Psychology 1-60 PDF

1 The World of Psychology: An Overview 4 Subfields of Psychology Introducing Linkages Within Psychology and Be...

1 The World of Psychology: An Overview 4 Subfields of Psychology Introducing Linkages Within Psychology and Beyond Research: The Foundation of Psychology A Brief History of Psychology Psychology Approaches to the Science of Psychology 18 The Biological Approach The Evolutionary Approach The Psychodynamic Approach The Behavioral Approach The Cognitive Approach The Humanistic Approach Human Diversity and Psychology 24 The Impact of Sociocultural Diversity on Psychology SUMMARY © Corbis/SuperStock 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 2 23/09/10 12:17 PM  In this opening chapter, we give you subjects, such as economics and medicine, and how research an overview of psychology as a whole and of the many in psychology is being applied in everyday life every day. specialized areas in which psychologists work. We describe We then tell the story of how psychology came to be and the the linkages that tie these areas to one another and to other various ways in which psychologists approach their work. H ere are some people who have truly interesting jobs. What do you think they studied to qualify for those jobs? See if you can fill in the blank next to each job description with one of the fields of study listed in Table 1.1. Kristen Beyer works for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where she develops questionnaires and conducts interviews aimed at identifying common features in the backgrounds of serial killers. Jason Kring, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, conducts research on how the gender composition of a team affects performance under the stress of space flight and military combat. Anne Marie Apanovitch is employed by a drug company to study which of the company’s marketing strategies are most effective in promoting sales. Rebecca Snyder studies the giant pandas at Zoo Atlanta in an effort to promote captive breeding and ultimately increase the wild population of this endangered species. Michael Moon’s job at a soft ware company is to find new ways to make Internet Web sites more informative and easier to navigate. Elizabeth Kolmstetter works at the Transportation Security Administration, where, following the September 11 terrorist attacks, she took charge of a program to establish higher standards for hiring and training security screeners at U.S. airports. Marissa Reddy, codirector of the U.S. Secret Service’s Safe Schools initiative, tries to prevent school shootings by identifying risk factors for violent behavior in high school students. Sharon Lundgren, founder of Lundgren Trial Consulting, Inc., helps prepare witnesses to testify in court, conducts mock trials in which attorneys rehearse their questioning strategies, and teaches attorneys how to present themselves and their evidence in the most convincing way. Evan Byrne works at the National Transportation Safety Board, where he investigates the role of memory lapses, disorientation, errors in using equipment, and other human factors in causing airplane crashes. Karen Orts, a captain in the U.S. Air Force, is chief of mental health services at an air base, where, among other things, she provides psychotherapy to military personnel suffering combat-related stress disorders and teaches leadership courses to commissioned and noncommissioned officers. Because Captain Orts offers psychotherapy, you probably guessed that she is a psychologist, but what academic field did you associate with Rebecca Snyder, who studies giant pandas? It would have been perfectly reasonable to assume that she is a zoologist, but she, too, is a psychologist. So is Evan Byrne, whose work on Web site design might suggest that he was a computer science major. And although Sharon Lundgren spends her time working with witnesses and conducting mock trials, she  01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 3 23/09/10 12:17 PM   chapter  Introducing Psychology is a psychologist, not a lawyer. The fact is that all these people are psychologists! They may not all fit your image of what psychologists do, but as you will see in this chapter and throughout this book, psychology is much broader and more diverse than you may have expected. Many different kinds of psychologists are doing all sorts of fascinating work in one or more of psychology’s many specialty areas, or subfields. Most of these people took their first psychology course without realizing how many of these subfields there are or how many different kinds of jobs are open to psychologists. But like the people we have just described, they found something in psychology—perhaps something unexpected—that captured their interest, and they were hooked. And who knows? By the time you have finished this book and this course, you may have found some aspect of psychology so compelling that you will want to make it your life’s work too. Or not. At the very least, we hope you enjoy learning about psychology, about the work of psy- chologists, and about how that work benefits people everywhere. The World of Psychology: An Overview Psychology is the science that seeks to understand behavior and mental processes and to apply that understanding in the service of human welfare. It is a science that covers a lot of territory, as illustrated by the vastly different jobs that occupy the ten psychologists we described. They are all psychologists because they are all involved in studying, predicting, improving, or explaining some aspect of behavior and mental processes. TRY THIS To begin to appreciate all the things that are included under the umbrella of behavior and mental processes, take a moment to think about how you would answer this question: Who are you? Would you describe your personality, your 20/20 vision, your interests and goals, your skills and accomplishments, your IQ, your cultural background, or perhaps a physical or emotional problem that both- ers you? You could have listed these and dozens of other things about yourself, and every one of them would reflect some aspect of what psychologists mean by behavior and mental processes. It is no wonder, then, that this book’s table of contents fea- tures so many different topics, including some—such as vision and hearing—that you may not have expected to see in a book about psychology. The topics have to be diverse in order to capture the full range of behaviors and mental processes that make you who you are and that come together in other ways in people of every cul- psychology The science of behavior ture around the world. and mental processes. Some of the world’s half-million psychologists focus on what can go wrong in positive psychology A field of behavior and mental processes—psychological disorders, problems in childhood research that focuses on people’s positive development, stress-related illnesses, and the like—while others study what goes right. experiences and characteristics, such as They explore, for example, the factors that lead people to be happy and satisfied with happiness, optimism, and resilience. their lives, to achieve at