General Psychology: Handout No. 1

Mr. Von M. Lumberio

Instructor

I. Psychology as a Science

1. Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and

mental processes.

2. Theories: propose reasons for relationships among observed

events. Allows for prediction.

3. Goals of Psychology: Describe, Explain, Predict, & Control

Behavior.

II. What Psychologists Do

A. What Psychologists Do:

1. Pure research

2. Applied research

3. Practice psychology

4. Teaching

B. Fields of Psychology: as a “psychologist”

1. CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY. This deals and help people with

psychological disorders adjust to the demands of life.

2. COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY. Similar to clinical

psychologist but clients typically have adjustment problems

and not serious psychological disorders.

3. SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY. Usually in school systems to assist

students with problems that interfere with learning. One focus

is that of placement of students in special classes.

4. EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. Like school psychologists,

this deals to facilitation of learning but focus on course

planning, instructional methods. They focus on motivation,

intelligence, testing, and student and teacher behavior.

5. DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. Field which study the

changes, physical, cognitive, social and personality that occur

throughout the life span.

6. PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY. Focus on identifying and

measuring human traits, determining influences on human

thought processes, feelings, and behavior and explaining

psychological disorders.

7. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY. Primarily concerned with

individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior in social

situations.

8. ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. Study the ways in

which people and the environment influence one another.

9. EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. Conduct experiments and

specialize in basic processes such as the nervous system,

sensation and perception, learning and memory, thought,

motivation, and emotion.

10. INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY. Focus on the relationship

between people and work.

11. ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. Focus on the

relationship between people and organizations such as

business.

12. HUMAN FACTORS PSYCHOLOGY. Provides suggestions

and create technical systems such as dashboards, computer

keyboards, etc. to be more user-friendly.

13. CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY. Study the behavior of

shoppers in an effort to predict and influence their behavior.

14. HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY. Examines the ways in which

behavior and mental processes are related to health.

15. SPORT PSYCHOLOGY. Help people improve their

performance in various sports.

16. FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY. Apply principles of

psychology to the criminal justice system.

III. Where Psychology Comes From: A History

A. ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE)

1. Argued that human behavior is subject to rules and laws.

2. Subject matter by topic included: personality, sensation and

perception, thought, intelligence, needs and motives, feelings

and emotion, and memory.

B. DEMOCRITUS (around 400 BCE)

1. Suggested that we could think of behavior in terms of a body

and mind (interaction of biological and mental processes).

2. Behavior is influenced by external stimulation.

3. One of the first to raise the question of free will vs. choice

C. SOCRATES (c. 470-399 BCE)

1. We should rely on rational thought and introspection to

achieve self knowledge.

2. People are social creatures who influence each other.

D. GUSTAV THEODORE FECHNER (1801-1887)

1. Published his landmark book titled “Elements of

Psychophysics” in 1860, which showed how physical events

(light and sounds) are related to psychological sensations and

perceptions.

E. WILHELM WUNDT (1832-1920)

1. Most historians give the credit for being the founder of

psychology when in 1879 he established the first

psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany.

2. Saw the mind as a natural event that could be studied

scientifically.

3. Structuralism

a. School of thought founded by Wundt and his students.

b. Structuralism: attempts to break conscious experience

down into objective sensations such as sight, or taste, and

the subjective feelings such as emotional responses. They

believed that the mind functions by combining objective

and subjective elements of experience.

F. Functionalism

1. William James (1842-1919)

a. Major figure in the development of psychology.

b. James was the founder of functionalism or the idea that in

the study of individuals the focus should be on behavior as

well as the mind and consciousness. Functionalist look at

how experience helps us function more adaptively in our

environments.

c. They also turned to the laboratory for direct observation as

a way to supplement introspection.

d. James was also influenced by Charles Darwin’s (1809-

1882) theory of evolution; the fittest survive.

e. Functionalists adapted this theory suggesting that adaptive

behavior patterns are learned and maintained. Maladaptive

behavior patterns tend to drop out.

G. Behaviorism

1. Behaviorism is the school of psychology that focuses on

learning observable behavior.

2. John B. Watson (1878-1958)

a. Considered to be the founder of American Behaviorism.

b. Watson believed that if psychology wanted to be a science

then it must limit itself to observable, measurable events—

behavior—and nothing else.

3. B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

a. Believed that organisms learn to behave in certain ways

because they have been reinforced for their actions.

Behavior that has a positive outcome will tend to be

repeated.

b. Demonstrated that laboratory animals can be trained to

carry out behaviors through strategic use of reinforcers.

c. In principle, human behaviors can be explained in terms of

thousands of instances of learning through reinforcement.

