Transcript Unit 1 - Northern Highlands

Unit 1
The History and Science of
Psychology
Defining Psychology




Initial emphasis was philosophical and introspective
Later, the state of the mind was seen as associated
with the body
Eventually, psychologists believed that human
behavior could only be understood by evaluating
actual behavior
The end result? Psychology is defined as the
scientific study of behavior and mental
processes.
The Birth…and Afterbirth of
Psychology


Aristotle initially looked for
a relationship between the
body and mental state
Wilhelm Wundt



Merger of philosophy and
physiology
First psychology lab, 1879 at
the University of Leipzig
Examined introspection, or
the analysis of one’s
conscious experiences
The Birth and Afterbirth:
Early Schools of Thought


Structuralism
 E.B. Titchener (Wundt’s student)
 Introspection
 Break down immediate sensation, past memories, feelings
 Self-Report technique unreliable
Functionalism
 William James (1st American)
 Darwin’s influence
Holla!
 Conscious experience is adaptive
 Stream of consciousness
Break it
down!
Titchener
No, Beotch!
Examine why
is it
ADAPTIVE?
James
The Birth and Afterbirth:
Schools of Thought

Behaviorist School



I torture
babies!
John Watson, Ivan
Pavlov, B.F. Skinner
Observable,
measurable behavior
Und zen
zie child
becomes
neurotic!
Psychoanalysis





Sigmund Freud
Role of the
unconscious
Sex and aggression
Importance of early
childhood events
Evolved into
psychodynamic school
Sigmund Freud
Behaviorist John B. Watson
Schools of Thought:
Classics

Gestalt




Max Wertheimer,
Fritz Perls
Human tendency to
perceive patterns
“the whole is greater
than the sum of its
parts”
Useful in
understanding
process of perception
Black spots, or a dalmatian?
The Birth and Afterbirth:
Schools of Thought

FYI…I AM A
DUDE.
Humanistic School






Cognitive School



Cognitive psychologist Jean Piaget
Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow
Human potential for growth
Importance of free will
Here and now
Need for acceptance
Jean Piaget, Albert Ellis, Aaron
Beck
Importance thoughts and thought
processes
Perception, thinking, memory,
language
Schools of Thought:
Biological and Evolutionary

Biological



Looks to the body and its processes to explain human
behavior
Genes, hormones, neurotransmitters, and organ
structure/function
Evolutionary Psychology


Examines human behavior through processes of
adaptability, survival value and reproductive value
How has human behavior changed to ensure survival?
The Birth and Afterbirth:
Schools of Thought

Today, contemporary schools of thought
have expanded to also include the following:



Neuroscience – how does the brain and its
chemicals regulate behavior?
Behavioral Genetics – how do genes and
experiences combine to make each of us unique?
Social-Cultural – How is behavior shaped by our
surroundings, i.e. the people around us, our
ethnic traditions, values, and beliefs?
Schools of Thought:
The Biopsychosocial Approach

Regardless of the particular school of
thought, contemporary psychology has
come to embrace the biopsychosocial
approach



Biological influences of genes, hormones, brain
Psychological influences of emotions, learned
information, and cognitions
Social-Cultural influences of other people,
culture, family, groups, media
Schools of Thought:
The Biopsychosocial Approach

Each particular school of thought may emphasize one
area more than another

Which area/s do you think each school would emphasize?
Gimme my Ph.D.
or I’ll shank ya!
Schools of Thought:
Women’s Contributions?

Mary Whiton Calkins





Margaret Floy Washburn
 First woman granted Ph.D.
 Second female APA President



First female APA president
Denied Ph.D. from Harvard
Student of William James
Notable research on memory
The Animal Mind


Mary Cover Jones
 Pioneer in behavior therapy
 Desensitization
Rosalie Rayner
 Accomplished behaviorist


Behaviorist who worked with John
Watson on Baby Albert
experiment
Tragic early death
Women overcame limitations on access to education,
restrictions on awarding advanced degrees, and exclusion
from psychological societies
Today, women earn the majority of Ph.D.s in psychology and
hold nearly half of the leadership roles in psychological
societies
Enduring Issues in Psychology


Psychologists representing all schools of thought
debate what shapes behavior
Some on-going debates include the following:




Nature vs. Nurture – Which shapes behavior more? Biology
or experience? Plato vs. Aristotle? Descartes vs. Locke?
Person vs. Situation – Is behavior dictated by forces within
us or does it constantly change and shift based on our
surroundings?
Mind vs. Body – Do our thoughts or our bodies have more
control over our behavior?
Diversity – Which is more important? What makes us
similar, or what makes us unique?
Psychology Careers:
Education and Work Settings