a high level, to be creative, to help others, and to develop their biological psychologists Psychologists full potential as human beings. This focus on what goes right, on the things that make who analyze the biological factors life most worth living, has become known as positive psychology (e.g., Peterson, 2006a; influencing behavior and mental processes. Snyder & Lopez, 2009; Uchida & Kitayama, 2009), and you will see many examples of it Also called physiological psychologists. in the research described throughout this book. cognitive psychologists Psychologists who study the mental processes underlying judgment, decision making, TABLE 1.1 What’s My Line? problem solving, imagining, and other TRY THIS Try matching educational A. Engineering F. Advertising aspects of human thought or cognition. backgrounds with the people described at Also called experimental psychologists. B. Criminal justice G. Biology the beginning of the chapter by writing the letter for the correct field of study next to each C. Computer science H. Education engineering psychology A field in person’s job description. which psychologists study human factors D. Law I. Zoology in the use of equipment and help designers E. Psychology J. Business administration create better versions of that equipment. 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 4 23/09/10 12:17 PM  The World of Psychology: An Overview  FIGURE 1.1 Visualizing Brain Activity Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques allow biological psychologists to study the brain activity accompanying various mental processes. In the study illustrated here, males (left) and females Shaywitz, et al., 1995, NMR Research/Yale Medical School (right) showed different patterns of brain activity (indicated by the brightly colored areas) while reading (Shaywitz et al., 1995). Subfields of Psychology When psychologists choose to focus their attention on certain aspects of behavior and mental processes, they enter one of psychology’s subfields. Let’s take a quick look at the typical interests and activities of psychologists in each subfield. We will describe their work in more detail in later chapters. Biological Psychology Biological psychologists, also called physiological psy- chologists, use high-tech scanning devices and other methods to study how biological processes in the brain affect, and are affected by, behavior and mental processes (see Figure 1.1). Have you ever had the odd feeling that a new experience, such as entering an unfamiliar house, has actually happened to you before? Biological psychologists studying this illusion of déjà vu (French for “already seen”) suggest that it may be due to a temporary malfunction in the brain’s ability to combine incoming information FIGURE 1.2 from the senses, creating the impression of two “copies” of a single event (Brown, Husband and Father-in-Law 2004). In the chapter on biological aspects of psychology, we describe biological TRY THIS This figure is called psychologists’ research on many other topics, such as how your brain controls your “Husband and Father-in-Law” (Botwinick, movements and speech and what organs help you cope with stress and fight disease. 1961) because you can see an old man or a young man, depending on how you Cognitive Psychology TRY THIS Stop reading for a moment and look left and mentally organize its features. The elderly right. Your ability to follow this suggestion, to recognize whatever you saw, and to father-in-law faces to your right and is understand the words you are reading right now are the result of mental, or cogni- turned slightly toward you. He has a large tive, abilities. Those abilities allow you to receive information from the outside world, nose, and the dark areas represent his coat understand it, and act on it. Cognitive psychologists (some of whom prefer to be pulled up to his protruding chin. However, called experimental psychologists) study mental abilities such as sensation and per- the tip of his nose can also be seen as the ception, learning and memory, thinking, consciousness, intelligence, and creativity. tip of a younger man’s chin; the younger Cognitive psychologists have found, for example, that we don’t just receive incoming man is in profile, also looking to your right, information—we mentally manipulate it. Notice that the drawing in Figure 1.2 stays but away from you. The old man’s mouth is physically the same, but two different versions emerge, depending on which of its fea- the young man’s neckband. Both men are tures you emphasize. wearing a broad-brimmed hat. Applications of cognitive psychologists’ research are all around you. The work From Botwinick, J., “Husband and father-in-law: A of those whose special interest is engineering psychology—also known as human reversible figure,” American Journal of Psychology, 74, 312–313. Copyright © 1961 by the Board of factors—has helped designers create computer keyboards, mobile phones, MP3 players, Trustees of the University of Illinois. Used with Internet Web sites, aircraft instrument panels, automobile navigation systems, nuclear permission of the University of Illinois Press. power plant controls, and even TV remotes that are more logical, easier to use, and less 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 5 23/09/10 12:17 PM   chapter  Introducing Psychology A Bad Design Consultation with human factors psychologists would surely have improved the design of this self-service gasoline pump. The pump will not operate until you press the red “start” button under the yellow “push to” label (see enlargement at the upper right). The button is difficult to locate among all the other signs and stickers. Such user-unfriendly designs Photograph courtesy of www.baddesigns.com are all too common these days (e.g., Cooper, 2004; visit www. baddesigns.com for some amazing examples). likely to cause errors. You will read more about human factors research and many other aspects of cognitive psychology in several chapters of this book. Developmental Psychology Developmental psychologists describe the changes in behavior and mental processes that occur from birth through old age and try to understand the causes and effects of those changes (see Figure 1.3). Their research on the development of memory and other mental abilities, for example, is used by judges and attorneys in deciding how old a child has to be in order to serve as a reliable wit- ness in court or to responsibly choose which divorcing parent to live with. The chapter on human development describes other research by developmental psychologists and how it is being applied in areas such as parenting, evaluating day care, and preserving mental capacity in elderly people. Personality Psychology Personality psychologists study individuality—the unique features that characterize each of us. Using personality tests, some of these psychologists seek to describe how your own combination of personality traits, like your fingerprints, differs from everyone else’s in terms of traits such as openness to experience, emotionality, developmental psychologists reliability, agreeableness, and sociability. Others study