Psychology ch 1
Takemymoney
PowerPoint_lectureslide_ch01.pptx1
Psychology’s Roots, Big Ideas, and Critical Thinking Tools
Revised by Pauline Davey Zeece, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Chapter Overview
Psychology’s roots
Four big ideas in psychology
Why do psychology?
How do psychologists ask and answer questions?
Psychology’s research ethics
Use psychology to become a stronger person—and a better student
Psychology’s Roots
Psychological science’s birth and development
Contemporary psychology
The Scientific Attitude
Modern science is possible due to three basic attitudes:
Curiosity
Skepticism
Humility
Myers/DeWall, Psychology in Everyday Life, 4e, © 2017 Worth Publishers
The Scientific Attitude: Curiosity
Research commences with the passion to explore and understand the world without misleading or being misled.
Questions to consider:
Does the idea work?
When put to the test, can the idea’s predictions be confirmed?
The Scientific Attitude: Skepticism
Skeptical testing can reveal which claim best matches the facts.
Sifting reality from fantasy requires a healthy skepticism.
Attitude that is not cynical, but not gullible either
Questions to consider:
What does one mean?
How does one know?
The Scientific Attitude: Humility
Researchers can make mistakes and must be willing to be surprised and follow new ideas.
One’s opinions do not matter.
Truths revealed in response to one’s questioning matter.
Myers/DeWall, Psychology in Everyday Life, 4e, © 2017 Worth Publishers
Psychology’s Earliest Pioneers: Magellans of the Mind
Wilhelm Wundt
Charles Darwin
Ivan Pavlov
Sigmund Freud
Jean Piaget
William James
Mary Whiton Calkins
Margaret Floy Washburn
Early Definitions of Psychology
| Groups | Definition |
| Early pioneers | Science of mental life |
| Behaviorists | Scientific study of observable behavior |
| Freudian | Emphasis on unconscious thought processes and emotional responses to childhood experiences |
| Humanistic psychologists | Stress on people’s growth potential |
| Cognitive psychologists | Scientific exploration of how information is perceived, processed, and remembered |
| Cognitive neuroscientists | Interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with mental activity |
Psychology
Science of behavior and mental processes
Behavior - Any action that can be observed and recorded
Anything a human or nonhuman animal does
Mental processes - Internal states that are inferred from behavior
Include thoughts, beliefs, and feelings
Retrieve and Remember 1
Describe the three parts of the scientific attitude.
What event defined the start of scientific psychology?
How did the cognitive revolution affect the field of psychology?
ANSWER: The scientific attitude combines (1) curiosity about the world around us, (2) skepticism about unproven claims and ideas, and (3) humility about our own understanding. These three traits guide psychologists as they consider ideas and test them with scientific methods. Ideas that do not hold up will then be discarded.
ANSWER: Scientific psychology began in Germany in 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory.
ANSWER: It led the field back to its early interest in mental processes and made them acceptable topics for scientific study.
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Table 1.1 - Psychology’s Current Perspectives
| Perspective | Focus | Sample Questions | Examples of Subfields Using This Perspective |
| Neuroscience | How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences | How do pain messages travel from the hand to the brain? How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives? | Biological; cognitive; clinical |
| Evolutionary | How the natural selection of traits passed down from one generation to the next has promoted the survival of genes | How has our evolutionary past influenced our modern day mating preferences? Why do humans learn some fears so much more easily than others? | Biological; developmental; social |
| Behavior genetics | How our genes and our environment influence our individual differences | To what extent are psychological traits such as intelligence, personality, sexual orientation, and optimism products of our genes? Of our environment? | Personality; developmental; legal/forensic |
| Psychodynamic | How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts | How can someone’s personality traits and disorders be explained in terms of their childhood relationships? | Clinical; counseling; personality |
| Behavioral | How we learn observable responses | How do we learn to fear particular objects or situations? What is the most effective way to alter our behavior, say, to lose weight or stop smoking? | Clinical; counseling; industrial organizational |
| Cognitive | How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information | How do we use information in remembering? Reasoning? Solving problems? | Cognitive neuroscience; clinical; counseling; industrial organizational |
| Social-cultural | How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures | How are we alike as members of one human family? How do we differ as products of our environment? | Developmental; social; clinical; counseling |
Life After Studying Psychology
The study of psychology and its critical thinking strategies have helped prepare people for varied occupations.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg majored in psychology and computer science while at Harvard.
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Psychology is both a science and a profession.
Psychologists conduct basic research and applied research.