H. Gestalt Psychology

1. Gestalt psychologists focused on perception and on how

perception influences thinking and problem solving.

2. Wertheimer (1880-1943), Koffka (1886-1941), and Kohler

(1887-1967); the three founders of Gestalt psychology.

3. Gestalt translates to “pattern” or “organized whole.”

4. Demonstrated that learning is accomplished by insight, not by

mechanical repetition.

5. Much learning can be accomplished by insight, not by

mechanical repetition. Perceptions are more than the sums of

their parts.

6. Kohler’s research showed that chimpanzees can benefit from

“insight.”

I. Psychoanalysis

1. Psychoanalysts believe that much of our lives are governed by

unconscious ideas and impulses.

2. Founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) who was a

physician. Often called psychodynamic.

3. Focus on the unconscious ideas and impulses that originate in

childhood.

4. People are motivated to gratify these impulses. Also

motivated to see themselves as decent and thus may delude

themselves about their true motives.

IV. How Today’s Psychologists View Behavior

and Mental Processes

A. The Cognitive Perspective

1. Venture into the realm of mental processes to understand

human nature.

2. Cognitive psychologists study those things we refer to as the

mind.

3. Investigate how we perceive and mentally represent the

world.

4. The focus is also on learning, memory, planning, decision

making, language and problem solving.

B. The Humanistic-Existential Perspective

1. Humanism stresses the human capacity for self-fulfillment.

2. Existentialism views people as free to choose and be

responsible for choosing ethical conduct.

3. Humanistic-Existential psychologists stress the importance of

subjective experience. This includes self awareness,

experience, and choice which all help us to invent ourselves.

a. We are free to choose.

4. Abraham Maslow (1970) and Carl Rogers (1951); two

prominent psychologists in this area.

C. The Psychodynamic Perspective

1. Freud’s influence continues to be felt though contemporary

psychodynamic theorists would likely call themselves

neoanalysts.

2. Famous neoanalysts include Karen Horney (1885-1952) and

Erik Erikson (1902-1994).

a. Focus less on the unconscious and more on conscious

choice and self direction.

D. Perspectives on Learning

1. Study the effects of experience on behavior.

2. Learning is essential in describing, explaining, predicting and

controlling behavior.

3. Social-cognitive theorists suggest that people can modify or

even create their environments.

4. Intentional learning by observing others.

5. Gained influence in the areas of personality, development,

psychological disorders and psychotherapy.

E. The Sociocultural Perspective

1. Addresses the many ways in which people differ from one

another, diversity.

2. Influences of ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic

status on behavior and mental processes are studied.

a. Ethnicity

i. Ethnic groups are united by their cultural heritage, race,

language, and common history.

ii. Highlight the impact of social, political, and economic

factors on human behavior and development.

iii. Most well-known African American psychologists

may be Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark.

Conducted research exploring the negative effects of

school segregation.

iv. Latino American Jorge Sanchez was among the first to

show how intelligence tests are culturally biased to the

disadvantage of Mexican American children.

v. Latino American Lillian ComasDiaz edits journals on

multicultural mental health.

vi. Asian American psychologist Richard Suinn studies

mental health and development of identity among Asians

and Asian Americans.

b. Gender

i. Refers to the culturally defined concepts of masculinity

and femininity.

ii. Involves a complex web of cultural expectations and

social roles. As with members of ethnic minority groups,

women have experienced prejudice too.

iii. Today more than half of American college students

are women. Nearly 3/4 of the undergraduate degrees in

psychology and 2/3 of the doctoral degrees are earned by

women.

iv. Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930)

Studied at Harvard, completed her degree

requirements, but Harvard wouldn’t award her the

degree. They were not admitting women. Wanted her

to get her diploma from Radcliffe but she turned the

offer down.

Pioneer in research in memory: primacy and recency

effect.

Became first female president of APA in 1905.

v. Mary Salter Ainsworth (1913-1999)

Revolutionized our understanding of attachment

between parents and children by means of cross-

cultural studies

vi. Elizabeth Loftus

Memories are not snapshots of the past

Memories are based off of:

Something old (what actually happened)

Something new (influenced of recent events)

Something borrowed (further shaped by biases and

prejudices)

Something blue (altered by emotion)

V. How Psychologists Study Behavior and

Mental Processes

A. Critical Thinking: Sorting Out Truth from Fiction

1. Critical thinking

a. Taking nothing for granted

b. Not believing just because things are in print or were

uttered by authority

c. It is not necessarily healthy to express all of your feelings

just because a friend in therapy urges you to do so.

