Introduction to Psychology Lecture 2 PDF

Introduction to Psychology 07.10.2024 KEY POINTS What is psychology? What are the main career specialties? What is psychology, and what kinds of topics do psychologists study? Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. The word “psychology” comes...

Introduction to Psychology 07.10.2024 KEY POINTS What is psychology? What are the main career specialties? What is psychology, and what kinds of topics do psychologists study? Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. The word “psychology” comes from the Greek words “psyche,” meaning life, and “logos,” meaning explanation.  Psychology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo4pMVb0R6M What is psychology, and what kinds of topics do psychologists study? When we say that psychology is a scientific study, we mean that psychologists rely on scientific research methods in their attempts to unravel answers to questions such as “Why do some people offer help when others do not?” Psychologists systematically collect research data and use mathematical formulas to analyze the results. Scientific research methods are an essential key to unlocking psychology’s secrets. What is psychology, and what kinds of topics do psychologists study? The last two parts of our definition, behavior and mental processes, establish the incredibly broad range of interesting topics that psychologists study. Any directly observable thing you do is a behavior that psychologists could study. But psychologists also study the things we cannot observe directly—our mental processes, which include all our thoughts, feelings, and dreams. What is psychology, and what kinds of topics do psychologists study? Are some people simply born more aggressive than others? To find out, psychologists might study children in a day care by watching for aggressive behaviors at early ages. Psychologists might also study the parts of the brain that are active during aggressive behavior to try to determine what chemicals affect this region of the brain. Psychologists who are less biologically inclined might examine a person’s home life in search of the origins of aggressive acts. Interestingly, psychologists also study people who witness aggressive behavior, trying to understand why some people offer help and try to stop the aggression while others are apathetic and do not. Psychologists who do research on such topics do so with different goals in mind. Some conduct basic research, which is research done to increase the scientific knowledge base of psychology. Others conduct applied research, which is research intended to solve practical problems. Basic research on aggressive behavior might aim to find out more about the biological influences on aggression. Applied research on helping behaviors might aim to reduce apathy in bystanders who witness aggressive behavior. Psychology as a Science Despite the differences in their interests, areas of study, and approaches, all psychologists have one thing in common: They rely on the scientific method. Research psychologists use scientific methods to create new knowledge about the causes of behavior. Practitioners, such as clinical, counseling, industrial- organizational, and school psychologists, primarily use existing research to help solve problems. Psychology as a Science In a sense all humans are scientists. We all have an interest in asking and answering questions about our world. We want to know why things happen, when and if they are likely to happen again, and how to reproduce or change them. Such knowledge enables us to predict our own behavior and that of others. We may even collect data, or any information collected through formal observation or measurement, to aid us in this undertaking. It has been argued that people are “everyday scientists” who conduct research projects to answer questions about behavior (Nisbett & Ross, 1980). When we perform poorly on an important test, we try to understand what caused our failure to remember or understand the material and what might help us do better the next time. When our good friends Monisha and Charlie break up, we try to determine what happened. When we think about the rise of terrorism around the world, we try to investigate the causes of this problem by looking at the terrorists themselves, the situation, and others’responses. The Problem of Intuition The results of these “everyday” research projects can teach us many principles of human behavior. We learn through experience that if we give someone bad news, he or she may blame us even though the news was not our fault. We learn that people may become depressed after they fail at an important task. We see that aggressive behavior occurs frequently in our society, and we develop theories to explain why this is so. These insights are part of everyday social life. In fact, much research in psychology involves the scientific study of everyday behavior (Heider, 1958; Kelley, 1967). The Problem of Intuition Unfortunately, the way people collect and interpret data in their everyday lives is not always scientific. Often, when one explanation for an event seems “right,” we adopt that explanation as the truth. However, this reasoning is more intuitive than scientific. Intuition is thinking that is more experiential, emotional, automatic, and unconscious, and does not lead to careful analysis of all the variables in a situation (Kahneman, 2011). The Problem of Intuition Other explanations might be possible and and even more accurate. For example, eyewitnesses to violent crimes are often extremely confident in their identifications of criminals. But research finds that eyewitnesses are just as confident when they are wrong as when they are right (Cutler & Wells, 2009; Wells & Hasel, 2008). People may also believe in extrasensory perception (ESP), or the predictions of astrology, when there is no evidence for either (Gilovich, 1993). Furthermore, psychologists have also found that there are a variety of biases that can influence our perceptions. These biases lead us to draw faulty conclusions (Fiske & Taylor, 2007; Hsee & Hastie, 2006). In addition, most individuals listen to people they know and trust to give them accurate information rather than doing research to determine what scientific studies show. In summary, accepting explanations for events without testing them thoroughly may lead us to think that we know the causes of things when we really do not. Hindsight Bias https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFV71QPvX2I Once we learn about the outcome of a given event, such as when we read about the results of a research project, we frequently believe that we would have been able to predict the outcome