1. Chapter 1
Thinking Critically with Psychological Science

2. Chapter Overview The history and trends in psychology
The big question: Nature vs. Nurture
Bio-psycho-social levels of analysis
Psychology’s subfields
The Scientific Attitude: Curiosity, Skepticism, Humility
Description, Correlation, and Experimentation
Click to reveal all bullets.
Instructor: Of course, it would be good to see what questions your students have. You can ask what their favorite item was from the examples given by Myers, some of which are implied in the more general questions above.
Another question relating to the nature/nurture debate: How much of my identity, my traits, my moods, and my behavior is influenced by my genes? How much of these are produced by conditioning and other experiences?

3. Pre-contemporary Psychology
Prescientific Psychology………..everything<1879
Is the mind connected to the body or distinct?
Are ideas inborn or is the mind a blank slate filled by experience?
Do we have a soul?
When did we first begin
asking these questions?
How long have we been here?
Psychology has roots in
Biology and Philosophy
Click to reveal information about Aristotle.
Instructor: a comment you can make along with this slide:
Obviously, people thought about the nature of behavior and the mind in the 2,000 years between Aristotle and Wilhelm Wundt. However, in this class, we are mostly concerned with psychological thinkers and ideas of the last two centuries.
Click to reveal information about Wundt.
Instructor: Below are these two points stated in more detail:
1) Carefully measured observations are detailed enough to measure “the atoms of the mind” (basic human mental processes).
2) Experiments refer to controlled activities allowing psychologists to study one “atom” (mental process) well.

4. From speculation to science: The Birth of Modern Psychology
________________ (4th century BCE) had ideas about how the body and mind work. His method: making guesses.
_____________________( ) added two key elements to help make psychology a science:
carefully measured observations
experiments
Click to reveal information about Aristotle.
Instructor: a comment you can make along with this slide:
Obviously, people thought about the nature of behavior and the mind in the 2,000 years between Aristotle and Wilhelm Wundt. However, in this class, we are mostly concerned with psychological thinkers and ideas of the last two centuries.
Click to reveal information about Wundt.
Instructor: Below are these two points stated in more detail:
1) Carefully measured observations are detailed enough to measure “the atoms of the mind” (basic human mental processes).
2) Experiments refer to controlled activities allowing psychologists to study one “atom” (mental process) well.

5. Why were the times different?
Wilhelm Wundt’s ______ experiment measured the time it took for people to:
Push a button when a ball dropped (based on when they heard the ball hit a platform): 1/10th of a second.
Push a button when consciously aware of hearing the ball hit the platform: 2/10ths of a second.
Why were the times different?
Click to reveal two parts of experiment and again for the question.
Instructor: You could try to get discussion going on whether our conscious choice of pushing a button is just an illusion of choice that happens after the fact. However, the real issue is that the delay is caused by the time it takes, however small, to consciously form an idea that a sound has been heard. Still, you can use this to highlight the limited value of introspection… coming up next.

6. William James: Emphasized the school of thought that Psychological processes have a function: __________________________________________________________________________________________________
The developer of functionalism, William James ( ), asked: How did the human style of thinking and behavior enable our ancestors to live long enough to reproduce?
James mentored another pioneer
Click to reveal bullets.
Instructor:
The functionalist approach, closely related to evolutionary thinking and sometimes presented as the evolutionary approach, will come up many times in the text. Examples: Anxiety may have helped ancestors avoid dangers and plan to prevent future dangers. Getting conditioned to phobically avoid food after one experience is good for not getting poisoned.
The bullet points with more detail:
William James developed functionalism: studying human thoughts, feelings and behaviors and asking: What function might it serve? How might it have helped our ancestors to survive long enough to pass on these traits?
He spent 12 years writing Principles of Psychology, a summary of the new science (1890, but ideas still used).
William James

7. Psychology Pioneers
_____________________ ( ) became a memory researcher and the first female president of the APA.
She studied with William James but was denied a Harvard PhD. Why?
___________________.
Click to reveal bullets.
Calkins studied with William James but was denied a Harvard PhD because of her gender. She declined a degree offered by Radcliffe College. She taught at Wellesley College from 1891 to 1929.
APA = American Psychological Association. The “experimental psychology organization” was similar in mission to today’s Association for Psychological Science.

