Myers EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY 7th Ed

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Myers EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY (7th Ed)

• Chapter 1
• Thinking Critically with Psychological Science

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Psychologys Roots

• Prescientific Psychology Questions
• Is the mind connected to the body or distinct?
• Are ideas inborn or is the mind a blank slate
  filled by experience?

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Psychologys Roots

• Prescientific Psychology moves toward Empiricism
• Empiricism believes that
• knowledge comes from experience via the senses
• science flourishes through observation and
  experiment

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Psychologys Roots

• Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology
  laboratory at the University of Leipzig (c. 1879)
  and is frequently considered the father of
  empirical psychology

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Psychologys Roots

• Structuralism used introspection (looking in) to
  explore the elemental structure or building
  blocks of the human mind

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Psychologys Roots

• Functionalism, founded by William James, focused
  on how behavioral processes function - how they
  enable organism to adapt, survive, and flourish

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Other Early Pioneers

• Freud focused on
• Psychodynamic, unconscious conflicts, complexes,
  dream analysis
• Piaget focused on
• Cognitive development
• Watson focused on
• Behaviorism

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Psychologys Roots

• Definition of Psychology
• The science (uses the scientific method of study)
  of behavior (what we do and/or what is
  observable) and mental processes (sensations,
  perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs,
  information processing, decision making, and
  feelings)

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PSYCHOLOGY ROOTS

• Goals of Psychology
• 1. Describe behavior and mental processes
• 2. Explain or understand behavior and mental
  processes
• 3. Predict behavior and mental processes
• 4. Change or influence behavior and mental
  processes

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Contemporary Psychology

• Nature-Nurture Controversy in Psychology
• the longstanding controversy over the relative
  contributions that genes and experience make to
  development of psychological traits and behaviors
• Nurture works on what nature provides
• Every psychological event is simultaneously a
  biological event

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Contemporary Psychology

• Each perspective contributes to the overall
  understanding of behavior and mental processes.
• Remember, no one perspective can explain all
  behavior or mental processes.
• It is only through on-going research that the
  contributions of each perspective can be
  evaluated.

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Psychologys Three Main Levels of Analysis
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Psychologys Current Perspectives
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Psychologys Current Perspectives
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Contemporary Psychology Subfields

• Psychologys Subfields focus on one or both
• Basic Research
• pure science that aims to increase the knowledge
  base
• Applied Research
• scientific study that aims to solve practical
  problems

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Psychologys Subfields Research
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Psychologys Subfields Research
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Psychologys Subfields Applied
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Psychologys Subfields Applied
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Contemporary Psychology

• Two frequently confused fields
• Clinical Psychology
• branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and
  treats people with psychological disorders
• Psychiatry (not a branch of psychology)
• a branch of medicine dealing with psychological
  disorders
• practiced by physicians who sometimes use medical
  (for example, drug) treatments as well as
  psychotherapy

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Why Study Psychology?

• Psychologists, like all scientists, use the
  scientific method to construct theories that
  organize observations and imply testable
  hypotheses
• Psychologists use the science of behavior and
  mental processes to better understand why people
  think, feel and act as they do.

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Common Sense Test

• 1. To change the way people act, you must first
  change their attitudes. TF
• 2. The greater the reward promised for a boring
  activity, the more one will come to enjoy the
  activity. TF
• 3. Most people rate themselves as below average
  when comparing themselves to others on socially
  desirable characteristics (such as
  attractiveness). TF

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Common Sense Test

• 4. Most people disobey a person in authority who
  orders them to hurt a stranger. TF
• 5. In a debate, it is always to your advantage
  to be the last speaker instead of going first
  (you want to have the last word). TF

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Common Sense Test

• 6. People pull harder in a tug-of war when they
  are part of a team than when they are pulling by
  themselves. TF
• 7. Groups will generally make more moderate
  decisions than a single individual. TF
• 8. Opposites attract. TF

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Common Sense Test

• 9. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. TF
• 10. People are LESS likely to help another person
  when they are alone than when there is a group
  around. TF
• 11. Children who grow up in a family with gay
  parents are more likely to become gay. TF

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Why Study Psychology?

• Hindsight Bias
• we tend to believe, after learning an outcome,
  that we would have foreseen it
• the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon
• Overconfidence
• we tend to think we know more than we do

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The Scientific Attitude

• Critical Thinking
• thinking that does not blindly accept arguments
  and conclusions
• examines assumptions
• discerns hidden values
• evaluates evidence
• assesses conclusions

The Amazing Randi--Skeptic
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The Scientific Attitude

• The scientific attitude is composed of curiosity
  (passion for exploration), skepticism (doubting
  and questioning) and humility (ability to accept
  responsibility when wrong).

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The Scientific Method

• Theory
• an explanation using an integrated set of
  principles that organizes and predicts
  observations
• Hypothesis
• a testable prediction
• often implied by a theory

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The Scientific Method
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The Scientific Method

• Operational Definition
• a statement of procedures (operations) used to
  define research variables
• example-
• intelligence may be operationally defined as what
  an intelligence test measures

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The Scientific Method

• Replication
• repeating the essence of a research study to see
  whether the basic finding extends to other
  participants and circumstances
• usually with different participants in different
  situations

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Description

• Psychologists describe behavior using case
  studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation

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Description

• Case Study
• observation technique in which one person is
  studied in depth in the hope of revealing
  universal principals

Is language uniquely human?
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Case Study

• Problems
• Individual may be atypical
• Extraordinary anecdotal cases have a way of
  overwhelming general truths
• To discern general truths other methods must be
  used