ahead of time. For instance, if half of a class of students is told that research concerning attraction between people has demonstrated that “opposites attract” and the other half is told that research has demonstrated that “birds of a feather flock together,” most of the students will report believing that the outcome that they just read about is true, and that they would have predicted the outcome before they had read about it. Of course, both of these contradictory outcomes cannot be true. In fact, psychological research finds that “birds of a feather flock together” is generally the case. The problem is that just reading a description of research findings leads us to think of the many cases we know that support the findings, and thus makes them seem believable. The tendency to think that we could have predicted something that has already occurred that we probably would not have been able to predict is called the hindsight bias. Why Psychologists Rely on Empirical Methods All scientists, whether they are physicists, chemists, biologists, or psychologists, use empirical research to study the topics that interest them. We can label the scientific method as the set of assumptions, rules, and procedures that scientists use to conduct empirical research. Empirical research methods include collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data, reaching conclusions, and sharing information. Psychologists use a variety of techniques to measure and understand human behavior Why Psychologists Rely on Empirical Methods Although scientific research is an important method of studying human behavior, not all questions can be answered using scientific approaches. Statements that cannot be objectively measured or objectively determined to be true or false are not within the domain of scientific inquiry. Scientists generally do not attempt to prove values, beliefs, or opinions to be true or false. Values are personal statements such as “Abortion should not be permitted in this country.” Religious beliefs include statements such as “I will go to heaven when I die.” Opinions are individual ideas such as “It is important to study psychology.” Facts are objective statements determined to be accurate through empirical study. The following are two examples of facts. “There were more than 21,000 homicides in the United States in 2009.” “Research demonstrates that individuals who are exposed to highly stressful situations over long periods of time develop more health problems than those who are not.” Why Psychologists Rely on Empirical Methods Because values cannot be either true or false, science cannot prove or disprove them. Nevertheless, research can sometimes provide facts that can help people develop their values. For instance, scientists may be able to objectively measure the effect of capital punishment on the crime rate in the United States. This factual information can and should be made available to help people formulate their values about capital punishment. People also use values to decide which research is appropriate or important to conduct. For instance, the U.S. government has recently provided funding for research on HIV, AIDS, and terrorism, while denying funding for some research using human stem cells. Why Psychologists Rely on Empirical Methods Scientific procedures do not necessarily guarantee that the answers to questions will be unbiased. However, since information from scientific research is shared, knowledge is continually challenged. New research follows, and scientific facts can be modified when new evidence is found. Particularly in fields involving human behavior, scientists may find it necessary to update their research on a regular basis. Norms for behavior 50 years ago may no longer be “facts” today. Cell phones and the internet are now part of everyday communications. Psychologists must update their research on relationships to include online dating, multitasking, and cyber bullying. The Challenges of Studying Psychology Psychological experiences are extremely complex. The questions psychologists pose are as difficult as those posed by other scientists, if not more so (Wilson, 1998). A major goal of psychology is to predict behavior by understanding its causes. Making predictions is difficult because people vary and respond differently in different situations. Individual differences are the variations among people on physical or psychological dimensions. For example, most people experience negative events at some time in their lives. Some individuals handle the challenges, while other people develop symptoms of a major depression. Other important individual differences include differences in intelligence, self-esteem, anxiety, and aggression. The Challenges of Studying Psychology Because of individual differences, we cannot always predict who will become aggressive or who will perform best on the job. The predictions made by psychologists (and most other scientists) are only probabilities. We can say, for instance, that people who score higher on an intelligence test will, on average, do better at school. However, we cannot make very accurate predictions about exactly how any one person will perform. The Challenges of Studying Psychology There is an additional reason that predictions are difficult. Human behavior is influenced by more than one variable at a time, and these factors occur at different levels of explanation. For instance, depression is caused by genetic factors, personal factors, and cultural factors. You should always be skeptical about people who attempt to explain important human behaviors, such as violence or depression, in terms of a single cause. The Challenges of Studying Psychology Furthermore, these multiple causes are not independent of one another and when one cause is present, other causes tend to be present as well. This overlap makes it difficult to pinpoint which cause or causes are operating. For instance, some people may be depressed because of biological imbalances in neurotransmitters in their brain. The resulting depression may lead them to act more negatively toward other people around them. This then leads those other people to respond more negatively to them, which then increases their depression. As a result, the biological determinants of depression become intertwined with the social responses of other people, making it difficult to disentangle the effects of each cause. Modern Psychology’s Roots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo4pMVb0R6M The roots of psychology The roots of psychology can be traced to the 4th and 5th centuries B.C. The Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle posed fundamental questions about the mind, and