psychology chapter the science of psychology 1. module 1 psychology's domains

PsychologyPsychology

CHAPTER

The Science of Psychology

1

Module 1Psychology's Domains

Learning Objectives

• LO 1.1 What is psychology? What are its goals?• LO 1.2 What is the history of psychology as a scientific

discipline?• LO 1.3 What are the major modern psychological

perspectives?• LO 1.4 How is the field of psychology continuing to grow and

change?• LO 1.5 Why do psychologists perform research?• LO 1.6 What are the major subfields of psychology?• LO 1.7 How does psychology benefit society?

What is Psychology?

• Psychology - scientific study of behavior and mental processes.– Behavior - outward or overt actions and

reactions.– Mental processes - internal, covert activity

of our minds.

LO 1.1 What is psychology? What are its goals?

What is Psychology?

• Psychology is a science.– Prevent possible biases from leading to

faulty observations. – Precise and careful measurement.


Psychology's Four Goals

• Description– What is happening?

• Explanation– Why is it happening?– Theory - general explanation of a set of

observations or facts.


Psychology's Four Goals

• Prediction– Will it happen again?

• Control– How can it be changed?


Structuralism

• Structuralism– Focused on structure or basic elements of

the mind.

LO 1.2 What is the history of psychology as a scientific discipline?

Structuralism

• Wilhelm Wundt's psychology laboratory– Germany in 1879– Developed the technique of objective

introspection – process of objectively examining and measuring one's thoughts and mental activities.


Structuralism

• Edward Titchener– Wundt's student; brought structuralism to

America.


Structuralism

• G. Stanley Hall– Titchener's student; American; founded

first psychology lab in the U.S.; first person to earn a Ph.D. in psychology in U.S.

– Founded the American Psychological Association (APA) and became its first president.


Functionalism

• Functionalism– How the mind allows people to adapt, live,

work, and play.

• Proposed by William James. • Influenced the modern fields of:

– Educational psychology– Evolutionary psychology– Industrial/organizational psychology


Functionalism

• Mary Whiton Calkins– James' student; denied Ph.D. because she

was female.– First female president of the APA.

• Francis Cecil Sumner– First African-American to earn Ph.D.


Psychoanalysis

• Psychoanalysis - the theory and therapy based on the work of Sigmund Freud.

• Freud's patients suffered from nervous disorders with no found physical cause.– Freud proposed that there is an

unconscious (unaware) mind into which we push, or repress, all of our threatening urges and desires.


Psychoanalysis

• Freud's patients suffered from nervous disorders with no found physical cause.– He believed that these repressed urges, in

trying to surface, created nervous disorders.

– Freud stressed the importance of early childhood experiences.


Behaviorism

• Behaviorism– The science of behavior that focuses on

observable behavior only.– Must be directly seen and measured.


Behaviorism

• Proposed by John B. Watson.– Based much from work of Ivan Pavlov who

demonstrated that a reflex could be conditioned (learned).

– Watson believed that phobias were learned. Case of “Little Albert” – taught to fear a white

rat.


Modern Perspectives

• Psychodynamic perspective - modern version of psychoanalysis.– More focused on the development of a

sense of self and the discovery of other motivations behind a person's behavior than repressed desires.

LO 1.3 What are the major modern psychological perspectives?

Modern Perspectives

• Behavioral perspective– B. F. Skinner studied operant conditioning

of voluntary behavior.– Behaviorism became a major force in the

twentieth century.– Skinner introduced the concept of

reinforcement to behaviorism.


Modern Perspectives

• Humanistic perspective– Owes far more to the early roots of

psychology in the field of philosophy than it does to the more scientific fields of medicine and physiology.

– Early founders: Abraham Maslow Carl Rogers


Modern Perspectives

• Humanistic perspective (continued)– Emphasized the human potential, the

ability of each person to become the best person he or she could be. Self-actualization - achieving one's full

potential or actual self.


Modern Perspectives

• Cognitive perspective– Focuses on memory, intelligence,

perception, problem solving, and learning. Cognitive neuroscience – the study of the

physical changes in the brain and nervous system.

• Sociocultural perspective– Focuses on the relationship between social

behavior and culture.


Modern Perspectives

• Biopsychological perspective– Attributes human and animal behavior to

biological events occurring in the body, such as genetic influences, hormones, and the activity of the nervous system.


