Transcript Introduction to Psychology

Psychology as a science
“Hey kids, I’m a social
scientist. That means
I can’t explain
electricity or anything
like that, but if you
ever want to know
about people, I’m your
man.”
Adapted from New Yorker Collection
What is Psychology?
•Asking questions about the mind and behavior.
•How do my moods relate to my health?
•What is it like to be a soldier or a citizen in Afghanistan
today? And how will today’s experiences there affect my
psyche and my relationships?
• Utilizing multiple perspectives in our attempt to
understand these types of questions
• Applying research findings to the promotion of
health, education, and the public welfare.
What is Psychology?
Examples of Perspectives that Psychologists take
Perspective
Focus
Neuroscience
How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and
sensory experiences
How nature selects traits that promote the perpetuation of
one’s genes
Evolutionary
Behavioral
genetics
Psychodynamic
How much our genes, and our environment, influence our
individual differences
How behavior springs from unconscious drives and
conflicts
Behavioral
How we learn related to consequences we experience
Cognitive
How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information
Social-cultural
How behavior and thinking vary across situations and
cultures
Perspectives and
the Science of Psychology
Candid Camera – elevator segment
Use perspectives to explain the subject’s behavior
Scientific Problem Solvers –
Conduct research
Promote health
Help educate
Provide social services
Assist business and industry
Operational Definitions
Defining and measuring are key aspects of the
scientific method…
How to turn a “concept” into something that can be
defined and detected
 Operational Definition: Description of a property
(e.g., “happiness,” “intelligence”) in measurable
terms
Happiness / Embarrassment (How to define and
measure)
One defn: “ a state of mind or feeling characterized
by contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy.” -Cambridge Dictionary
Scientific Psychology
• How do we go about asking and answering
questions? We…
• Are skeptical (but not cynical)
• Have humility (and actually try to prove ourselves wrong)
•Can tolerate uncertainty & don’t use emotional
reasoning
•Use critical thinking (i.e., don’t accept “facts” or
conclusions blindly)
•Use common sense, but recognize that “common
sense” has its own set of problems
Challenges to critical
thinking
What about common sense and intuition in
this whole process?
Three envelopes and a dollar bill
 bullet dropped off of a 3-foot table vs. shot across a
football field
Next slides…. Things aren’t always how they
appear…
And things aren’t always consistent with
what we’ve heard… or “common sense”…
Do they?
Is aggression cathartic?
Handout 1-2
“Explaining Research”
Challenges to critical
thinking
Hindsight Bias
tendency to believe, after learning an
outcome, that one would have foreseen
it
Overconfidence
we tend to think we know more than
we do
How do psychologists
carry out observations?
1. Descriptive Studies
2. Correlational Studies
3. Experiments
Descriptive Studies
Case Study
 an observation technique in which one person or
group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing
universal principles
 strengths and weaknesses?
Descriptive Studies
Survey
technique for learning the selfreported attitudes or behaviors of
people
usually by questioning a
representative, random sample of
them
strengths and weaknesses?
Descriptive Studies
Naturalistic
Observation
observing and
recording behavior in
naturally occurring
situations without
trying to manipulate
and control the
situation
http://www.janegoodall.org/chimp_names
Correlational studies
Measure how two things are
related… how they “co – relate”
Question: What is the relationship
between a child’s aggression level
and his/her T.V. viewing habits (i.e.
watching violent T.V.) ?? Are they
correlated??
Correlation and
Causation
Three possible cause-effect relations
(1)
Watching violent
T.V.
(2)
Aggressive
personality
could cause
Aggression
or
could cause
Watching violent
T.V.
or
Aggression
(3)
Child abuse
could cause
and
Watching violent
T.V.
Experiments in Psychology
Experiment
 a research method in
which an investigator
manipulates one or
more factors
(independent variables)
to observe their effect
on some behavior or
mental process (the
dependent variable)
control group
Medication vs.
psychotherapy experiment
IVs & DVs
Independent Variable
the experimental factor that is manipulated
the variable whose effect is being studied
Dependent Variable
the experimental factor that is being measured
(e.g., a behavior or mental process)
may change in response to manipulations of
the independent variable
Comparing Research Methods
Research Method
Basic Purpose
How Conducted
What is
Manipulated
Descriptive
To observe and
record behavior
Case studies, surveys,
and naturalistic
observations
Nothing
Correlational
To detect naturally
Computing statistical
occurring relationships; association, sometimes
to assess how well
among survey
one variable predicts responses
Nothing
Experimental
To explore cause
and effect
Independent
variable(s)
Manipulating one or
more factors and using
random assignment
to eliminate preexisting
differences among
subjects