the combinations of personality Psychologists who seek to understand, traits that are associated with the appearance of ethnic prejudice, depression, or vul- describe, and explore how behavior and nerability to stress-related health problems. And personality psychologists interested in mental processes change over a lifetime. positive psychology are trying to identify and understand the human strengths that help personality psychologists people to remain optimistic, even in the face of stress or tragedy, and to find happiness Psychologists who study the in their lives (Snyder & Lopez, 2009). characteristics that make individuals similar to or different from one another. Clinical, Counseling, Community, and Health Psychology Clinical psycholo- clinical and counseling gists and counseling psychologists conduct research on the causes and treatment of psychologists Psychologists who mental disorders and offer services to help troubled people overcome those disorders. seek to assess, understand, and change Their research is improving our understanding of the genetic and environmental abnormal behavior. forces that shape disorders ranging from anxiety and depression to schizophrenia and 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 6 23/09/10 12:17 PM  The World of Psychology: An Overview  FIGURE 1.3 Where Would You Put a Third Eye? In a study of how thinking develops, children were asked to show where they would place a third eye if they could have one. Nine-year-old children, who were still in an early stage of mental development, drew the extra eye between their existing eyes, “as a spare.” Having developed more advanced thinking abilities, eleven-year- olds drew the third eye in more creative places, such as the palm of their hand “so I can see around corners.” From Shaffer, Developmental Psychology: Theory, Research and Applications. Copyright © 1985 Wadsworth, a part of Cengage Learning Inc. Reproduced by permission.www.cengage.com/ permissions Drawing by a nine-year-old Drawing by an eleven-year-old autism, and it is providing guidance to therapists about which treatment methods are likely to be most effective with each category of disorder. Community psychologists work to ensure that psychological services reach the homeless and others who need help but tend not to seek it. They also try to prevent psychological disorders by promoting people’s resilience and other personal strengths and by working with community leaders and neighborhood organizations to improve local schools and reduce the crime, poverty, and other stressful conditions that often lead to psychological disorders. Health psychologists study the relationship between risky behaviors such as smoking or lack of exercise and the likelihood of suffering heart disease, stroke, cancer, or other health problems. They also explore the impact that illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, or multiple sclerosis can have on people’s behavior, thinking, emo- tions, and family relationships. Their research is applied in programs that help people to cope effectively with illness, as well as to reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, and stroke by changing the behaviors that put them at risk. Generally, clinical psychologists have Ph.D. degrees in psychology; counseling, community, and health psychologists have either a Ph.D. or a master’s degree in psy- community psychologists chology. All of these psychologists differ from psychiatrists, who are medical doctors Psychologists who work to obtain specializing in abnormal behavior (psychiatry). You can read more about the work of psychological services for people in need clinical, counseling, community, and health psychologists in the chapters on health, of help and to prevent psychological stress, and coping; psychological disorders; and treatment of psychological disorders. disorders by working for changes in social systems. Educational and School Psychology Educational psychologists conduct health psychologists Psychologists research and develop theories about teaching and learning. The results of their work who study the effects of behavior and are applied in programs designed to improve teacher training, refine school curri- mental processes on health and illness cula, reduce dropout rates, and help students learn more efficiently and remember and vice versa. what they learn. For example, they have supported the use of the “jigsaw” technique, a educational psychologists type of classroom activity, described in the social cognition chapter, in which children Psychologists who study methods by from various ethnic groups must work together to complete a task or solve a problem. which instructors teach and students These cooperative experiences appear to promote learning, generate mutual respect, learn and who apply their results to and reduce intergroup prejudice (Aronson, 2004). improving those methods. School psychologists once specialized in IQ testing, diagnosing learning dis- school psychologists Psychologists abilities and other academic problems, and setting up programs to improve students’ who test IQs, diagnose students’ achievement and satisfaction in school. Today, however, they are also involved in academic problems, and set up programs activities such as early detection of students’ mental health problems and crisis inter- to improve students’ achievement. vention following school violence. 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 7 23/09/10 12:17 PM   chapter  Introducing Psychology Getting Ready for Surgery Health psychologists have learned that when patients are mentally prepared for a surgical procedure, they are less stressed by it and recover more rapidly. Their research is now routinely applied © Dorothy Littell Greco/The Image Works; (bottom) © Cupid.com, Inc. in hospitals through programs in which children and adults are given more information about what to expect before, during, and after their operations. Social Psychology Social psychologists study the ways that people think about themselves and others and how people influence one another. Their research on per- suasion has been applied to the creation of safe-sex advertising campaigns designed to stop the spread of AIDS. Social psychologists also explore how peer pressure affects us, what determines whom we like (or even love), and why and how prejudice forms. They have found, for example, that although we may pride ourselves on not being prejudiced, we may actually hold unconscious negative beliefs about certain groups that affect the way we relate to people in those groups. The chapters on social cognition and social influence describe these and many other examples of research in social psychology. Got a Match? Some commercial matchmaking services apply social psychologists’ research on interpersonal attraction in an effort to pair up people whose characteristics are most likely to be compatible. social psychologists Psychologists who study how people influence one another’s behavior and mental processes, individually and in groups. 