Psychology in Court
Forensic psychologists:
Apply psychology’s principles and methods in the criminal justice system
May consult on witnesses, or testify about a defendant’s state of mind and future risk
Biological psychologists explore the links between brain and mind.
Developmental psychologists study our changing abilities from womb to tomb.
Cognitive psychologists experiment with how we perceive, think, and solve problems.
Personality psychologists investigate our persistent traits.
Social psychologists explore how we view and affect one another.
Counseling psychologists help people cope with personal and career challenges by recognizing their strengths and resources.
Health psychologists investigate the psychological, biological, and behavioral factors that promote or impair our health.
Clinical psychologists assess and treat mental, emotional, and behavior disorders. (By contrast, psychiatrists are medical doctors who also prescribe drugs when treating psychological disorders.)
Industrial-organizational psychologists study and advise on behavior in the workplace.
Community psychologists work to create social and physical environments that are healthy for all.
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Retrieve and Remember 2
The _____ perspective in psychology focuses on how behavior and thought differ from situation to situation and from culture to culture.
The _____ perspective emphasizes how we learn observable responses.
ANSWER: social-cultural
ANSWER: behavioral
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Four Big Ideas in Psychology
Big idea 1 - Critical thinking is smart thinking.
Big idea 2 - Behavior is a biopsychosocial event.
Big idea 3 - We operate with a two-track mind.
Big idea 4 - Psychology explores human strengths as well as challenges.
Big Idea 1: Critical Thinking Is Smart Thinking
Critical thinking: Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions
Examines assumptions
Uncovers hidden values
Weighs evidence
Assesses conclusions
Critical thinkers ask critical questions
Questions asked by critical thinkers include the following:
How do we know that?
Who benefits from this?
Is the conclusion based on a personal story and gut feelings, or on evidence?
How do we know one event caused the other?
How else could we explain things?
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Big Idea 2: Behavior Is a Biopsychosocial Event
Biopsychosocial approach: Views human behavior from three levels
Biological
Psychological
Social-cultural
Each level’s viewpoint provides valuable insight into a behavior or mental process.
Humans share a biologically rooted human nature. Yet cultural and psychological influences fine-tune our assumptions, values, and behaviors.
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A Smile Is a Smile the World Around
People in different cultures vary in when and how often they smile, but a naturally happy smile means the same thing anywhere in the world.
Nature–Nurture Issue
An age-old controversy over the relative influence of genes and experiences in the development of psychological traits and behaviors
Today’s psychological science views traits and behaviors arising from the interaction of nature and nurture.
In most cases, nurture works on what nature endows.
Psychologists explore nature–nurture issue by asking many interesting and important questions.
Examples:
How are intelligence and personality differences influenced by heredity and by environment?
Is our sexual orientation written in our genes or learned through our experiences?
Can life experiences affect the activity of our genes?
Should we treat depression as a disorder of the brain or a disorder of thought—or both?
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A Nature-Made Nature–Nurture Experiment
Identical twins have the same genes.
This makes them ideal participants in studies designed to shed light on hereditary and environ-mental influences on personality, intelligence, and other traits.
Fraternal twins have different genes but often share the same environment.
Big Idea 3: Dual Processing
The principle that the mind processes information at the same time on separate conscious and unconscious tracks
Vision is a two-track system.
Visual perception track enables an individual to think about the world.
Visual action track guides an individual’s moment-to-moment actions.
Much of one’s everyday thinking, feeling, sensing, and acting operates outside their awareness.
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Big Idea 4: Psychology Explores Human Strengths and Challenges
Early psychology focused on understanding and treating difficulties.
Contemporary psychology continued the tradition and extended its research to include human flourishing.
Positive psychology: Scientific study of human functioning
The goal is to discover and promote strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities to thrive.
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Positive Psychology
Suggests that happiness is a by-product of a pleasant, engaged, and meaningful life
Focuses on building a:
Good life that engages one’s skills
Meaningful life that points beyond the self
Uses scientific methods to explore positive emotions, character traits, and institutions
Positive emotions include satisfaction with the past, happiness with the present, and optimism about the future.
Positive character traits include creativity, courage, compassion, integrity, self-control, leadership, wisdom, and spirituality.
Current research examines the roots and fruits of such qualities, sometimes by studying the lives of individuals who offer striking examples.
Positive institutions include healthy families, supportive neighborhoods, effective schools, and socially responsible media.
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Limits of Intuition and Common Sense
Research shows that thinking, memory, and attitudes operate on conscious and unconscious levels.
Most of an individual’s mental life happens automatically, but intuition can lead him/her astray.
