PSY 2012 General Psychology

Samuel R. Mathews, Ph.D.Associate Professor

The Department of PsychologyThe University of West Florida

What is Psychology?

• Science of mind and behavior

• Science with multiple subspecialties

• Science with focus on both generation and application of knowledge

What psychology is and what it is not

• What it is NOT• Common sense• Faith or belief• Personal hunch• Folk lore

• What it IS• Scientific• Skeptical• Publicly evaluated• Empirical• Systematic• Analytic

Student Learning Objectives (Chap1)

• Understand the roles of psychologists;

• Understand historic (text only) and contemporary perspectives (text & lecture) held by those in the field of psychology;

• Understand the scientific approaches used by those conducting research in the field of psychology;

• Understand the ethical considerations as they apply to the science and practice of psychology

Roles of Psychologists

• Researchers– Basic Researchers– Applied Researchers

• Professors/Teachers– University– Community/Junior College– High School

• Applied Fields– Industrial/Organizational Psychologist– Human Factors Psychologist– Clinical Psychologists (different from Psychiatrists)– School Psychologists– Sports Psychologists

Contemporary Perspectives on Psychology

• Biological—understanding how evolutionary, genetic, and physiological, forces impact one’s thoughts, feelings and behavior

• Developmental—understanding how the individual’s processes of maturation interact with the culture to impact one’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior

Contemporary Perspectives on Psychology

• Cognitive—understanding how the mind senses, interprets, and processes information from the environment and from our memories; related topics include:– Memory– Decision-making– Problem-solving

Contemporary Perspectives on Psychology

• Clinical—understanding mental health and mental disorders– Psychoanalytic—mental disorders derive from

the unconscious;– Humanistic—individuals are self-directed and

their behavior is related to inner feelings, self concept, etc.,

– Cognitive Behavioral—mental disorders are based on one’s interpretations of events and behavioral responses to those interpretations

Contemporary Perspectives on Psychology

• Behavioral—understanding how events in the environment impact our behaviors; little or no concern with internal states

• Trait—understanding how stable dimensions of personality relate to behaviors

• Sociocultural—understanding how the social and cultural forces impact mental and behavioral outcomes

Contemporary Perspectives on Psychology

• Biopsychosocial—this perspective reflects much of the current thinking in psychology, particularly among cognitive behavioral, developmental, sociocultural, and biological perspectives

Sociocultural

Biological

Psychological

Current Perspective

The Science of Psychology

• Science: – systematic inquiry into natural phenomena

• Psychology: – science of mind and behavior

Science of Psychology: – systematic inquiry into the mind and behavior

Values of a Psychological Scientist• Empirical—can be observed or measured

• Skeptical—never quite completely convinced

• Public—methods and results are made public

• Evaluative—research findings and conclusions are evaluated by others

• Tentative—always seek to know more

• Rational—logically consistent

Variables

• A variable is any construct that can assume more than one value

• Independent Variable—a variable that is the potential cause of a change in some other variable

• Dependent Variable—a variable that can be modified through a change in the independent variable

• Confounding variable—a variable not under control of the researcher that causes an unexplained outcome

Scientific Method

• Develop the hypothesis or research question

• Perform a test of the hypothesis or study to answer the question

• Gather and tabulate data

• Analyze data

• Interpret findings

• Publish and subject study to critique

Categories of Psychological Research• Experimental:

– Manipulation of key independent variables (the causes of a change in the dependent variable)

– Control of other related variables– Measurement of dependent variable (the

variable affected by the independent variable)– Random assignment of participants to various

manipulations of the independent variable.– With a true experiment, cause-effect

relationships can be inferred.

Example of Experiment• Rschr is interested in how a study strategy

effects students in a statistics course:– Randomly assigns students to two groups

• Group A receives a problem-solving based strategy from Professor A

• Group B receives a strategy on memorizing formulae from Professor B

– Students are tested on statistical concepts following exposure to the strategies

Example of Experiment• Which is the independent variable (hint: what did

the experimenter control?)?

• Which is the dependent variable (hint: what did the experimenter predict would be different based on the independent variable?)?

• What is the counfounding variable (hint: what is a difference between the groups outside the independent variable?)?

Categories of Psychological Research

• Correlational Studies– Usually designed to assess

• The strength of the relationship between two or more variables

• The direction of the relationship between two variables (positive, negative, or zero correlation)

– Variables typically cannot be manipulated– Participants typically cannot be randomly

assigned– Cause-effect can NOT be inferred

Example of a Correlational Study• Rschr wishes to understand the relationship

between stress and grades on a test of mathematical skills.– Researcher measures stress prior to the test;– Students complete a test of college algebra;– Researcher discovers that scores of those who have

higher stress are lower than those who have lower stress.

– Researcher concludes that stress causes lower test grades.

– What other factors might be at the root of the relationship?

Categories of Psychological Research

• Other Methods of Conducting Psychological Research– Surveys—self reports by the participants about their

thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, etc.; can lead to large numbers of respondants;

– Naturalistic Observations—individuals observe participants in their natural setting (e.g. classroom, park, store) with no intent on manipulating the setting.

– Case Studies—researcher gathers indepth data on a single individual, group, or organization.

Sources of Bias in Research

• Personal bias

• Observer bias

• Expectancy bias

• Bias could affect the way an experimenter designs a study, collects data, or interprets results

• Researchers must also attempt to control confounding variables

Ethical Issues in Psychological Research

• For human participation:– Researcher must guarantee that

• Participation is Voluntary• Results are confidential• Results are anonymous• Participant may withdraw from study at any time

with no penalty• Benefits of the research outweigh the risks• Participants may receive final report of the study

Ethical Issues in Psychological Research

• Protected classes may not give voluntary consent:– Minors under the age of eighteen;– Individuals who have been judged not

competent to give consent (e.g. mental health issues)

– Prisoners

• In these cases those with legal custody must provide consent in addition to the participant.

Thought Questions: Chapter 1

• If a psychologist held the view that all human conflicts arose as a result of internal drives, how would you classify that individual based on our discussion and the text? Why?

• A psychological researcher was interested in how individuals’ problem-solving skills changed as the individual matured across the lifespan. How would you classify that individual? Why?

Thought Questions: Chapter 1• In a popular newspaper, a report held that

a survey indicated children who came from homes at or below the poverty level performed more poorly in school and were involved in more crimes.

• What is your interpretation of that finding?• What questions would you have of the researcher?• One of your friends who read the same article said “All

we need to do is get those people to work…then all our problems would be solved.”– How would you respond?

Thought Questions: Chapter 1• If you wanted to better understand the

findings in the study and its implications, what might you do?

• What sources might you try to access?