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General Psychology: Handout No. 1
Mr. Von M. Lumberio
Instructor
I. Psychology as a Science
1. Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and
mental processes.
2. Theories: propose reasons for relationships among observed
events. Allows for prediction.
3. Goals of Psychology: Describe, Explain, Predict, & Control
Behavior.
II. What Psychologists Do
A. What Psychologists Do:
1. Pure research
2. Applied research
3. Practice psychology
4. Teaching
B. Fields of Psychology: as a “psychologist”
1. CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY. This deals and help people with
psychological disorders adjust to the demands of life.
2. COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY. Similar to clinical
psychologist but clients typically have adjustment problems
and not serious psychological disorders.
3. SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY. Usually in school systems to assist
students with problems that interfere with learning. One focus
is that of placement of students in special classes.
4. EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. Like school psychologists,
this deals to facilitation of learning but focus on course
planning, instructional methods. They focus on motivation,
intelligence, testing, and student and teacher behavior.
5. DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. Field which study the
changes, physical, cognitive, social and personality that occur
throughout the life span.
6. PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY. Focus on identifying and
measuring human traits, determining influences on human
thought processes, feelings, and behavior and explaining
psychological disorders.
7. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY. Primarily concerned with
individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior in social
situations.
8. ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. Study the ways in
which people and the environment influence one another.
9. EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. Conduct experiments and
specialize in basic processes such as the nervous system,
sensation and perception, learning and memory, thought,
motivation, and emotion.
10. INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY. Focus on the relationship
between people and work.
11. ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. Focus on the
relationship between people and organizations such as
business.
12. HUMAN FACTORS PSYCHOLOGY. Provides suggestions
and create technical systems such as dashboards, computer
keyboards, etc. to be more user-friendly.
13. CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY. Study the behavior of
shoppers in an effort to predict and influence their behavior.
14. HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY. Examines the ways in which
behavior and mental processes are related to health.
15. SPORT PSYCHOLOGY. Help people improve their
performance in various sports.
16. FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY. Apply principles of
psychology to the criminal justice system.
III. Where Psychology Comes From: A History
A. ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE)
1. Argued that human behavior is subject to rules and laws.
2. Subject matter by topic included: personality, sensation and
perception, thought, intelligence, needs and motives, feelings
and emotion, and memory.
B. DEMOCRITUS (around 400 BCE)
1. Suggested that we could think of behavior in terms of a body
and mind (interaction of biological and mental processes).
2. Behavior is influenced by external stimulation.
3. One of the first to raise the question of free will vs. choice
C. SOCRATES (c. 470-399 BCE)
1. We should rely on rational thought and introspection to
achieve self knowledge.
2. People are social creatures who influence each other.
D. GUSTAV THEODORE FECHNER (1801-1887)
1. Published his landmark book titled “Elements of
Psychophysics” in 1860, which showed how physical events
(light and sounds) are related to psychological sensations and
perceptions.
E. WILHELM WUNDT (1832-1920)
1. Most historians give the credit for being the founder of
psychology when in 1879 he established the first
psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany.
2. Saw the mind as a natural event that could be studied
scientifically.
3. Structuralism
a. School of thought founded by Wundt and his students.
b. Structuralism: attempts to break conscious experience
down into objective sensations such as sight, or taste, and
the subjective feelings such as emotional responses. They
believed that the mind functions by combining objective
and subjective elements of experience.
F. Functionalism
1. William James (1842-1919)
a. Major figure in the development of psychology.
b. James was the founder of functionalism or the idea that in
the study of individuals the focus should be on behavior as
well as the mind and consciousness. Functionalist look at
how experience helps us function more adaptively in our
environments.
c. They also turned to the laboratory for direct observation as
a way to supplement introspection.
d. James was also influenced by Charles Darwin’s (1809-
1882) theory of evolution; the fittest survive.
e. Functionalists adapted this theory suggesting that adaptive
behavior patterns are learned and maintained. Maladaptive
behavior patterns tend to drop out.
G. Behaviorism
1. Behaviorism is the school of psychology that focuses on
learning observable behavior.
2. John B. Watson (1878-1958)
a. Considered to be the founder of American Behaviorism.
b. Watson believed that if psychology wanted to be a science
then it must limit itself to observable, measurable events—
behavior—and nothing else.
3. B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
a. Believed that organisms learn to behave in certain ways
because they have been reinforced for their actions.
Behavior that has a positive outcome will tend to be
repeated.
b. Demonstrated that laboratory animals can be trained to
carry out behaviors through strategic use of reinforcers.
c. In principle, human behaviors can be explained in terms of
thousands of instances of learning through reinforcement.