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Description

• Survey
• technique for ascertaining the self-reported
  attitudes or behaviors of people
• usually by questioning a representative, random
  sample of people
• Problems wording and sampling
• can also be used for correlations

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Description

• Population
• all the cases in a group, from which samples may
  be drawn for a study
• Random Sample
• a sample that fairly represents a population
  because each member has an equal chance of
  inclusion

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Description

• Naturalistic Observation
• observing and recording behavior in naturally
  occurring situations without trying to manipulate
  and control the situation

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Correlation

• Correlation Coefficient
• a statistical measure of the extent to which two
  factors vary together, and thus how well either
  factor predicts the other

Indicates direction of relationship (positive or
negative)
Correlation coefficient
r .37
Indicates strength of relationship (0.00 to 1.00)
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Correlation

• Correlation Coefficient
• a statistical measure that indicates the extent
  to which two factors vary together and thus how
  well either factor predicts the other

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Correlation

• Value indicates strength
• .00 indicates no relationship
• 1.00 indicates strongest relationship
• Sign indicates direction or relationship
• is positive and indicates variables vary in
  same direction ?? ??
• - is negative and indicates variables vary in
  opposite direction?? ??

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Correlation

• Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships

could cause
(1) Low self-esteem
Depression
or
(2) Depression
Low self-esteem
could cause
or
Low self-esteem
(3) Distressing events or biological predispositio
n
could cause
and
Depression
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Illusory Correlation

• Illusory Correlation
• the perception of a relationship where none exists

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Two Random Sequences

• Your chances of being dealt either of these hands
  is precisely the same 1 in 2,598,960.

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Experimentation

• Experiment
• an investigator manipulates one or more factors
  (independent variables) to observe their effect
  on some behavior or mental process (the dependent
  variable)
• by random assignment of participants the
  experiment controls other relevant factors

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Exploring Cause Effect

• Many factors influence our behavior. Experiments
  (1) manipulate factors that interest us, while
  other factors are kept under (2) control.
• Effects generated by manipulated factors isolate
  cause and effect relationships.

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Experimentation

• Double-Blind Procedure
• both the research participants and the research
  staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the
  research participants have received the treatment
  or a placebo
• commonly used in drug-evaluation studies
• Placebo
• an inert substance or condition that may be
  administered instead of a presumed active agent,
  to see if it triggers the effects believed to
  characterize the active agent

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Experimentation

• Experimental Condition
• the condition of an experiment that exposes
  participants to the treatment, that is, to one
  version of the independent variable
• Control Condition
• the condition of an experiment that contrasts
  with the experimental treatment
• serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect
  of the treatment

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Experimentation

• Random Assignment
• assigning participants to experimental and
  control conditions by chance
• minimizes pre-existing differences between those
  assigned to the different groups

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Experimentation

• Independent Variable
• the experimental factor that is manipulated
• the variable whose effect is being studied
• Dependent Variable
• the experimental factor that may change in
  response to manipulations of the independent
  variable
• in psychology it is usually a behavior or mental
  process

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Experimentation
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Research Strategies

• Design of the subliminal tapes experiment

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Frequently Asked Questions About Psychology

• Can laboratory experiments illuminate everyday
  life?

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Frequently Asked Questions About Psychology
Does behavior depend on ones culture and gender?

• Culture - the shared ideas and behaviors that one
  generation passes on to the next

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Frequently Asked Questions About Psychology

• Why do psychologists study animals?
• Is it ethical to experiment on animals?
• Is it ethical to experiment on people?

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Milgram Study

• The following slides describe and demonstrate an
  actual experiment on obedience that was conducted
  by Stanley Milgram.

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Milgram Study

• Stanley Milgrams Experiment
• . ."Obedience and Individual Responsibility"
  .
• Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale
  University, conducted a study focusing on the
  conflict between obedience to authority and
  personal conscience. He examined justifications
  for acts of genocide offered by those accused at
  the World War II, Nuremberg War Criminal trials.
  Their defense often was based on "obedience" - -
  that they were just following orders of their
  superiors.

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Milgram Experiment

• In the experiment, so-called "teachers" (who were
  actually the unknowing subjects of the
  experiment) were recruited by Milgram. They were
  asked administer an electric shock of increasing
  intensity to a "learner" for each mistake he made
  during the experiment. The fictitious story given
  to these "teachers" was that the experiment was
  exploring effects of punishment (for incorrect
  responses) on learning behavior. The "teacher"
  was not aware that the "learner" in the study was
  actually an actor - - merely indicating
  discomfort as the "teacher" increased the
  electric shocks.

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Milgram Experiment

• Was this an ethical experiment?
• How many subjects or teachers do you think
  actually administered dangerous shock to the
  learners?
• The following slides gives you the results

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Milgram Experiment

• What right does a researcher have to expose
  subjects to such stress?
• What activities should be and not be allowed in
  marketing research?
• Does the search for knowledge always justify
  such "costs" to subjects?
• Who should decide such issues?

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Ethics for Research

• Obtain informed consent
• Protect from harm and discomfort
• Treat all information confidentially
• If you must deceive subjects, must debrief
  afterwards
• Participants have right to stop participating at
  any time for any reason
• Fully explain results to subjects

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Ethics

• APA Ethics can be found at
• http//www.apa.org/ethics/code2002.html

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Frequently Asked Questions About Psychology

• Is psychology free of value judgments?

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Tips for Studying Psychology

• Distribute your time
• Learn to think critically
• In class, listen actively
• Over learn
• Be a smart test-taker