8. Shifting definitions of “psychology”
Now we combine these definitions: “The scientific study of human behavior and mental processes.”
Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener, around 1900: “The science of mental life.”
John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner, behaviorists, 1920’s: “The scientific study of observable behavior.”
Cognitive psychologists, 1960’s, studied internal mental processes, helped by neuroscience.
Click to show each stage, then click again to show the combined definition.
Mention that there will be more on these later, especially behaviorists when we study Learning.

9. Trends in Psychology: Freudian/Psychoanalytic Psychology
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud, founder of _________________________:
He studied and helped people with a variety of mental disorders.
More about Freud when we study personality and therapy
Click to reveal more information about Freud.
Instructor: you could mention that there will be more info on these later in the course, both in the study of personality and the study of psychotherapy.

10. Trends in Psychological Science: Behaviorism
John B. Watson
Behaviorists study and experiment with observable behavior.
Watson experimented with conditioned responses.
Skinner studied the way consequences shape behavior.
Like other behaviorists, he saw little value in introspection.
B. F. Skinner
Click to reveal information about Watson and then Skinner.
You can remind your students that we will be learning more about behaviorist study of human behavior in Chapter 7 on Learning.

11. Trends in Psychology: Humanism
Abraham Maslow
Humanists: Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers (1960s):
studied people who were thriving rather than those who had psychological problems.
developed theories and treatments to help people to feel accepted and to reach ________________________.
Click to reveal more information about Maslow and Rogers.
Instructor: You could mention that there will be more info on these later in the course, both in the study of personality and the study of psychotherapy.
Carl Rogers

12. Trends in Psychology: Evolutionary/Biological Evolutionary Psychology
is an approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as social behavior, memory, perception, and language from a modern evolutionary perspective.
It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations – that is, the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection. 
Click to reveal more information about Maslow and Rogers.
Instructor: You could mention that there will be more info on these later in the course, both in the study of personality and the study of psychotherapy.

13. Trends in Psychology: Biological Psychology Nueroscience
Concerned primarily with the relationship between psychological processes and the underlying physiological events.
Its focus is the function of the brain and the rest of the nervous system in activites (e.g. thinking, learning, feeling, sensing) recognized as characteristic of human and other animals.
Click to reveal more information about Maslow and Rogers.
We will spend time in the class learning about the brain, nuerotransmitters, and the nervous system.
Instructor: You could mention that there will be more info on these later in the course, both in the study of personality and the study of psychotherapy.

14. Trends in Psychology:
Pre Contemporary Psychology (Greeks, Arabs, Asians and others)
Structuralism & Functionalism(Wundt & James)
Gestalt Psychology (Wertheimer)
Psychoanalysis(Freud)
Behaviorism(Watson, Pavlov & Skinner)
Humanism (Rogers & Maslow)
Cognitive Psychology (Beck & Ellis)
Biological/Evolutionary Psychology (Focus on brain functioning and evolutionary forces)
Click to reveal more information about Maslow and Rogers.
Instructor: You could mention that there will be more info on these later in the course, both in the study of personality and the study of psychotherapy.