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 8 23/09/10 12:17 PM  The World of Psychology: An Overview  Industrial and Organizational Psychology Industrial and organizational psy- chologists conduct research on leadership, stress, competition, pay scales, and other factors that affect the efficiency, productivity, and satisfaction of people in the work- place. They also explore topics such as worker motivation, work team cooperation, conflict resolution procedures, and employee selection methods. Learning more about how businesses and industrial organizations work—or fail to work—allows industrial and organizational psychologists to make evidence-based recommendations for help- ing them work better. Today, companies all over the world are applying research from industrial and organizational psychology to promote the development of positive orga- nizational behavior. The results include more effective employee training programs, ambitious but realistic goal-setting procedures, fair and reasonable evaluation tools, and incentive systems that motivate and reward outstanding performance. Quantitative Psychology Quantitative psychologists develop and use statistical tools to analyze vast amounts of data collected by their colleagues in all of psychology’s subfields. These tools are of help in evaluating the quality of psychological tests, trac- ing the relationships between childhood experiences and adult behaviors, and even estimating the relative contributions of heredity and environment in shaping intelli- gence. To what extent are people born smart—or not so smart—and to what extent are their mental abilities created by their environments? This is one of the hottest topics in psychology today, and quantitative psychologists are right in the middle of it. Other Subfields Our list of psychology’s subfields is still not complete. There are sport psychologists, who use visualization and relaxation training programs, for example, to help athletes reduce excessive anxiety, focus attention, and make other changes that let them perform at their best. Forensic psychologists assist in jury selec- tion, evaluate defendants’ mental competence to stand trial, and deal with other issues involving psychology and the law. And environmental psychologists study the effects of the environment on people’s behavior and mental processes. The results of their industrial and organizational psychologists Psychologists who study ways to improve efficiency, productivity, and satisfaction among workers and the organizations that employ them. quantitative psychologists Psychologists who develop and use statistical tools to analyze research data. sport psychologists Psychologists who explore the relationships between athletic performance and such © NBC/Photofest psychological variables as motivation and emotion. forensic psychologists Psychologists who assist in jury selection, evaluate defendants’ mental competence to stand Forensic Psychology trial, and deal with other issues involving Forensic psychologists may assist police and other agencies in profiling criminals, evaluating the psychology and the law. mental competence of defendants, participating in jury selection, and performing many other environmental psychologists tasks related to psychology and the law. Actor B. D. Wong’s performance as forensic psychiatrist Psychologists who study the effects of Dr. George Huang on Law and Order: SVU is so accurate that the Media Psychology division of the the physical environment on behavior American Psychological Association gave the show its 2004 Golden Psi award for excellence in the and mental processes. fictional portrayal of mental health professionals. 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 9 23/09/10 12:17 PM   chapter  Introducing Psychology research are applied by architects and interior designers as they plan or remodel resi- dence halls, shopping malls, auditoriums, hospitals, prisons, offices, and other spaces to make them more comfortable and functional for the people who will occupy them. There are also neuropsychologists, military psychologists, consumer psychologists, rehabilitation psychologists, and more. Further information about the subfields we have mentioned—and some that we haven’t—is available on the Web sites of the American Psychological Association (www.apa.org) and the Association for Psychological Science (www.psychologicalscience.org). Where do the psychologists in all these subfields work? Table 1.2 contains a sum- mary of where the approximately 160,000 psychologists.... in the United States find employment, as well as the kinds of things they typically do in each setting. Linkages Within Psychology and Beyond We have listed psychology’s subfields as though they were separate, but they often overlap, and so do the activities of the psychologists working in them. When develop- mental psychologists study the changes that take place in children’s thinking skills, for example, their research is linked to the research of cognitive psychologists. Similarly, biological psychologists have one foot in clinical psychology when they look at how chemicals in the brain affect the symptoms of depression. And when social psycholo- gists apply their research on cooperation to promote group learning activities in the classroom, they are linking up with educational psychology. Even when psychologists work mainly in one subfield, they are still likely to draw on, and contribute to, knowl- edge in other subfields. LINKAGES If you follow the many linkages but also with an appreciation of the CHAPTER 1 among psychology’s subfields as Introducing fabric of psychology as a whole. you read this book, you will come psychology We discuss one linkage in detail in away not only with threads of each chapter in a special Linkages knowledge about each subfield section. LINKAGES Can subliminal messages Does psychotherapy What makes some help you lose weight? work? people so aggressive? (ans. on p. 161) (ans. on p. 671) (ans. on p. 743) CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 18 Perception Treatment of Social psychological disorders Influence 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 10 23/09/10 12:17 PM  The World of Psychology: An Overview  TABLE 1.2 Typical Activities and Work Settings for Psychologists The fact that psychologists can work in such a wide variety of settings 2010, Dillow, & Hoffman, 2008). Psychology courses also provide excellent and do so many interesting—and often well-paying—jobs helps account background for students planning to enter medicine, law, business, and for the popularity of psychology as an undergraduate major (Goldstein, many other fields. Work Setting Typical Activities Colleges, universities, and professional Teaching, research, and writing, often in collaboration with colleagues from other disciplines schools Mental health facilities (e.g., hospitals, Testing and treatment of children and adults clinics, counseling centers) Private practice (alone or in a group of Testing and treatment of children and adults; consultation to business and other organizations psychologists) Business, government, and Testing potential employees; assessing employee satisfaction; identifying and resolving