Psychology: The Science of Psychology PDF

1 the science of psychology WHAT CAN PSYCHOLOGY DO FOR ME? Have you ever wondered...... why birds of a feather floc...

1 the science of psychology WHAT CAN PSYCHOLOGY DO FOR ME? Have you ever wondered...... why birds of a feather flock together, but opposites so often attract?... how you can remember some things easily and at other times forget what you really need to remember?... what dreams might mean and why we need to sleep at all? CHAPTER OUTLINE... how a person’s culture might affect personality? 쐌 What Is Psychology?... if ESP really exists? 쐌 Psychology Then: The History of Psychology... why you find some people attractive but not others? 쐌 ISSUES IN PSYCHOLOGY:... why some people become serial killers? Psychology’s African American... how prejudice forms? Roots 쐌 Psychology Now:... what scores on an IQ test really mean? Modern Perspectives... how the salesperson managed to talk you into buying more than you wanted 쐌 Psychological Professionals to buy? and Areas of Specialization... how different men and women really are? 쐌 Psychology: The Scientific Methodology... why buying lottery tickets can be so addictive? 쐌 ISSUES IN PSYCHOLOGY:... why people tend to get sick right before final exam week? Stereotypes, Athletes, and College Test Performance... why identical twins aren’t so identical when it comes to their personalities? 쐌 Ethics of Psychological Research If you’ve ever been curious about any of these questions, this book is for you. 쐌 APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY Psychologists study all of these things and more. If you’ve puzzled about it, TO EVERYDAY LIFE: thought about doing it, or actually done it, chances are psychology has an Thinking Critically About Critical Thinking explanation for it. Why study psychology? Psychology not only helps you understand why people (and animals) do the things they do, but it also helps you better understand yourself and your reactions to others. Psychology can help you comprehend how your brain and body are connected, how to improve your learning abilities and memory, and how to deal with the stresses of life, both ordinary and extraordinary. In studying psychology, an understanding of the methods psychologists use is crucial because research can be flawed, and knowing how research should be done can bring those flaws to light. And finally, psychology and its research methods promote critical thinking, which can be used to evaluate not just research but also claims of all kinds, including those of advertisers and politicians. learning objectives Study Help Note: For each section of every chapter in this text 1.6 Why is psychology considered a science, and what are there are numbered learning objectives. These objectives the steps in using the scientific method? represent the key concepts that students should be able to 1.7 How are naturalistic and laboratory settings used to recognize, discuss, analyze, and use after reading the chapter. describe behavior, and what are some of the advantages They appear at the beginning of each chapter, at the beginning and disadvantages associated with these settings? of each relevant section in the chapter, and in the chapter summary. Learning objectives are also linked to the practice 1.8 How are case studies and surveys used to describe quizzes and concept maps in the chapter. behavior, and what are some drawbacks to each of these methods? These are your learning objectives for this chapter: 1.9 What is the correlational technique, and what does it tell 1.1 What defines psychology as a field of study, and what are researchers about relationships? psychology’s four primary goals? 1.10 How are operational definitions, independent and 1.2 How did structuralism and functionalism differ, and who dependent variables, experimental and control groups, were the important people in those early fields? and random assignment used in designing an experiment? 1.3 What were the basic ideas and who were the important people behind the early approaches known as Gestalt, 1.11 How do the placebo and experimenter effects cause psychoanalysis, and behaviorism? problems in an experiment, and how can single-blind and double-blind studies control for these effects? 1.4 What are the basic ideas behind the seven modern perspectives, and what were the important contributions 1.12 What are the basic elements of a real-world experiment? of Skinner, Maslow, and Rogers? 1.13 What are some ethical concerns that can occur when 1.5 How does a psychologist differ from a psychiatrist, and conducting research with people and animals? what are the other types of professionals who work in the 1.14 What are the basic principles of critical thinking, and how various areas of psychology? can critical thinking be useful in everyday life? study tip What Is Psychology? As you are reading this chapter, THE FIELD OF PSYCHOLOGY remember to use the SQ3R method Some people believe psychology is just the study of people and what motivates their discussed on pages I-5–I-8 in behavior. Psychologists do study people, but they study animals as well. And to better Psychology in Action. Breaking your understand what motivates behavior, psychologists study not only what people and reading into small sections will help you get more out of every chapter. animals do, but also what happens in their bodies and in their brains as they do it. 1.1 What defines psychology as a field of study, and what are psychology’s four pri- mary goals? Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Behavior includes all of our outward or overt actions and reactions, such as talking, facial expressions, and movement. The term mental processes refers to all the internal, covert activity of our minds, such as thinking, feeling, and remembering. Why “scientific”? To study behavior and mental processes in both animals and humans, researchers must observe them. Whenever a human being observes anyone or anything, there’s always a possibility that the observer will see only what he or she expects to see. Psychologists don’t want to let these possible biases* cause them to make faulty observations. They want to be precise, and to measure as carefully as they can—so they use the scientific method to study psychology. PSYCHOLOGY’S GOALS Every science has the common goal of learning how things work. The goals specifi- cally aimed at uncovering the mysteries of human and animal behavior are description, explanation, prediction, and control. psychology the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. *biases: personal judgments based on beliefs rather than facts.  the science of psychology 5 DESCRIPTION: WHAT IS HAPPENING? The first step in understanding any- thing is to describe it. Description involves observing a behavior and noting everything about it: what is happening, where it happens, to whom it happens, and under what circumstances it seems to happen. For example, a psychologist might wonder why so many computer scien- tists seem to be male. She makes further observations and notes that many “non-techies” stereotypically perceive the life and environment of a computer scientist as someone who lives and breathes at the computer, surrounds himself with computer games, junk food, and science-fiction gadgets—characteristics that add up to a very masculine ambiance. That’s what seems to be happening. The psychologist’s observations are a starting place for the next goal: Why do females seem to avoid going into this environment? In this an environment that you would want EXPLANATION: WHY IS IT HAPPENING? Based on her observations, the psychologist to work in? Some researchers have won- might try to come up with a tentative explanation, such as “women feel they do not dered if your answer might be influenced belong in such stereotypically masculine surroundings.” In other words, she is trying to by your gender. understand or find an explanation for the lower proportion of women in this field. Finding explanations for behavior is a very important step in the process of forming theories of behavior. A theory is a general explanation of a set of observations or facts. The goal of description provides the observations, and the goal of explanation helps to build the theory. The preceding example comes from a real experiment conducted by psychologist Sapna Cheryan and colleagues (Cheryan et al., 2009). Professor Cheryan (who teaches psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle), set up four experiments with more than 250 female and male student participants who were not studying computer science. In the first experiment, students came into a small classroom that had one of two sets of objects: either Star Trek® posters, video-game boxes, and Coke™ cans, or nature posters, art, a dictionary, and coffee mugs (among other things). Told to ignore the objects because they were sharing the room with another class, the students spent several