Unit One:

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AP Psychology

• Unit One
• History of Psychology

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LEQ 1

• What is psychology and what philosophical changes
  have occurred in the field throughout time?

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What is Psychology

• Psychology is the study of the behavior and
  mental processes of the human mind through
  scientific inquiry.
• Psychology studies the behavior, and attempts to
  understand the mental process behind it.
• Two important components to this definition are
• Scientific inquiry
• Behavior

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What They Mean

• Scientific Inquiry The method consistently used
  to both ask and answer questions.
• Each question is based less on a set of findings
  or thoughts
• Each inquiry (method) can be repeated to verify
  its validity and results.
• Behavior is any action that other people can
  observe or measure.
• Can include walking, sleeping, and eating
• Includes automatic body functions like heart
  rate, blood pressure, and brain activity

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The Goal of Psychology

• Psychologists seek to observe, describe, explain,
  predict, and control the events they study
• Evaluate competing ideas with careful observation
  and rigorous analysis.
• This allows them to get a better understanding of
  behavior, and lets psychologists explain,
  predict, and control behavior
• Example Pro sports teams give many players
  psychological evaluations before offering a big
  contract.

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Question

• What types of questions do psychologists seek to
  answer?
• Eliminate or prove theories about
• the brain
• Sleep
• Stress
• Sensation
• Intelligence
• Lying

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Question 1

• Is it a myth that most people use 10 of their
  brains on average?

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Answer 1

• Yes it is a myth. We use all the components of
  our brain every day. We will see how this works
  in the second unit of this course

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Question 2

• During your most vivid dreams is your body
  paralyzed?

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Answer 2

• The answer is yes. Dreams occur during REM (rapid
  eye movement)- a stage of sleep. Voluntary
  muscles cannot move during this time

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Question 3

• Can psychological stress cause physical illness?

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Answer 3

• Yes. The link between mind and body can make you
  sick when stress is chronic

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Question 4

• Does the color red exist only as a sensation in
  the brain and not in the real world?

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Answer 4

• Yes. All sensations of color are created within
  the brain. Light waves have different
  frequencies, but no color. The brain assigns a
  color to a certain frequency.

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Question 5

• Is Bipolar disorder (manic-depressive disorder)
  caused by a conflict in the unconscious mind?

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Answer 5

• No. There is no evidence at this time that the
  unconscious mind plays any role in bipolar
  disorder. Because the disorder responds well to
  narcotics, it is a chemical imbalance.

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Question 6

• Is a new-born childs mind a blank slate?

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Answer 6

• No. Tabula Rosa has been proven to be false. The
  brain has built in abilities and protective
  reflexes. The brain also has what is called
  genetic potential.

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Question 7

• Does everything that happens to us leave a
  permanent memory?

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Answer 7

• No. There is no evidence that memory records all
  the details of our lives. What does get stored is
  what we experience that has value to us in some
  form. This memory will become distorted as it
  decays over time.

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Question 8

• Are we born with all the brain cells we will ever
  have?

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Answer 8

• Nope. Many parts of the brain develop as we move
  through life. Your brain does not fully develop
  until your late 20s- early 30s.

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Question 9

• Is intelligence a purely genetic trait that is
  fixed at the same level throughout someones life?

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Answer 9

• No. Intelligence is the result of heredity and
  the environment.

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Question 10

• Polygraph devices are extremely accurate in
  detecting that a person is being dishonest?

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Answer 10

• False. There is little evidence to support the
  effectiveness of a lie detector. The sensors can
  be set off by a number of psychological or
  physical actions.

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Question to Ponder

• Do you have a soul? If so, how do you define it?
• On a sheet of paper, give me three points that
  answer this question
• Please note this answer cannot use any religious
  ideology. While religion is important, using it
  will defeat the purpose of the question.

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Foundations of Psychology

• The origins of psychology
• (AKA very dead people)

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Pre-Scientific Psychology

• The beginnings of Psychological Thought
  throughout the world can be traced to ancient
  writings.
• India Buddha pondered how sensations and
  perceptions combine to form ideas
• China Confucius stressed the powers of ideas
  and of an educated mind (educated leadership)
• Israel Hebrew Scriptures anticipated todays
  psychology by linking mind and emotion to the
  body.
• People were said to think with their hearts and
  feel with their bowels.

