INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 1

Transcript INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 1

The World of Psychology

Wood and Wood

Introduction To Psychology

Just what is Psychology?

Psychology conjures up images of mental disorders and abnormal behavior. Psychologists do study the strange and unusual, but they are interested in the normal and commonplace as well.

Just what is psychology? Today

psychology

is defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Science or common sense?

1. Memory is more accurate under hypnosis.

2. All people dream during a night of normal sleep.

3. As the number of bystanders at an emergency increases, the time it takes for the victim to get help decreases.

4. Humans do not have a maternal instinct.

5. Older adults tend to express less satisfaction with life in general than 6. Eyewitness testimony is often unreliable.

7. Children with high IQs tend to be less able physically than their peers.

8. Creativity and high intelligence do not necessarily go together.

9. When it comes to close personal relationships, opposites attract.

10. The majority of teenagers have good relationships with their parents.

Science or common sense?

All of the odd-numbered items are false, and all of the even-numbered items are true. So, common sense, alone, will not take you very far in your study of psychology.

Scientific Method

How does the scientific method work?

From: Ask GeoMan...

The classical approach to solving anything in science starts with a "problem," which through experimentation and prediction, evolves through the "hypothesis" and "theory" stages into a scientific "law."

The Scientific Method (Formal Definition)

The

scientific method

consists of the orderly, systematic procedures that researchers follow as they identifya research problem, design a study to investigate the problem, collect and analyze data, draw conclusions, and communicate their findings.

How does the scientific method work?

Ask GeoMan...

1. Wild and Crazy Idea

If we assume that all science starts as science fiction, I like this terminology better than just calling it a ”research problem." Getting beyond this involves setting up experiments to verify your idea.

How does the scientific method work?

Ask GeoMan...

2. Hypothesis

If your experimental data fail to support your idea, you'll need to go back to Step 1. If your experiments do support your idea, move on to Step 3.

How does the scientific method work?

Ask GeoMan...

3. Theory

Great, your experiments support your hypothesis, and you are now the proud owner of a theory. Getting beyond this into the law stage requires that you can use your theory to predict the results of additional work, and that your predictions hold. As before, if they don't, return to an earlier step and try again. If your predictions hold consistently, move on to the next stage.

How does the scientific method work?

4. Law

This is where most discussions of the scientific method end. However, I ( occur.

GeoMan) feel two additional steps are almost guaranteed to

“scientific law:

1. A natural phenomenon that has been proven to occur invariably whenever certain conditions are met. 2. A formal statement describing such a phenomenon and the conditions under which it occurs.” Also just called a law.

http://www.webref.org/geology/s/scientific_law.htm

How does the scientific method work?

5. Dogma

Laws tend to be supported to such an extent that they almost become dogma. Take gravity for example. When is the last time you dropped a pencil and it floated away. Pretty stupid idea, huh? We are all so sure that gravity is THE LAW that we don't even consider the possibility that there may be exceptions or situations when it breaks down and doesn't work. This leads to the last and final stage:

How does the scientific method work?

6. Stagnation

This is the death of scientific thought, and should have no place in YOUR thoughts. Question all scientific laws, especially the ones that are the most firmly steeped in dogma. (But don't be stupid about it - throwing yourself off a cliff to test gravity doesn't make much sense!)

The Goals of Psychology

Descriptive Research Methods

 Naturalistic and Laboratory Observation  Case Study  Small sample but Deep  Misintrepretation  Time consuming  Survey Research I disagree with authors here. Case Studies are frequently used in other disciplines. MBAs frequently use method. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2002

Descriptive Research Methods

 Naturalistic and Laboratory Observation   Case Study Survey Research  Descriptive Information Again, the authors have a narrow view. This technique is frequently used in market research.

 Large numbers => good stats  Bias possible but not by professionals

Experimental Method

Manipulate  Hypothesis  Independent Variable  Dependent Variable  Experimental Group  Control Group  Generalize Findings  Problems 

Selection Bias



Placebo Experimenter Bias

The Correlational Method

Correlation is NOT Causation!

Correlation Example cont.

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 0 East West North 20 1st Qtr 20.4

2nd Qtr 27.4

3rd Qtr 90 4th Qtr 20.4

30.6

45.9

38.6

46.9

34.6

45 31.6

43.9

East vs West

0.234512

0.621825

West vs North

East

60 80 100 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 0 50

North

100

Correlation Examples

Yet another Correlation Example

pulmonary anatomical dead space

Psychological Research

The History of Psychology Schools of Thought

       

Structuralism Functionalism Gestalt Behaviorism Psychoanalysis Humanistic Cognitive Evolutionary Wundt & Titchener William James Wertheimer Watson & Skinner Freud Maslow & Rogers Chomsky Cosmides and Tooby

Women and Minority Pioneers in Psychology

Modern Perspectives in Psychology



Biological Perspective



Neuroscience

 

Psychoanalytic Perspective Behavioral Perspective



Cognitive Perspective



Humanistic Perspective



Evolutionary Perspective



Sociocultural Perspective

Psychologists at Work

         

Clinical Generalists 44% 17.5% Counseling 11% Basic Research 7% Industrial/Organizational 4% School Psychologists 4% Other 4% Educational 3% Developmental Psychologists 3% Social Psychologists 2.5%

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 1

Transcript INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 1

Correlation is NOT Causation!

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