conflicts; improving organizations leadership skills; offering stress management and other employee assistance programs; improving equipment design to maximize productivity and prevent accidents Schools (including those for Testing mental abilities and other characteristics; identifying problem children; consulting with parents; intellectually disabled and emotionally designing and implementing programs to improve academic performance disturbed children) Other Teaching prison inmates; research in private institutes; advising legislators on educational, research, or public policy; administering research funds; research on effectiveness of military personnel; etc. So if you want to understand psychology as a whole, you have to understand the linkages among its subfields. To help you recognize these linkages, we highlight three of them in a Linkages diagram at the end of each chapter—similar to the one shown here. Each linkage is represented by a question that connects two subfields, and the page numbers in parentheses tell you where you can read more about each question (look for “Linkages” symbols on those pages). We pay particular attention to one of the questions in each diagram by discussing it in a special Linkages section. If you follow the linkages in these diagrams, the relationships among psychology’s many subfields will become much clearer. We hope that you find this kind of detective work to be interesting and that it will lead you to look for the many other linkages that we did not mention. Tracing linkages might even improve your grade in the course, because it is often easier to remember material in one chapter by relating it to linked material in other chapters. Links to Other Fields Just as psychology’s subfields are linked to one another, psy- chology itself is linked to many other fields. Some of these linkages are based on interests that psychologists share with researchers from other disciplines. For example, psycholo- gists are working with computer scientists to create artificial intelligence systems that can recognize voices, solve problems, and make decisions in ways that will equal or exceed human capabilities (Haynes, Cohen, & Ritter, 2009; Wang, 2007). Psychologists are also collaborating with specialists in neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, genetics, and other disciplines in the field known as neuroscience. The goal of this mul- tidisciplinary research enterprise is to examine the structure and function of the nervous system in animals and humans at levels ranging from the individual cell to overt behavior. Many of the links between psychology and other disciplines appear when research conducted in one field is applied in the other. For example, biological psychologists are learning about the brain with scanning devices developed by computer scientists, physicists, and engineers. Physicians and economists are using research by psychol- neuroscience The scientific study ogists to better understand the thought processes that influence (good and bad) of all levels of the nervous system, decisions about caring for patients and choosing investments. In fact, the psychologist including neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, Daniel Kahneman recently won a Nobel Prize in economics for his work in this area. neurology, neurophysiology, and Other psychologists’ research on memory has influenced how lineups and “mug shot” neuropharmacology. photos are displayed to eyewitnesses attempting to identify criminals, how attorneys 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 11 23/09/10 12:18 PM   chapter  Introducing Psychology Linking Psychology and Law Cognitive psychologists’ research on the quirks of human memory has led to revised guidelines for police and prosecutors when dealing with crime witnesses (U.S. Department of Justice, 1999). These guidelines warn that asking witnesses leading questions (e.g., “Do you remember seeing a gun?”) can distort their memories and that false accusations are less likely if witnesses are told that the real criminal might not be in a lineup or in a group of photos (Doyle, 2005). © Fat Chance Productions/Corbis question eyewitnesses in court, and how lawyers and judges question witnesses and instruct juries. And psychological studies of the effect of aging and brain disorders on people’s vision, hearing, and mental abilities is shaping doctors’ recommendations about whether and when elderly patients should stop driving cars. This book is filled with examples of other ways in which psychological theories and research have been applied to health care, law, business, engineering, architecture, aviation, and sports, to name just a few. Research: The Foundation of Psychology The knowledge that psychologists share across subfields and with other disciplines stems from the research they conduct on many aspects of behavior and mental pro- cesses. For example, rather than just speculating about why some people eat too much or too little, psychologists look for answers by using the methods of science. This means that they perform experiments and other scientific procedures to systemati- cally gather and analyze information about behavior and mental processes and then base their conclusions—and their next questions—on the results of those procedures. To follow up on the topic of eating, consider what would happen if you had just finished a big lunch at your favorite restaurant and a waiter got mixed up and brought you a plate of the same food that was meant for someone else. You would probably send it away, but why? Decisions to start eating or stop eating are affected by many bio- logical factors, including signals from your blood that tell your brain how much “fuel” you have available. But the psychologist Paul Rozin was interested in how these deci- sions are affected by psychological factors, such as being aware that you have already eaten (Rozin et al., 1998). What if you didn’t remember that you just had lunch? Would you have started eating that second plate of food? To explore this question, Rozin conducted a series of tests with R. H. and B. R., two men who had suffered a kind of brain damage that left them unable to remem- ber anything for more than a few minutes. (You can read more about this condition, called anterograde amnesia, in the memory chapter.) The men were tested individually, on three different days, in a private room where they sat with a researcher at lunch- time and were served a tray of their favorite food. Before and after eating, they were asked to rate their hunger on a scale from 1 (extremely full) to 9 (extremely hungry). Once lunch was over, the tray was removed, and the researcher continued chatting, 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 12 23/09/10 12:18 PM  The World of Psychology: An Overview  making sure that each man drank enough water to clear his mouth of food residue. After ten to thirty minutes, a hospital attendant arrived with an identical meal tray and announced, “Here’s lunch.” These men had no memory of having eaten lunch already, but would signals from their stomachs or their blood be enough to keep them from eating