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Pre-Scientific Psychology

• Socrates (469-399 B.C)
• Viewed the mind as separable from the body
• They believed that the mind and body did not
  function in unison.
• Over 2000 years ago in ancient Greece, Plato
  recorded his teachers greatest advice know
  thyself
• Socrates suggested that we can learn about
  ourselves by carefully examining our thoughts and
  feelings.
• This method is known as Introspection, which
  means to look within.
• Plato and Socrates made these conclusions without
  the benefit of scientific support

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Ancient Greece

• Aristotle was another philosopher that believed
  the mind is not separable from the body.
• He used observation of human behavior to discover
  that knowledge is not preexisting (instinct
  notwithstanding)
• Knowledge is, instead, developed from experience
  and parental training

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Prescientific Psychology

• Believed in soul (mind)-body separation, but
  wondered how the immaterial mind (soul) and
  physical body communicated.
• Is the soul our consciousness?
• Believed brain fluid was part of the soul
• First discovery of nerve pathways
• Believed in dualism-humans have a physical and
  mental nature.

• Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

http//ocw.mit.edu
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Prescientific Psychology

• Bacon is one of the founders of modern science,
  particularly the experimental method.
• Use of experiments, experience, and common sense
• Developed the idea of Novum Organuum

• Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

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Novum Organuum

• States that the human understanding, from its
  peculiar nature, easily supposes a greater degree
  of order and equality in things than it really
  finds!
• What do you think this means?
• Do we seek to impose order where it doesnt
  exist?
• How does this apply to humans?

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Phrenology

• This is the school of thought that says the size
  and shape of the skull directly related to a
  persons psyche
• By feeling the bumps on a persons skull,
  psychologists could a persons psychological
  capabilities. (the more bumps, the better, and
  uglier).
• This science also forced all psychologists that
  the mind was in the skull, not the heart or
  liver.
• One thing phrenology did get right is called
  brain area specializations.

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Prescientific Psychology

• Empiricism the view that knowledge comes from
  experience and science flourished through
  observation and experimentation
• Locke held that the mind was a tabula rasa, or
  blank sheet, at birth, and experiences wrote on
  it.
• An Essay of Human Understanding

• John Locke (1632-1704)

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Prescientific Psychology

• What is the relation of mind (soul) to the body?

Mind and body are connected Mind and body are distinct
The Hebrews Socrates
Aristotle Plato
Augustine Descartes
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Scientific Psychology

• Historical Approaches to Psychology Early
  Schools of Thought
• These folks are dead too.

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Psychology is Born

• Psychology was born in December of 1879 at the
  University of Leipzig in Germany
• Wilhelm Wundt developed an experimental apparatus
  that tested how quickly a person responded to
  hearing a ball hit a platform
• The different tests required the participants to
  press a telegraph button when they heard the ball
  hit the platform
• The difference was 1/10 of a second each time
• Wundt wanted to see what the faster mental
  process was (hearing the ball strike or pressing
  the button)
• The test itself was fundamentally flawed. The
  significance is that he used a scientific
  approach (not anecdotal evidence) to back his
  claims.

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Psychologys New Path

• Psychology soon began to develop into several
  schools of thought that describe how our minds
  work and why
• Structuralists
• Functionists
• Gestalt Psychology
• Humanistic
• Behaviorists

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Structuralism founded by Wilhelm Wundt

• Structuralists were concerned with discovering
  basic elements of conscious experience.
• Used introspection a method of self-observation
  where people report their thoughts and feelings
  based on stimuli (smellmemory)
• Set up the first psychological laboratory
• Conscious experience was broken down into two
  categories
• Objective sensations five senses
• Subjective feelings emotional responses to
  mental images

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Functionalism

• Functionalism- focus on emotions, memories, will
  power, habits, and streams of consciousness.
• Why do certain parts of our brain function the
  way they do?
• William James speculated that thinking, feeling,
  learning, and remembering serve one major
  function to our ancestors, to help them survive
  and adapt.
• Later on, these senses and functions contribute
  to our complexity of thought.
• Published 1st psychology text book the
  Principles of Psychology
• Study how animals and people adapt to their
  environments

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Gestalt Psychology

• The focus on attempting to explain our tendency
  to integrate pieces of information or feelings
  into a whole.
• For ideas, events, or actions to make sense to
  us, we have to place it in the context of a
  larger event. (justification)
• How often do we take pieces of an idea, facts,
  emotions, or feelings and organize them into an
  idea that places them into a useful singular
  whole?

