The Science of Psychology

1
Chapter 1

• The Science of Psychology

2
Outline

• What is Psychology?
• The Growth of Psychology
• Human Diversity
• Psychology as a Science
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Ethics in Psychology

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What Is Psychology?

• Psychology is the scientific study of behavior
  and mental processes
• Behaviors - refers to observable actions or
  responses in both humans and animals
• Mental processes - not directly observable, refer
  to a wide range of complex mental processes, such
  as thinking, imagining, studying, and dreaming
• Psychologists are interested in every aspect of
  human thought, feeling and behavior.

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GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY

• Describe
• first goal of psychology is to describe the
  different ways that organisms behave
• Explain
• second goal of psychology is to explain the cause
  of behavior
• Predict
• third goal of psychology is to predict how
  organisms will behave in certain situations
• Control
• the fourth goal of psychology is to control an
  organisms behavior

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Fields of Psychology

• Seven of the largest subfields of Psychology
  include
• Developmental
• Physiological
• Experimental
• Personality
• Clinical and Counseling
• Social
• Industrial and Organizational

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Developmental Psychology

• Studies human physical, mental, social and
  emotional growth from conception to death
• Child psychologists
• Adolescent psychologists
• Life-span psychologists

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Physiological Psychology

• Investigates the biological basis of human
  behavior, thoughts and emotions
• Neuropsychologists
• Psychobiologists
• Behavioral geneticists

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Experimental Psychology

• Conduct research on basic psychological processes
  including
• Learning
• Memory
• Sensation
• Perception
• Thinking
• Motivation
• Emotion

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Personality Psychology

• Study the differences among individuals in such
  traits as
• Sociability
• Conscientiousness
• Emotional stability
• Self-esteem
• Agreeableness
• Aggressive inclinations
• Openness to new experiences

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Clinical and Counseling Psychology

• Seek to help people deal more successfully with
  their lives
• Clinical psychologists
• Interested primarily in the diagnosis, causes,
  and treatment of psychological disorders
• Counseling psychologists
• Concerned primarily with normal everyday
  problems of adjustments in life

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Social Psychology

• Study how people influence one another
• Study examples
• Interpersonal attraction
• Persuasive communications
• Attitude formation
• Obedience to authority
• Conformity to group norms
• Interaction of work team members

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Industrial and Organizational (I/O) Psychology

• Psychology applied to the workplace
• Study examples
• Selecting and training personnel
• Improving productivity and working conditions
• Impact of computerization and automation on
  workers

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Enduring Issues in Psychology

• All psychologists share a common interest in five
  enduring human issues
• Person/Situation
• Nature/Nurture
• Stability/Change
• Diversity/Universality
• Mind/Body

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How do psychologists answer questions?

• Approaches (6) to understanding behavior include
• Biological
• Cognitive
• Behavioral
• Psychoanalytic
• Humanistic
• Cross cultural

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Outline

• What is Psychology?
• The Growth of Psychology
• Human Diversity
• Psychology as a Science
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Ethics in Psychology

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HISTORICAL APPROACHES

• How did psychology begin?
• Structuralism Elements of the Mind
• Functionalism Functions of the Mind
• Gestalt Approach Sensations versus Perceptions
• Behaviorism Observable Behaviors

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The Growth of Psychology

• The history of psychology can be divided into
  three main stages
• The emergence of a science of the mind
• The behaviorist decade
• The cognitive revolution

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The "New Psychology" A Science of the Mind

• Psychology was born in 1879 when Whilhelm Wundt
  founded the first psychological laboratory at the
  University of Leipzig in Germany
• In the public eye, a laboratory science

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Structuralism Wundt and Titchener

• Wundt was interested in studying thoughts and
  developing a way to study them scientifically
• Titchener broke down consciousness into their
  simplest components physical sensations,
  feelings, and images
• Developed into an approach called Structuralism
• Concerned with identifying the units of conscious
  experience (thought) and how they can be
  combined and integrated

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Functionalism William James

• William James challenged structuralism
• Pure sensations without associations do not exist
  in real-life experience
• Consciousness cannot be broken into elements it
  flows in a continuous stream
• Functionalism was concerned with the ongoing use
  of conscious experience
• Interested in learning and the impact of
  experience on the brain

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Psychodynamic Psychology Sigmund Freud

• Freud believed that we are motivated by
  unconscious instincts and urges that are not
  available to the rational, conscious part of our
  mind
• Psychodynamic theory laid that foundation for the
  study of personality and psychological disorders

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Redefining Psychology The Study of Behavior

• Psychology saw itself as the study of mental
  processes
• Primary method of collecting data was
  introspection or self-observation
• Behaviorism challenged this idea and focused on
  behaviors that can be observed and measured

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Behaviorism Watson and Skinner

