Introduction and Research Methods

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Chapter 1

• Introduction and Research Methods

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What is Psychology?

• Psychology
• Psyche Mind
• Logos Knowledge or study
• Definition The scientific study of behavior and
  mental processes
• Behaviorobservable actions
• Overt i.e., can be directly observed (crying)
• Covert i.e., cannot be directly observed
  (remembering) private, internal
• Mindthoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions,
  memories, dreams, motives and other subjective
  experiences

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Philosophical Developments
BIG

• A Question How are mind and body
  related?

• René Descartes (15961650)Interactive dualism
• The mind and body interact to produce conscious
  experience

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Philosophical Developments
BIG

• Another Question Nature vs. Nurture

• Are abilities determined by our genes or our
  experiences?
• What are the interactions between genetics and
  environment?
• What effect does it have on behavior?

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Foundations of Modern Psychology

• Wilhelm Wundt (18321920)
• Leipzig, Germany
• wrote the first psychology textbook
• 1879 Set up first lab to study conscious
  experience
• applied laboratory techniques to study of the
  mind.
• Introspection Looking inward (i.e., examining
  and
• reporting your thoughts, feelings, etc.)

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Wilhelm Wundt (18321920)
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Other Pioneers

• Edward Titchener (18671927)
• Wundts student, professor at Cornell University
• structuralismidentify atoms of the mind
• focused on basic sensory and perceptual processes
  
• measured reaction times
• William James (18421910)
• started psychology at Harvard in 1870s
• opposed Wundts and Titcheners approach
• functionalism influenced by Darwin to focus on
  how behaviors help us adapt to the environment

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E. B. Titchener (18671927)
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William James (18421910)
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Other Pioneers

• Sigmund Freud (18561939)
• Austrian physician that focused on illness
• psychoanalytic theory of mental disorders
• Our behavior is largely influenced by our
  unconscious wishes, thoughts, and desires,
  especially sex and aggression
• All thoughts and actions are determined nothing
  is an accident
• Freud performed dream analysis and was an
  interactionist (combination of our biology and
  environment make us who we are)
• Recent research has hypothesized that our
  unconscious mind is partially responsible for our
  behaviors

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Other Pioneers

• John B. Watson (18781958)
• psychologists should study overt
  behavior-Psychology must study observable
  behavior objectively
• B. F. Skinner (19041990)
• American psychologist at Harvard
• studied learning and effect of reinforcement
• behaviorism

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John B. Watson (18781958)
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B. F. Skinner (19041990)
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• Gestalt Perspective
• The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
  
• Key names Wertheimer, Perls
• Wertheimer Mistake to analyze psychological
  events into pieces many experiences cannot be
  broken into smaller units

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Biological Perspective

• Study the physiological mechanisms in the brain
  and nervous system that organize and control
  behavior
• Focus may be at various levels
• individual neurons
• areas of the brain
• specific functions like eating, emotion, or
  learning
• Interest in behavior distinguishes biological
  psychology from many other biological sciences

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Evolutionary Perspective

• Influenced by Darwin and the emphasis on innate,
  adaptive behavior patterns
• Application of principles of evolution to explain
  behavior and psychological processes

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Behavioral Perspective

• View of behavior based on experience or learning
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning

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Cognitive Perspective

• How is knowledge acquired, organized, remembered,
  and used to guide behavior?
• Influences include
• Piaget studied intellectual development
• Chomsky studied language
• Cybernetics science of information processing

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Psychodynamic Perspective

• View of behavior based on experience treating
  patients
• Psychoanalytic approach (Sigmund Freud)
• both a method of treatment and a theory of the
  mind
• behavior reflects combinations of conscious and
  unconscious influences
• drives and urges within the unconscious component
  of mind influence thought and behavior
• early childhood experiences shape unconscious
  motivations

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Humanistic Perspective

• Developed by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers
• behavior reflects innate actualization
• focus on conscious forces and self perception
• more positive view of basic forces than Freuds
• Goal of psychology is to study unique aspects of
  the person focuses
• on subjective human experience.
• Each person has innate goodness and is able to
  make free choices (contrast with Skinner and
  Freud).

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Carl Rogers (19021987)
Abraham Maslow (19081970)
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Cross-Cultural Perspective

• The study of psychological differences among
  people living in different cultural groups
• How are peoples thoughts, feelings and behavior
  influenced by their culture?
• What are the common elements across culture? Are
  these innate?

