Perspectives in Psychology

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Perspectives in Psychology

• Psychodynamic
• Behavioral
• Humanistic
• Biological
• Cognitive

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Psychodynamic Perspective (Freud)

• Human behavior is motivated by the unconscious
  processes of which we may not be aware
• Within the unconscious there exist basic
  biological urges drives that affect much of our
  behavior

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Behavioral Perspective

• Only concerned with psychological processes that
  could be observed directly and measured
• Focused on how humans animals developed learned
  associations between a stimulus a response
  through use of rewards punishments

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Humanistic Perspective

• Argued that human beings are dehumanized when you
  try to reduce their behavior down to learned
  associations dictated by environment
• Believed humans have free will, are
  self-determined, set their own goals which they
  seek throughout lifetime

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Biological Perspective

• This perspective has always been with psychology
  (Freud)
• Attempt to understand the nature of brain
  functioning its relations to behavior
• Try to understand other biological influences on
  human behavior

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Cognitive Perspective

• Newest area to emerge in psychology
• Try to understand how the brain is organized
• activities involved in thinking, reasoning,
  decision making, memory, problem solving, all
  other forms of higher mental processes

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Two things to remember about the field of
psychology

• Began as a scientific effort to understand normal
  human behavior thinking. Applications to
  disordered behavior came much later
• Even though psychology has many perspectives,
  most psychologists tend to be eclectic

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What do psychologists do? Areas of Psychological
Study

• Clinical counseling psychologists
• Education school psychologists
• Developmental psychologists
• Biopsychologists experimental psychologists
• Industrial/organizational psychologists
• Social personality psychologists

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The Scientific Attitude

• Curiosity Passion to explore understand
  without misleading
• Skepticism
• What do you mean?
• How do you know?
• Humility Must be able to reject own ideas

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Scientific Research

• Hypothesis Specific, testable proposition about
  something one wants to study
• Stated to establish in clear,precise termswhat
  one believes may be true, and how one will know
  if it is not
• Operational Definitions Statements describing
  the exact operations or methods used in research
  investigation
• Variables Specific factors or characteristics
  that are manipulated and measured in research
• Confirmation Bias Looking only for evidence
  that confirms a hypothesis
• Must look for contradictory as well as supporting
  evidence for all hypotheses

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Assessing the Quality of Evidence Reliability
Validity in Scientific Research

• Reliability The degree to which the evidence is
  repeatable
• Validity The degree to which the evidence
  accurately assesses the topic being studied

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Role of Theories

• The goal of the scientific method is to decide
  which of many hypotheses BEST explains available
  data.
• The hypothesis one adopts is the BEST GUESS
  based on current evidence, not necessarily the
  final truth.
• A theory is an organized set of hypotheses that
  is widely accepted as a TENTATIVE explanation for
  a phenomenon.

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Four Main Goals of the Scientific Method

• Describe the phenomenon
• Make predictions about the phenomenon
• Control the phenomenon to ask specific questions
  about it
• Explain the phenomenon

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Scientific Method

• Observe
• Form theory
• Generate Hypothesis
• Research Observations
• Operational Definitions
• Interpret Results
• Disseminate Results
• Replication

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Research Methods

• Naturalistic Observations
• Case Studies
• Surveys
• Correlational Method
• Experimentation

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Naturalistic Observation

• Systematic study of behavior in natural settings
• Various aspects of behavior are carefully
  observed in the settings where such behavior
  naturally occurs

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Pros Cons of Naturalistic Observation

• Can observe behavior in real world
• Participants likely to act normally
• - Cant assume cause effect of observed
  behavior
• researcher has no control over any variables
• can only describe (not explain) observed behavior

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Case Studies

• Detailed information about individuals is used to
  develop general principles about behavior

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Pros Cons of Case Study Method

• Can offer valuable insights about unusual
  behavior
• - Researchers emotional attachments to
  individuals can reduce their objectivity
• - Difficult to generalize results/information
  from one or a few people to others

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Survey Method

• Ask large numbers of individuals to complete
  questionnaires designed to yield information on
  specific aspects of their behavior attitudes

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Advantages of Survey Method

• Large amounts of information can be easily
  gathered
• Shifts over time can be noted
• Can provide accurate predictions about events

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Disadvantages of Survey Method

• People may not respond accurately or truthfully
• People may not accurately remember
• People included must be truly representative of
  larger groups to whom the findings are to be
  generalized
• Wording of questions may affect results

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Correlational Method

• Observing/measuring two or more variables in
  order to determine whether changes in one are
  accompanied by changes in the other

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Key points on Correlational Method

• Measure two existing variables (nothing is
  manipulated by researcher)
• Yields a correlation coefficient
• indicates the strength of the relationship (from
  -1.0 to 1.0)
• indicates the direction of the relationship
  (positive or negative)

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Advantages of Correlational Method

• Can be used to study behavior in many real life
  settings
• Highly efficient can yield large amounts of
  data in short time
• Can be extended to include many variables at once

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Disadvantage of Correlational Method

• Findings are not conclusive with respect to
  cause-and-effect relationships

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Experimentation

• Systematically alter one or more variables in
  order to determine whether such changes will
  influence some aspect of behavior

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Key Elements of Experimental Method

• Random Assignment to experimental conditions
• Control Group Experimental Group(s)
• Independent Variable
• Dependent Variable

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Problems with Experimental Method

• Experimenter effects Unintentional influence
  exerted by researchers on research participants
• Demand Characteristics Implicit pressure on
  research participants to act in ways consistent
  with a researchers expectations
• Double-blind procedure
• May lack real world validity

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Selecting Human Participants for Research

• Sampling Process of selecting participants to
  study from the overall population
• For the study of results to apply, or GENERALIZE,
  to the entire population, a RANDOM SAMPLE should
  be selected. Truly random samples (rarely
  achieved) allow every member of a population an
  equal chance of being selected
• A BIASED SAMPLE is a nonrandom selection of
  participants from the population
• REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLES are random selections of
  participants from a presumed typical segment of
  the population
• RANDOM ASSIGNMENT is the practice of assigning
  participants to experimental conditions by
  chance, in order to minimize preexisting
  differences between those assigned to the
  different groups