minutes in the classroom. While still sitting in the classroom, they were asked to fill out a questionnaire asking about their attitude toward computer science. While the attitudes of male students were not different between the two environments, women exposed to the stereotypically masculine setup were less interested in computer science than those who were exposed to the nonstereotypical environment. The three other similar experiments yielded the same results. PREDICTION: WHEN WILL IT HAPPEN AGAIN? Determining what will happen in the future is a prediction. In the Cheryan et al. study, the prediction is clear: If we want more women to go into computer science, we must do something to change either the environment or the perception of the environment typically associated with this field. This is the purpose of the last of the four goals of psychology: changing or modifying behavior. CONTROL: HOW CAN IT BE CHANGED? The focus of control, or the modification of some behavior, is to change a behavior from an undesirable one (such as women avoid- ing a certain academic major) to a desirable one (such as more equality in career choices). Professor Cheryan suggests that changing the image of computer science may help increase the number of women choosing to go into this field. Not all psychologi- cal investigations will try to meet all four of these goals. In some cases, the main focus might be on description and prediction, as it would be for a personality theorist who wants to know what people are like (description) and what they might do in certain 6 CHAPTER 1 situations (prediction). Some psychologists are interested in both description and explanation, as is the case with experimental psychologists who design research to find explanations for observed (described) behavior. Therapists may be more interested in controlling or influencing behavior and mental processes, although the other three goals would be important in achieving this objective. Although these goals have not really changed over the years, in the time since psychology’s beginnings, the methods of achieving them certainly have changed. In the next section, we’ll take a look at the early pioneers in psychology. Psychology Then: The History of Psychology IN THE BEGINNING: WUNDT, INTROSPECTION, AND THE LABORATORY How long How long has psychology been around? has psychology Psychology is a relatively new field in the realm of the sciences, only about 130 been around? years old. It’s not that no one thought about why people and animals do the things they do before then; on the contrary, there were philosophers,* medical doctors, and physiologists** who thought about little else—particularly with regard to people. Aris- totle, who lived from 384–322 B.C., wrote about the relationship of the soul to the body (with the two being aspects of the same underlying structure) in De Anima as well as other works (Durrant, 1993; Everson, 1995). Plato (427–347 B.C.), Aristotle’s teacher, felt the soul could exist separately from the body, a view that has become known as dualism ( Jackson, 2001). René Descartes, a seventeenth-century French philosopher and mathematician, agreed with Plato and believed that the pineal gland (a small organ at the base of the brain involved in sleep) was the seat of the soul (Kenny, 1968, 1994). to Chapter Four: Consciousness, p. 130. Philosophers tried to understand or explain the human mind and its connection to the physical body, while medical doctors and physiologists wondered about the physical connection between the body and the brain. For example, physician and physicist Gustav Fechner is often credited with performing some of the first scientific experiments that would form a basis for experimentation in psychology with his studies of perception (Fechner, 1860), and physician Hermann von Helmholtz (von Helmholtz, 1852, 1863) performed groundbreaking experiments in visual and auditory perception. to Chapter Three: Explore a time line of important Sensation and Perception, pp. 91, 97. Explore on mypsychlab.com dates in psychology on mypsychlab.com 1.2 How did structuralism and functionalism differ, and who were the important people in those early fields? It really all started to come together in a laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, in 1879. It was here that Wilhelm Wundt (VILL-helm Voont, 1832–1920), a physiologist, attempted to apply scientific principles to the study of the human mind. In his labora- tory, students from around the world were taught to study the structure of the human mind. Wundt believed that the mind was made up of thoughts, experiences, emotions, and other basic elements. In order to inspect these nonphysical elements, students had to learn to think objectively about their own thoughts—after all, they could hardly read someone else’s mind. Wundt called this process objective introspection, the process of objectively examining and measuring one’s own thoughts and mental activ- ities (Rieber & Robinson, 2001). For example, Wundt might place an object, such as a rock, into a student’s hand and have the student tell him everything that he was feel- ing as a result of having the rock in his hand—all the sensations stimulated by the objective introspection the process of examining and measuring one’s own *philosophers: people who seek wisdom and knowledge through thinking and discussion. thoughts and mental activities. **physiologists: scientists who study the physical workings of the body and its systems.  the science of psychology 7 rock. (Objectivity* was—and is—important because scientists need to remain unbiased. Observations need to be clear and precise, but unaf- fected by the individual observer’s beliefs and values.) This was really the first attempt by anyone to bring objectivity and measurement to the concept of psychology. This attention to objec- tivity, together with the establishment of the first true experimental laboratory in psychology, is why Wundt is known as the father of psychology. TITCHENER AND STRUCTURALISM IN AMERICA One of Wundt’s students was Edward Titchener (1867–1927), an Eng- lishman who eventually took Wundt’s ideas to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Titchener expanded on Wundt’s original ideas, call- ing his new viewpoint structuralism because the focus of study was the German physiologist Wilhelm Wundt par- structure of the mind. He believed that every experience could be broken down into its ticipates in an experiment in his laboratory individual emotions and sensations (Brennan, 2002). Although Titchener agreed with as students look on. Wundt that consciousness, the state of being aware of external events, could be broken down into its basic elements, Titchener also believed that objective introspection could be used on thoughts as well as on physical sensations. For example, Titchener might have asked his students to introspect about things that are blue rather than actually giving them a blue object and asking for reactions to it. Such an exercise might have led to something like the following: “What is blue? There are blue things, like the sky or a bird’s feathers. Blue is cool and restful, blue is calm...” and so on. In 1894, one of Titchener’s students at Cornell University became famous for becoming the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in psychology (Goodman, 1980; Guthrie, 2004). Her name was Margaret F. Washburn, and she was Titchener’s only graduate student for that year. In 1908 she published a book on animal behavior that was considered an important work in that era of psychology, The Animal Mind (Wash- burn, 1908). Structuralism was a dominant force in the early days of psychology, but it even- tually died out in the early 1900s, as the structuralists were busily fighting among themselves over just which key elements of experience were the most important. A competing view arose not long after Wundt’s laboratory was established, shortly before structuralism came to America. WILLIAM JAMES AND FUNCTIONALISM Structuralists would be interested in all of the memories and sensations this woman Harvard University was the first school in America to offer classes in psychology in is experiencing as she smells the rose. the late 1870s. These classes were taught by one of Harvard’s most illustrious instruc- tors, William James (1842–1910). James began teaching anatomy and physiology, but as his interest in psychology developed, he began teaching it almost exclusively (Bren- nan, 2002). His comprehensive textbook on the subject, Principles of Psychology, is so brilliantly written that copies are still in print ( James, 1890, 2002). Unlike Wundt and Titchener, James was more interested in the importance of consciousness to everyday life rather than just its analysis. He believed that the scien- tific study of consciousness itself was not yet possible. Conscious ideas are constantly flowing in an ever-changing stream, and once you start thinking about what you were just thinking about, what you were thinking about is no longer what you were thinking about—it’s what you are thinking about—and... excuse me, I’m a little dizzy. I think structuralism early perspective in psy- you get the picture, anyway. chology associated with Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener, in which the focus *objectivity: expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as they really are without allowing the of study is the structure or basic elements influence of personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations. of the mind. 8 CHAPTER 1 Instead, James focused on how the mind allows people to function in the real world—how people work, play, and adapt to their surroundings, a viewpoint he called functionalism. (He was heavily influenced by Charles Darwin’s ideas about natural selection, in which physical traits that help an animal adapt to its environment and sur- vive are passed on to its offspring.) If physical traits could aid in survival, why couldn’t behavioral traits do the same? Animals and people whose behavior helped them to sur- vive would pass those traits on to their offspring, perhaps by teaching or even by some mechanism of heredity.