another one? Apparently not. Table 1.3 shows that in every test session, R. H. and B. R. ate all or part of the second meal and in all but one session ate at least part of a third lunch that was offered to them ten to thirty minutes after the second one. Rozin conducted similar tests with J. C. and T. A., a woman and a man who had also suffered brain damage but whose memories had not been affected. In each of two test sessions, these people finished their lunch but refused the opportunity to eat a second one. These results suggest that the memory of when we last ate can indeed be a factor in guid- ing decisions about when to eat again. They also support a conclusion described in the motivation and emotion chapter, namely, that eating is controlled by a complex combination of biological, social, cultural, and psychological factors. As a result, we may eat when we think it is time to eat, regardless of what our bodies tell us about our physical need to eat. Rozin’s study illustrates the fact that although psychologists often begin with speculation about behavior and mental processes, they take additional steps toward understanding those processes. Using scientific methods to test their ideas, they reach informed conclusions and generate new questions. Even psychologists who don’t conduct research still benefit from it. They are constantly applying the results of their colleagues’ studies to improve the quality, accuracy, and effectiveness of their teaching, writing, or service to clients and organizations. In the developing field of performance psychology, for example, practicing clinical psychologists are combining their psychotherapy skills with research from cognitive, industrial and organizational, and sport psychology to help business executives, performing artists, and athletes excel (Hays, 2009). TABLE 1.3 The Role of Memory in Deciding When to Eat Here are the results of a study in which brain-damaged people were and T. A. had normal memory. These results suggest that the decision to offered a meal shortly after having eaten an identical meal. Their hunger start eating is determined partly by knowing when we last ate. Notice that ratings (1–9, where 9 = extremely hungry) before and after eating are hunger ratings, too, were more consistently affected by eating for the shown in parentheses. B. R. and R. H. had a kind of brain damage that people who remembered having eaten. left them unable to remember recent events (anterograde amnesia); J. C. Session B. R. (Amnesia) R. H. (Amnesia) J. C. T. A. One Meal 1 Finished (7/8) Partially eaten (7/6) Finished (5/2) Finished (5/4) Meal 2 Finished (2/5) Partially eaten (7/7) Rejected (0) Rejected (3) Meal 3 Rejected (3) Partially eaten (7/7) — — Two Meal 1 Finished (6/5) Partially eaten (7/6) Finished (7/2) Finished (7/3) Meal 2 Finished (5/3) Partially eaten (7/6) Rejected (1) Rejected (3) a Meal 3 Partially eaten (5) Partially eaten (7/6) — — Three Meal 1 Finished (7/3) Partially eaten (7/6) — — Meal 2 Finished (2/3) Partially eaten (7/6.5) — — Meal 3 Partially eaten (5/3) Partially eaten (7.5) — — a B. R. began eating his third meal but was stopped by the researcher, presumably to avoid illness. From P. Rozin, S. Dow, M. Moscovitch, and S. Rajaram, “The Role of Memory for Recent Eating Experiences in Onset and Cessation of Meals. Evidence from the Amnesic Syndrome,” Psychological Science, 9, 1998, pp. 392–396. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Inc. 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 13 23/09/10 12:18 PM   chapter  Introducing Psychology The rules and methods of science that guide psychologists in their research are summarized in the chapter on research in psychology. We have placed that chapter early in the book to highlight the fact that without scientific research methods and the foundation of evidence they provide, psychologists’ statements and recommenda- tions about behavior and mental processes would carry no more weight than those of astrologers, psychics, or tabloid journalists. Accordingly, we will be relying on the results of psychologists’ scientific research when we tell you what they have discovered so far about behavior and mental processes and also when we evaluate their efforts to apply that knowledge to improve the quality of human life. A Brief History of Psychology How did scientific research in psychology get started? Psychology is a relatively new discipline, but its roots can be traced through centuries, especially in the history of philosophy. Since at least the time of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in ancient Greece, philosophers had been debating psychological topics, such as “What is the nature of the mind and the soul?” “What is the relationship between the mind and the body?” and “Are we born with a certain amount of knowledge, or do we have to learn every- thing for ourselves?” They even debated whether it is possible to study such things scientifically. A philosophical view known as empiricism was particularly important to the development of scientific psychology. Beginning in the 1600s, proponents of empiricism—especially the British philosophers John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume—challenged the long-accepted claim that some knowledge is innate. Empiricists argued instead that what we know about the world comes to us through experience and observation, not through imagination or intuition. This view suggests that at birth, our minds are like a blank slate (tabula rasa in Latin) on which our experiences write a lifelong story. For well over a century now, empiricism has guided psychologists in seeking knowledge about behavior and mental processes through observations governed by the rules of science. Wundt and the Structuralism of Titchener The “official” birth date of mod- ern psychology is usually given as 1879, the year that a physiologist named Wilhelm Wundt (pronounced “voont”) established the first formal psychology research lab- oratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany (Benjamin, 2000). At around this time, a number of other German physiologists, including Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav Fechner (pronounced “FECK-ner”), had been studying vision and other sensory and perceptual processes that empiricism identified as the channels through which human knowledge flows. Fechner’s work was especially valuable because he realized that one could study these mental processes by observing people’s reactions to changes in sensory stimuli. By exploring, for example, how much brighter a light must become before we see it as twice as bright, Fechner discovered complex but predictable relationships between changes in the physical characteristics of stimuli and changes in our psychological experience of them. Fechner’s approach, which he called psychophys- ics, paved the way for much of the research described in the chapter on perception. Wundt, too, used the methods of laboratory science to study sensory-perceptual systems, but the focus of his work was consciousness, the mental experiences created by these systems. Wundt wanted to describe the basic elements