Hippocrates, the ‘father of medicine’, made many important observations about how the brain controlled other organs. One of the earliest debates about human psychology focused on the question of whether human capabilities are inborn (the nature view) or acquired through experience (the nurture view). The roots of psychology Scientific psychology was born in the late nineteenth century with the idea that mind and behavior could be the subject of scientific analysis. The first experimental laboratory in psychology was established by Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig in 1879. Modern Psychology’s Roots Wilhelm Wundt and the Beginning of Psychology as a Science Gestalt Psychology (which focuses on the patterns formed by stimuli and on the organization of experience) William James and Functionalism (studying how the mind works so that an organism can adapt to and function in its environment) Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis (which emphasizes the role of unconscious processes in personality development and motivation) Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, and Behaviorism (the study of behavior without reference to consciousness) Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Humanistic Psychology Jean Piaget and Child Development Modern Psychology’s Roots Later developments in twentieth-century psychology included information-processing theory, psycholinguistics, and neuropsychology. The study of psychology The study of psychology can be approached from several perspectives. The biological perspective relates actions to events taking place inside the body, particularly the brain and nervous system. The behavioral perspective considers only external activities that can be observed and measured. The cognitive perspective is concerned with mental processes, such as perceiving, remembering, rea-soning, deciding, and problem solving, and with relating these processes to behavior. The psychoanalytic perspective emphasizes unconscious motives stemming from sexual and aggressive impulses. The subjectivist perspective focuses on how people actively construct and interpret their social worlds, which is expected to vary by culture, personal history, and current motivational state. A particular topic often can be analyzed from more than one of these perspectives. What do psychologists do? Teach and conduct research in colleges and universities Provide mental health services (direct service) Conduct research or apply its findings in nonacademic settings Combination of the above Specialties in Psychology Variety of perspectives All add to our understanding of psychology Diversity allows for a wide range of career options Popular specialties in psychology Experimental psychologists - conduct lab studies of learning, motivation, emotion, sensation and perception, and cognition Educational and school psychologists - study the process of education; focus on the intellectual, social and emotional devt of children in the school environment Popular Specialties Clinical psychology - specialize in the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of mental and behavioral disorders Counseling psychology - overlaps with clinical, but work with less severe problems Popular Specialties Developmental - studies the course of human growth and development from conception to death Cognitive - examines higher order mental processes: thought, memory, intelligence, creativity and language Popular Specialties Gender and/or cultural psychology - examines similarities and differences between men and women and between people of different cultures Industrial/organizational - applies psy to the workplace: personnel selection and evaluation, job satisfaction, group motivation Popular Specialties Social - investigates the role of social forces and interpersonal behavior, including aggression, prejudice, love, attitudes Psychological research Doing psychological research involves generating a hypothesis and then testing it by using a scientific method. When applicable, the experimental method is preferred because it seeks to control all variables except the ones being studied and can thus test hypotheses about cause and effect. The independent variable is the one that is manipulated by the experimenter; the dependent variable (usually some measure of the participant’s behavior) is the one being studied to determine whether it is affected by changes in the independent variable. In a simple experimental design, the experimenter manipulates one independent variable and observes its effect on one dependent variable. An essential element of experimental design is the random assignment of participants to experimental and control groups. Psychological research In many experiments the independent variable is something that is either present or absent. The simplest experimental design includes an experimental group (with the hypothesized cause present for one group of participants) and a control group (with the hypothesized cause absent for another group of participants). If the manipulation of the independent variable results in a statistically significant difference in the dependent variable between the experimental and control groups, we know that the experimental condition had a reliable effect, and the difference is not due to chance factors or a few extreme cases. Psychological research In situations in which experiments are not feasible, the correlational method may be used. This method determines whether a naturally occurring difference is associated with another difference of interest. The degree of correlation between two variables is measured by the correlation coefficient, r, a number between þ1.00 and 􀀁1.00. The absence of any relationship is indicated by 0; a perfect relationship is indicated by 1. As r goes from 0 to 1, the strength of the relationship increases. The correlation coefficient can be positive or negative, depending on whether one variable increases with another (+) or one variable decreases as the other increases (-). Psychological research Another way of conducting research is to use the observational method, in which one observes the phenomenon of interest. Researchers must be trained to observe and record behavior accurately. Phenomena that are difficult to observe directly may be observed indirectly by means of surveys (questionnaires and interviews) or by recon-structing a case history. Psychological research The basic ethical principles governing the ethical treatment of human participants are minimal risk, informed consent, and the right to privacy. Any painful or harmful procedures imposed upon animals must be thoroughly justified in terms of the knowledge to be gained from the study.