Psychology Growth

• Two relatively new areas of research:– Evolutionary psychology

Focuses on the biological bases of universal mental characteristics that all humans share.– Looks at the way the mind works and why it works

as it does. – Behavior is seen as having an adaptive or survival

value.

LO 1.4 How is the field of psychology continuing to grow and change?

Psychology Growth

• Two relatively new areas of research (continued):– Positive psychology - recommends shifting

the focus of psychology away from negative aspects to more positive focus on strengths, well-being, and the pursuit of happiness.

LO 1.4 How is the field of psychology continuing to grow and change?

Reasons for Research

• Research allows psychologists to collect facts and data to support theories.– May lead to new theories.– Results can be applied to everyday

problems.

LO 1.5 Why do psychologists perform research?

Major Subfields of Psychology

• Clinical psychology - area of psychology in which psychologists diagnose and treat people with mild to severe psychological disorders.

• Counseling psychology - area of psychology in which psychologists treat people with less severe problems, such as adjustment to stress, marriage, family life, work, etc.

LO 1.6 What are the major subfields of psychology?


• Developmental psychology - area of psychology in which psychologists study the changes in people.– the way people think– how people relate to others– the way people feel as they age



• Experimental psychology - area of psychology in which the psychologists primarily do research and experiments in the areas of learning, memory, thinking, perception, motivation, and language.



• Social psychology - area of psychology in which the psychologists focus on how human behavior is affected by the presence of other people.

• Personality psychology - area of psychology in which the psychologists study the differences in personality among people.



• Physiological psychology - area of psychology in which the psychologists study the biological bases of behavior.

• Comparative psychology - area of psychology in which the psychologists study animals and their behavior for the purpose of comparing and contrasting it to human behavior.



• Industrial/Organizational (I/O) psychology - area of psychology concerned with the relationships between people and their work environment.


Figure 1.2 Work Settings and Subfields of Psychology(a) There are many different work settings for psychologists. Although not obvious from the chart,many psychologists work in more than one setting. For example, a clinical psychologist may work in a hospital setting and teach at a university or college (Tsapogas et al., 2006). (b) This pie chart shows the specialty areas of psychologists who recently received their doctorates (Hoffer et al., 2007). Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not total to 100 percent.

Benefits for Society

• Research, counseling, treatment, and teaching are used to understand the mind and improve lives.

• Researchers conduct experiments.– Can improve human lives.– Can improve animals' lives.

LO 1.7 How does psychology benefit society?

Module 2Research Methods and Ethics

Learning Objectives

• LO 2.1 What is the scientific method?• LO 2.2 What methods do researchers use to study behavior?• LO 2.3 How do researchers ensure their findings are valid?• LO 2.4 Why do some researchers study animals instead of

people?• LO 2.5 What ethical guidelines do psychologists follow when

they research humans?• LO 2.6 Are there different ethical guidelines for research with

animals?

Psychology and the Scientific Method

• Scientific method– System of gathering data so that bias and

error in measurement are reduced.

LO 2.1 What is the scientific method?


• Steps in the Scientific Method:– Formulate the question.– Develop a hypothesis – tentative

explanation of a phenomenon based on observations.

– Test the hypothesis.



• Steps in the Scientific Method (continued):– Draw conclusions.– Report your results so that others can try to

replicate - repeat the study or experiment to see if the same results will be obtained in an effort to demonstrate reliability of results.


Descriptive Methods

• Naturalistic observation– Watching animals or humans behave in

their normal environment.

• Advantage:– Realistic picture of behavior.

LO 2.2 What methods do researchers use to study behavior?

Descriptive Methods

• Disadvantages:– Observer effect - tendency of people or

animals to behave differently from normal when they know they are being observed.

– Observer bias - tendency of observers to see what they expect to see.

– Each naturalistic setting is unique and observations may not hold.


Descriptive Methods

• Laboratory observation– Watching animals or humans behave in a

laboratory setting.

• Advantage: – Control over environment.

• Disadvantage:– Artificial situation that may result in

artificial behavior.


Descriptive Methods

• Case study - study of one individual or individual group in great detail.

• Advantage:– Realistic picture of behavior.

• Disadvantages:– Cannot apply to others.– Vulnerable to bias.

• Famous case study: Phineas Gage.


Descriptive Methods

• Surveys– Researchers will ask a series of questions

about the topic under study.