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Humanistic Psychology

• Developed by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
• Focus on current environmental conditions as
  influential in growth
• Developed the cognitive revolution-study in the
  importance of internal processes, but expanded to
  explore the ways we perceive, process, and retain
  information scientifically
• Cognitive neuroscience- study of interaction of
  thought processes and brain functions

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Behavioralism

• Behavioral Psychology- The scientific study of
  observable behavior in humans in their
  environment
• Early Behaviorists include John B. Watson and
  B.F. Skinner
• Behaviorists study how people / animals learn
  or modify their behavior based on their responses
  to events in the environment
• Behaviorists dismissed the idea of introspection
• Example He put a hungry rat in a maze, and put
  food in the same place to observe behavior.
• B.F. Skinner showed that when a behavior is
  reinforced, or rewarded, the behavior will happen
  often.

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Modern Psychology

• The study of psychology today using modern
  theories and technology to unlock the brain.

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Psychologys Debate

• What are the relative contributions of biology
  and experience?
• Nature-Nurture- Humans either develop their
  traits through experience or they come equipped
  with them.
• Was Plato right in assuming character and
  intelligence are inherited?
• Was Socrates right in assuming we are a blank
  sheet?

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Darwin

• 1859- Origin of Species explained that diversity
  of life as a result of natural evolution
• Natural Selection-nature selects the best traits
  that best enable an organism to survive and
  reproduce in a particular environment.

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Levels of Analysis

• Three levels of analysis- three complementary
  outlooks
• Biological Influences
• Psychological Influences
• Social-cultural Influences
• Biopsychosocial approach- considers the influence
  of biological, psychological, and social-cultural
  influences

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Levels of Analysis
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Sub-Fields of Psychology

• Types of Research
• Basic Research science tat aims to increase the
  scientific knowledge base
• Ex study changes that humans go through from
  womb to tomb
• Applied Research Scientific study that aims to
  solve practical problems
• Ex study why employees work harder in the
  morning or the afternoon, and why

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Clinical Psychology

• A branch of psychology that studies, assesses,
  and treats people with psychological disorders
• Administer and interpret tests, provide
  psychotherapy, manage mental health programs, and
  conduct basic and applied research

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Contemporary Perspectives in Psychology

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• Neuroscience - Study how the body and brain
  enable emotions, memories and sensory
  experiences 
• Evolutionary - Study how natural selection of
  traits promotes the perpetuation of ones genes
• Behavior Genetics - Study how much our genes and
  our environment influence our individual
  differences
• Psychodynamic - Study how behavior springs from
  unconscious drives and conflicts
• Behavioral - Study how people learn from
  observable responses and behavior
• Cognitive - Study how we encode, process, store,
  and retrieve information
• Sociocultural - Study the influence of culture,
  ethnicity, and socioeconomic status on our
  behavior
• Socioeconomic status your status or
  self-perception in society

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Psychiatry

• A branch of medicine dealing with psychological
  disorders
• Practiced by physicians who sometimes provide
  medical treatments as well as psychological
  therapy
• Can be open to counterfeiters who are looking to
  make money, and it isnt illegal.

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Psychology as a Science

• LEQ 2 How and why do Psychologists study
  behavior?

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Need for Scientific Approach

• Are gut feelings always right?
• Have you been overconfident, yet proved to be
  wrong?
• Are there limits of intuition and common sense?
  YES

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Fallacies of the Brain

• Hindsight Bias
• The tendency to believe, after learning an
  outcome, that one would have foreseen it
• Also know as the I knew it all along phenomenon
• Overconfidence
• our everyday thinking is limited by two things
• Hindsight bias common sense after the fact
• Human tendency to be overconfident

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Critical Thinking

• Critical Thinking
• does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions
• examines assumptions, evaluates evidence, and
  assesses conclusions
• Leads to a scientific approach

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The Scientific Method and Psychology

• this approach is used to give credibility to
  psychological studies
•  Form a Theory an explanation using an
  integrated set of principles that organizes and
  predicts observations
•  Hypothesis- A testable prediction
• A hypothesis is tested by making observations
  that
• describe behavior
• detect correlations that help predict behavior
• allow for experiments that explain behavior
• These are research strategies
•  Operational Definition (Procedures) A
  statement of procedures used to define research
  variables
• The procedures allow for replication of the study
•  Replication repeating a research study to see
  whether the basic findings are consistent
• A repeated study is done with a different set of
  participants

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Types of Psychologists

• Counseling Psychology- assist people coping with
  emotional or personal challenges
• Clinical Psychologist- assess and treat mental,
  emotional, and behavior disorders
• Psychiatrist- medical doctors who are licensed to
  prescribe medication and treat physical causes of
  psychological disorders

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Any Questions