H. Gestalt Psychology
1. Gestalt psychologists focused on perception and on how
perception influences thinking and problem solving.
2. Wertheimer (1880-1943), Koffka (1886-1941), and Kohler
(1887-1967); the three founders of Gestalt psychology.
3. Gestalt translates to “pattern” or “organized whole.”
4. Demonstrated that learning is accomplished by insight, not by
mechanical repetition.
5. Much learning can be accomplished by insight, not by
mechanical repetition. Perceptions are more than the sums of
their parts.
6. Kohler’s research showed that chimpanzees can benefit from
“insight.”
I. Psychoanalysis
1. Psychoanalysts believe that much of our lives are governed by
unconscious ideas and impulses.
2. Founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) who was a
physician. Often called psychodynamic.
3. Focus on the unconscious ideas and impulses that originate in
childhood.
4. People are motivated to gratify these impulses. Also
motivated to see themselves as decent and thus may delude
themselves about their true motives.
IV. How Today’s Psychologists View Behavior
and Mental Processes
A. The Cognitive Perspective
1. Venture into the realm of mental processes to understand
human nature.
2. Cognitive psychologists study those things we refer to as the
mind.
3. Investigate how we perceive and mentally represent the
world.
4. The focus is also on learning, memory, planning, decision
making, language and problem solving.
B. The Humanistic-Existential Perspective
1. Humanism stresses the human capacity for self-fulfillment.
2. Existentialism views people as free to choose and be
responsible for choosing ethical conduct.
3. Humanistic-Existential psychologists stress the importance of
subjective experience. This includes self awareness,
experience, and choice which all help us to invent ourselves.
a. We are free to choose.
4. Abraham Maslow (1970) and Carl Rogers (1951); two
prominent psychologists in this area.
C. The Psychodynamic Perspective
1. Freud’s influence continues to be felt though contemporary
psychodynamic theorists would likely call themselves
neoanalysts.
2. Famous neoanalysts include Karen Horney (1885-1952) and
Erik Erikson (1902-1994).
a. Focus less on the unconscious and more on conscious
choice and self direction.
D. Perspectives on Learning
1. Study the effects of experience on behavior.
2. Learning is essential in describing, explaining, predicting and
controlling behavior.
3. Social-cognitive theorists suggest that people can modify or
even create their environments.
4. Intentional learning by observing others.
5. Gained influence in the areas of personality, development,
psychological disorders and psychotherapy.
E. The Sociocultural Perspective
1. Addresses the many ways in which people differ from one
another, diversity.
2. Influences of ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic
status on behavior and mental processes are studied.
a. Ethnicity
i. Ethnic groups are united by their cultural heritage, race,
language, and common history.
ii. Highlight the impact of social, political, and economic
factors on human behavior and development.
iii. Most well-known African American psychologists
may be Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark.
Conducted research exploring the negative effects of
school segregation.
iv. Latino American Jorge Sanchez was among the first to
show how intelligence tests are culturally biased to the
disadvantage of Mexican American children.
v. Latino American Lillian ComasDiaz edits journals on
multicultural mental health.
vi. Asian American psychologist Richard Suinn studies
mental health and development of identity among Asians
and Asian Americans.
b. Gender
i. Refers to the culturally defined concepts of masculinity
and femininity.
ii. Involves a complex web of cultural expectations and
social roles. As with members of ethnic minority groups,
women have experienced prejudice too.
iii. Today more than half of American college students
are women. Nearly 3/4 of the undergraduate degrees in
psychology and 2/3 of the doctoral degrees are earned by
women.
iv. Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930)
Studied at Harvard, completed her degree
requirements, but Harvard wouldn’t award her the
degree. They were not admitting women. Wanted her
to get her diploma from Radcliffe but she turned the
offer down.
Pioneer in research in memory: primacy and recency
effect.
Became first female president of APA in 1905.
v. Mary Salter Ainsworth (1913-1999)
Revolutionized our understanding of attachment
between parents and children by means of cross-
cultural studies
vi. Elizabeth Loftus
Memories are not snapshots of the past
Memories are based off of:
Something old (what actually happened)
Something new (influenced of recent events)
Something borrowed (further shaped by biases and
prejudices)
Something blue (altered by emotion)
V. How Psychologists Study Behavior and
Mental Processes
A. Critical Thinking: Sorting Out Truth from Fiction
1. Critical thinking
a. Taking nothing for granted
b. Not believing just because things are in print or were
uttered by authority
c. It is not necessarily healthy to express all of your feelings
just because a friend in therapy urges you to do so.