Flaws in intuitive thinking:
Hindsight bias
Overconfidence
Perceiving patterns in random events
Hindsight Bias
The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that the outcome could have been predicted
Known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon
When drilling the Deepwater Horizon oil well in 2010, BP employees took some shortcuts and ignored some warning signs, without intending to harm the environment or their company’s reputation.
After the resulting Gulf oil spill, with the benefit of hindsight, the foolishness of those judgments became obvious.
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Overconfidence
People tend to think they know more than they do.
Manifests in:
Field of academics
Social behavior
People in a study were asked to unscramble the following word puzzles or anagrams:
WREAT → WATER
ETRYN → ENTRY
GRABE → BARGE
About how many seconds do you think it would take you to unscramble each anagram?
Knowing the answer makes us overconfident.
You may assume that the solution would take only 10 seconds or so. In reality, the average problem solver spends 3 minutes when given a puzzle without the solution.
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Perceiving Order in Random Events
People perceive patterns to make sense of their world.
Even in random, unrelated data people find order.
Random sequences often do not look random.
People trust their intuition more than they should.
Intuitive thinking is flawed.
In actual random sequences, patterns and streaks (such as repeating numbers) occur more often than people expect.
This makes it hard for people to generate random-like sequences.
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Retrieve and Remember 3
Why, after friends start dating, do we often feel that we knew they were meant to be together?
ANSWER: We often suffer from hindsight bias—after we’ve learned a situation’s outcome, that outcome seems familiar and therefore obvious.
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How Do Psychologists Ask and Answer Questions?
The scientific method
Description
Correlation
Experimentation
How would you know which research design to use?
Predicting everyday behavior
Figure 1.1 - The Scientific Method
The Scientific Method, Part 1
Helps avoid pitfalls of intuitive thinking by:
Observing events
Forming theories
Refining the theories in light of new observations
Theory: Explanation using principles that organize observations and predict behaviors or events
Can bias one’s observations
The Scientific Method, Part 2
Hypothesis: Testable prediction, often implied by a theory
Specifies those results that support the theory
Highlights those results that would cast doubt on the theory
Operational definition: Carefully worded statement of the exact procedures used in a research study
The Scientific Method, Part 3
Replication: Repeating the essence of a research study to see whether the basic finding can be reproduced
Performed with different participants in different situations
Enables confirmation of findings
Enables one to correct and refine their knowledge
Features of a Good Theory
Effectively organizes a range of self-reports and observations
Leads to clear predictions that can be used to check the theory or to create practical applications of it
Stimulates replications and more research that supports the theory
Leads to a revised theory that better organizes and predicts what is observed
Ways to Test Hypotheses and Refine Theories
Descriptive methods
Describe behaviors by using case studies, naturalistic observations, or surveys
Correlational methods
Associate different factors
Experimental methods
Manipulate, or vary, factors to discover their effects
Retrieve and Remember 4
What does a good theory do?
Why is replication important?
ANSWER: 1. It organizes observed facts. 2. It implies hypotheses that offer testable predictions and, sometimes, practical applications. 3. It often stimulates further research.
ANSWER: When others are able to repeat (replicate) studies and produce similar results, psychologists can have more confidence in the original findings.
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Descriptive Techniques
Case studies: Examine one individual or group in depth
Provide fruitful ideas
Do not uncover general truths
Naturalistic observations: Technique of observing and recording behavior in a natural environment
Describe but do not explain behavior
Can be revealing
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Freud and Little Hans
Sigmund Freud’s case study of 5-year-old Hans’ extreme fear of horses led Freud to his theory of childhood sexuality.
Freud believed Hans’ intense fear had its roots in the boy’s unconscious desire for his mother and his fear of being castrated by his rival father.
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Descriptive Technique - Surveys
Techniques for obtaining self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a group
Examine many cases in less depth
Wording effect - Subtle changes in the wording of a question can have major effects on the survey crowd.
Random sample: Sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion
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Figure 1.2 - Twitter Message Moods by Time and by Day
This graph illustrates how, without knowing anyone’s identity, research can use “big data” to study human behavior on a huge scale. Many options are possible, such as an association between mood and weather, or the spread of ideas through social networks. (Data from Golder & Macy, 2011.)
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Retrieve and Remember 5
We cannot assume that case studies always reveal general principles that apply to all of us. Why not?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of naturalistic observation, such as the EARs study?
What is an unrepresentative sample, and how do researchers avoid it?
ANSWER: Case studies focus on one individual or group, so we can’t know for sure whether the principles observed would apply to a larger population.
ANSWER: In the EARs study, researchers were able to carefully observe and record naturally occurring behaviors outside the artificial environment of a laboratory. However, they were not able to explain the behaviors because they could not control all the factors that may have influenced them.