• Watson founded behaviorism on the belief that if
  you cannot locate or measure something (i.e.
  consciousness), it cannot be the object of
  scientific study
• All mental experiences thinking, feeling,
  awareness of self are nothing more than
  physiological changes in response to accumulated
  conditioning or learning
• Skinner focused on the role of reinforcement
• By rewarding certain behavior, we become an
  active participant in our conditioning or
  learning

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The Cognitive Revolution

• By the 1960s psychologists came to view
  behaviorism as only one piece of the explanation
  of human behavior and mental processes
• Began to see humans as active learners not
  passive recipients of lifes events
• Two schools of thought paved the way for the
  Cognitive Revolution
• Gestalt Psychology
• Humanistic Psychology

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The Cognitive Revolution

• Gestalt Psychology
• Concerned with perception our tendency to see
  patterns, to distinguish an object from its
  background, etc.
• Wertheimer, Köhler, and Koffka were interested in
  tricks of perception.
• Humanistic Psychology
• Emphasizes human potential, the importance of
  love, belongingness, self-esteem, etc.
• Maslow was concerned with feelings and yearnings

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Cognitive Psychology

• Concerned with mental processes thinking
  feeling, learning, remembering, decision making,
  etc.
• Concerned with how we acquire, process, and use
  information to solve problems
• Believe that mental processes can be studied
  scientifically by observing behavior and making
  inferences about the kinds of cognitive processes
  that underlie the behavior

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New Directions in Psychology

• Today, psychologists are more flexible in
  considering other approaches
• New theories and initiatives are emerging
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Positive Psychology

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Multiple Perspectives Today

• Contemporary psychologists tend to see different
  perspectives as complementary.
• Each perspective contributes to understanding
  human behavior
• Most agree that the field advances with the
  addition of new evidence to support or challenge
  existing theories.

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Where Are The Women?

• Women have contributed to psychology from its
  beginnings
• Women presented papers and joined the national
  professional association as soon as it was formed
  in 1892
• Women faced discrimination
• Some colleges and universities did not grant
  degrees to women
• Professional journals were reluctant to publish
  their work
• Teaching positions were often closed to them

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Where Are The Women?

• Today women outnumber men in the field
• Receive ¾ of the baccalaureate degrees in
  psychology
• Represent approx. ¾ of psychology graduate
  students
• Earned two out of three doctorate degrees in
  psychology awarded in 1997
• They perform key research in all of the
  psychology subfields

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Percentage of Women Recipients of Ph.D.s in
Psychology
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Outline

• What is Psychology?
• The Growth of Psychology
• Human Diversity
• Psychology as a Science
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Ethics in Psychology

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Human Diversity

• Little attention was paid to human diversity
  throughout most of the 20th century
• Today, understanding human diversity is essential
• Psychologists have begun to examine how culture,
  gender, race, and ethnicity can affect human
  behavior

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The Value of Studying Diversity

• Understanding cultural, racial, ethnic and gender
  differences in thinking and behavior
• Reduces interpersonal tensions
• Separate fact from fiction
• Understand how and why groups differ in their
  values, behaviors, approaches to the world,
  thought processes and responses to situations
• Increase appreciation of the many universal
  features of human behavior

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Gender

• Gender is the psychological and social meaning
  attached to being biologically male or female
• We have ideals about gender roles the cultural
  expectation of acceptable behavior for each
  gender
• The study of gender similarities and differences
  has become part of mainstream psychology
• Feminist Theory explores how the views on social
  roles of women and men influence treatment of
  people, especially women

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Race and Ethnicity

• Race shapes peoples social identities, sense of
  self, experiences and even health
• Psychologists study why race is important and how
  individuals select or create an ethnic identity
  and respond to stereotypes
• Most ethnic minorities are still underrepresented
  among the ranks of psychologists

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Culture

• Culture provides modes of thinking, acting, and
  communicating about how the world works and why
  people behave as they do
• Culture influences values, attitudes, behaviors
  and beliefs
• Psychologists study how culture impacts human
  behavior and thought

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Outline

• What is Psychology?
• The Growth of Psychology
• Human Diversity
• Psychology as a Science
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Ethics in Psychology

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Science and the Scientific Method

• All scientific fields are based on empirical
  observation
• Phenomena of interest can be observed and
  measured
• All scientific fields rely on the scientific
  method as the basis of study
• A systematic method of generating hypotheses
  (educated guesses), collecting data, and
  explaining the data
• Data is explained using theories to organize
  known facts and predict relationships
• Allow scientists to formulate new hypothesis to
  expand on the scope of the theories

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Outline

• What is Psychology?
• The Growth of Psychology
• Human Diversity
• Psychology as a Science
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Ethics in Psychology