* (Remember that this was early in the days of trying to under- stand how heredity worked.) For example, a behavior such as avoiding the eyes of oth- ers in an elevator can be seen as a way of protecting one’s personal space—a kind of territorial protection that may have its roots in the primitive need to protect one’s home and source of food and water from intruders (Manusov & Patterson, 2006) or as a way of avoiding what might seem like a challenge to another person (Brown et al., 2005; Jehn et al., 1999). It is interesting to note that one of James’s early students was Mary Whiton Calkins, who completed every course and requirement for earning a Ph.D. but was denied that degree by Harvard University because she was a woman. She was allowed Mary Whiton Calkins, despite being to take those classes as a guest only. Calkins eventually established a psychological lab- denied a Ph.D. degree by Harvard because oratory at Wellesley College. Her work was some of the earliest research in the area of she was a woman, became the first female president of the American Psychological human memory and the psychology of the self. In 1905, she became the first female Association and had a successful career as president of the American Psychological Association (Furumoto, 1979, 1991; Zedler, a professor and researcher. Source: Archives 1995). Unlike Washburn, Calkins never earned the elusive Ph.D. degree despite a suc- of the History of American Psychology–The Uni- cessful career as a professor and researcher (Guthrie, 2004). versity of Akron This is a good place to point out that women were not the only minority to make contributions in the early days of psychology. In 1920, for example, Francis Cecil Sumner became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in psychology at Clark University. He eventually became the chair of the psychology department at Howard University and is assumed by many to be the father of African American psychology (Guthrie, 2004). Kenneth and Mamie Clark worked to show the negative effects of school segregation on African American children (Lal, 2002). Hispanic psychologist Jorge Sanchez conducted research in the area of intelligence testing, focusing on the cultural biases in such tests. Since those early days, psychology has seen an increase in the contributions of all minorities, although the percentages are still small when com- pared to the population at large. For a summary of the contributions of African Amer- icans to the early days of psychology, see the following section, Issues in Psychology: Psychology’s African American Roots. Is functionalism Is functionalism still an important point of view in psychology? still an In the new field of psychology, functionalism offered an alternative viewpoint to important point the structuralists. But like so many of psychology’s early ideas, it is no longer a major perspective. Instead, one can find elements of functionalism in the modern fields of of view in educational psychology (studying the application of psychological concepts to education) psychology? and industrial/organizational psychology (studying the application of psychological con- cepts to businesses, organizations, and industry), as well as other areas in psychology. to Appendix B: Applied Psychology, B-7–B-8. Functionalism also played a part in the development of one of the more modern perspectives, evolutionary psychology, discussed later in this chapter. functionalism early perspective in psy- chology associated with William James, in which the focus of study is how the mind allows people to adapt, live, work, and *heredity: the transmission of traits and characteristics from parent to offspring through the actions play. of genes.  the science of psychology 9 issues in psychology Psychology’s African American Roots Even the Rat Was White is an excellent and thought-provoking book. Written by the late Dr. Robert V. Guthrie in 1976 and recently republished (Guthrie, 2004), it is an enlightening summary of the history of African Americans in the field of psychology. It is a book every psychologist and would-be psychologist should read. The contributions to early psychology of African American psychologists have often been ignored in textbooks. Dr. Guthrie (who died from cancer in 2005 at the age of 75) includes in his text a detailed listing of the important African American psychologists and their contributions to the relatively new field of psychology. The following is a brief summary of just a few of these often neglected scholars and their work. Dr. Charles Henry Thompson (1896–1980) was the first African American to receive a doctorate in educational psychology in 1925 from the University of Chicago. For 30 years he was the editor of the Journal of Negro Education. Dr. Albert Sidney Beckham (1897–1964) received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1930 from New York University. He was senior assistant psychologist at the National Committee for Mental Hygiene at the Illinois Institute for Juvenile Research in the early 1930s; he also counseled many Black youths in his role as Francis Cecil Sumner, the first African the psychologist at DuSable High School in Chicago. He, like Thompson, had American to receive a Ph.D. in psychology, many publications of his research in the areas of intelligence and social went on to chair the psychology depart- concerns of the African American youth of his time. ment at Howard University and is consid- ered by many to be the father of African Dr. Robert Prentiss Daniel (1902–1968) earned his Ph.D. in educational psychol- American psychology. ogy from Columbia University in 1932. At one time the Director of the Division of Educational Psychology and Philosophy at Virginia Union University, he became president of Shaw University in North Carolina and finally the president of Virginia State College. Dr. Inez Beverly Prosser (1897–1934) earned her Ph.D. in educational psychol- ogy from the University of Cincinnati in 1933 and was the first African American woman to earn this degree. Her promising teaching career met a tragic end when she died in an automobile accident only 1 year after earning her doctorate. Dr. Howard Hale Long (1888–1948) received his Ed.D. in educational psychol- ogy from Harvard University in 1933. After teaching psychology and doing research in educational psychology for many years, Dr. Long became Dean of Administration at Wilberforce State College in Ohio. Dr. Ruth Howard (1900–1997) is known as the first African American woman to earn the Ph.D. in psychology (not educational psychology) in 1934 from the University of Minnesota. She served with her husband, Dr. Albert Beckham, as codirector for the Center for Psychological Services and also maintained a private practice in clinical psychology. These few African American pioneers in the field of psychology represent only a fraction of all those who made important contributions to psychology’s early days. 10 CHAPTER 1 GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY: THE WHOLE IS GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS Meanwhile, back in Germany, other psychologists were attacking the concepts of psychology in yet another way. Max Wertheimer (VERT-hi-mer), like James, objected to the structural- ist point of view, but for different reasons. Wertheimer believed that psychological events such as perceiving* and sensing** could not be broken down into any smaller elements and still be Figure 1.1 A Gestalt Perception properly understood. For example, you can take a compact disc player apart, but then you no The eye tends to “fill in” the blanks here longer have a CD player—you have a pile of unconnected bits and