ANSWER: An unrepresentative sample is a group that does not represent the population being studied. Random sampling helps researchers form a representative sample, because each member of the population has an equal chance of being included.
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Correlation
Measure of the extent to which two events vary together
Measure of how well either one predicts the other
Correlation coefficient
Mathematical expression of the relationship
Ranges from −1.00 to +1.00
0 indicates no relationship
Correlation - Measures
Positive correlation (above 0 to +1.00)
Indicates a direct relationship
Two things increase together or decrease together
Negative correlation (below 0 to −1.00)
Indicates an inverse relationship
As one thing increases, the other decreases
Weak correlation
Coefficient near zero
Indicates little or no relationship
Retrieve and Remember 6
Indicate whether each of the following statements describes a positive correlation or a negative correlation:
The more husbands viewed Internet pornography, the worse their marital relationships (Muusses et al., 2015).
The less sexual content teens saw on TV, the less likely they were to have sex (Collins et al., 2004).
The longer children were breast-fed, the greater their later academic achievement (Horwood & Fergusson,1998).
The more income rose among a sample of poor families, the fewer symptoms of mental illness their children experienced (Costello et al., 2003).
ANSWERS:
Negative
Positive
Positive
Negative
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Figure 1.3 - Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships
People low in self-esteem are more likely to report depression than are those high in self-esteem. One possible explanation of this negative correlation is that a bad self-image causes depressed feelings. But, as this diagram shows, other cause-effect relationships are possible.
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Correlation and Causation
Correlation indicates the possibility of a cause-effect relationship, but it does not prove causation.
Knowing that two events are associated does not reveal which event causes the other.
Retrieve and Remember 7
Length of marriage correlates with hair loss in men. Does this mean that marriage causes men to lose their hair (or that balding men make better husbands)?
ANSWER: In this case, as in many others, a third factor can explain the correlation: Golden anniversaries and baldness both accompany aging.
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Experiment
A method in which researchers vary one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process
Researchers aim to control other factors by random assignment of participants
Helps researchers focus on the possible effects of one or more factors by:
Manipulating factors of interest
Holding other factors constant
Random Assignment
Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing any preexisting differences between the groups
Experimental group: Group exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable
Control group: Group not exposed to the treatment
Serves as a comparison with the experimental group for judging the effect of the treatment
Double-Blind Procedure
A procedure in which both the participants and the research staff are ignorant about who has received the treatment or a placebo
Placebo: Inactive substance or condition that is given to those in a control group in place of the treatment given to the experimental group
Placebo effect: Results caused by expectations alone
Double-blind procedure: Eliminating bias
Neither those in the study nor those collecting the data know which group is receiving the treatment.
The treatment’s actual effects can be separated from potential placebo effect.
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Retrieve and Remember 8
What measures do researchers use to prevent the placebo effect from confusing their results?
ANSWER: Research designed to prevent the placebo effect randomly assigns participants to an experimental group (which receives the real treatment) or a control group (which receives a placebo). A double-blind procedure prevents people’s beliefs and hopes from affecting the results because neither the participants nor those collecting the data know who receives the placebo. A comparison of the results will show whether the real treatment produces better results than belief in that treatment.
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Variables in an Experiment
Independent variable
Factor that is manipulated
Variable whose effect is being studied
Confounding variable
Factor other than the factor being studied that might influence a study’s results
Dependent variable
Factor that is measured
Variable that may change when the independent variable is manipulated
Figure 1.4 - Experimentation
To study cause and effect, psychologists control for confounding variables by randomly assigning some participants to an experimental group, others to a control group. Measuring the dependent variable (intelligence score in later childhood) will determine the effect of the independent variable (type of milk).
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Table 1.2 - Comparing Research Methods
| Research Method | Basic Purpose | How Conducted | What Is Manipulated | Weaknesses |
| Descriptive | To observe and record behavior | Do case studies, naturalistic observations, or surveys | Nothing | No control of variables; single cases may be misleading. |
| Correlational | To detect naturally occurring relationships; to assess how well one variable predicts another | Collect data on two or more variables; no manipulation | Nothing | Does not specify cause and effect. |
| Experimental | To explore cause and effect | Manipulate one or more factors; use random assignment | The independent variable(s) | Sometimes not possible for practical or ethical reasons. |
Researchers design each study, measure target behaviors, interpret results, and learn more about behavior and mental processes along the way.
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Retrieve and Remember 9
In the rental housing experiment discussed in this section, what was the independent variable? The dependent variable?