15. Structuralism Psychoanalysis
Wundt Hall Titchner Freud Jung Horney Erikson
Behaviorism Humanism
Watson Skinner Pavlov Bandura Rogers Maslow
Click to reveal more information about Maslow and Rogers.
Instructor: You could mention that there will be more info on these later in the course, both in the study of personality and the study of psychotherapy.
Functionalism Cognitive Gestalt
James Dewey Piaget Beck Ellis Wertheimer

16. Cognitive perspective
There are many perspectives for describing psychological phenomena:
From different angles, you ask different questions:
Cognitive perspective
Social-cultural
Behavioral genetics
Neuroscience
Psychodynamic
Behaviorist
Evolutionary
How reliable is memory? How can we improve our thinking?
Could our behavior, skills, and attitudes be “downloads” from our culture?
Could our behavior, skills, and attitudes be genetically programmed instincts?
What role do our bodies and brains play in emotions? How is pain inhibited? Can we trust our senses?
All the trends and psychologist we covered earlier have leds us to where we are now
Cognitive: emphasized the role of thinking in our behavior…
Social –cultural; emphasized the role of society and culture on behavior….how our behaviors are influenced by social…and cultural influences.
Behavioral genetics: explore the relative influence of genes…genetic …what % of depression, intelligence is genetic…this is done through adoption and twin studies…
Why do you think that these studies are done with twins?
Nueroscience: impact of brain and brain chemistry on behavior
Psychodynamic: exploring unconscious forces on influence…frued’s ideas
Behaviorirst: focus on environmental influences on behavior…skinner and watson
Evolutionary: explores role of evolution on behavior…how have we been shaped to behave a certain way.
Do inner childhood conflicts still plague me and affect my behavior?
How are our problematic behaviors reinforced? How do our fears become conditioned? What can we do to change these fears and behaviors?
Why are humans prone to panic, anger, and making irrational judgments?

17. The Big Issue in Psychology: N-N
The Nature- Nurture Question:
To what extent are our traits already set in place at birth (our “Nature”)?
And to what extent do our traits develop in response to our environment/ experience (our “Nurture”)?
Click to reveal text.

18. Plato: Ideas such as “the good” and “beauty” are inborn.
Aristotle:
All knowledge comes through the senses.
Descartes: Some ideas are innate.
Nature
Nurture
vs.
____________________: Some traits become part of our nature through natural selection: they help us survive long enough to pass the traits to the next generation.
______________:
The mind is a blank slate (blank chalkboard or screen) “written on” by experience.
Click to reveal five bubbles of different perspectives.

19. We have differences that are shaped by our environment.
We share a common origin that gives us an inborn human nature in common.
We have differences that are shaped by our environment.
Nature +
Nurture
Click to reveal the new nature and nurture bubbles.
This interplay of nature and nurture may be more complex in humans than any other species.
Another way of looking at this, suggested in the text: Behaviors can be seen as “pushed” (constrained, really) by biology, and “pulled” (influenced) by the environment.

20. Biology Plus Environment..
are part of psychology’s three
“______________” levels of analysis.
The outer level, Environment: social Influences, culture, education, relationships
The deep level, Biology:
genes, brain, neuro-transmitters, survival, reflexes, sensation
In the middle, Psychology: thoughts, emotions, moods, choices, behaviors, traits, motivations, knowledge, perceptions
Click to reveal three levels.

21. The three levels as influences on some psychological phenomenon
Example: Depression
Example: Enjoying Soccer
Example: Intelligence
Example: Shyness
Click to start animation example.

22. Psychology’s Subfields
Basic research
Biological
Developmental
Cognitive
Personality
Social
Positive Psychology
Applied
Clinical Psychology
Counseling Psychology
Educational Psychology
Industrial-Organizational
Community Psychology
No animation.
Instructor: This slide lists categories that are covered in more depth in the next two slides.

23. Scientific Attitude Part 1: Curiosity
Definition:
always asking new questions
“That behavior I’m noticing in that guy… is that common to all people? Or is it more common when under stress? Or only common for males?”
Hypothesis: Curiosity, if not guided by caution, can lead to the death of felines and perhaps humans.
Click through to reveal all text boxes.
More thoughts and questions that might emerge from curiosity:
guessing at WHY something happens.
wondering if two events or traits tend to go together, or even one causes the other.
wondering if there are predictable patterns in people’s behavior or traits.
Comment you can add: “These guesses and wonderings sometimes take the form of ‘hypotheses,’ such as: “Curiosity, if not guided by caution, can lead to the death of felines and perhaps humans.” The hypothesis refers to “curiosity killed the cat.” The human example: “what could possibly go wrong?”