pieces. Or, just as a melody and sees both of these figures as circles is made up of individual notes that can only be understood if the notes are in the correct rela- rather than as a series of dots or a broken tionship to one another, so perception can only be understood as a whole, entire event. Hence, line. the familiar slogan,“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”The Gestalt psychologists believed that people naturally seek out patterns (“wholes”) in the sensory information avail- Gestalt psychology early perspective in able to them. See Figure 1.1 for an example of Gestalt perceptual patterns. psychology focusing on perception and sensation, particularly the perception of 1.3 What were the basic ideas and who were the important people behind the early patterns and whole figures. approaches known as Gestalt, psychoanalysis, and behaviorism? Wertheimer and others devoted their efforts to studying sensation and perception in this new perspective, Gestalt psychology. Gestalt (Gesh-TALT) is a German word meaning “an organized whole” or “configuration,” which fit well with the focus on studying whole patterns rather than small pieces of them. Today, Gestalt ideas are part of the study of cognitive psychology, a field focusing not only on perception but also on learning, memory, thought processes, and problem solving; the basic Gestalt principles of perception are still taught within this newer field (Ash, 1998; Kohler, 1992; Wertheimer, 1982). to Chapter Three: Sensation and Perception, pp. 113–114. The Gestalt approach has also What about been influential in psychological therapy, becoming the basis for a therapeutic technique Freud? Everybody called Gestalt therapy. to Chapter Fifteen: Psychological Therapies, pp. 579–580. talks about him SIGMUND FREUD’S THEORY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS when they It should be clear by now that psychology didn’t start in one place and at one particu- talk about lar time. People of several different viewpoints were trying to promote their own per- psychology. Are spective on the study of the human mind and behavior in different places all over the his ideas still world. Up to now, this chapter has focused on the physiologists who became interested in use? in psychology, with a focus on understanding consciousness but little else. The medical profession took a whole different approach to psychology. What about Freud? Everybody talks about him when they talk about psychology. Are his ideas still in use? Sigmund Freud had become a noted physician in Austria while the structuralists were arguing, the functionalists were specializing, and the Gestaltists were looking at the big picture. Freud was a neurologist, a medical doctor who specializes in disorders of the nervous system; he and his colleagues had long sought a way to understand the patients who were coming to them for help. Freud’s patients suffered from nervous disorders for which he and other doctors could find no physical cause. Therefore, it was thought, the cause must be in the mind, and that is where Freud began to explore. He proposed that there is an unconscious (unaware) mind into which we push, or repress, all of our threatening urges and desires. He believed that these repressed urges, in trying to surface, created the nervous disorders in his patients (Freud et al., 1990). to Chapter Thirteen: Theories of Personality, p. 495. Freud stressed the importance of early childhood experiences, believing that personality was formed in the first 6 years of life; if there were significant problems, those problems must have begun in the early years. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud walks with *perceiving: becoming aware of something through the senses. his daughter Anna, also a psychoanalyst. **sensing: seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, or smelling something.  the science of psychology 11 Some of his well-known followers were Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, and his own daugh- psychoanalysis the theory and therapy based on the work of Sigmund Freud. ter, Anna Freud. Anna Freud began what became known as the ego movement in psychol- ogy, which produced one of the best known psychologists in the study of personality behaviorism the science of behavior that development, Erik Erikson. to Chapter Eight: Development Across the Life focuses on observable behavior only. Span, p. 322. Freud’s ideas are still influential today, although in a somewhat modified form. He had a number of followers in addition to those already named, many of whom became famous by altering Freud’s theory to fit their own viewpoints, but his basic ideas are still dis- cussed and debated. to Chapter Thirteen: Theories of Personality, pp. 500–502. While some might think that Sigmund Freud was the first person to deal with people suffering from various mental disorders, the truth is that mental illness has a fairly long (and not very pretty) history. For more on the history of mental illness, see the to Chapter Fourteen: Psychological Disorders, pp. 532–533. Freudian psychoanalysis, the theory and therapy based on Freud’s ideas, has been the basis of much modern psychotherapy (a process in which a trained psychological professional helps a person gain insight into and change his or her behavior), but another major and competing viewpoint has actually been more influential in the field of psychology as a whole. Physiologist Ivan Pavlov uses a dog to demonstrate the conditioned reflex to PAVLOV, WATSON, AND THE DAWN OF BEHAVIORISM students at the Russian Military Medical Ivan Pavlov, like Freud, was not a psychologist. He was a Russian physiologist who Academy. showed that a reflex (an involuntary reaction) could be caused to occur in response to a formerly unrelated stimulus. While working with dogs, Pavlov observed that the saliva- tion reflex (which is normally produced by actually having food in one’s mouth), could be caused to occur in response to a totally new stimulus, in this case, the sound of a ticking metronome. At the onset of his experiment, Pavlov would turn on the metronome, give the dogs food, and they would salivate. After several repetitions, the dogs would salivate to the sound of the metronome before the food was presented—a learned (or “conditioned”) reflexive response (Klein & Mowrer, 1989). This process was called conditioning. to Chapter Five: Learning, p. 171. By the early 1900s, psychologist John B. Watson had tired of the arguing among the structuralists; he challenged the functionalist viewpoint, as well as psychoanalysis, with his own “science of behavior,” or behaviorism (Watson, 1924). Watson wanted to bring psychology back to a focus on scientific inquiry, and he felt that the only way to do that was to ignore the whole consciousness issue and focus only on observable behavior— something that could be directly seen and measured. He had read of Pavlov’s work and thought that conditioning could form the basis of his new perspective of behaviorism. OF BABIES AND RATS Watson was certainly aware of Freud’s work and his views on unconscious repression. Freud believed that all behavior stems from unconscious moti- American psychologist John Watson is vation, whereas Watson believed that all behavior is learned. Freud had stated that a known as the father of behaviorism. Behaviorism focuses only on observable phobia, an irrational fear, is really a symptom of an underlying, repressed conflict and behavior. cannot be “cured” without years of psychoanalysis to uncover and understand the repressed material. Watson believed that phobias are learned through the process of conditioning and set out to prove it. He took a baby, known as “Little Albert,” and taught him to fear a white rat by making a loud, scary noise every time the infant saw the rat, until finally, just seeing the rat caused the infant to cry and become fearful (Watson & Rayner, 1920). Even though “Little Albert” was not afraid of the rat at the start, the experiment worked very well—in fact, he later appeared to be afraid of other fuzzy things including Watch classic footage of Watson a rabbit, a dog, and a sealskin coat. Watch on mypsychlab.com and “Little Albert” on mypsychlab.com 12 CHAPTER 1 This sounds really bizarre— This sounds really bizarre—what does scaring a baby have to do with the science of what does scaring a baby psychology? Watson wanted to prove that all behavior was a result of a stimulus–response have to do with the science relationship such as that described by Pavlov. Because Freud and his ideas about of psychology? unconscious motivation were becoming a dominant force, Watson felt the need to show the world that a much simpler explanation could be found. Although scaring a baby sounds a little cruel, he felt that the advancement of the science of behavior was worth the baby’s relatively brief discomfort. One of Watson’s graduate students later decided to repeat