of consciousness, how they are organized, and how they relate to one another (Schultz & Schultz, 2004). He developed ingenious laboratory methods to study the speed of decision making and other mental events, and in an attempt to observe conscious experience, Wundt used the technique of introspection, which means “looking inward.” After training research participants in this method, he repeatedly showed a light or made a sound consciousness The awareness of and asked them to describe the sensations and feelings these stimuli created. Wundt external stimuli and our own mental concluded that “quality” (e.g., cold or blue) and “intensity” (e.g., brightness or loud- activity. ness) are the two essential elements of any sensation and that feelings can be described 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 14 23/09/10 12:18 PM  The World of Psychology: An Overview  Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) In an early experiment on the speed of mental processes, Wundt (third from left) first measured how quickly people could respond to a light by releasing a button they had been holding down. He then measured how much longer the response took when they held down one button with each hand and had to decide, Archives of the History of American Psychology/The University of Akron based on the color of the light, which one to release. Wundt reasoned that the additional response time reflected how long it took to perceive the color and decide which hand to move. As noted in the chapter on cognition and language, the logic behind this experiment remains a part of research on cognitive processes today. in terms of pleasure or displeasure, tension or relaxation, and excitement or depres- sion (Schultz & Schultz, 2004). In conducting this kind of research, Wundt began psychology’s transformation from the philosophy of mental processes to the science of mental processes. Edward Titchener, an Englishman who had been a student of Wundt’s, used introspection in his own laboratory at Cornell University. He studied Wundt’s basic elements of consciousness, as well as images and other aspects of conscious experience that are harder to quantify (see Figure 1.4). One result was that Titchener added “clearness” as an element of sensation (Schultz & Schultz, 2004). Titchener called his approach structuralism because he was trying to define the structure of consciousness. Wundt was not alone in the scientific study of mental processes, nor was his work universally accepted. Some of his fellow German scientists, including Hermann Ebbinghaus, believed that analyzing consciousness through introspection was not as important as exploring the capacities and limitations of mental processes such as learning and memory. Ebbinghaus’s own laboratory experiments—in which he served as the only participant—formed the basis for some of what we know about memory today. Around 1912, other German colleagues, including Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Köhler, argued against Wundt’s efforts to break down human experience or consciousness into its component parts. They were called Gestalt psychologists because they pointed out that the whole shape (Gestalt in German) of FIGURE 1.4 conscious experience is not the same as the sum of its parts. Wertheimer pointed out, A Stimulus for Introspection for example, that if a pair of lights goes on and off in just the right sequence, we don’t TRY THIS Look at this object, and try experience two separate flashing lights but a single light that appears to “jump” back to ignore what it is. Instead, try to describe and forth. You have probably seen this phi phenomenon in action on advertising signs only your conscious experience, such as that create the impression of a series of lights racing around a display. Movies provide redness, brightness, and roundness, and another example. It would be incredibly boring to look one at a time at the thousands how intense and clear the sensations and of still images printed on a reel of fi lm. Yet when those same images are projected images are. If you can do this, you would onto a screen at a particular rate, they combine to create a rich and seemingly seam- have been an excellent research assistant in less emotional experience. To understand consciousness, then, said the Gestaltists, we Titchener’s laboratory. have to study the whole “movie,” not just its component parts. 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 15 23/09/10 12:18 PM   chapter  Introducing Psychology Freud and Psychoanalysis While Wundt and his colleagues in Leipzig were con- ducting scientific research on consciousness, Sigmund Freud was in Vienna, Austria, beginning to explore the unconscious. As a physician, Freud had presumed that all behavior and mental processes have physical causes somewhere in the nervous system. He began to question that assumption in the late 1800s, however, after encountering several patients who displayed a variety of physical ailments that had no apparent physical cause. After interviewing these patients using hypnosis and other methods, Freud became convinced that the causes of these people’s physical problems were not physical. The real causes, he said, were deep-seated problems that the patients had pushed out of consciousness (Friedman & Schustack, 2003). He eventually came to believe that all behavior—from everyday slips of the tongue to severe forms of mental disorder—is motivated by psychological processes, especially by mental conflicts that occur without our awareness, at an unconscious level. For nearly fift y years, Freud developed his ideas into a body of work known as psychoanalysis, which included a theory of personality and mental disorder, as well as a set of treatment methods. Freud’s ideas are by no means universally accepted, partly because they were based on a small number of medical cases, not on extensive laboratory experiments. Still, he was a groundbreaker whose theories have had a significant influence on psychology and many other fields. William James and Functionalism Scientific research in psychology began in North America not long after Wundt started his work in Germany. William James founded a psychology laboratory at Harvard University in the late 1870s, though it was used mainly to conduct demonstrations for his students (Schultz & Schultz, 2004). It was not until 1883 that G. Stanley Hall at Johns Hopkins University established the first psychology research laboratory in the United States. The first Canadian psychol- ogy research laboratory was established in 1889 at the University of Toronto by James Mark Baldwin, Canada’s first modern psychologist and a pioneer in research on child development. William James’s Lab Courtesy of the Harvard University Archives, call #HUPSF Psychological Labs (BP2) William James (1842–1910) established this psychology demonstration laboratory at Harvard University in the late 1870s. Like the Gestalt psychologists, James saw the approach used by Wundt and Titchener as a scientific dead end; he said that trying to understand consciousness by studying its components is like trying to understand a house by looking at individual bricks (James, 1884). He preferred instead to study the ways in which consciousness functions to help people adapt to their environments. 