The History and Science of Psychology

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Unit 1

• The History and Science of Psychology

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Why study Psychology?

• Investigate scientific explanations of age-old
  questions
• Is out of sight, out of mind really true?
• When you change your answers on a test, are you
  more likely to pick the right answer?
• How much is your personality like your parents?
• What triggers good moods? Bad moods?

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Defining Psychology

• Role of philosophy
• Aristotle and thinking about thinking
• Influence of biology
• Importance of outward behavior
• Psychology is defined as the scientific study of
  behavior and mental processes.

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The Birthand Afterbirth of Psychology

• Classical origins
• Wilhelm Wundt
• First psychology lab, 1879 at the University of
  Leipzig
• Examined introspection, or the analysis of ones
  conscious experiences

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Schools of Thought Old Skool

• Structuralism
• E.B. Titchener
• Introspection
• Break down immediate sensation, past memories,
  feelings
• Functionalism
• William James
• Darwins influence
• Conscious experience is adaptive
• Stream of consciousness

Holla!
Break it down!
No! Why is it ADAPTIVE?
Titchener
James
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Schools of ThoughtOld Skool

• Early contributions of women
• Limitations on access to education
• Restrictions on awarding advanced degrees
• Exclusion from psychological societies
• Mary Whiton Calkins Harvard No Ph.D. for
  you!
• Margaret Floy Washburn 2nd Female President of
  APA
• Rosalie Rayner
• Today, women earn the majority of Ph.D.s in
  psychology and hold nearly half of the leadership
  roles in psychological societies

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Schools of ThoughtClassics
I torture babies!

• Psychoanalysis
• Sigmund Freud
• Role of the unconscious
• Sex and aggression
• Early childhood events
• Evolved into psychodynamic school
• Behaviorist School
• John Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner
• Observable, measurable behavior

Und zen zie child becomes neurotic!
Sigmund Freud
Behaviorist John B. Watson
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Schools of ThoughtClassics

• Gestalt
• Max Wertheimer, Fritz Perls
• Human tendency to perceive patterns
• the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
• Useful in understanding process of perception

Black spots, or a dalmatian?
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Schools of ThoughtClassics

• Humanistic School
• Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow
• Human potential for growth
• Free will
• Here and now
• Need for acceptance and love
• Cognitive School
• Jean Piaget, Albert Ellis, Aaron Beck
• Importance of thoughts and thought processes
• Perception, thinking, memory, language

Cognitive psychologist Jean Piaget
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Once again

• Psychology is the scientific study of behavior
  and mental processes (cognition)
• It is the hybrid of both observable behavior and
  inferred internal processes

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Schools of ThoughtNew Directions

• Today, contemporary schools of thought have
  expanded to also include the following
• Neuroscience
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Behavioral Genetics
• Social-Cultural

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Schools of ThoughtThe Biopsychosocial Approach

• Regardless of the particular school of thought,
  contemporary psychology has come to embrace the
  biopsychosocial approach
• Biological influences
• Psychological influences
• Social-Cultural influences

OBEY.
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Schools of ThoughtThe Biopsychosocial Approach

• Each particular school of thought may emphasize
  one area more than another
• Which area/s do you think each school would
  emphasize?

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Enduring Issues in Psychology

• Psychologists representing all schools of thought
  debate what shapes behavior
• Some on-going debates include the following
• Nature vs. Nurture
• Person vs. Situation
• Mind vs. Body
• Stability vs. Change
• Diversity
• The failure to resolve the debates suggests both
  sides are valid and shed light on behavior
• An eclectic approach may be most appropriate

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Psychology CareersEducation

• The Degrees
• BA 4 year study
• MA 2-3 Years beyond BA
• Ph.D./Psy.D./Ed.D. 6-7 years beyond BA
• M.D. Psychiatrists (prescribe medication)
  medical school
• Increased career opportunities for advanced
  degrees
• Admission is competitive!
• Strong GPA and GRE scores
• Related work or volunteer experience
• Close relationships with professors
• Publish if possible!