Why, when testing a new drug to control blood pressure, would we learn more about its effectiveness from giving it to half the participants in a group of 1000 than to all 1000 participants?
ANSWER: The independent variable, which the researchers manipulated, was the implied ethnicity of the applicants’ names. The dependent variable, which researchers measured, was the rate of positive responses from the landlords.
ANSWER: We learn more about the drug’s effectiveness when we can compare the results of those who took the drug (the experimental group) with the results of those who did not (the control group). If we gave the drug to all 1000 participants, we would have no way of knowing whether the drug is serving as a placebo or is actually medically effective.
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Retrieve and Remember 10
Match the term below with the correct description on the right.
Double-blind procedure
Random sampling
Random Assignment
a. Helps researchers generalize from a small set of survey responses to a larger population
b. Helps minimize preexisting differences between experimental and control groups
c. Controls for the placebo effect; neither researchers nor participants know who receives the real treatment
ANSWERS:
c
a
b
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Predicting Everyday Behavior
The purpose of an experiment is to test theoretical principles.
Resulting principles, not specific findings, help explain everyday behaviors.
Psychological sciences:
Focus less on specific behaviors
Focus more on revealing general principles that help explain many behaviors
Psychology’s Research Ethics
Studying and protecting animals
Studying and protecting humans
Values in psychology
Animal Research
Conducted by psychologists to:
Understand how different species learn, think, and behave
Learn about people
Helped develop treatments for human diseases
Examples: insulin for diabetes, vaccines for polio and rabies, and transplants to replace defective organs
Studying and Protecting Animals
Animal protection movements protest the use of animals in psychological, biological, and medical research.
Use of animals for research is debated among psychologists.
Is it right to place the well-being of humans above that of other animals?
What safeguards should protect the well-being of animals in research?
Protecting Animals
British Psychological Society (BPS)
Requires animals to be housed under reasonably natural living conditions
Social animals provided with companions
American Psychological Association (APA)
Requires researchers to:
Ensure comfort, health, and humane treatment of animals
Minimize infection, illness, and pain
Benefits of Animal Research for Animals
Invention of handling and stroking methods to reduce stress and ease dogs’ move to adoptive homes
Improvement of care and management in animals’ natural habitats
Increased empathy and protection for other species
Animal Research Benefiting Animals
Psychologists have helped enrich zoo animal environment.
Thanks partly to research on the benefits of novelty, control, and stimulation, these gorillas have enjoyed an improved quality of life in New York’s Bronx Zoo.
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Studying and Protecting Humans
APA and BPS ethics codes urge researchers to:
Obtain the participants’ informed consent to participate
Protect participants from out-of-the-ordinary harm and discomfort
Keep information about individual participants confidential
Fully debrief participants
Informed consent: Giving people enough information about a study to enable them to decide whether they wish to participate
Debriefing: After an experiment ends, explaining to participants the study’s purpose and any deceptions researchers used
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Values in Psychology
Values impact:
The material that is being studied
How the material is being studied
How results are interpreted
Applied psychology contains hidden values.
Psychology has the power to deceive, though its purpose is to enlighten.
Psychology Speaks
In making its historic 1954 school desegregation decision, the U.S. Supreme Court cited the expert testimony and research of psychologists Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark (1947).
The Clarks reported that, when given a choice between Black and White dolls, most African-American children chose the White doll. This choice seemed to indicate that the children had absorbed and accepted anti-Black prejudice.
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Retrieve and Remember 11
How are animal subjects and human research participants protected?
ANSWER: Animal protection laws, laboratory regulation and inspection, and local and university ethics committees (which screen research proposals) attempt to safeguard animal welfare. International psychological organizations urge researchers to obtain informed consent from human participants, and to protect them from greater-than-usual harm and discomfort, treat their personal information confidentially, and debrief them fully at the end of the experiment.
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Tips to Live a Happy, Thriving Life
Manage time to get a full night’s sleep
Make space for exercise
Set long-term goals, with daily aims
Maintain a growth mind-set
Prioritize relationships
Psychological Principles
Testing effect: Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information
Known as retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning
SQ3R: Study method that incorporates five steps
Survey, question, read, retrieve, and review
Strategies That Help to Learn and Remember
Use self-testing and rehearsal
Implement the SQ3R study method
Distribute study time
Learn to think critically
Actively process class information
Overlearn
Retrieve and Remember 12
The _____ describes the improved memory that results from repeated retrieval (as in self-testing), rather than from simple rereading of new information.
What does SQ3R mean?
ANSWER: testing effect
ANSWER: SQ3R is an acronym—an abbreviation formed by the first letters in five words: Survey, Question, Read, Retrieve, and Review.
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