Watson and Rayner’s study but added training that would “cancel out” the phobic reaction of the baby to the white rat. One of those students was Mary Cover Jones, who completed her master’s degree in 1920 under Watson’s supervision (Rutherford, 2000). She duplicated the “Little Albert” study with another child, “Little Peter,” successfully conditioning Peter to be afraid of a white rabbit ( Jones, 1924). She then began a process of counterconditioning, in which Peter was exposed to the white rabbit from a distance while eating a food that he really liked. The pleasure of the food outweighed the fear of the far-away rabbit. Day by day, the situation was repeated with the rabbit being brought closer each time, until Peter was no longer afraid of the rabbit. Jones went on to become one of the early pioneers of behavior therapy. She was also a key figure in the Oakland Growth Study, a study of 200 fifth- and sixth-grade children that followed their development from the beginning of Mary Cover Jones, one of the early pio- puberty to the end of adolescence. It is her work that is often cited when textbook neers of behavior therapy, earned her mas- authors talk about the benefits and problems associated with early and late maturation in ter’s degree under the supervision of John puberty. She and her husband, Harold Jones, published the first educational television Watson. She had a long and distinguished career, including the publication in 1952 of course in child development in 1952 (Rutherford, 2000). the first educational television course in Behaviorism is still a major perspective in psychology today. It has also influ- child development. enced the development of other perspectives, such as cognitive psychology. CONCEPT MAP 1.1 1.2 1.3 it has methods for it has four describe studying phenomena primary goals explain What Is Psychology? predict studied nonphysical structure control (i.e., thought, experiences, (is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes) emotions, etc.) of the human mind used objective introspection A relatively new science that formally began in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt (”father to study processes that were of psychology”) established the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany the result of physical sensations first attempt to bring objectivity was a student of Wundt’s and measurement to psychology expanded Wundt’s original ideas; believed every experience Structuralism could be broken down into individual emotions and sensations founded by Edward Titchener applied introspection method to thoughts as well as physical sensations influenced by Darwin’s ideas about natural selection—focused on how the mind allows people to function in the real world Functionalism interested in how behavioral traits could aid in survival founded by William James influenced development of evolutionary psychology has elements in educational psychology and industrial/organizational psychology Psychology Then: The History of Psychology (has roots in several disciplines, including philosophy, medicine, and physiology, and has developed through several perspectives)  the science of psychology 13 Psychology Then: The History of Psychology (continued) did not believe that psychological events could be broken down into smaller elements; could only be understood as Gestalt psychology a whole, entire event; has influenced field of cognitive founded by Max Wertheimer psychology and a form of psychological therapy, Gestalt therapy stressed importance of early life experiences, the role Psychoanalysis of the unconscious, and development through stages ideas put forth by Sigmund Freud wanted to bring focus back on scientific inquiry Behaviorism and believed only way to do so was to focus on associated with work of John B. Watson, who was greatly observable behavior and ignore “consciousness” influenced by Ivan Pavlov’s work in conditioning/learning issue; early work examined phobias PRACTICE quiz How much do you remember? ANSWERS ON PAGE AK-1. Study Help Note: These practice quizzes are spaced throughout each chapter to give you an opportunity to check your understanding of the material in each section and to provide practice for exams. Pick the best answer. 1. In the definition of psychology, behavior means 5. Which early perspective would have been LEAST likely to a. internal, covert processes. agree with the structuralists? b. mental processes. a. introspectionism c. outward or overt actions and reactions. b. functionalism d. only human behavior. c. psychoanalysis 2. Dr. Edwards designs a special behavior program for helping d. Gestalt children diagnosed with autism to learn to communicate with 6. Who was the first woman president of the American Psycho- others. Dr. Edwards is most interested in the goal of logical Association? a. description. c. prediction. a. Mary Whiton Calkins b. explanation. d. control. b. Mary Cover Jones 3. Cheryan et al. (2009) tested for the reason why there are so c. Margaret Washburn few women in the computer science field. This study most d. Ruth Howard clearly illustrates the goal of 7. Who among the early African American psychologists eventu- a. description. c. prediction. ally became president of two universities? b. explanation. d. control. a. Dr. Ruth Howard 4. Which of the following early psychologists would have been b. Dr. Robert Prentiss Daniel most likely to agree with the statement, “The study of the c. Dr. Inez Beverly Prosser mind should focus on how it allows us to adapt to our sur- d. Dr. Albert Sidney Beckham roundings”? Brainstorming: Would it be possible to do a study such as Watson a. Wilhelm Wundt c. John Watson and Rayner’s “Little Albert” research today? Why or why not? What b. William James d. Sigmund Freud might justify such a study today? Psychology Now: Modern Perspectives 1.4 What are the basic ideas behind the seven modern perspectives, and what were the important contributions of Skinner, Maslow, and Rogers? Even in the twenty-first century, there isn’t one single perspective that is used to explain all human behavior and mental processes. There are actually seven modern perspectives, with two of those being holdovers from the early days of the field. PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE psychodynamic perspective modern Freud’s theory is still used by many professionals in therapy situations. It is far less version of psychoanalysis that is more focused on the development of a sense of common today than it was a few decades ago, however, and even those who use his self and the discovery of motivations techniques modify them for contemporary use. In the more modern behind a person’s behavior other than sex- psychodynamic perspective, the focus may still include the unconscious mind and ual motivations. 14 CHAPTER 1 its influence over conscious behavior and on early childhood experiences, but with less of an emphasis on sex and sexual motivations and more emphasis on the devel- opment of a sense of self, social and interpersonal relationships, and the discovery of other motivations behind a person’s behavior. to Chapter Thirteen: Theories of Personality, pp. 500–502. Some modern psychodynamic practitioners have even begun to recommend that the link between neurobiology (the study of the brain and nervous system) and psychodynamic concepts should be more fully explored (Glucksman, 2006). BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE Like modern psychodynamic perspectives, behaviorism is still also very influential. When its primary supporter, John B. Watson, moved on to greener pastures in the world of advertising, B. F. Skinner became the new leader of the field. Skinner not only continued research in classical conditioning, but he also developed a theory called operant conditioning, to explain how voluntary behavior is learned (Skinner, 1938). In this theory, behavioral responses that are followed by pleasurable consequences are strengthened, or reinforced. For example, a child who cries and is rewarded by getting his mother’s attention will cry again in the future. Skinner’s work is discussed later in more depth. to Chapter Five: Learning, pp. 180–181. In addition to the psychodynamic and behavioral perspec- tives, there are five newer perspectives that have developed within the last 50 years. HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE Often called the “third force” in psychology, humanism was really a reaction to both psychoanalytic theory and behaviorism. If you were a psychologist in the early to mid- 1900s, you were either a psychoanalyst or a behaviorist—there weren’t any other major viewpoints to rival those two. Behaviorist B. F. Skinner puts a rat through In contrast to the psychoanalytic focus on sexual development and behav- its paces. What challenges might arise from applying information gained from iorism’s focus on external forces in guiding personality development, some