24. Scientific Attitude Part 2: ____________
Definition:
not accepting a ‘fact’ as true without challenging it; seeing if ‘facts’ can withstand attempts to disprove them
Skepticism, like curiosity, generates questions: “Is there another explanation for the behavior I am seeing? Is there a problem with how I measured it, or how I set up my experiment? Do I need to change my theory to fit the evidence?”
Click through to reveal text boxes.
Instructor:
The Amazing Randi is of course an example of a skeptic; he didn’t just accept confirming evidence but thought of a situation which might really test whether people could see auras.

25. Scientific Attitude Part 3: Humility
Humility refers to
seeking the truth rather than trying to be right; a scientist needs to be able to accept being wrong.
“What matters is not my opinion or yours, but the truth nature reveals in response to our questioning.” David Myers
Click through to reveal text boxes.
Instructor: Scientists put all three traits together when they doubt and challenge their own theories.
Some of the enemies of humility are overconfidence, confirmation bias, and belief perseverance.

26. Look for hidden assumptions and decide if you agree.
Consider if there are other possible explanations for the facts or results.
Look for hidden bias, politics, values, or personal connections.
____________________________: analyzing information, arguments, and conclusions, to decide if they make sense, rather than simply accepting it.
See if there was a flaw in how the information was collected.
Put aside your own assumptions and biases, and look at the evidence.
Click to reveal five circles.

27. Scientific Method: Tools and Goals
The basics:
Theory
Hypothesis
Operational Definitions
Replication
Research goals/types:
Description
Correlation
Prediction
Causation
Experiments
You will need to be familiar with these terms and concepts
Take extra time to understand these terms
Automatic animation.

28. Research goal and strategy: Description
Descriptive research is a systematic, objective observation of people.
Strategies for gathering this information:
Case Study: observing and gathering information to compile an in-depth study of one individual
Naturalistic Observation: gathering data about behavior; watching but not intervening
Surveys and Interviews: having other people report on their own attitudes and behavior
The goal is to provide a clear, accurate picture of people’s behaviors, thoughts, and attributes.
Click to reveal three strategies for gathering information.
“Attributes” here refers to age, gender, income, and other labels that might sort people into categories in our studies. Note that all categories are culturally determined.

29. __________________ Examining one individual in depth
Benefit: can be a source of ideas about human nature in general
Example: cases of brain damage have suggested the function of different parts of the brain (e.g. Phineas Gage seen here)
Danger: overgeneralization from one example; “Joe got better after tapping his foot, so tapping must be the key to health!”
Click to reveal bullets.
“The plural of anecdote is not evidence” quote in the book has appeared in many versions, including the original quote that the plural of anecdote IS data. The key is whether data is collected and analyzed systematically. That’s where the next two topics take steps in the right direction..

30. Naturalistic Observation
Observing “natural” behavior means just watching (and taking notes), and not trying to change anything.
This method can be used to study more than one individual, and to find truths that apply to a broader population.
Click to reveal bullets.

31. The Survey
Wording effects
the results you get from a survey can be changed by your word selection.
Example:
Q: Do you have motivation to study hard for this course?
Q: Do you feel a desire to study hard for this course?
Definition: A method of gathering information about many people’s thoughts or behaviors through self-report rather than observation.
Keys to getting useful information:
Be careful about the wording of questions
Only question randomly sampled people
Click to reveal all bullets on right.
Something to say before clicking-in the second bullet: “A survey generally covers more people than naturalistic observation, so it may find truths that apply to an even broader population, IF you do it right.”
The next slides are about doing it right.
Click to reveal sidebar.
“The wording effect can be manipulated: use your critical thinking to catch this. Someone wanting to make students look ambitious would choose the first question, while someone wanting to make students look lazy could choose the second.”