Note: The chart represents employment settings for those with recent
doctorates in psychology. Totals amount to 97 percent due to rounding and
exclusion of 17 "not specified" responses. Adapted from D. Michaels, J.
Kohout, M. Wicherski & B. Hart (2011), 2009 Doctorate Employment
Survey (Table 3) (PDF, 33KB). Taken from
http://www.apa.org/careers/resources/guides/careers.aspx?item=4


The Degrees
 BA – 4 year study
 MA – 2-3 Years beyond BA
 Ph.D./Psy.D./Ed.D. – 6-7 years
beyond BA
 M.D. – Psychiatrists (prescribe
medication) – medical school
Increased career opportunities
for advanced degrees
Admission is competitive!
 Strong GPA and GRE scores
 Related work or volunteer
experience
 Close relationships with
professors
 Publish if possible!
Psychology Careers:
Fields of Study


Research vs. Applied Psychology?
The majority of psychology professionals work as therapists in
some capacity




Clinical Psychologists
Counselors
Psychiatrists
Psychology’s Diverse Subfields












Biological
Cognitive
Community
Developmental
Educational
Experimental
Human Factors
Industrial/Organizational
Personality
Psychometric
School
Social
Conducting Research

Goals of Psychology





Pitfalls of intuition and “common sense”
explanations



Describe
Explain
Predict
Control
Hindsight bias i.e. “I knew it all along…”
Overconfidence
Remember psychology’s definition: “The scientific
study of behavior and mental processes”
Conducting Research

The Scientific Attitude: Rely on Empiricism!




Curiosity: passion to explore and understand
Skepticism: questioning results; retesting
Humility: understanding humans’ limitations and
the possibility for error
Ultimately, psychologists must be critical
thinkers


Do not accept “truths” without first testing them
Look at evidence, question assumptions, filter out
bias
The Scientific Method




Generate a question
Formulate a theory
Develop a hypothesis (if-then)
Test hypothesis



Operational definitions
Clear and concise
Replication of results
Descriptive Research Methods



Case Study
 In-depth Research
 Can we generalize?
Survey
 Lots of information –
FAST!
 Population
 Random sample
 Stratified Sample
 Wording
Naturalistic Observation
 Hawthorne Effect
minimized
 Observer bias
 Interobserver reliability
 Control?
Correlational Methods




What is the relationship between two factors?
Allows prediction, but NOT cause and effect!
Correlation vs. causation
 A positive or negative relationship does not establish cause
and effect
 It does not PROVE the if-then (association does not prove
causation)
Measuring the Strength of Relationship
 Correlation Coefficient





Indicates strength and direction of a relationship between two factors
Between -1 and 1
Stronger relationships are closer to -1 or to 1, closeness to 0
indicates weak or no relationship
Positive correlation vs. negative correlation
Scatterplots
Reading Scatter Plots:
Match the Correlation Coefficient with the Graph!
A. .86
B. -1.0
C. 0
D. .99
Correlational Studies:
Pitfalls

Illusory Correlations




We can be influenced to see correlations when we
believe they exist
Fueled by confirmation bias, the tendency to only
remember examples that support what we already
believe is true.
Can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, when we
inadvertently set something up to happen because we
believe it will.
E.g. “Old people are cheap!”
Experimental Method




Researcher deliberately manipulates selected
variables and then measures the effects of these
manipulations
Because the researcher has this level of control, the
experiment can establish causation
However, the level of control can be somewhat
artificial, and results may not generalize to the real
world outside the lab
Also, it may be unethical to manipulate certain
variables
The Experiment: An Example



Situation: New insomnia drug called DROWZ’s…does it work?
Want to establish a cause and effect
relationship or if-then, SO we must do an…
EXPERIMENT!
Personnel - Who is involved?

Experimenter


Subjects/Participants




Runs and/or designs the experiment
Those being tested
Sample - group that represents the larger group we are
generalizing about (i.e. insomniacs)
Random Selection - everyone has an equal chance of
being chosen!
Confederates


People who help the experimented administer the
experiment
E.g. Milgram experiment – the “learner” was a confederate
Variables - What is happening?

Independent Variable




Dependent Variable




The variable being TESTED
Experimenter can manipulate it
E.g. exposure to DROW-Z’s
The RESULT
What happens as a result of exposure to the independent
variable
E.g. do subjects on DROW-Z’s SLEEP better?
Confounding Variable


Throws off results
Unwanted!
Experimental vs. Control Groups

Experimental Group



Control Group




The group exposed to manipulation of the
independent variable
E.g. receives the DROW-Z’s
Group NOT exposed to manipulation of the
independent variable; used for COMPARISON
E.g. does NOT receive DROW-Z’s
May instead receive a PLACEBO
Random assignment to groups

All subjects have an equal chance of being in either
the control group or experimental group!
Operational Definitions, Etc.