pro- studies with animals to human behavior? fessionals began to develop a perspective that would allow them to focus on people’s ability to direct their own lives. Humanists held the view that people have free will, the freedom to choose their own destiny, and strive for self-actual- ization, the achievement of one’s full potential. Two of the earliest and most famous founders of this view were Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) and Carl Rogers (1902–1987). Today, humanism exists as a form of psychotherapy aimed at self-understanding and self-improvement. to Chapter Fifteen: Psy- chological Therapies, pp. 578–580. COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE Cognitive psychology, which focuses on how people think, remember, store, and use information, became a major force in the field in the 1960s. It wasn’t a new idea, as the Gestalt psychologists had themselves supported the study of mental processes of learning. The development of computers (which just happened to make ideal models of human thinking), the work of Piaget with children, Chom- sky’s analysis of Skinner’s views of language, and discoveries in biological psy- chology all stimulated an interest in studying the processes of thought. The cognitive perspective with its focus on memory, intelligence, perception, cognitive perspective modern perspec- thought processes, problem solving, language, and learning has become a major tive that focuses on memory, intelligence, force in psychology. to Chapter Seven: Cognition: Thinking, Intelli- perception, problem solving, and learning. gence, and Language, pp. 252–291.  the science of psychology 15 Within the cognitive perspective, the relatively new field of cognitive neuro- science includes the study of the physical workings of the brain and nervous system when engaged in memory, thinking, and other cognitive processes. Cognitive neuro- scientists use tools for imaging the structure and activity of the living brain, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). to Chapter Two: The Biological Perspective, pp. 67-68. The continually developing field of brain imaging is important in the study of cognitive processes. SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE Another modern perspective in psychology is the sociocultural perspective, which actually combines two areas of study: social psychology, which is the study of groups, social roles, and rules of social actions and relationships; and cultural psychology, which is the study of cultural norms,* values, and expectations. These two areas are related in that they are both about the effect that people have on one another, either individually or in a larger group such as a culture (Peplau & Taylor, 1997). to Chapter Twelve: Social Psychology, pp. 446–485. Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1978) also used sociocultural concepts in forming his sociocultural theory of children’s cognitive devel- opment. to Chapter Eight: Development Across the Life Span, p. 315. The sociocultural perspective is important because it reminds people that the way they and others behave (or even think) is influenced not only by whether they are alone, with friends, in a crowd, or part of a group but also by the social norms, fads, class differences, and ethnic identity concerns of the particular culture in which they live. Cross-cultural research also fits within this perspective. In cross-cultural research, the contrasts and comparisons of a behavior or issue are studied in at least two or more cultures. This type of research can help illustrate the different influences of environ- ment (culture and training) when compared to the influence of heredity (genetics, or the influence of genes on behavior). For example, in a classic study covered in Chapter Twelve: Social Psychology (pp. 481–483), researchers Darley and Latané (1968) found that the presence of other people actually lessened the chances that a person in trouble would receive help. The phenomenon is called the “bystander effect” and it is believed to be the result of diffusion of responsibility, which is the tendency to feel that someone else is responsible for taking action when others are present. But would this effect appear in other cul- tures? Shorey (2001), in his discussion of the brutal beating death of a Somali prisoner in a Canadian military facility while bystanders looked on without acting, suggests that it just might. But is Canadian culture too similar to our own to lead us to this con- clusion? Would another culture very different from Western culture show the same effect? This is exactly the kind of question that the sociocultural perspective asks and attempts to answer, using cross-cultural research. BIOPSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE cognitive neuroscience study of the Biopsychology, or the study of the biological bases of behavior and mental processes, physical changes in the brain and nervous isn’t really as new a perspective as one might think. Also known as physiological psy- system during thinking. chology, biological psychology, psychobiology, and behavioral neuroscience, biopsy- sociocultural perspective perspective chology is part of the larger field of neuroscience: study of the physical structure, that focuses on the relationship between function, and development of the nervous system. Also, the previously discussed field social behavior and culture. of cognitive neuroscience often overlaps with biopsychology. biopsychological perspective perspective that attributes human and ani- In the biopsychological perspective, human and animal behavior is seen as a mal behavior to biological events occur- direct result of events in the body. Hormones, heredity, brain chemicals, tumors, and ring in the body, such as genetic influences, hormones, and the activity of *norms: standards or expected behavior. the nervous system. 16 CHAPTER 1 diseases are some of the biological causes of behavior and mental events. to Chapter Two: The Biological Perspective, pp. 44–82. Some of the topics researched by biopsychologists include sleep, emotions, aggression, sexual behavior, and learning and memory—as well as disorders. While disorders may have multiple causes (family issues, stress, or trauma, for example), research in biopsychology points clearly to bio- logical factors as one of those causes. For example, evidence continues to mount for a genetic cause for schizophrenia, a mental disorder involving delusions (false beliefs), hallucinations (false sensory impres- sions), and extremely distorted thinking (Brzustowicz et al., 2004; Maziade et al., 1997; Pogue-Geile & Yokley, 2010). to Chapter Fourteen: Psychological Disorders, pp. 556–560. Other research suggests that human sexual orientation may be related to the These scans highlight gray matter loss in developing baby’s exposure in the womb to testosterone (G. Brown et al., 2002) as well as the brains of individuals with very early- the birth order of male children (Puts et al., 2006). The Puts, Jordan, and Breedlove onset, adolescent schizophrenia over a (2006) study suggests that the more older brothers a male child has, the more likely he is five-year period, highlighting one focus of to have a homosexual orientation. to Chapter Ten: Sexuality and Gender, the biological perspective. p. 396. Still another example of research in this field is Escandon, Al-Hammadi, and Galvin’s (2010) study finding a possible link between the tendency to lose one’s train of thought in later adulthood—staring into space, unexplained excessive daytime sleepiness, and disorganized thinking, for example—and the development of Alzheimer’s disease. to Chapter Six: Memory, p. 246. EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE The evolutionary perspective focuses on the biological bases for universal mental characteristics that all humans share. It seeks to explain general mental strategies and traits, such as why we lie, how attractiveness influences mate selection, why fear of snakes is so common, or why people universally like music and dancing. This approach may also overlap with biopsychology. In this perspective, the mind is seen as a set of information-processing machines, designed by the same process of natural selection that Darwin (1859) first theorized, allowing human beings to solve the problems faced in the early days of human evolu- tion—the problems of the early hunters and gatherers. For example, evolutionary psy- chologists (psychologists who study the evolutionary origins of human behavior) would view the human behavior of not eating substances that have a bitter taste (such as poi- sonous plants) as an adaptive* behavior that evolved as early humans came into contact with such bitter plants. Those who ate the bitter plants would die, while those who spit That explains why people them out survived to pass on their “I-don’t-like-this-taste” genes to their offspring, who would