WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?

PSYCHOLOGY DEFINED

o Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Behavior

what can be directly observed

Mental processes thoughts, feelings, motives

Goal is to describe, predict and explain the normal and abnormal E.g., Milgrim’s conformity experiments

CORE ATTITUDES IN A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH Objectivity

Accepting what your objective evidence tells you even if it isn’t what you expected It’s not about being right – it’s about finding answers

Implying careful empirical research methods

Curiosity Wanting to know more about ourselves and our

world Asking questions about all aspects of human

behavior based on everything from personal observation to clips in the news Why are the personalities of identical twins sometimes

so different? Kitty Genovese case – diffusion of responsibility

CORE ATTITUDES IN A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

Critical Thinking Constantly reflecting, evaluating, questioning

and reevaluating Evidence based to avoid basing conclusions on

personal beliefs

Skepticism Challenging ideas and facts that are assumed to

be true Not accepting answers at face value Many misleading “facts” in the world due to

ignorance or self-interest

HISTORY OF THE FIELD – THE PHILOSOPHERS Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, debated the nature

of thought and behavior, including the possible link between the mind and the body

Descartes and others argued that the mind and body were completely separate entities and focused their studies on the mind

Hippocrates Temperament caused by lack of or abundance of 4

fluids in the body (called Humors) Blood – Sanguine (pleasure-seeking, sociable and

charismatic) Black bile – Melancholic (introverted, think too much, can

get obsessed with thinking about tragedy) Yellow bile – Choleric (assertive, ambitious and prone to

depression/mood swings) Phlegm – Phlegmatic (relaxed, quiet, passive-aggressive)

HISTORY OF THE FIELD – THE WILLIAMS

William Wundt - structuralism

William James - functionalism

HISTORY OF THE FIELD

A long history of philosophy and science has given rise to seven contemporary approaches The Biological Approach The Behavioral Approach The Psychodynamic Approach The Humanistic Approach The Cognitive Approach The Evolutionary Approach The Sociocultural Approach

THE BIOLOGICAL APPROACH

The biological approach focuses on the brain and nervous system.

Neurosciencestudy of the structure, function,

development, genetics, biochemistry of the nervous system

thoughts and emotions have physical basis in brain

allowed psychologists to better understand the brain

THE BEHAVIORAL APPROACH

The behavioral approach focuses on the

environmental determinants of observable behavior.

Notable Behaviorists John Watson B.F. Skinner rejected thought processes

THE PSYCHODYNAMIC/PSYCHOANALYTICAL APPROACH

Psychodynamics emphasizes unconscious thoughtconflict between biological drives and

demands of societyearly childhood family experiences and

parental relationships

Psychoanalysis – Freud

THE HUMANISTIC APPROACH

Humanists emphasize positive human qualities capacity for positive growth free will

Humanistic Theorists Carl Rogers Abraham Maslow

THE COGNITIVE APPROACH

The cognitive approach emphasizes themental processes involved in knowing.

Information Processing …how humans interpret incoming info, weigh it, store it, and apply it

THE EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

The evolutionary approach uses ideas such

as adaptation, reproduction, and natural

selection to explain human behavior.

Notable Evolutionary PsychologistsDavid Buss

THE SOCIOCULTURAL APPROACH

examines how social and cultural environments influence behavior and mental processes

How norms, values and mores shape us Culture Bound Syndromes

studies differences between ethnic and cultural groups within and across countries

SEVEN CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES

Historically considered ridged “schools” of thought In recent decades more acceptance of

interaction and validity in multiple approaches regarding the same topic

All aim to explain topics of interest involving human behavior and mental processes

Controversy/lack of agreement continues but all have merit and unique perspective

MIND AND BODY CONNECTION

Recent decades and research have brought awareness to the mind- body connection

How the mind impacts the body High risk behaviors – smoking, drinking, poor

self-care Psychological stress leading to actual physical

problems (psychosomatic disorders)

How the body impacts the mind The effects of illness or exhaustion on mental

processes and behavior

PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Science is a method.

It’s not what you study, but how you study it.

SCIENTIFIC METHOD

1. observe some phenomenon2. formulate hypothesis and predictions3. test through empirical research4. draw conclusions5. evaluate the theory

SCIENTIFIC METHOD: OBSERVEStep 1 Observe some phenomenon

curiosity

Variables what is being studied may vary or may be dichotomous like gender

What do you want to know Create an idea based on theory or

observation Your idea is NOT a theory

SCIENTIFIC METHOD: HYPOTHESIZE

Step 2 Formulate specific hypotheses and

predictions

testable prediction

operational definition of variables What is happiness? How is aggression defined in

this study?

derived from theory The more hypotheses test to be true the more

credibility a theory has

SCIENTIFIC METHOD: RESEARCHStep 3 Test through empirical research

Design your study

Complete training for use of human subjects and present research design to the Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Run study being careful to avoid confounding factors or unethical practices

Analyze data using statistical procedures

SCIENTIFIC METHOD: CONCLUSIONSStep 4 Draw conclusions based on statistical results

and how it relates to your original hypotheses

replication of results → reliability

SCIENTIFIC METHOD: EVALUATEStep 5Evaluate the theory and share results

change your hypothesis? challenge existing theories?

peer review and publication

meta-analysis

TYPES OF RESEARCH

Descriptive

Correlation

Experimental

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

Goal: Describes a phenomenon as it occurs without manipulation and does not answer questions regarding why or how

observationsurveys and interviewscase studies

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH Observation

Watch and record target behaviorOperational definitions extremely importantCons- human error