41
Research Methods

• To collect data systematically and objectively,
  psychologists use a variety of research methods
  including
• Naturalistic Observation
• Case Studies
• Surveys
• Correlational Research
• Experimental Research

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Naturalistic Observation

• Observing and recording the behavior of humans or
  animals in their natural environment
• Advantages
• Observed behavior is likely to be more accurate,
  spontaneous and varied than in a laboratory
• Disadvantages
• Observer bias
• May not be able to generalize to other settings
  or people

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Case Studies

• Intensive description and analysis of a single
  individual or a few individuals
• Advantages
• Can yield a great deal of detailed, descriptive
  information
• Disadvantages
• The individual or group is unique difficult to
  draw conclusions from a single case
• Can be time consuming and expensive
• Observer bias

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Surveys

• A research technique in which questionnaires or
  interviews are administered to a selected group
  of people
• Advantages
• Large quantity of information quickly
• Relatively inexpensive
• Disadvantages
• Must pay close attention to the survey questions
• Respondents may not be representative
• Response biases
• Truthfulness of responses

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Correlational Research

• A research technique based on the naturally
  occurring relationship between two or more
  variables
• Advantages
• Description and prediction are possible
• Disadvantages
• Does not identify what causes a relationship to
  exist

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Experimental Method

• A research technique in which an investigator
  deliberately manipulates selected events or
  circumstances and then measures the effects of
  those manipulations on subsequent behavior

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Experimental Research

• Independent variables
• The variable that is manipulated by the
  experimenter to test its effects
• Dependent variables
• The variable that is measured to see how it is
  changed by the independent variable

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Experimental Research

• Experimental group
• The group subjected to a change in the
  independent variable
• Control group
• The group not subjected to a change in the
  independent variable

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Experimental Research

• Advantages
• Can draw conclusions about cause-and-effect
  relationships
• Disadvantages
• Lab setting may influence subjects behavior
• Unexpected and uncontrolled variables may
  confound results
• All variables cannot be controlled and manipulated

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Multimethod Research

• Many psychologists overcome the limitations of
  using a single research method by using multiple
  methods to study a single problem

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Importance of Sampling

• A drawback to every form of research is that it
  is impossible to measure every variable
• Study a small sample and then generalize the
  information to the larger population
• Sample
• Selection of cases from a larger population
• Random sample
• Each potential participant has an equal chance of
  being selected
• Representative sample
• The characteristics of the participants
  corresponds closely to the characteristics of the
  larger population

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Outline

• What is Psychology?
• The Growth of Psychology
• Human Diversity
• Psychology as a Science
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Ethics in Psychology

53
APA Code of Ethics

• Participants must be informed of the nature of
  the research in understandable language
• Informed consent must be documented
• Risks, possible adverse side effects and
  limitations on confidentiality must be given in
  advance
• If participation is for course credit, equitable
  alternative activities must be offered
• Cannot deceive about aspects of the research that
  would affect participants willingness to
  participate
• Deception about the goals of the research can be
  used only when absolutely necessary to the
  integrity to the research

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Research on Animals

• Animals are used in experiments in which it would
  be clearly unethical to use human participants
• APAs ethical guidelines
• Researchers must ensure appropriate
  consideration of the animals comfort, health,
  and humane treatment.

55
Chapter Review

• What is Psychology?
• How is psychology defined and what topics do they
  study?
• Given the broad range of careers and interests,
  what hold psychology together?

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Chapter Review, cont

• The Growth of Psychology
• How did the work of Wundt and Titchener, of
  James, and of Freud contribute to the early
  development of psychology as a field of study?
• How was the approach to human behavior taken by
  Watson and Skinner different from Freud's?
• How have Gestault, humanistic and cognitive
  psychologists extended the definition of
  psychology?
• How is the field of psychology being defined
  today?
• In psychology's early years, why were relatively
  few women accepted in the field?

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Chapter Review, cont

• Human Diversity
• Why is the study of human diversity important in
  the field of psychology?
• How are psychologists helping us to understand
  the differences between men and women?
• Why are psychologists interested in racial and
  ethnic differences?
• How does culture contribute to human diversity?
• Psychology as a Science
• What features distinguish a scientific field from
  a field not based in science?

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Chapter Review, cont

• Research Methods in Psychology
• Why is natural setting sometimes better than a
  laboratory for observing behavior?
• When can a case study be most useful?
• What are some of the benefits of survey research?
• What is the difference between correlation and
  cause and effect?
• What kinds of research questions are best studied
  by experimental research?
• What does multimethod research allow
  psychologists to do?
• How can sampling affect the results of a research
  study?

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Chapter Review, cont

• Ethics and Psychology
• Why did Milgrams experiments on obedience raise
  ethical questions about his research?
• Are there ethical guidelines for conducting
  psychological research?
• What objections have been raised regarding
  research on animal subjects?