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Chapter 1: The Science of Psychology
Why Study Psychology?
Psychology helps one understand why people & animals tend to behave the way they do
It can also help to understand the brain and its connections to the body
Psychology can be used to improve critical thinking, which can help stay away from claims of the media and people with influence
The History of Psychology
Psychologists study people and animals
To better understand what motivates behavior, psychologists study both what people and animals do and how that affects their brains and bodies
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Behavior includes all of our outward or overt actions and reactions, such as talking, facial expressions, and movement.
Mental Processes refers to all the internal, covert activity of our minds, such as thinking, feeling, and remembering
Psychology, while a relatively new scientific field, philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes have contributed to the field.
1.1 In the Beginning: Wundt, Titchener, and James
Wilhelm Wundt 1832-1920, Father of Psychology
The first psychologist- started in his lab in Leipzig, Germany, 1979
Attempted to apply science to the study of the human brain
Taught students structures of the mind
Wundt believed that consciousness, the state of being aware of external events, could be broken down into thoughts, experiences, emotions, and other basic elements
Objective Introspection is the process of examining and measuring one’s own thoughts and mental activities
Objectivity is important because scientists must remain unbiased, unaffected by personal beliefs and values
Edward Titchener 1867-1927
Wundt’s student, who brought Wundt’s ideas to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York
Created Structuralism & believed that every experience could be broken down into its individual emotions and sensations
Structuralism is an early perspective in psychology associated with Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener, in which the focus of the study is the structure or basic elements of the mind
He also believed that objective introspection could be used on thoughts and physical sensations
Ex. he may have asked his students to introspect about things that are blue rather than giving them a blue object
Margaret F. Washburn
The 1st woman to get a PhD in psychology in 1894
Titchener’s student, his only graduate student that year
Published a book on animal behavior in 1908- The Animal Mind
William James
Taught at Harvard, one of the first universities to offer psych in America in the late 1870s
More interested in the importance of consciousness to everyday life than just its analysis
Focus on how the mind allows people to function in the real world
Functionalism: an early perspective in psychology associated with William James, in which the focus of study in how the mind allows people to adapt, live, work, and play
Heavily influenced by darwin and natural selection
If physical traits can aid in survival why can't behavioral traits be the same?
Mary Whiton Calkins
James’s early student
Denied Harvard PhD despite doing every course requirement because she was a woman
Took those classes as a guest only rather than a full student
In 1905 became the first female president of the American Psychological Association
Minorities in early Psychology
Francis Cecil Summer- first African American to earn PhD in psychology at Clark University (1920)
Considered the African American Psychology
Kenneth and Mamie Clark- worked to show negative side effects of school segregation on African American children
George (Jorge) Sanchez- conducted research in the area of intelligence testing, focusing on the cultural biases in such tests
1.2 Three Influential Approaches: Gestalt, Psychoanalysis, and Behaviorism
Gestalt Psychology: The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts
Max Wertheimer
Believed psychological events like perceiving and sensing can't be broken down into smaller parts and still be properly understood
Ex. if you take a cellphone apart you no longer have a cellphone but a bunch of bits and pieces
Gestalt Psychology: early perspective in psychology focusing on perception and sensation particularly the perception of patterns and whole figures
This is part of modern-day cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology: a field focusing not only on perception, but also on learning, memory, thought processes, and problem-solving
Sigmund Freud’s Theory Of Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud
Noted physician in Austria, was a neurologist
Had patients who had nervous disorders but had no physical problems, so he tried to look for a cause.
Proposed the idea of an unconscious(unaware) mind into where one will push all of the threatening urges and desires
Emphasized the importance of early childhood experiences, personality is primarily created in the first 6 years of life
Other Psychoanalysis Psychologists include: Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Karen Horney, and Ann Freud
Anna Freud, Sigmund Freud’s daughter, started the ego movement in psych, which led to Erik Erikson’s study in personality development
Psychoanalysis: an insight therapy based on the theory of Freud, emphasizing the revealing of unconscious conflicts; Freud’s term for both the theory of personality and the therapy based on it
Pavlov, Watson, And the Dawn of Behaviorism
Ivan Pavlov
Russian physiologist who showed that a reflex could be caused to occur in response to a formerly unrelated stimulus
Worked with dogs, and studied how they would salivate at the stimulus, a ticking metronome
John B. Watson
Founder of Behaviorism: the science of behavior that focuses on observable behavior only
Read Pavlov’s work and figured conditioning could be the basis of behaviorism
Believed all behavior was learned, so he did the little Albert experience
Taught a baby to be scared of a rat- also making the child afraid of all white fuzzy/furry things
Mary Cover Jones
Recreated the ‘little Albert experiment with another child, “little Peter”
She conditioned the child to be afraid of a rabbit and then counterconditioning him through the use of things peter likes, in this case, food
1.3 Modern Perspectives
Psychodynamic Perspective: a modern version of psychoanalysis that is more focused on the development of a sense of self and the discovery of motivations behind a person’s behavior other than sexual motivations.