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Psychology CareersFields of Study

• Research vs. Applied Psychology?
• The majority of psychology professionals work as
  therapists in some capacity
• Clinical Psychologists
• Counselors
• Psychiatrists
• Psychologys Diverse Subfields
• Cognitive
• Community
• Developmental
• Educational
• Experimental
• Forensic
• Industrial/Organizational
• Neuropsychologists
• School
• Social

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Conducting Research

• Goals of Psychology
• Describe
• Explain
• Predict
• Control
• Pitfalls of intuition and common sense
  explanations
• Hindsight bias
• Overconfidence
• Remember psychologys definition The scientific
  study of behavior and mental processes

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Conducting Research

• The Scientific Attitude Rely on Empiricism!
• Curiosity passion to explore and understand
• Skepticism questioning results retesting
• Humility understanding humans limitations and
  the possibility for error
• Ultimately, psychologists must be critical
  thinkers
• Do not accept truths without first testing them
• Look at evidence, question assumptions, filter
  out bias

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The Scientific Method

• Generate a question
• Formulate a theory
• Develop a hypothesis
• Test hypothesis
• Operational definitions
• Clear and concise
• Replication of results

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Descriptive Research Methods

• Case Study
• In-depth Research
• Can we generalize?
• Survey
• Lots of information FAST!
• Population
• Random sample
• Stratified Sample
• Wording
• Naturalistic Observation
• Hawthorne Effect minimized
• Observer bias
• Interobserver reliability
• Control?

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Correlational Methods

• What is the relationship between two factors?
• Allows prediction, but NOT cause and effect!
• Correlation vs. causation
• A positive or negative relationship does not
  establish the direction of the relationship
• It does not PROVE the if-then
• Measuring the Strength of Relationship
• Correlation Coefficient
• Between -1 and 1
• Stronger relationships are closer to -1 or to 1,
  closeness to 0 indicates weak or no relationship
• Positive correlation vs. negative correlation
• Scatterplots

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Reading Scatter PlotsMatch the Correlation
Coefficient with the Graph!
A. .86 B. -1.0 C. 0 D. .99
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Correlational StudiesPitfalls

• Illusory Correlations
• We can be influenced to see correlations when we
  believe they exist
• Fueled by confirmation bias, or the tendency to
  only remember examples that support what we
  already believe is true
• E.g. Old people are cheap!

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Experimental Method

• Researcher deliberately manipulates selected
  variables and then measures the effects of these
  manipulations
• Because the researcher has this level of control,
  the experiment can establish causation
• However, the level of control can be somewhat
  artificial, and results may not generalize to the
  real world outside the lab
• Also, it may be unethical to manipulate certain
  variables

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The Experiment An Example

• Situation New insomnia drug called DROW-Zsdoes
  it work?
• Want to establish a cause and effect relationship
  or if-then, SO we must do an
• EXPERIMENT!

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Personnel - Who is involved?

• Experimenter
• Runs and/or designs the experiment
• Subjects/Participants
• Those being tested
• Sample - group that represents the larger group
  we are generalizing about (i.e. insomniacs)
• Random Selection - everyone has an equal chance
  of being chosen!
• Confederates
• People who help the experimenter administer the
  experiment

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Variables - What is happening?

• Independent Variable
• The variable being TESTED
• Experimenter can manipulate it
• E.g. exposure to DROW-Zs
• Dependent Variable
• The RESULT
• What happens as a result of exposure to the
  independent variable
• E.g. do subjects on DROW-Zs SLEEP better?
• Confounding Variable
• Throws off results
• Unwanted!

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Experimental vs. Control Groups

• Experimental Group
• The group exposed to manipulation of the
  independent variable
• E.g. receives the DROW-Zs
• Control Group
• Group NOT exposed to manipulation of the
  independent variable
• E.g. does NOT receive DROW-Zs
• May instead receive a PLACEBO
• Random assignment to groups
• All subjects have an equal chance of being in
  either the control group or experimental group!

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Operational Definitions, Etc.

• Operational Definitions
• What are we measuring and how?
• Allows experiment to be replicated by others
• E.g. what is a better nights sleep?
• Sample Size the bigger the better!
• What is the difference between groups?
• Replication?

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Avoiding Pitfalls

• Double- and Single-blind procedures
• Single - subject doesnt know who is in control
  group and who is in experimental group
• Double - subject and confederate dont know who
  is in which group
• Placebo
• Reduces confounding variable
• Reduces demand characteristics (subject bias)

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Analyzing ResultsStatistical Analysis

• Statistics Defined
• A branch of mathematics used to organize and
  analyze data
• Necessary to use statistics to understand what
  results actually MEAN if they mean anything at
  all
• Be skeptical of sweeping generalizations
• E.g. Males are better at math and science than
  females
• How was this measured?