2. Principles of Critical Thinking
a. Be skeptical.
b. Insist on evidence.
c. Examine definitions of terms.
d. Examine the assumptions or premises of arguments.
e. Be cautious in drawing conclusions from evidence.
f. Consider alternative interpretations of research evidence.
g. Do not oversimplify.
h. Do not overgeneralize.
i. Apply critical thinking to all areas of life.
B. The Scientific Method: Putting Ideas to the Test
1. Scientific method is an organized way of using experience
and testing ideas in order to expand and refine knowledge.
2. Begin by formulating a research question.
3. Hypothesis: is a specific statement about behavior or mental
processes that is tested through research.
4. Test the hypothesis through controlled methods such as the
experiment.
5. Try not to confuse correlations (association) with cause and
effect.
6. Selection Factor is a source of bias that may occur when
subjects are allowed to choose for themselves a certain
treatment in a scientific study.
C. Samples and Populations
1. Samples must be drawn so that they accurately represent the
population. This allows for generalization or extending results
from samples to populations.
2. Individuals who are studied are referred to as a sample. A
sample is a segment of the population. The population is the
group targeted for study.
3. Problems in generalizing from psychological research: many
factors must be considered in interpreting the accuracy of
results of scientific research.
a. Random and Stratified Sampling.
i. Random sample: each member of the population has an
equal chance of being selected to participate.
ii. Stratified sample: selection is made so that identified
subgroups in the population are represented
proportionately in the sample.
b. Volunteer bias: people who volunteer as participants differ
systematically from people who do not.
D. Methods of Observation
1. The Case Study
a. Information collected about individuals and small groups.
b. Typically unscientific accounts of people’s behavior
referred to as anecdotes.
c. Provide compelling portraits but may have factual
inaccuracies.
i. People’s memories have gaps (Loftus, 2004)
ii. Interviewers may have expectations.
2. The Survey
a. Used to study individuals who cannot be observed in the
natural setting or studied scientifically.
b. Employs questionnaires and interviews. Also uses the
examination of public records.
c. Famous Kinsey survey results: Sexual Behavior in the
Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human
Female (1953).
d. Have also have sources of inaccuracy. May recall
memories with inaccuracies, they may lie, may respond in a
good light or try to anticipate what the researcher wants
them to say.
e. May also have the inaccuracy of social desirability,
subjects tell the interviewer what they think the interviewer
wants to hear (a problem in case study as well).
3. Naturalistic Observation
a. Observe people in their natural habitats.
b. Unobtrusive measures are used to avoid interfering with the
behaviors that are being observed.
c. Jane Goodall observed the behavior of chimpanzees in their
natural environment.
E. Correlation
1. Investigates whether one observed behavior or trait is related
to (correlated) with another.
2. Positive correlation: the higher scores on one variable tend to
correspond with higher scores on the second variable. Low
with low. (e.g. Intelligence test scores and academic
performance).
3. Negative correlation: Higher scores on one variable tend to
correspond with lower scores on the second. (e.g. Amount of
experience stress and functioning of the immune system).
4. Correlational studies may suggest but do not prove cause and
effect.
F. The Experimental Method
1. The preferred method for answering questions about cause
and effect.
a. Allow psychologists to control the experiences of subjects
and draw conclusions about cause and effect.
b. Independent and Dependent Variables
i. Independent variable: manipulated by the experimenters
so that the effects of various levels may be determined.
ii. Dependent variable: the measured outcome or result.
c. Experimental and Control Groups
i. Experimental groups obtain the treatment.
ii. Control groups do not receive the treatment.
d. Blind and Double Blind Experiments
i. Placebo fake treatment or “sugar pill.”
ii. Blind: control for the expectations of effects by creating
conditions where the subjects are unaware of the
treatment.
iii. Double blind: neither the subjects nor the
experimenters know who has obtained the treatment.
G. Ethics of Research with Humans
1. Basic standards.
a. Intended to promote individual dignity, human welfare and
scientific integrity.
b. Do not undertake research methods that are harmful.
2. Research with Humans
a. Ethics review committees are found in colleges, hospitals,
etc. to help researchers consider the potential harm of their
methods. Review research according to ethical guidelines.
b. Informed consent: individuals give consent before they can
participate in research.
c. Confidentiality is kept.
d. Subjects are debriefed.
3. Lang et al., (1975) study on alcohol and aggression. Subjects
were misinformed about the beverage they were drinking and
misled into believing they were giving other subjects electric
shocks. What do you think? Was it ethical to deceive
participants in the Lang study as to what they were drinking?
Why or why not?
H. Ethics of Research with Animals
1. Psychologists use animals to conduct research that cannot be
carried out with humans (effects of early separation from
mother)
2. Psychologists generalize to humans the results of research
conducted with animals.
3. Animals may be harmed only when there is no alternative and
researchers believe that the benefits of the research justify the
harm.
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