Behavioral Perspective: John B. Watson started it, but B. F. Skinner became a new leader in the field
Skinner developed operant conditioning to explain how voluntary behavior is learned; reinforcements
Humanistic Perspective: Two of the famous founders are Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers
often called the “third force in psych
Reaction to both psychoanalytic theory and behaviorism
Humanists held the view that people have free will, the freedom to choose their own destiny, and strive for self-actualization, the achievement of one’s full potential.
Cognitive Perspective: modern perspective in psychology that focuses on memory, intelligence, perception, problem-solving, and learning
Cognitive neuroscience: a study of the physical changes in the brain and nervous system during thinking
Sociocultural Perspective: a perspective that focuses on the relationship between social behavior and culture, in which thinking and behavior are seen as the product of learning and shaping within the context of one’s family, social group, and culture.
Biopsychological Perspective: aka biopsychology, is a perspective that attributes human and animal behavior to biological events occurring in the body, such as genetic influences, hormones, and the activity of the nervous system
Evolutionary Perspective: a perspective that focuses on the biological bases of universal mental characteristics that all humans share
Seeks to explain general mental strategies and traits, for example, why we lie, or why they fear of snakes is so common
1.4 Psychological Professionals and Areas of Specialization
Psychologist: a professional with an academic degree and specialized training in one or more areas of psychology
Psychiatrist: a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders
Psychiatric Social Worker: a social worker with some training in therapy methods who focuses on the environmental conditions that can have an impact on mental disorders such as poverty, overcrowding, stress, and drug abuse.
Psychology Researchers
Basic Research: is research focused on adding info to the scientific knowledge base
Applied Research: research focused on finding practical solutions to real-world problems
Minorities in early Psychology
Francis Cecil Summer- first African American to earn PhD in psychology at Clark University (1920)
Considered the African American Psychology
Kenneth and Mamie Clark- worked to show negative side effects of school segregation on African American children
George (Jorge) Sanchez- conducted research in the area of intelligence testing, focusing on the cultural biases in such tests
1.5 The Scientific Approach
Psychology’s Goals
Description aka what is happening
Explanation aka why is it happening
Prediction aka when will it happen again
Control aka how can it be changed
Scientific Approach: a system of gathering data so that bias and error in measurement are reduced.
Steps:
Perceiving the Question
Forming a Hypothesis
Hypothesis: tentative explanation of a phenomenon based on observations
Testing the Hypothesis
Drawing Conclusions
Report you Results
1.6 Descriptive Methods
Naturalistic Observation
Observing behavior in a natural environment
Observer effect: the tendency of people or animals to behave differently from normal when they know they are being observed
A bigger problem in laboratory observation, as people or animals may act in a way they think they are supposed to act
Participant Observation: a naturalistic observation in which the observer
Observer Bias: the tendency of observers to see what they expect to see
Case Study: Study of one individual in great detail
Phineas Gage: was a railroad worker who had a rod go through his head, and lost chunks of his brain. He surprisingly survived, however soon after went through major personality and behavioral changes.
Surveys
Series of questions in form of interviews, over the phone, the internet, or with a questionnaire
Representative Sample: randomly selected sample of subjects from a larger population of subjects.
Population: the entire group of people or animals in which the researcher is interested.
1.7 Correlations: Finding Relationships
Remember Correlation DOES NOT equal Causation
Correlation: a measure of the relationship between two variables
Correlation Coefficient: a number that represents the strength and direction of a relationship existing between two variables; number derived from the formula for measuring a correlation
1.8 Experiment
Experiment: a deliberate manipulation of variable to see if corresponding changes in behavior result, allowing the determination of cause-and-effect relationships
Selection
The Variables
Operationalization: Specific description of variable of interest that allows it to be measured
Independent Variable: Variable in an experiment that is manipulated by the experimenter
Dependent Variable: Variable in an experiment that represents the measurable response or behavior of the subjects in the experiment
Experimental Group: subjects in an experiment who are subjected to the independent variable
The Importance of Randomization
Randomization reduces bias,
Random Assignment: process of assigning subjects to the experimental or control groups randomly, so that each subject has an equal chance of being in either group
1.9 Experimental Hazards and Controlling for Effects
Placebo Effect: the phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can influence their behavior
Experimenter Effect: tendency of the experimenter’s expectations for a study to unintentionally influence results of the study
Single-blind study: study in which the subjects do not know if they are in the experimental or the control group
Double-blind study: study in which neither the experimenter nor the subjects know if the subjects are in the experimental or the control group
1.10 The Guidelines for doing Research With People
8 Most Common Ethical Guidelines:
The rights and well-being of participants must be weighed against the study’s value to science
Participants must be allowed to make an informed decision about participation
Deception must be justified
Participants may withdraw from the study at any time
Participants must be protected from risks or told explicitly of risks
Investigators must debrief participants, telling the true nature of the study and expectations of results
Data must remain confidential
If for any reason a study results in undesirable consequences for the participant, the researcher is responsible for detecting and removing or correcting these consequences.
1.11 Animal Research
Sometimes psychologists will research on animals, for reasons like animals live shorter lives, so you can easily see long term effects
Simpler to see effects of making it easier to see the effects of manipulations
Same ethics don’t apply to animals that do apply to humans
Can test effects of certain drugs and whatnot