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 16 23/09/10 12:18 PM  The World of Psychology: An Overview  Like the Gestalt psychologists, William James rejected both Wundt’s approach and Titchener’s structuralism. He saw no point in breaking consciousness into com- ponent parts that never operate on their own. Instead, in accordance with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, James wanted to understand how images, sensations, memories, and the other mental events that make up our flowing “stream of con- sciousness” function to help us adapt to our environment (James, 1890, 1892). This idea was consistent with an approach to psychology called functionalism, which focused on the role of consciousness in guiding people’s ability to make decisions, solve problems, and the like. James’s emphasis on the functions of mental processes encouraged North American psychologists to look not only at how those processes work to our advantage but also at how they differ from one person to the next. Some of these psychologists began to measure individual differences in learning, memory, and other mental pro- cesses associated with intelligence, made recommendations for improving educational practices in the schools, and even worked with teachers on programs tailored to chil- dren in need of special help (Kramer, Bernstein, & Phares, 2009). John B. Watson and Behaviorism Besides fueling James’s interest in the functions of consciousness, Darwin’s theory of evolution led other psychologists—especially those in North America after 1900—to study animals as well as humans. These researchers reasoned that if all species evolved in similar ways, perhaps the behavior and mental processes of all species followed the same or similar laws and we can learn something about people by studying animals. They could not expect cats or rats or pigeons to introspect, so they watched what animals did when confronted with labo- ratory tasks such as finding the correct path through a maze. From these observations, psychologists made inferences about the animals’ conscious experience and about the general laws of learning, memory, problem solving, and other mental processes that might apply to people as well. John B. Watson, a psychology professor at Johns Hopkins University, agreed that the observable behavior of animals and humans is the most important source of scien- tific information for psychology. However, he thought it was utterly unscientific to use behavior as the basis for making inferences about consciousness, as structuralists and functionalists did—let alone about the unconscious, as Freudians did. In 1913, Watson published an article titled “Psychology As the Behaviorist Views It.” In it, he argued that psychologists should ignore mental events and base psychology only on what they can actually see in overt behavior and in responses to various stimuli (Watson, 1913, 1919). Watson’s view, called behaviorism, recognized the existence of consciousness but did not consider it worth studying because it would always be private and therefore not observable by scientific methods. In fact, said Watson, preoccupation with con- sciousness would prevent psychology from ever being a true science. He believed that the most important determinant of behavior is learning and that it is through learning that animals and humans are able to adapt to their environments. Watson was famous for claiming that with enough control over the environment, he could create learning experiences that would turn any infant into a doctor, a lawyer, or even a criminal. The American psychologist B. F. Skinner was another early champion of behavior- ism. From the 1930s until his death in 1990, Skinner worked on mapping out the details of how rewards and punishments shape, maintain, and change behavior through what he termed “operant conditioning.” By conducting a functional analysis of behavior, he would explain, for example, how parents and teachers can unknowingly encourage children’s tantrums by rewarding them with attention and how a virtual addiction to gambling can result from the occasional and unpredictable rewards it brings. Many psychologists were drawn to Watson’s and Skinner’s vision of psychology as the learning-based science of observable behavior. In fact, behaviorism domi- nated psychological research from the 1920s through the 1960s, while the study of consciousness received less attention, especially in the United States. (“In Review: The Development of Psychology” summarizes behaviorism and the other schools of thought that have influenced psychologists in the past century.) 01557_01_ch01_p002-029.indd 17 23/09/10 12:18 PM   chapter  Introducing Psychology Psychology Today Psychologists continue to study all kinds of overt behavior in humans and in animals. By the end of the 1960s, however, many had become dissatis- fied with the limitations imposed by behaviorism (some, especially in Europe, had never accepted it in the first place). They grew uncomfortable about ignoring mental processes that might be important in more fully understanding behavior (e.g., Ericsson & Simon, 1994). The dawn of the computer age influenced these psychologists to think about men- tal activity in a new way—as information processing. Computers and rapid progress in computer-based biotechnology began to offer psychologists exciting new ways to study mental processes and the biological activity that underlies them. As shown in Figure 1.1 on page 5, for example, it is now possible to literally see what is going on in the brain when a person reads or thinks or makes decisions. Armed with ever more sophisticated research tools, psychologists today are striving to do what Watson thought was impossible: to study mental processes with precision and scientific objectivity. In fact, there are probably now as many psycholo- gists who study cognitive and biological processes as there are who study observable behaviors. So mainstream psychology has come full circle, once again accepting con- sciousness—in the form of cognitive processes—as a legitimate topic for scientific research and justifying the definition of psychology as the science of behavior and mental processes. IN REVIEW The Development of Psychology School of Thought Early Advocates Goals Methods Structuralism Edward Titchener, To study conscious Experiments; trained by Wilhelm experience and its introspection Wundt structure Gestalt psychology Max Wertheimer To describe the Observation of sensory- organization of mental perceptual phenomena processes: “The whole is different from the sum of its parts.” Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud To explain personality Study of individual cases and behavior; to develop techniques for treating mental disorders Functionalism William James To study how the mind Naturalistic observation works in allowing an of animal and human organism to adapt to the behavior environment Behaviorism John B. Watson, To study only observable Observation of t