32. Random Sampling
population
If you want to find out something about men, you can’t interview every single man on earth.
Sampling saves time. You can find the ratio of colors in this jar by making sure they are well mixed (randomized) and then taking a sample.
sample
__________________is a technique for making sure that every individual in a population has an equal chance of being in your sample.
Click to reveal bullets and example.
If this is done right, a few thousand people, randomly selected, can be an adequate predictor of the population of a country of 350 million people.
Click to reveal definition of random sampling. (two parts)
You can add: “If the red balls were larger than the other colors, it would be harder to get a random sample by shaking the jar (counterintuitively, the larger ones would rise to the top….)”
“Random” means that your selection of participants is driven only by chance, not by any characteristic.

33. In a case study: The fewer hours the boy was allowed to sleep, the more episodes of aggression he displayed.
A possible result of many descriptive studies: discovering a __________
In a naturalistic observation: Children in a classroom who were dressed in heavier clothes were more likely to fall asleep than those wearing lighter clothes.
Correlation
General Definition: an observation that two traits or attributes are related to each other (thus, they are “co”- related)
Scientific definition: a measure of how closely two factors vary together, or how well you can predict a change in one from observing a change in the other
Optional: Click for 3 fictional examples.
In a survey: The greater the number of Facebook friends, the less time was spent studying.

34. Correlation Coefficient
The correlation coefficient is a number representing how closely and in what way two variables correlate (change together).
The direction of the correlation can be positive (direct relationship; both variables increase together) or negative (inverse relationship: as one increases, the other decreases).
The strength of the relationship, how tightly, predictably they vary together, is measured in a number that varies from 0.00 to +/
Guess the Correlation Coefficients
Height vs. shoe size
Years in school vs. years in jail
Height vs. intelligence
Click to reveal bullets and example. Click again to reveal answers.
Close to +1.0
Close to
-1.0
Close to
0.0
(strong positive correlation)
(strong negative correlation)
(no relationship,
no correlation)

35. If we find a correlation, what conclusions can we draw from it?
Let’s say we find the following result:
there is a positive correlation between two variables,
ice cream sales, and
_______________________
How do we explain this?
Optional Slide, introducing the concept on the next slide, “correlation does not mean causation.”
Click to reveal bullets.
Possible explanations for this correlation:
“Does ice cream cause crime?
Does violence give people ice cream cravings?
Is it because daggers and cones look similar?
Perhaps both are increased by a third variable: hot weather.”

36. Correlation is not Causation!
If this data is from a survey, can we conclude that flossing might prevent heart disease? Or that people with heart-healthy habits also floss regularly?
“People who floss more regularly have less risk of heart disease.”
“People with bigger feet tend to be taller.”
Optional slide. Click to reveal two examples and questions.
Not even if one event or change in a variable precedes another can we assume that one event or variation caused the other; the correlation between the two variables could still be caused by a third factor.
If the data is from a survey, we are presuming that the respondents answered accurately and/or truthfully.
Does that mean having bigger feet causes height?

37. Summary of the types of Research
Comparing Research Methods
Research Method
Basic Purpose
How Conducted
What is Manipulated
Weaknesses
Descriptive
To observe and record behavior
Perform case studies, surveys, or naturalistic observations
Nothing
No control of variables; single cases may be misleading
Correlational
To detect naturally occurring relationships; to assess how well one variable predicts another
Compute statistical association, sometimes among survey responses
Nothing
Does not specify cause-effect; one variable predicts another but this does not mean one causes the other
Click to reveal row for each research method.
Experimental
To explore cause-effect
Manipulate one or more factors; randomly assign some to control group
The independent variable(s)
Sometimes not possible for practical or ethical reasons; results may not generalize to other contexts