• Given to a representative sample - randomly selected sample of subjects from a larger population of subjects.– Population

The entire group of people or animals in which the researcher is interested.


Descriptive Methods

• Advantages:– Data from large numbers of people.– Study covert behaviors.

• Disadvantages:– Have to ensure representative sample (or

results not meaningful).– People are not always accurate (courtesy

bias).


Correlational Methods

• Correlation– A measure of the relationship between two

variables.– Variable

Anything that can change or vary.



• Correlation (continued)– Measures of two variables go into a

mathematical formula and produce a correlation coefficient (r), which represents two things: direction of the relationship. strength of the relationship.

– Knowing the value of one variable allows researchers to predict the value of the other variable.



• Correlation does not prove causation.


Experimental Methods

• Experimental group - subjects in an experiment who are subjected to the independent variable.

• Control group - subjects in an experiment who are not subjected to the independent variable and who may receive a placebo treatment (controls for confounding variables).



• Random assignment - process of assigning subjects to the experimental or control groups randomly, so that each subject has an equal chance of being in either group.– Controls for confounding (extraneous,

interfering) variables.



• Experiment– A deliberate manipulation of a variable to

see if corresponding changes in behavior result, allowing the determination of cause-and-effect relationships.

• Operational definition– Definition of a variable of interest that

allows it to be directly measured.



• Parents or guardians of minors must give informed consent (permission to participate in experiment after the risks and purpose of the experiment have been explained).



• Independent variable (IV) - variable in an experiment that is manipulated by the experimenter.

• Dependent variable (DV) - variable in an experiment that represents the measurable response or behavior of the subjects in the experiment.



• Placebo effect– The phenomenon in which the expectations

of the participants in a study can influence their behavior. Single-blind study

– Subjects do not know if they are in the experimental or the control group (reduces placebo effect).

LO 2.3 How do researchers ensure their findings are valid?


• Experimenter effect– Tendency of the experimenter's

expectations for a study to unintentionally influence the results of the study. Double-blind study

– Neither the experimenter nor the subjects knows if the subjects are in the experimental or control group (reduces placebo effect and experimenter effect).

– Everything gets coded or tracked by a confederate (assistant to experimenter).

LO 2.3 How do researchers ensure their findings are valid?

Psychology and Animal Research

• Answers questions we could never do with human research.

• Benefits to humans outweigh hazards to which research animals are exposed.– tobacco/cancer correlation– vaccines for deadly diseases– insulin treatments for diabetes– transplants

LO 2.4 Why do some researchers study animals instead of people?

Psychology and Animal Research

• Researchers must act responsibly and ethically.

LO 2.4 Why do some researchers study animals instead of people?

Ethics in Psychological Research

• Institutional review boards (IRBs) - scrutinize research proposals to make sure ethical standards are maintained.

• Common ethical guidelines:– Humanitarian - Rights and well-being of

participants must be weighed against the study's value to science.

LO 2.5 What ethical guidelines do psychologists follow when they research humans?


• Common ethical guidelines:– Informed consent - Participants must be

allowed to make an informed decision about participation.

– Justification - Deception must be justified. – Right to withdraw - Participants may

withdraw from the study at any time.



• Common ethical guidelines (continued):– Risks and benefits - Participants must be

protected from risks or told explicitly of risks.

– Debriefing - Investigator must debrief participants, telling the true nature of the study and expectations of results.

– Confidentiality - Data must remain confidential.



• Focus is on avoiding exposing animals to unnecessary pain or suffering.

• Animals are used in approximately 7% of psychological studies.

LO 2.6 Are there different ethical guidelines for research with animals?

Module 3Statistics

Learning Objectives

• LO 3.1 What are descriptive statistics?• LO 3.2 What types of tables and graphs represent patterns in

data?• LO 3.3 What are correlation coefficients? What do they tell

researchers about relationships?• LO 3.4 What are inferential statistics?• LO 3.5 How do the concepts of validity and reliability relate

to statistics?

Psychology and Data Analysis

• Statistical analysis - way of trying to account for the error that exists in almost any body of data.

• Statistics - branch of mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of numerical data.

LO 3.1 What are descriptive statistics?

Descriptive Statistics

• Descriptive statistics– way of organizing numbers and

summarizing them so that patterns can be determined.



• Measures of Central Tendency - used to summarize data and give you one score that seems typical of your sample.– Mean - average score within a group of

scores, calculated by adding all of the scores and then dividing by the number of scores.



