Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology PDF

Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology Unit textbook 1.1- Introduction to Interactive Psychology: People in Perspective psychology → scientific study of mind and behaviour psychological, biological, social, and cultural fact...

Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology Unit textbook 1.1- Introduction to Interactive Psychology: People in Perspective psychology → scientific study of mind and behaviour psychological, biological, social, and cultural factors interact to influence behaviour and mental processes behaviour shaped by both concious and unconcious processes humans filter world through biases and perceptions human behaviour involes typical functioning and disriptions to that functioning Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology 1 Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology 2  cultural variation: western world promotes and values uniqueness and individuality eastern cultures (asian) prefer haromny and conformity WEIRD samples (a lot of psychological studies) western educated industrialized rich democratic 1.2- Thinking Like a Psychological Scientist psychology is summative → relies on body of knowledge that is continually growing no one signal research study can prove something beyond a doubt overconfidence effect → making us overconfident in thinking our intuition is right over hundreds of scientific studies confirmation bias → we only seek out or pay attention evidence that supports what we alr know Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology 3  1.3- Brief History of Pscyhology two branches of psych born in western europe: clinical and scientific Wilhelm Wundt in 1870s Germany and William James in 1880s America clinical approach → Freud Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology 4  today psychological scientists must adhere to strict ethical guidelines esrly work was theoretical and under false assumptions like being possessed by devil study on little albert and rat phobia (unethical) 1.4- Research and Evidence pseudoscience → makes claims that are supposedbly based on science but are not supported by scientific evidence evidence → body of info indicating whether proposition is true and valid empirical → based on astute observation and accurate measurement sophisticated technology (like MRI) questionaires APA citation: 1.5- Popular Psychology and Critical Thinking Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology 5  examples of popular psychology and how they were disproven: money makes you happier- emotional well-being rises w income but only up to $75000 USD, so earning more than that wil not make you happier (Kahneman & Deaton, 2010) suicide incr during holidays- no evidence to suggest holiday peak suicides (Bridges, 2004) women talk more than women- they speak roughly the same (Mehl et al., 2007) fake or unethical science can hv serious consequences medical study 1998 about trace amoutns of mercury in childhood vaccines causing autism → proven that they falsified their data → medical fraud but a lot of parents choose not to vaccinate their children bc of fear homeopathy → tries to treat diseases w tiny doses of natural substances → not effective treatment for any health condition and can be dangerous critical thinking questions: what scientific evidence supports this claim? has this topic been studied empirically? am i listenint to or reading someone’s opinoin or is the information based on facts that are accepted by unbiased experts? 1.6- Evolutionary and Cultural Perspectives- Behaviour psychologists use evolutionary perspective to identify aspects of behaviour that result from evolutionary adaptations → helped humans survive study cultural universals → unite all humans → ex. ability to read others’ emotions, prefrence for fairness, capacity for language finding love and having children → permits us to pass genes to future generaions cultural perspective → see how culture affects ppl’s thoughts and preferences Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology 6  culture → rules, values, customs, and beliefs that exist within group of ppl who share common language and environment same across cultures → ppl tend to select lfietime romantic partners who are similar in economic status, intellectual ability, and attractiveness diff across cultures → parenting styles evolution and culture work together women and men hv more similar preferences for what they look for in a partner if they live in a country where women hv greater equality and opporunities (biology + culture) 1.7- Cognitive and Emotional Perspectives- Concious and Unconcious Mental Proccesses cognitive perspective → study mental processes that underlie perception, memory, learning, language, and creativity look at two pics of same woman → she is more attractive in one bc her pupils are enlarged → suggesting sexual interest over lfietime of reading ppl, we develop ability to tell when they are interested in us by looking at their pupils emotional perspective → our capacity to feel, express, and perceive emotions plays an important role in our decision making, behaviour, and social relationships reason we want to form social networks is bc it’s related to our emotiional wellbeing sometimes our concious choices get in way of unconcious preferences that are better at knowing what we want 1.8- Biological-Neuroscience Perspectives biological-neuroscience perspective → biological reasons of how we think and feel and behave aka genetic basis for why we behave Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology 7  neuroscience → study of how nerves and cells send and receive information from the brain, body, and spinal cord ex. oxytocin is hormone responsible for love and childbirth and bonding early days → scientists study dysfunctions of brain to help us understand normal functions now we use brain imaging techniques when taking biological perspective on behaviour, we must not assume anything genetic is fized or unchangeable 1.9- Human Stability and Change: Developmental, Personality, Social, and Clinical Perspectives developmental perspective → how humans change as they age why diff age groups display diff patterns of reasoning, language, and social behaviour ex. how early relationships w parents affect our level of trust in romantic aprtners in later life personality perspective and social perspective → how human behaviour changes and stays the same accross situations personality psychologists → understand behavi9urthat stay the same social psychologists → understand how behaviour changes w social contexts clinical perspective → use psychological sciednce to identify the causes and treatment of psychological disorders ex. adolescent girls are more prone to post-breakup depression than boys bc girls feel more involved in their romantic relationships growth mindset → believe human personailtiy and behaviur can change 1.10- Applying Psychology to Your Life Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology 8  positive psychology → emphasizes factors that make ppl happy positive emotion and pleasure engagement w life living a menaingful life w good relationships and a history of accomplishment 1.11- Applying Psychology to College Courses and Career bbc technology makes knowledge so accessible → college less abt learning facts and more abt thinking critically anout information and using that information to make decisions taking psyc equips you w critical thinking tools that help you make informed decisions 1.12- Using Psychology to Learn Psychology metacognition- an awareness of your own thought proccesses Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology 9