2. Principles of Critical Thinking

a. Be skeptical.

b. Insist on evidence.

c. Examine definitions of terms.

d. Examine the assumptions or premises of arguments.

e. Be cautious in drawing conclusions from evidence.

f. Consider alternative interpretations of research evidence.

g. Do not oversimplify.

h. Do not overgeneralize.

i. Apply critical thinking to all areas of life.

B. The Scientific Method: Putting Ideas to the Test

1. Scientific method is an organized way of using experience

and testing ideas in order to expand and refine knowledge.

2. Begin by formulating a research question.

3. Hypothesis: is a specific statement about behavior or mental

processes that is tested through research.

4. Test the hypothesis through controlled methods such as the

experiment.

5. Try not to confuse correlations (association) with cause and

effect.

6. Selection Factor is a source of bias that may occur when

subjects are allowed to choose for themselves a certain

treatment in a scientific study.

C. Samples and Populations

1. Samples must be drawn so that they accurately represent the

population. This allows for generalization or extending results

from samples to populations.

2. Individuals who are studied are referred to as a sample. A

sample is a segment of the population. The population is the

group targeted for study.

3. Problems in generalizing from psychological research: many

factors must be considered in interpreting the accuracy of

results of scientific research.

a. Random and Stratified Sampling.

i. Random sample: each member of the population has an

equal chance of being selected to participate.

ii. Stratified sample: selection is made so that identified

subgroups in the population are represented

proportionately in the sample.

b. Volunteer bias: people who volunteer as participants differ

systematically from people who do not.

D. Methods of Observation

1. The Case Study

a. Information collected about individuals and small groups.

b. Typically unscientific accounts of people’s behavior

referred to as anecdotes.

c. Provide compelling portraits but may have factual

inaccuracies.

i. People’s memories have gaps (Loftus, 2004)

ii. Interviewers may have expectations.

2. The Survey

a. Used to study individuals who cannot be observed in the

natural setting or studied scientifically.

b. Employs questionnaires and interviews. Also uses the

examination of public records.

c. Famous Kinsey survey results: Sexual Behavior in the

Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human

Female (1953).

d. Have also have sources of inaccuracy. May recall

memories with inaccuracies, they may lie, may respond in a

good light or try to anticipate what the researcher wants

them to say.

e. May also have the inaccuracy of social desirability,

subjects tell the interviewer what they think the interviewer

wants to hear (a problem in case study as well).

3. Naturalistic Observation

a. Observe people in their natural habitats.

b. Unobtrusive measures are used to avoid interfering with the

behaviors that are being observed.

c. Jane Goodall observed the behavior of chimpanzees in their

natural environment.

E. Correlation

1. Investigates whether one observed behavior or trait is related

to (correlated) with another.

2. Positive correlation: the higher scores on one variable tend to

correspond with higher scores on the second variable. Low

with low. (e.g. Intelligence test scores and academic

performance).

3. Negative correlation: Higher scores on one variable tend to

correspond with lower scores on the second. (e.g. Amount of

experience stress and functioning of the immune system).

4. Correlational studies may suggest but do not prove cause and

effect.

F. The Experimental Method

1. The preferred method for answering questions about cause

and effect.

a. Allow psychologists to control the experiences of subjects

and draw conclusions about cause and effect.

b. Independent and Dependent Variables

i. Independent variable: manipulated by the experimenters

so that the effects of various levels may be determined.

ii. Dependent variable: the measured outcome or result.

c. Experimental and Control Groups

i. Experimental groups obtain the treatment.

ii. Control groups do not receive the treatment.

d. Blind and Double Blind Experiments

i. Placebo fake treatment or “sugar pill.”

ii. Blind: control for the expectations of effects by creating

conditions where the subjects are unaware of the

treatment.

iii. Double blind: neither the subjects nor the

experimenters know who has obtained the treatment.

G. Ethics of Research with Humans

1. Basic standards.

a. Intended to promote individual dignity, human welfare and

scientific integrity.

b. Do not undertake research methods that are harmful.

2. Research with Humans

a. Ethics review committees are found in colleges, hospitals,

etc. to help researchers consider the potential harm of their

methods. Review research according to ethical guidelines.

b. Informed consent: individuals give consent before they can

participate in research.

c. Confidentiality is kept.

d. Subjects are debriefed.

3. Lang et al., (1975) study on alcohol and aggression. Subjects

were misinformed about the beverage they were drinking and

misled into believing they were giving other subjects electric

shocks. What do you think? Was it ethical to deceive

participants in the Lang study as to what they were drinking?

Why or why not?

H. Ethics of Research with Animals

1. Psychologists use animals to conduct research that cannot be

carried out with humans (effects of early separation from

mother)

2. Psychologists generalize to humans the results of research

conducted with animals.

3. Animals may be harmed only when there is no alternative and

researchers believe that the benefits of the research justify the

harm.