike you as surprising or not surprising?
Research has found people with low self-esteem are susceptible to flattery.
Research has found people with high self-esteem are susceptible to flattery.

17. Case Study: Andrea Yates
BIOLOGICAL
BEHAVIORAL
COGNITIVE
PSYCHODYNAMIC
Soc-Cul

18. Objective 4: What are some limits on or intuition and common sense?
Are lie detectors accurate?
Is eyewitness testimony reliable?
Does the death penalty prevent murder?
Do states with the death penalty have lower homicide rates have?
After states pass death penalty laws, do homicide rates go down?
Do homicide rates rise in states that abandon the death penalty? NO
If we ignore such questions, our gut may lead us down the wrong path. NO NO

19. Lab #1: Testing Intuition Experimenter: last name/class period Subject: last name
Trial # Switch Correct Wrong Stay Correct Wrong
20 Trials

20. Objective 4: What are some limits on or intuition and common sense?
HINDSIGHT BIAS
“I-knew-it-all-along-phenomenon”
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder”
“Out of sight is out of mind.”
If two opposite findings make sense, need science to prove.
No diary says “Today, the Hundred Years War began?”

21. How many seconds will it take you to unscramble the following 3 words?
WREAT
ETRYN
GRABE

22. WREAT = WATER ETRYN = ENTRY GRABE = BARGE OVERCONFIDENCE 10 seconds vs
3 minutes

23. Point to Remember…
Hindsight Bias & Overconfidence often lead us to overestimate our intuition.
Using the scientific method can help us separate reality from illusion.

26. A.Y. Perspectives Paper
After you have categorized your observations, you are to write a formal analysis of your findings.
In paragraph form, you will introduce A.Y. and her crime, define each perspective and select one piece of information from each perspective to explain A.Y.’s behavior

27. A.Y. Paper Rubric Paragraph 1: Intro to A.Y. crime (brief)
3 points
2 points
Paragraph 1: Intro to A.Y. crime (brief)
Paragraph 2: Define biological perspective & include one piece of evidence from A.Y. life to support this perspective.
Paragraph 3: Define behavioral perspective & include one piece of evidence from A.Y. life to support this perspective.
Paragraph 4: Define cognitive perspective & include one piece of evidence from A.Y. life to support this perspective.
Paragraph 5: Define psychodynamic perspective & include one piece of evidence from A.Y. life to support this perspective.
Paragraph 6: Define social-cultural perspective & include one piece of evidence from A.Y. life to support this perspective.
Paragraph 7: Conclude with which perspective you feel best explains why A.Y. did what she did. Must include explanation as to why you believe this.
25 points
Due Wednesday
3 points
3 points
3 points
3 points
3 points
5 points