PSY 102: Introduction to Psychology I Fall 2024 Lecture Notes PDF

PSY 102: Introduction to Psychology I Fall 2024 Instructor: Professor Margot Sullivan (she/her) 1 Lecture 1: Psychology and Scientific Thinking 2 1.1 What is Psychology? Science versus Intuition...

PSY 102: Introduction to Psychology I Fall 2024 Instructor: Professor Margot Sullivan (she/her) 1 Lecture 1: Psychology and Scientific Thinking 2 1.1 What is Psychology? Science versus Intuition 3 What words come to mind when you think about Psychology? ▪ 100 most frequently occurring words in 2009. 4 Psychology in Popular Culture ▪ Many people learn about psychology from: ▪ Social media, internet ▪ TV, movies ▪ Self-help books ▪ Magazines ▪ Friends/family ▪ Observing the world ▪ Surrounded by a vast network of information about human behaviour. 5 Tests of Popular Psychology Knowledge 1) Most people use only about 10% of brain capacity. 2) Hypnosis enhances the accuracy of our memories. 3) The lie-detector (polygraph) test is 90-95% accurate at detecting falsehoods. 4) The more people present at an emergency, the more likely it is that at least one of them will help. 5) All effective psychotherapies require clients to get to the root of their problems in childhood. 6 Psychology is more than Common Sense ▪ Common sense is useful for some purposes, but sometimes it’s wrong. ▪ Many psychology findings seem obvious. ▪ We deal with psychological phenomena daily. ▪ Love, friendship, anger, stress, happiness, sleep, memory, development, and language. 7 Obvious or not so obvious findings? Good partners make good parents Burglar alarms are linked to Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Millings et al., 2012) increased burglary risk Crime Prevention and Community Safety (Tilley et al., 2015) "If you can do responsive care-giving, it seems ▪ Crime Survey for England and Wales that you can do it across different relationships” ▪ Possible reasons? Abigail Millings, University of Bristol. 8 Obvious or not so obvious findings? ▪ Winning the lottery won’t make you happier. ▪ Research has shown that after one year, lottery winners go back to their baseline (Brickman et al., 1978). 9 What is Psychology? Social Culture Influences Psychology: the scientific Social or Behavioural Level: Involves relating to others and personal Behaviour study of the mind, brain, and relationships behaviour. ▪ Levels of analysis Psychological Mental Level: Mind Involves thoughts, feelings, and emotions ▪ We must consider multiple levels of analysis. Biological Molecular or Neurochemical Level: Brain Involves molecules and brain structure 10 Levels of Analysis Example: Depression Social Culture Influences Social or Behavioural Level: Involves relating to others and personal relationships Psychological Mental Level: Not one level of analysis is “best”. Involves thoughts, feelings, and emotions Biological Molecular or Neurochemical Level: Involves molecules and brain structure 11 1.2 Psychology as a Science: What are the Major Challenges? 12  Main Challenges in Psychology 1. Actions are multiply determined Effect of environmental factors on children’s IQ ▪ Occur at different levels of Place of residence Physical activity explanation. (village, town, city) ▪ Be cautious of single-variable Child’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ) explanations. Family income Occupation of Education of the the father mother and father Industrial Psychiatry Journal (Makharia et al., 2016) 13 Main Challenges in Psychology 2. Psychological influences are rarely independent ▪ Factors may be highly associated with one another. ▪ Difficult to pinpoint which cause or causes are operating. 14 What factors may be interrelated? 15 Main Challenges in Psychology 3. Individual differences among people ▪ People are different in terms of: thinking, emotion, personality, and behaviour. ▪ Gender, ethnicity, age, cultural differences. ▪ Challenging to come up with explanations that apply to everyone. 16 Could individual differences play a role here? 17 What is a Scientific Theory? Scientific theory- Explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world. Hypothesis- testable prediction derived from a scientific theory. ▪ Theory Example: Negative attentional bias in depression. ▪ Hypothesis Example: Depressed individuals will focus more on negative words in a memory test compared to non-depressed individuals. Theory General explanation Hypothesis Hypothesis Hypothesis Specific predictions 18 Confirmation Bias ▪ Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them. 19 Confirmation Bias Example ▪ Biased search for information: “Are dogs better than cats?” “Are cats better than dogs?” 20 Another Example of Confirmation Bias ▪ Hastorf and Cantril (1954) Football Game Study ▪ Dartmouth fans saw Princeton players as committing more penalties and vice versa. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sXF7wauyAM 21 1.3 Psychological Pseudoscience: Imposters of Science 22 Psychological Pseudoscience ▪ A set of claims that seems scientific, but isn’t. ▪Pseudoscientific claims are testable. Extrasensory Astrology Perception Crystal Healing 23 More Examples: Alternative Therapies 24 The Dangers of Pseudoscience 1. Opportunity Cost (Indirect harm)- people may forgo opportunities to seek effective treatments. 2. Direct Harm- Can cause psychological or physical harm (even death). 