Operational Definitions







What are we measuring and how?
How are we defining VARIABLES (IV/DV)?
Allows experiment to be replicated by others
E.g. what is a “better” night’s sleep?
Sample Size: the bigger the better!
What is the difference between groups?
Replication?
Avoiding Pitfalls

Double- and Single-blind procedures



Single - subject doesn’t know who is in
control group and who is in experimental
group
Double - subject and confederate
administering experiment don’t know who
is in which group
Placebo


Reduces confounding variable
Reduces demand characteristics (subject
bias)
Analyzing Results:
Statistical Analysis

Statistics Defined



Be skeptical of sweeping generalizations



A branch of mathematics used to organize and analyze data
Necessary to use statistics to understand what results actually
MEAN – if they mean anything at all…
E.g. “Males are better at math and science than females”
How was this measured?
Descriptive vs. Inferential Statistics?


Descriptive helps us to make sense of a data set (e.g. mean,
median, range, skew, standard deviation)
Inferential allows us to make generalizations about a population
based on a sample. Significance is a measurement that would be
of importance here.
Statistical Analysis:
Scales of Measurement

Nominal Scale



Ordinal Scale



Scale that indicates relative position; ranks data
E.g. class rank
Interval Scale



Set of categories for classifying
E.g. types of cars in the student lot
Scale with equal distance between values, but without a
true zero
E.g. temperature
Ratio Scale


Scale with equal distance between values, but WITH a true
zero
E.g. Inches of rain
Statistical Analysis:
Descriptive Statistics

Frequency
Distribution


A count of the
number of scores
that fall within each
series of intervals
Frequency
histogram and
Frequency
Polygraph
Descriptive Statistics:
Measures of Central Tendency

This is a single score that
represents a set of scores
 Mode


Mean


Most frequently occurring
score
Average
Median

The midpoint – half the
scores fall below, and half
are above
Sample Data Set:
1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5,
5
Mode = ?
Mean = ?
Median = ?
This is a NORMAL (BELL)
CURVE, where all measures 3
of central tendency are equal!
Descriptive Statistics:
The Skewed Distribution


Frequency distribution is asymmetrical
Mean, median and mode are different values



Negative (left) – just a few very low scores
Positive (right) – just a few very high scores
How can a few atypical scores distort data?
Descriptive Statistics:
The Bimodal Distribution

As the name implies, a bimodal distribution
has TWO modes
Descriptive Statistics:
Measures of Variation




Range – the difference between the highest and lowest score
in a distribution
What does it tell you?
What DOESN’T it tell you?
Standard Deviation – how much do scores vary from the mean
in a distribution? (see table 1.4 in text p. 36)
1.
Calculate mean
2.
Calculate each scores deviates from the mean
3.
Square that difference
4.
Add the sum of the squares
5.
Divide by the number of scores in the distribution
6.
Take square root of this
7.
The number is equal to the value of ONE standard deviation
Descriptive Statistics:
Measures of Variation

So what?




In a normal curve, this number reveals the percentage of
scores that falls within a particular range
68% fall within one standard deviation from the mean
96% fall within two standard deviations from the mean
99% fall within three standard deviations from the mean
What must the
standard deviation
be for this
distribution of IQ
scores?
Inferential Statistics:
Statistical Significance

Significant Difference






What is the difference between the experiences of the
control and the experimental groups?
What is the chance that the difference happened due to
chance?
.05 P-Value generally accepted (1 in 20 due to chance)
If it IS a significant difference, how important is that
difference (e.g. difference between IQ scores of first- and
later-born children is significant, but due to its very small
value, it is not important.
WITHIN vs. BETWEEN group variation?
Statistical significance vs. significant difference
Inferential Statistics:
Reliability

When can we generalize about a population
based on the results from our sample?



Sample is a representative sample
The less variation in the data, the more reliable (if
variability is high in a distribution, the mean
becomes less meaningful)
The more examples the better! (ask 2 friends how
they like the class vs. asking 25)
Research and Ethics

Setting Standards


APA (American Psychological Association)
Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and Institutional Animal Care and
Use Committee (IACUCs)

How did Milgram, Landis, Watson, and Zimbardo challenge
ethical standards?

Animal Subjects:






Compliance with current laws and regulations in
acquisition, care and disposal of subjects.
Staff trained in the care, maintenance and handling
of the species being used.
Minimize the discomfort, infection, illness and pain
of animal subjects.
Use a procedure subjecting animals to pain, stress
or privation only when an alternative procedure is
unavailable and the goal is justified.
Use of anesthesia and antiseptic methods during
and after surgery.
Minimize duration and pain of euthanasia.

Human Subjects:





Informed Consent
Confidentiality
Use of deception?
Protection from harm/discomfort
Debriefing