pass on the genes to their offspring, and so on, until after a long period of don’t like bitter stuff, like the time there is an entire population of humans that naturally avoids bitter-tasting white part of an orange peel, substances. but that’s really a physical That explains why people don’t like bitter stuff, like the white part of an orange thing. How would the peel, but that’s really a physical thing. How would the evolutionary perspective help us evolutionary perspective help understand something psychological like relationships? us understand something Relationships between men and women are one of the many areas in which evo- psychological like lutionary psychologists conduct research. For example, in one study researchers sur- veyed young adults about their relationships with the opposite sex, asking the relationships? participants how likely they would be to forgive either a sexual infidelity or an emo- tional one (Shackelford et al., 2002). Evolutionary theory would predict that men would find it more difficult to forgive a woman who had sex with someone else than a evolutionary perspective perspective that focuses on the biological bases of uni- versal mental characteristics that all *adaptive: having the quality of adjusting to the circumstances or need; in the sense used here, a humans share. behavior that aids in survival.  the science of psychology 17 woman who was only emotionally involved with someone because the man wants to be sure that the children the woman bears are his (Geary, 2000, in press). Why put all that effort into providing for children who could be another man’s offspring? Women, on the other hand, should find it harder to forgive an emotional infidelity, as they are always sure that their children are their own, but (in evolutionary terms, mind you) they need the emotional loyalty of the men to provide for those children (Buss et al., 1992; Daly et al., 1982; Edlund et al., 2006). The results support the prediction: Men find it harder to forgive a partner’s sexual straying and are more likely to break up with the woman than if the infidelity is purely emotional; for women, the opposite results were found. Other research concerning mating has found that women seem to use a man’s kissing ability to determine his worthiness as a potential mate (Hughes et al., 2007; Walter, 2008). Psychological Professionals and Areas of Specialization Psychology is a large field, and the many professionals working within it have different training, different focuses, and may have different goals from the typical psychologist. Psychologists with an evolutionary per- 1.5 How does a psychologist differ from a psychiatrist, and what are the other types spective would be interested in how this of professionals who work in the various areas of psychology? couple selected each other as partners. A psychologist has no medical training but has a doctorate degree. Psychologists undergo intense academic training, learning about many different areas of psychology psychologist a professional with an aca- before choosing a specialization. Because the focus of their careers can vary so widely, demic degree and specialized training in psychologists work in many different vocational* settings. Figure 1.2a shows the types one or more areas of psychology. 6% 4% State and Federal local government 6% General government 4% Other 9% 35% Private not University 2% Educational for profit and four-year colleges 34% Clinical 12% Developmental 6% Social and 18% personality Private for profit 5% Industrial/ 7% organizational 6% Cognitive Schools and other educational settings 4% School 21% 8% Experimental 13% Counseling Self-employed and other research areas a. Where Psychologists Work b. Subfields of Psychology Figure 1.2 Work Settings and Subfields of Psychology (a) There are many different work settings for psychologists. Although not obvious from the chart, many psychologists work in more than one setting. For example, a clinical psychologist may work in a hospital setting and teach at a university or college. (Tsapogas et al., 2006) (b) This pie chart shows the specialty areas of psychologists who recently received their doctorates. (Hoffer et al., 2007) *vocational: having to do with a job or career. 18 CHAPTER 1 Psychiatric social workers help many kinds and ages of people. The woman on the right might be going through a divorce, dealing with the loss of a spouse, or even recovering from drug abuse. of settings in which psychologists work. Remember, not all psychologists are trained to do counseling! Psychologists in the counseling specialization must also be licensed to Read and learn more about practice in their states. Read on mypsychlab.com psychological professionals on In contrast, a psychiatrist has a medical (M.D. or D.O.) degree and is a medical mypsychlab.com doctor who has specialized in the diagnosis and treatment (including the prescription of medications) of psychological disorders. A psychiatric social worker is trained in the area of social work and usually possesses a master’s degree in that discipline. These professionals focus more on the environmental conditions that can have an impact on You said not all psychologists mental disorders, such as poverty, overcrowding, stress, and drug abuse. do counseling. But I thought that was all that psychologists do— AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION what else is there? You said not all psychologists do counseling. But I thought that was all that psycholo- gists do—what else is there? Although many psychologists do participate in delivering therapy to people who need help, there is a nearly equal number of psychologists who do other tasks: researching, teaching, designing equipment and workplaces, and developing educa- tional methods, for example. Also, not every psychologist is interested in the same psychiatrist a medical doctor who has area of human—or animal—behavior and most psychologists work in several dif- specialized in the diagnosis and treatment ferent areas of interest, as shown in Figure 1.2b, “Subfields of Psychology.” of psychological disorders. There are many other areas of specialization: Psychology can be used in fields psychiatric social worker a social such as health; sports performance; legal issues; business concerns; and even in the worker with some training in therapy meth- design of equipment, tools, and furniture. For a more detailed look at some of thes ods who focuses on the environmental conditions that can have an impact on areas in which psychological principles can be applied and a listing of careers that mental disorders, such as poverty, over- can benefit from a degree in psychology, see to Appendix B: Applied crowding, stress, and drug abuse. Psychology, B-1–B-13.  the science of psychology 19 CONCEPT MAP 1.4 1.5 Psychodynamic focuses on the role of the unconscious mind and its influence on conscious behavior, based on Freud’s theory early childhood experiences, development of sense of self, and other motivations Behavioral focuses on how behavioral responses are learned through classical or operant conditioning based on early work of Watson and later B. F. Skinner Humanistic focuses on human potential, free will, and possibility of self-actualization two pioneers are Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow Cognitive focuses on memory, intelligence, perception, thought processes, has roots in problem solving, language, and learning Gestalt psychology Psychology Now: Modern Perspectives (no one single perspective is used to explain all human behavior and processes) focuses on the behavior of individuals as the result of the presence (real or Sociocultural imagined) of other individuals, as part of groups, or as part of a larger culture focuses on influences of hormones, brain structures and chemicals, disease, etc.; Biopsychological human and animal behavior is seen as a direct result of events in the body focuses on the biological bases for universal mental characteristics, such as why we lie, how attractiveness Evolutionary influences mate selection, the universality of fear, and why we enjoy things like music and dance Psychological Professionals and Areas of Specialization (people working in the field of psychology have a variety of training experiences and different focuses) psychologist psychiatrist psychiatric social worker has a doctorate degree (Ph.D., Psy.D., or Ed.D.) medical doctor has training in area and works with either humans or animals in a (M.D. or D.O.) that of social work variety of settings based on the area of specialization specializes in diagnosis (M.S.W.) and often and treatment of has a professional must be licensed to practice independently; typically psychological disorders; license to practice does not prescribe medications but can go through can prescribe medication (L.C.S.W.) specialized training to do so in a few states PRACTICE quiz How much do you remember? ANSWERS ON PAGE AK-1. Pick the best answer. 