• Measures of Central Tendency (continued)– Median - middle score in an ordered

distribution of scores, or the mean of the two middle numbers; the 50th percentile.

– Mode - most frequent score in a distribution of scores.



• Measures of Variability - used to indicate the range of data.– Range - difference between the highest

and lowest scores in a distribution.– Standard Deviation - statistical measure of

the average variation from the mean score.


Table 3.1 Intelligence Test Scores for 10 People

Table 3.2 How to Find the Standard Deviation

Tables and Graphs

• Researchers choose the graphs or charts that most accurately represents the data they have found.

LO 3.2 What types of tables and graphs represent patterns in data?

Tables and Graphs

• Frequency distribution - table or graph that shows how often different numbers or scores appear in a particular set of scores.– Histogram – graph that shows a frequency

distribution.– Polygon - line graph that shows a

frequency distribution.


Tables and Graphs

• Normal curve - special frequency polygon in which the scores are symmetrically distributed around the mean, and the mean, median, and mode are all located on the same point on the curve with scores decreasing as the curve extends from the mean.

• Bell curve - alternate name for the normal curve, which is said to be shaped like a bell.


Distributions

• Skewed distributions - not equal on both sides of a central score with the highest frequency. Instead, the scores are concentrated toward one side of the distribution.


Distributions

• Negatively skewed - concentration of scores in the high end of the distribution.

• Positively skewed - concentration of scores in the low end of the distribution.


Table 3.3 A Frequency Distribution

Figure 3.1 A HistogramHistograms provide a visual way to look at data from frequency distributions. In this graph, for example, the height of the bars indicates that most people drink four to eight glasses of water (represented by the five highest bars in the middle of the graph).

Figure 3.2 A PolygonA polygon is a line graph that can represent the data in a frequency distribution in much the same way as a bar graph but allows the shape of the data to be easily viewed.

Figure 3.3 A Normal CurveThe normal curve, also known as the bell curve because of its unique shape, is often the way in which certain characteristics such as intelligence or weight are represented in the population. The highest point on the curve typically represents the average score in any distribution. Scores on intelligence tests are typically represented by the normal curve.

Figure 3.4 A Frequency PolygonSkewed distributions are those in which the most frequent scores occur at one end or the other of the distribution, as represented by this frequency polygon in which most people are seen to drink seven to eight glasses of water each day.

Finding Relationships

• Correlation - a measure of the relationship between two variables.– Use formula to determine correlation

coefficient (strength and direction of relationship between variables).

LO 3.3 What are correlation coefficients? What do they tell researchers about relationships?


• Positive correlation coefficient - variables are related in the same direction.– As one increases, the other increases; as

one decreases, the other decreases.

• Negative correlation coefficient - variables are related in opposite direction.– As one increases, the other decreases.



• Correlation coefficient ranges from –1.00 to +1.00.

• Closer to 1.00 or -1.00, the stronger the relationship between the variables.– No correlation = .0 (weak).– Perfect positive correlation = +1.00.– Perfect negative correlation = -1.00

• Perfect correlations rarely occur in the real world.


Figure 3.5 Examples of CorrelationsFive scatter plots showing direction and strength of correlation. It should be noted that perfect correlations, whether positive or negative, rarely occur in the real world.

Inferential Statistics

• Inferential statistics - statistical analysis of two or more sets of numerical data to reduce the possibility of error in measurement and to determine if the differences between the data sets are greater than chance variation would predict.

LO 3.4 What are inferential statistics?


• All inferential statistics look for differences in group measurements that are statistically significant.– Statistical significance - way to test

differences to see how likely those differences are to be real and not just caused by the random variations in behavior that exist in everything animals and people do.



• Tests of significance give researchers the probability that the results of their experiment were caused by chance and not by their experimental manipulation.– Researchers are satisfied when tests

indicate there is a 95 percent likelihood that their experimental results did not occur by chance.


Statistical Concepts

• Reliability - tendency of a test to produce the same scores again and again each time it is given to the same people.

• Validity - degree to which a test actually measures what it is supposed to measure.

LO 3.5 How do the concepts of validity and reliability relate to statistics?

psychology chapter the science of psychology 1. module 1 psychology's domains

Documents

history of psychology

field of psychology

major subfields of psychology

psychology benefit society

scientific discipline

nervous disorders

mental processes internal

mental activities