EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY (7th Edition) David Myers. Professor: Dr. Ahsani. 4. Myers Website: http://bcs.worthpublishers.com/myers7e/ My email: email@example.com. Thinking Critically With Psychological Science Chapter 1. Thinking Critically With Psychological Science. What is Psychology?
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Professor: Dr. Ahsani
What is Psychology?
With hopes of satisfying curiosity, many people listen to talk-radio counselors and psychics to learn about others and themselves.
Dr. Crane (radio-shrink)
Psychic (Ball gazing)
Wundt and psychology’s first graduate students studied the “atoms of the mind” by conducting experiments at Leipzig, Germany, in 1879. This work is considered the birth of psychology as we know it today.
American philosopher William James wrote an important 1890 psychology textbook. Mary Calkins, James’s student, became the APA’s first female president.
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian physician, and his followers emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind and its effects on human behavior.
Watson and later Skinner emphasized the study of overt behavior as the subject matter of scientific psychology.
Maslow and Rogers emphasized current environmental influences on our growth potential and our need for love and acceptance.
We define psychology today as the scientific study of behavior (what we do) and mental processes (inner thoughts and feelings).
The American Psychological Association is the largest organization of psychology with 160,000 members world-wide, followed by the British Psychological Society with 34,000 members.
Data: APA 1997
Data: APA 1997
A clinical psychologist (Ph.D.) studies, assesses, and treats troubled people with psychotherapy.
Psychiatrists on the other hand are medical professionals (M.D.) who use treatments like drugs and psychotherapy to treat psychologically diseased patients.
Many people believe that intuition and common sense are enough to bring forth answers regarding human nature.
Intuition and common sense may aid queries, but they are not free of error.
Hindsight Bias is the “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon.
After learning the outcome of an event, many people believe they could have predicted that very outcome. We only knew the dot.com stocks would plummet after they actually did plummet.
The scientific attitude is composed of curiosity (passion for exploration), skepticism (doubting and questioning) and humility (ability to accept responsibility when wrong).
Psychologists, like all scientists, use the scientific method to construct theories that organize, summarize and simplify observations.
A theory isan explanation that integrates principles and organizes and predicts behavior or events.
A hypothesis is a testable prediction, often prompted by a theory, to enable us to accept, reject or revise the theory.
It is a statement
It must be falsifiable
A)pride and enthusiasm.
B)ingenuity and practicality.
C)creativity and patience.
D)skepticism and humility.
A technique in which one person is studied in depth to reveal underlying behavioral principles.
Susan Kuklin/ Photo Researchers
Is language uniquely human?
A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes, opinions or behaviors of people usually done by questioning a representative, random sample of people.
Wording can change the results of a survey.
If each member of a population has an equal chance of inclusion into a sample, it is called a random sample (unbiased). If the survey sample is biased, its results are not valid.
The fastest way to know about the marble color ratio is to blindly transfer a few into a smaller jar and count them.
Observing and recording the behavior of animals in the wild and recording self-seating patterns in a multiracial school lunch room constitute naturalistic observation.
Courtesy of Gilda Morelli
Case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation describe behaviors.
A)a single individual is studied in great depth.
B)a representative sample of people are questioned regarding their opinions or behaviors.
C)organisms are carefully observed in a laboratory environment.
D)an investigator manipulates one or more variables that might affect behavior.
(positive or negative)
2. Indicates strength
(0.00 to 1.00)Correlation
When one trait or behavior accompanies another, we say the two correlate.
1.Correlation Coefficient is a statistical measure of the relationship between two variables.
Correlation does not mean causation!
B)are random samples.
C)influence each other.
D)show statistically significant differences.
Exploring Cause and Effect
Like other sciences, experimentation is the backbone of psychological research. Experiments isolate causes and their effects.
Many factors influence our behavior. Experiments (1)manipulate factors that interest us, while other factors are kept under (2) control.
Effects generated by manipulated factors isolate cause and effect relationships.
In evaluating drug therapies, patients and experimenter’s assistants should remain unaware of which patients had the real treatment and which patients had the placebo treatment.
Hypothesis: Breast-fed babies have higher IQ than formula-fed babies.
Assigning participants to experimental (breast-fed) and control (formula-fed) conditions by random assignment minimizes pre-existing differences between the two groups.
An independent variable is a factor manipulated by the experimenter. The effect of the independent variable is the focus of the study.
For example, when examining the effects of breast feeding upon intelligence, breast feeding is the independent variable.
A dependent variable is a factor that may change in response to an independent variable. In psychology, it is usually a behavior or a mental process.
For example, in our study on the effect of breast feeding upon intelligence, intelligence is the dependent variable.
A summary of steps during experimentation.
A)facts and theories.
B) causes and effects.
C)case studies and surveys.
D)random samples and representative samples.