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The Science of Psychology
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Goals of Psychology

• Describe
• Explain
• Predict
• Control
• behavior and mental processes

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Scientific Method

• Formulate testable questions
• Develop hypotheses
• Design study to collect data
• Experimental
• Descriptive
• Analyze data to arrive at conclusions
• Use of statistical procedures
• Use of meta-analysis
• Report results
• Publication
• Replication

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Theory

• Tentative explanation for observed findings
• Results from accumulation of findings of
  individual studies
• Tool for explaining observed behavior
• Reflects self-correcting nature of scientific
  method.

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Science vs. Common Sense

• Science helps build explanations that are
  consistent and predictive rather than conflicting
  and postdictive (hindsight)
• Science is based on
• knowledge of facts
• developing theories
• testing hypotheses
• public and repeatable procedures

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Research Strategies

• Descriptivestrategies for observing and
  describing behavior
• Naturalistic observation
• Case studies
• Surveys
• Correlational methods
• Experimentalstrategies for inferring cause and
  effect relationships among variables

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Definitions

• Hypothesistentative statement about the
  relationship between variables
• Variablesfactors that can vary in ways that can
  be observed, measured, and verified (independent
  versus dependent)
• Operational definitionprecise description of how
  the variables will be measured

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Descriptive Study

• Describes a set of facts
• Does not look for relationships between facts
• Does not predict what may influence the facts
• May or may not include numerical data
• Example measure the percentage of new students
  from out-of-state each year since 1980

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Naturalistic Observation

• Researchers directly observe and record behavior
  rather than relying on subject descriptions. In
  naturalistic observation, researcher records
  behavior as it occurs naturally.

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Case Study Method

• Highly detailed description of a single
  individual
• Generally used to investigate rare, unusual, or
  extreme conditions

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Survey Methods

• Designed to investigate opinions, behaviors, or
  characteristics of a particular group. Usually in
  self-report form.

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Samples and Sampling

• Populationlarge (potentially infinite) group
  represented by the sample. Findings are
  generalized to this group.
• Sampleselected segment of the population
• Representative sampleclosely parallels the
  population on relevant characteristics
• Random selectionevery member of larger group has
  equal change of being selected for the study
  sample

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Correlational Study

• Collects a set of facts organized into two or
  more categories
• measure parents disciplinary style
• measure childrens behavior
• Examine the relationship between categories
• Correlation reveals relationships among facts
• e.g., more democratic parents have children who
  behave better

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Correlational Study

• Correlation cannot prove causation
• Do democratic parents produce better behaved
  children?
• Do better behaved children encourage parents to
  be democratic?
• May be an unmeasured common factor
• e.g., good neighborhoods produce democratic
  adults and well-behaved children

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Coefficient of Correlation

• Numerical indication of magnitude and direction
  of the relationship between two variables
• Positive correlationtwo variables vary
  systematically in the SAME direction
• Negative correlationtwo variables vary
  systematically in OPPOSITE directions

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Experiments

• Direct way to test a hypothesis about a
  cause-effect relationship between factors
• Factors are called variables
• One variable is controlled by the experimenter
• e.g., democratic vs. authoritarian classroom
• The other is observed and measured
• e.g., cooperative behavior among students

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Experimental Variables

• Independent variable (IV)
• the controlled factor in an experiment (i.e. the
  one you manipulate)
• hypothesized to cause an effect on another
  variable
• Dependent variable (DV)
• the measured facts
• hypothesized to be influenced by IV

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Independent Variable

• Must have at least two levels
• categories male vs. female
• numeric ages 10, 12, 14
• Simplest is experimental vs. control group
• experimental gets treatment
• control does not

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Experimental Design

• Random sampleevery member of the population
  being studied should have an equal chance of
  being selected for the study
• Random assignmentevery subject in the study
  should have an equal chance of being placed in
  either the experimental or control group
• Randomization helps avoid false results

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Sources of Bias

• Expectancy effectschange in DV produced by
  subjects expectancy that change should happen
• Demand characteristicssubtle cues or signals by
  the researcher that communicate type of responses
  that are expected.

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Control of Bias

• Placebo control groupexposed to a fake IV
  (placebo), the effects of which are compared to
  group receiving the actual IV.
• Double-blind studytechnique in which neither the
  experimenter nor participant is aware of the
  group to which participant is assigned

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Ethical Guidelines

• Informed consent and voluntary participation
• Students as participants
• Use of deception
• Confidentiality of records
• Information about the study and debriefing