1. Which of the following pairs represents the oldest of today’s 3. Wesley was behaving oddly and showing signs of memory psychological perspectives? problems and odd behavior. Doctors found that an earlier fall a. humanism and behaviorism had created fluid pressure on his brain, causing the odd b. behaviorism and psychodynamics symptoms. Which of the following perspectives BEST explains c. psychodynamics and evolutionary psychology Wesley’s disordered behavior? d. cognitive psychology and sociocultural psychology a. psychodynamics c. behaviorism 2. Which perspective is known as the “third force” in b. cognitive psychology d. biopsychology psychology? a. psychoanalysis c. cognitive psychology b. behaviorism d. humanism (continued) 20 CHAPTER 1 4. Which perspective would a researcher be taking if she were 6. Dr. Roaden works in a school system, dealing directly with studying the way children learn through reinforcement of their children who have emotional, academic, and behavioral prob- actions? lems. Dr. Roaden is most likely which type of psychologist? a. psychoanalysis a. personality c. school b. cognitive psychology b. developmental d. comparative c. behaviorism Brainstorming: Do you believe that violence is a part of human d. evolutionary perspective nature? Is violent behavior something that can someday be 5. Which of the following professionals in psychology focuses removed from human behavior or, at the very least, be controlled? more on the environmental conditions that affect mental Think about this question from each of the perspectives discussed disorders? in this chapter. a. psychiatrist c. psychiatric social worker b. psychoanalyst d. psychologist Psychology: The Scientific Methodology WHY PSYCHOLOGISTS USE THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD Have you ever played the “airport game”? You sit at the airport (bus terminal, doctor’s office, or any other place where people come and go and you have a long wait) and try to guess what people do for a living based only on their appearance. Although it’s a fun game, the guesses are rarely correct. People’s guesses also sometimes reveal the biases that they may have about certain physical appearances: men with long hair are musi- cians, people wearing suits are executives, and so on. On the other hand, psychology is about trying to determine facts and reduce uncertainty. 1.6 Why is psychology considered a science, and what are the steps in using the scientific method? In psychology, researchers want to see only what is really there, not what their biases The scientific method can be used to might lead them to see. This can be achieved using the scientific method, a system for determine if children who watch violence reducing bias and error in the measurement of data. The scientific method is a way to on television are more likely to be aggres- sive than those who do not. accomplish the goals of psychology as discussed earlier: description, explanation, pre- diction, and control. The first step in any investigation is to have a question to investigate, right? So the first step in the scientific method is this: 1. Perceiving the Question: You notice something interesting happening in your surroundings for which you would like to have an explanation. An example might be that you’ve noticed that your children seem to get a little more aggres- sive with each other after watching a particularly violent children’s cartoon pro- gram on Saturday morning. You wonder if the violence in the cartoon could be creating the aggressive behavior in your children. This step is derived from the goal of description: What is happening here? Once you have a question, you want an answer. The next logical step is to form a tentative* answer or explanation for the behavior you have seen. This ten- tative explanation is known as a hypothesis. 2. Forming a Hypothesis: Based on your initial observations of what’s going on in your surroundings, you form an educated guess about the explanation for your observations, putting it into the form of a statement that can be tested in some scientific method system of gathering way. Going back to the previous example, you might say, “Children who watch data so that bias and error in measurement violent cartoons will become more aggressive.” (Forming a hypothesis based on are reduced. observations is related to the goals of description and explanation.) hypothesis tentative explanation of a phenomenon based on observations. *tentative: something that is not fully worked out or completed as yet.  the science of psychology 21 The next step is testing the hypothesis. People have a tendency to notice only things that agree with their view of the world, a kind of selective percep- tion called confirmation bias. to Chapter Seven: Cognition, p. 262. For example, if a person is convinced that all men with long hair smoke cigarettes, that person will tend to notice only those long-haired men who are smoking and ignore all the long-haired men who don’t smoke. The scientific method is designed to overcome the tendency to look at only the information that confirms people’s biases by forcing them to actively seek out information that might contradict their biases (or hypotheses). So when you test your hypothesis, you are trying to determine if the factor you suspect has an effect and that the results weren’t due to luck or chance. That’s why psychologists keep doing research over and over—to get more evidence that hypotheses are “supported.” 3. Testing the Hypothesis: The method you use to test your hypothesis will depend on exactly what kind of answer you think you might get. You could make more detailed observations or do a survey in which you ask questions of a large number of people, or you might design an experiment in which you would delib- erately change one thing to see if it causes changes in the behavior you are observing. In the example, the best method would probably be an experiment in which you select a group of children, show half of them a cartoon with violence and half of them a cartoon with no violence, and then find some way of measur- ing aggressive behavior in the two groups. What do you do with the results of your testing? Of course, testing the hypothesis is all about the goal of getting an explanation for behavior, which leads to the next step. 4. Drawing Conclusions: Once you know the results of your hypothesis testing, you will find that either your hypothesis was supported—which means that your experiment worked, and that your measurements supported your initial observa- tions—or that they weren’t supported, which means that you need to go back to square one and think of another possible explanation for what you have observed. (Could it be that Saturday mornings make children a little more aggressive? Or Saturday breakfasts?) The results of any method of hypothesis testing won’t be just the raw num- bers or measurements. Any data that come from your testing procedure will be analyzed with some kind of statistical method that helps to organize and refine the data. to Appendix A: Statistics, A-1–A-12. Drawing conclusions can be related to the goal of prediction: If your hypothesis is supported, you can make educated guesses about future, similar scenarios. 5. Report Your Results: You have come to some conclusion about your investiga- tion’s success or failure, and you want to let other researchers know what you have found. Why tell anyone what happened if it failed? Why tell Just because one experiment or study did not find support for the hypoth- anyone esis does not necessarily mean that the hypothesis is incorrect. Your study could what have been poorly designed, or there might have been factors out of your control happened that interfered with the study. But other researchers are asking the same kinds of questions that you might have asked. They need to know what has already been if it failed? found out about the answers to those questions so that they can continue inves- tigating and adding more knowledge about the answers to those questions. Even if your own investigation didn’t go as planned, your report will tell other researchers what not to do in the future. So the final step in any scientific inves- tigation is reporting the results. 22 CHAPTER 1 At this point, you would want to write up exactly what you did, why you did it, how you did it, and what you found. If others can replicate your research (meaning, do exactly the same study over again and get the same results), it gives much more support to your findings. This allows others to predict behavior based on your findings and to use the results of those findings to modify or control behavior, the last goal in psychology. This might be a good place to make a distinction between questions that can be scientifically or empirically studied and those that cannot. For example, “What is the meaning of life?” is not a question that can