Surveys and InterviewsSelf report data

Open ended or Likert scaleEasy to administer across large populationsCons- self reported (limited insight, desire to look

good, no access to unconscious)

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH Case studies

Insight into one person or case Can reveal information about an individual that

may have been missed Cons – only about one person and cannot

generalize beyond that individual

CORRELATIONAL RESEARCHGoal: Identify relationships

correlation coefficient: r

-1.00 ≤ r ≤ 1.00

strength of relationship: magnitude

direction of relationship: + / -

CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS

CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH

Positive Correlations factors vary in same direction ↑ and ↑ … or … ↓ and ↓ E.g., sugar intake and weight gain/loss

Negative Correlations factors vary in opposite direction ↑ and ↓ … or … ↑ and ↓ E.g., alcohol consumption and fine motor skills

SCATTER PLOTS

CORRELATION AND CAUSATION

Correlation does not equal causation Strong correlation between ice cream sales and

boating accidents

We can only claim there is a relationship where the 2 variables changed together and cannot say that one lead to another third variable problem

CORRELATION AND CAUSATION Correlational design Pros:

Extremely useful when a true experimental design may be unethical E.g., prenatal exposure to nicotine or cocaine and

developmental issues

May be useful with variables that cannot be manipulated

Useful in predictions

Useful in measuring every day events Experience sampling method (ESM) Event contingent responding Longitudinal studies

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHGoal: Determine causation – the how and why

always involves manipulation of one or more variable Demonstrates cause and effect

independent variable (IV) – manipulation What is being changed

dependent variable (DV) – measurement Changes as a result of the independent variables

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

Experimental Group independent variable is manipulated

Control Group treated equally, except no manipulation of

independent variable

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH Drug Study – Does Prozac lessen the

symptoms of depression? IV – level of Prozac

IV 1 – control group – sugar pill IV2 – 15mg of Prozac IV3- 30 mg of Prozac IV4- 45 mg of Prozac

DV – measures of depression

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH Participants taking part in a sleep study to

determine whether the number of hours of sleep a person gets determines how well they will do on an exam were randomly assigned to either the group that was woken up at various times throughout the night or the group that was allowed to sleep throughout the night. Independent Variable? Dependent Variable? Experimental Group? Control Group?

TARGET STUDY Confederates

approached workers in 3 conditions, positive, negative and neutral

A second blind confederate then approached and measured helping behavior by that employee

RESEARCH DESIGN α = 0.05 (confidence level) You can use all three designs to study the

same subject:E.g., A professor wants to know how invested

students are in a lecture… Descriptive – observe and measure the amount of time

students yawn Correlational – Is there a relationship between

frequency of yawning and test grades? Experimental – Following the theory that something

strange makes individuals pay more attention teach 1st BMCC Intro class as normal and teach 2nd class singing and dancing and wearing a funny hat then compare test grades on a quiz given on that lecture

Issues in design?

RESEARCH DESIGN Validity

Are you measuring what you think you are measuring (internal validity)

and Can you generalize your results to a larger

population (external validity)?

RESEARCH DESIGN Solution to external validity:

Random assignmentRandom sample

SampleA representative selection of individuals from

your target population who participate in the study

PopulationEntire group such as Americans, woman, US

students under 16 whom you are drawing conclusions about

RESEARCH DESIGN

RESEARCH DESIGNRepresentative Sample

characteristics similar to populationopposite of “biased sample”

Random Sample• equal chance of being selected

Is it possible to get a true random and representative sample?

POPULATION AND SAMPLE It is hypothesized that there is a higher rate

of teenage pregnancy in single-parent households than in two-parent households.Population: Sample:

  It is hypothesized that infants born

prematurely get better grades in high school than those infants not born prematurely.Population:Sample:

BIAS AND CONFOUNDS

Threat to validity (especially internal validity)

Experimenter Bias Experimenters expectations influence outcome

of research E.g., “maze bright” vs “maze dull” rats or

“growers” experiment in schools Demand characteristics

Any aspect of a study that communicates how participants are expected to act

BIAS AND CONFOUNDS

Participant BiasBehavior or response during a study is

influenced by how they think should act or expectations

Placebo effectExpectations rather than treatment create

outcome

Blind or Double StudyTo counter act these biases neither researcher or

participant is aware of which condition the participant is in until results are calculated

RESEARCH SETTINGS

“Artificial” world – laboratory setting

controlled setting

Real world - natural settingnaturalistic observation

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each setting?

RESEARCH ETHICS Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments

Willowbrook Hepatitis Experiments

Humphrey's “Tearoom sex” study

Milgram’s conformity experiments

RESEARCH ETHICS – HUMAN SUBJECTS National Commission for the Protection

of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research

Institutional Review Board (IRB) in 1979 APA Guidelines to protect the well being

of participantsinformed consent (except observational research)confidentialitydebriefingdeception

ANIMAL RESEARCH IN PSYCHOLOGY used by 5% of researchers

rats and mice used 90% of time

Legally and ethically required to consider alternatives before engaging in animal research

standards of care in animal research Federal guidelines for

housingfeedingpsychological and physical well being

CREATING ETHICALLY SOUND AND VALID STUDIES Racism

Project Implicit @ Harvard https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/

Jealousy study

CRITICAL THINKING CONSUMERSA Wise Consumer…is skeptical

yet open-mindedCautionsexercise caution in applying group

trends to individual experienceavoid overgeneralizing resultslook for converging evidencequestion causal inferencesconsider (and if possible find and read)

the source