Psychology

Introduction /

Chapter One

Terms

Psychology - the science or study of behavior and mental processes

Cognitive - having to do with thinking and understanding; conscious mental activity

Psychological – the emotional & behavioral characteristics of an individual or group

Physiological - having to do with physical processes; functions of the body

More Terms

Introspection - method of self-observation, where participants report their thoughts/feelings

Basic Science – the pursuit of knowledge about natural phenomena for its own sake

Applied Science – discovering ways to use scientific findings to accomplish practical goals

Chapter One Goals of Psychology 1. Describe - describe or gather information about

the behavior being studied 2. Explain - explain behavior; using the scientific

process- hypothesis/theory 3. Predict - predict future behavior based on

results of accumulated knowledge (what people: will do, think, how they react in various situations)

4. Influence - some psychologists hope to influence behavior in positive ways

History of Psychology Ancient Greece - ancient Greek

philosophers begin thinking about the world around them differently; realization that people were rational;

The Greeks began to study human behavior and decided that people's lives were dominated by their own mind rather than the Gods/Godesses

Evolution of Psych Early Approaches

1. Psychology was born in 1879 when the first psychological lab was founded by Wilhelm Wundt at a university in Germany. (Public opinion of the day was that a lab identified a field of study as a “science”.) Wundt wanted to explain immediate experiences and a way to study it scientifically.

• Wundt focused on Selective Attention – process by which we determine what we are going to attend to at any given moment, which is controlled by our intentions and motives an idea which came to be called Voluntarism. Therefore, attention controls memories, thoughts, perception. It is this that sets humans apart from other organisms.

Early Approaches cont 2. The students of Wundt carried this new scientific study

“psychology” all over the world. A new school of thought was developed by his student Titchner at Cornell in the U.S. Titchner was influenced by advances in chemistry/physics. His school of thought came to be called Structuralism – which stressed the basic units of experience and the combinations in which they occur. Complex thoughts were like Molecules and could be broken down into smaller units (atoms)

3 basic units of Consciousness (atoms of thought)• 1. Physical Sensation

• 2. Feelings

• 3. Images

Structuralism cont

• Banana Example – Banana = Food • is based on previous experiences and can be

broken into atoms

Early Approaches cont 3. Harvard Professor, William James, "Father of

Psychology" questioned structuralist ideas arguing that simple sensations don’t exist without associations, that our minds are

constantly weaving associations, revising experience. Influenced by Darwinism his theory was that consciousness evolved because it performs an adaptive function.

Functionalism – the theory of mental life and behavior that is concerned with how an organism uses its perceptual abilities to function in its environment. • focus on the functions of the conscious mind & goals/purpose of

behavior (rather than the structure of mind)

Early Approaches cont

4. Inheritable Traits - focus on how heredity influences a persons abilities• Developed by Sir Francis Galton ( 1822 - 1911)

mathematician/scientist

• Basically believed that psychological traits were entirely hereditary

• Studies did not take many factors into account (wealth, socialization, access to education etc)

• Ancestor of nature vs nurture argument

Early Approaches cont 5. Psychodynamic Psychology –

• Based on theories developed by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), medical doctor, physiologist, psychoanalyst.

• People are motivated by unconscious instincts and urges that are not available to the rational, conscious part of our mind.

• Definition – theory that behavior results from psychological forces that interact w/in the individual, often outside conscious awareness.

• Freud’s views of the unconscious mind remain controversial and influential today.

Summary Psychology originated and saw itself as the

study of mental processes that may be conscious or unconscious (psychodynamic); viewed as discrete units & compounds (structuralism); or as an ever changing flow (functionalism).

The primary method of collecting data was introspection or self observation in a lab or analysts office.

A new generation of psychologists rebel against these “soft” approaches.

Contemporary Approaches

1. Behaviorism - School of psychology that studies only observable and measurable behavior. (Dominate in US until the ’60s)• John Watson - argued that the whole idea of mental

life was superstition, if you cannot see or even define consciousness then it cannot be the object of scientific study. Based his ideas on work of Ivan Pavlov a Russian physiologist, who experimented w/classical conditioning. Watson believed that all mental experiences are nothing more than physiological changes in response to accumulated experiences of conditioning.

Behaviorism cont. B.F. Skinner – saw the mind like a black box and that

psychologists should be concerned about what goes in and what comes out but not what goes on inside. Focuses on changing behavior through conditioning and

discovering natural laws of behavior Takes behaviorism further by adding idea of reinforcement.

Operant/instrumental conditioning. Behaviorism will dominate the psychological world until the

1960s – downside = doesn’t account for other variables.

Rise of Cognitive Psych Gestalt Psychology - German psychologists that

disagreed w/ structural/functional/behavioral approaches – were interested in the tricks the mind plays on us.

Studied how sensations are assembled into perceptual experiences; that perception is more than just the sum of its parts it involves the "whole pattern" (Gestalt in German)

Cognitive Revolution – general shift away from a limited focus on behavior toward a broad interest in mental processes. Combines old &new ideas utilizing new research.

Contemporary Approaches

2. Cognitive Psych – School of psychology devoted to the study of mental processes in the broadest sense; thinking, feeling, learning, remembering, making decisions/judgements. How do people “process” information.

(computer analogy)

Contemporary Approaches

3. Evolutionary Psych – an approach to, & subfield of, psych that is concerned with the evolutionary origins of behaviors and mental processes, their adaptive value, and the purposes they continue to serve.• How did humans get to be the way they are?

• Cognitive sees the mind = gen purpose computer, needing programming

• Evolution sees the mind = hardware & software fixed

Miscellaneous Sex Vs. Gender

• Sex – Biological = anatomy, genetics,physical functions

• Gender – psychological & sociological meanings of being one sex or the other

• Race and Ethnicity

• Impact of Culture

All things that need to be considered

Research Methods

(Valid Data /Research – systematic, verifiable, consistent, objective)

Naturalistic Observation – study subject in its natural environment/setting (vs a lab)• Positives – natural, spontaneous, realistic

• Negatives – observer bias – expectations tht might distort or influence interpretation of what was observed

Case Studies – intensive description and analysis of a single individual or small group

Research Methods

Surveys –technique in which questionnaires and interviews are administered to a select group of people

• Cross section / random sample / etc Correlational Research – technique based

on the naturally occurring relationship between two or more variables

Research Methods Experimental Research – technique in

which an investigator deliberately manipulates selected events or circumstances and then measures the effects of those manipulations on the subsequent behavior.• Independent (manipulated) and dependent variables

• Experimenter bias

Ethics & Psychological Research

Definitions• a system of moral principles

• the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group

Code of Ethics (pg 38)