3. An inability to think scientifically as citizens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyuGBi6joxY 25 Warning Signs of Pseudoscience 1. Overreliance on anecdotes ▪ An anecdote is story about a single person. ▪ Secondhand, “I know a person who practiced yoga daily for three weeks and hasn’t had a day of depression since.” ▪ Firsthand, “I have been drinking green tea for a week straight and I lost 10 lbs.” ▪ Do not provide information on cause and effect. ▪ Do not tell us how representative the cases are. 26 Overreliance on anecdotes 27 Warning Signs of Pseudoscience 2. Meaningless “psychobabble” ▪ Use scientific-sounding words that don’t really mean anything (e.g., neuropower, orgone energy accumulator). “Sine-wave filtered auditory stimulation is carefully designed to encourage maximally orbitofrontal dendritic development.” 28 Warning Signs of Pseudoscience 3. Talk of “proof” instead of “evidence” ▪ Science provides evidence that supports or contradicts ideas. ▪ Example: “Our new program is proven to reduce social anxiety by at least 50%!” ▪ Future research may show us new evidence. ▪ “suggests”, “appears”, “raises the possibility that” 29 Talk of “proof” instead of “evidence” 30 Talk of “proof” instead of “evidence” 31 1.4 Scientific Thinking 32 Scientific Thinking Scientific skepticism ▪ Evaluating all claims with an open mind, but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them. 33 Scientific Thinking Principle #1 Ruling Out Rival Hypotheses ▪ Have important alternative explanations for the findings been excluded? ▪ Many psychological findings may fit multiple explanations. X→Y or Z→Y 34 Thought Field Therapy Example ▪ TFT is an “energy therapy” to treat anxiety disorders. ▪ Body is surrounded by invisible, undetectable energy fields. ▪ Anxiety results from blockages in fields. ▪ Therapist removes blockages by tapping on certain body areas in a specific order. Client also hums tunes. ▪ Client repeatedly exposes themselves to anxiety-provoking imagery. 35 Thought Field Therapy Example Problem: Well-controlled studies show TFT works better than nothing. But there is no evidence that it’s better than standard anxiety disorder treatments. What could be the rival explanation? 36 Another Example Supersynapse “Boost your IQ scores by at least 25 points in a month, or your money back!” By practicing an hour a day on our challenging but fun memory tests, you’ll progressively develop your brain potential and become smarter! 37 Scientific Thinking Principle #2 Correlation Isn’t Causation ▪ Correlation-causation fallacy- Error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another, it must cause the other. ▪ Variable- anything that can vary. ▪ Examples: Height, weight, age, intelligence quotient (IQ), income, extroversion, anxiety ratings, memory scores, brain activity. 38 Correlation isn’t Causation Example Number of ice cream cones consumed Number of crimes committed 1. Eating ice cream (A) causes people to commit crimes (B). 2. Crimes (B) cause people to eat ice cream (A). 3. Third variable C, the heat! 39 Correlation isn’t Causation 1. A → B It’s possible that A caused B. 2. B → A It’s possible that B caused A. A 3. C Third variable problem: C causes B both A and B. 40 Another Example Social Media Use → Symptoms of → Depression Loneliness 41 Scientific Thinking Principle #3 Falsifiability ▪ Falsifiable- Capable of being disproven. ▪ Theory could be proven wrong if there were certain type of evidence against it. 42  What makes a good theory? ▪ Theories must predict certain outcomes, but not others. ▪ Risky prediction- Forecast that stands a good chance of being wrong. Medication is predicted to Medication is predicted Compared to taking a sugar pill make you feel good or bad or to make you feel good. for 1 month, this medication is do nothing. predicted to significantly decrease scores on a depression scale. Risk Level 43 Scientific Thinking Principle #4 Replicability- When a study’s findings are able to be duplicated, ideally by independent investigators. ▪ Important to know the study’s methods and participants. ▪ If it can’t be duplicated, it increases the odds it was due to chance. ▪ Psychologists have become aware of difficulties in replicating certain findings. 44 Replicability Example Supersynapse Supersynapse’s in-house scientists have shown that this remarkable product can indeed increase intelligence. Across 5 studies, the average increase in IQ was 27 points! Is there a problem here? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpCrY7x5nEE 45 Scientific Thinking Principle #5 Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence ▪ David Hume (18th-century Scottish philosopher): the more a claim contradicts what we already know, the more persuasive the evidence must be to accept it. ▪ This medication/program is guaranteed to help everyone! ▪ Does bigfoot exist? ▪ Life on Mars? Aliens? 46 Extraordinary Claims Example Supersynapse “Boost your IQ scores by at least 25 points in a month, or your money back!” By practicing an hour a day on our challenging but fun memory tests, you’ll progressively develop your brain potential and become smarter! 47 Scientific Thinking Principle #6 Occam’s Razor (aka “Principle of Parsimony”) ▪ 14th-century British philosopher and monk, Sir William of Occam. ▪ If two explanations account equally well for a phenomenon, we should generally select the more parsimonious one. ▪ Guideline, not rule ▪ Crop circles example ▪ Aliens or pranksters? ▪ In 1991, David Bower and Doug Chorley admitted to making them in England. ▪ Think back to the supersynapse and TFT examples. Were there simpler explanations? 48