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Statistical Analysis Scales of Measurement

• Nominal Scale
• Set of categories for classifying
• E.g. types of cars in the student lot
• Ordinal Scale
• Scale that indicates relative position ranks
  data
• E.g. class rank
• Interval Scale
• Scale with equal distance between values, but
  without a true zero
• E.g. temperature
• Ratio Scale
• Scale with equal distance between values, but
  WITH a true zero
• E.g. Inches of rain

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Statistical AnalysisDescriptive Statistics

• Frequency Distribution
• A count of the number of scores that fall within
  each series of intervals
• Frequency histogram and Frequency polygraph

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Descriptive StatisticsMeasures of Central
Tendency

• This is a single score that represents a set of
  scores
• Mode
• Most frequently occurring score
• Mean
• Average
• Median
• The midpoint half the scores fall below, and
  half are above

• Sample Data Set
• 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5
• Mode ?
• Mean ?
• Median ?
• This is a NORMAL CURVE, where all measures of
  central tendency are equal!

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Descriptive StatisticsThe Skewed Distribution

• Frequency distribution is asymmetrical
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vgzSbAkZE8jw
• Mean, median and mode are different values
• Negative (left) just a few very low scores
• Positive (right) just a few very high scores
• Relationship between Median and Mean

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Descriptive StatisticsThe Bimodal Distribution

• As the name implies, a bimodal distribution has
  TWO modes

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Descriptive StatisticsMeasures of Variation

• Range the difference between the highest and
  lowest score in a distribution
• What does it tell you?
• What DOESNT it tell you?
• Standard Deviation how much do scores vary from
  the mean in a distribution? (see table 1.4 in
  packet p. 36)
• Calculate mean
• Subtract each score from the mean
• Square that difference
• Add the sum of the squares
• Divide by the number of scores in the
  distribution
• Take square root of this
• The number is equal to the value of ONE standard
  deviation

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Descriptive StatisticsMeasures of Variation

• So what?
• In a normal curve, this number reveals the
  percentage of scores that falls within a
  particular range
• 68 fall within one standard deviation from the
  mean
• 95 fall within two standard deviations from the
  mean
• 99 fall within three standard deviations from
  the mean

What must the standard deviation be for this
distribution of IQ scores?
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Inferential StatisticsStatistical Significance

• Significant Difference
• What is the difference between the experiences of
  the control and the experimental groups?
• What is the chance that the difference happened
  due to chance?
• .05 value generally accepted (1 in 20 due to
  chance)
• If it IS a significant difference, how important
  is that difference (e.g. difference between IQ
  scores of first- and later-born children is
  significant, but due to its very small value, it
  is not important.
• WITHIN vs. BETWEEN group variation?
• If the Between Group Variation is significantly
  greater than the Within Group Variation, then it
  is likely that there is a statistically
  significant difference between the groups.

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Example

• Left side of classroom- Calculate SD of the
  following data set
• 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45
• Right side of classroom- Calculate SD of
  following data set
• 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29
• What do the differences in SD tell us about our
  data?

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Real life example

• The average shoe size of a male is 9 with a
  standard deviation of 1.5
• This means 68 of males wear between a size 7.5
  and 10.5
• 95 of males wear between a size 6 and 12
• 99 of males wear between a size 4.5 and 13.5

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Inferential StatisticsReliability

• When can we generalize about a population based
  on the results from our sample?
• Sample is a representative sample
• The less variation in the data, the more reliable
  (if variability is high in a distribution, the
  mean becomes less meaningful)
• The more examples the better! (ask 2 friends how
  they like the class vs. asking 25)

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Research and Ethics

• Setting Standards
• APA (American Psychological Association)
• PsyETA (Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment
  of Animals)
• Human Subjects Review Board/Ethics Committee
• Must Haves
• Informed Consent
• Confidentiality
• Justified use of deception
• Protection from harm/discomfort
• Debriefing
• How did Milgram, Landis, Watson, and Zimbardo
  challenge ethical standards?
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vZ0jYx8nwjFQ