Invitation To Psychology Carol Wade and Carol Tavris

Invitation To Psychology Carol Wade and Carol Tavris Power. Point Presentation by H. Lynn Bradman Metropolitan Community College-Omaha Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 1

What is Psychology? Chapter 1 Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 2

What is Psychology? • • The Science of Psychology What Psychologists Do Critical and Scientific Thinking in Psychology Descriptive Studies: Establishing the Facts Correlational Studies: Looking for Relationships The Experiment: Hunting for Causes Evaluating the Findings Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 3

The Science of Psychology • Psychology, Pseudoscience, and Common Sense • The Birth of Modern Psychology • Psychology's Present Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 4

Defining Psychology • Psychology is the discipline concerned with behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism's physical state, mental state, and external environment Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 5

Empirical Evidence • Evidence gathered by careful observation, experimentation, and measurement. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 6

Psychology, Pseudoscience, and Common Sense • Scientific Psychology bears little relationship to "Pop" Psychology • Fortune telling, numerology, graphology, and astronomy are not part of psychology • Psychology is not just a fancy name for common sense • Psychological research often produces findings that contradict popular beliefs Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 7

Bumpy Logic • Phrenology was a 19 th-century pseudoscience – No scientific basis • Phrenology linked bumps on the skull with character traits Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 8

The Birth of Modern Psychology • Functionalism: An early psychological approach that emphasized the function or purpose of behavior and consciousness • Psychoanalysis: A theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy, originally formulated by Sigmund Freud, which emphasizes unconscious motives and conflicts Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 9

Psychology's Present • • • Biological Perspective Learning Perspective Cognitive Perspective Sociocultural Perspective Psychodynamic Perspective Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 10

Biological Perspective • A psychological approach that emphasizes bodily events and changes associated with actions, feelings, and thoughts Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 11

Learning Perspective • A psychological approach that emphasizes how the environment and experience affect a person's or animal's actions: It includes behaviorism and social-cognitive learning theories Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 12

Cognitive Perspective • A psychological approach that emphasizes mental processes in perception, memory, language, problem solving, and other areas of behavior Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 13

Sociocultural Perspective • A psychological approach that emphasizes social and cultural influences on behavior Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 14

Psychodynamic Perspective • A psychological approach that emphasizes unconscious dynamics within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts, or the movement of instinctual energy Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 15

What Psychologists Do • Psychological Research • Psychological Practice • Psychology in the Community Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 16

Psychological Research • Basic Psychology: The study of psychological issues in order to seek knowledge for its own sake rather than for its practical application • Applied Psychology: The study of psychological issues that have direct practical significance; also the application of psychological findings. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 17

Psychological Practice Psychotherapist Person who does psychotherapy; credentials and training vary Clinical Psychologist Has a doctoral degree: Ph. D. , Ed. D. , or Psy. D. Psychoanalyst Has specific training in psychoanalysis after an advanced degree (usually M. D. or Ph. D. ) Psychiatrist A physician (M. D. ) with specialization in psychiatry Other professionals Licensing requirements vary by state; generally at least an M. A. Can be social worker (LCSW), counselor (MFCC), or other. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 18

Critical and Scientific Thinking in Psychology Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 19

Critical Thinking • Critical Thinking: The ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments on the basis of wellsupported reasons and evidence, rather than emotion or anecdote Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 20

Critical Thinking Guidelines • • Ask Questions: Be willing to wonder Define Your Terms Examine the Evidence Analyze Assumptions and Biases Avoid Emotional Reasoning Don't Oversimplify Consider Other Interpretations Tolerate Uncertainty Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 21

Hypothesis • A statement that attempts to predict or to account for a set of phenomena; scientific hypotheses specify relationships among events or variables and are empirically tested. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 22

Operational Definition • A precise definition of a term in a hypothesis, which specifies the operations for observing and measuring the process or phenomenon being measured. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 23

Principle of Falsifiability • The principle that a scientific theory must make predictions that are specific enough to expose theory to the possibility of disconfirmation; that is, theory must predict not only what will happen, but also what will not happen. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 24

Principle of Falsifiability Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 25

Theory • An organized system of assumptions and principles that purports to explain a specified set of phenomena and their interrelationships. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 26

Descriptive Studies: Establishing the Facts • • Case Studies Observational Studies Tests Surveys Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 27

Case Studies • A detailed description of a particular individual being studied or treated. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 28

Observational Studies • Studies in which the researcher carefully and systematically observes and records behavior without interfering with that behavior; it may involve either naturalistic or laboratory observation. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 29

Tests • Standardize: To develop uniform procedures for giving and scoring a test. • Norms: Established standards of performance. • Reliability: Consistency of scores derived from a test. • Validity: The ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 30

Surveys • Survey: Questionnaires and interviews that ask people directly about their experiences, attitudes, or opinions. • Representative Sample: A group of subjects, selected from a population, which matches the population on important characteristics. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 31

Correlational Studies: Looking for Relationships Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 32

Correlation • Correlation: A measure of how strongly two variables are related to one another • Variables: Characteristics of behavior or experience that can be measured or described by a numeric scale Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 33

Types of Correlations • Positive correlation: Increases in one variable are associated with increases in the other; decreases are likewise associated • Negative correlation: Increases in one variable are associated with decreases in the other Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 34

The Experiment: Hunting for Causes • • Experimental Variables Experimental and Control Conditions Experimenter Effects Advantages and Limitations of Experiments Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 35

Experimental Variables • Independent Variable: A variable that an experimenter manipulates. • Dependent Variable: A variable than an experimenter predicts will be affected by manipulations of the independent variable. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 36

Experiments • Experiment: A controlled test of a hypothesis in which the researcher manipulates one variable to discover its effect on another. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 37

Experimental and Control Conditions • Experimental Condition: In an experiment, a condition in which subjects are exposed to manipulations of the independent variable. • Control Condition: A comparison condition in which subjects are not exposed to the same treatment as in the experimental condition. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 38

Experimental Design • Hypothesis: Nicotine in cigarettes impairs driving. • All conditions kept the same for both groups except nicotine. – Control condition is given placebo (inactive) cigarettes • Number of collisions is measured. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 39

Random Assignment • A procedure for assigning people to experimental and control groups in which individuals have the same probability as an other of being assigned to either group. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 40

Placebo • An inactive substance or fake treatment used as a control in an experiment or given by a practitioner to a patient. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 41

Experimenter Effects • Unintended changes in subjects’ behavior due to cues inadvertently given by the experimenter • Double-Blind Study: Experiment where neither subjects nor people running the study know which subjects are in the control group and which are in the experimental group until after results are tallied. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 42

Advantages and Limitations of Experiments • Experiments allow conclusions about causeeffect relationships. • Participants in experiments are not always representative of larger population. – Much psychology research is carried out using colleges students as participants. • Field Research: Descriptive or experimental research conducted in a natural setting outside the laboratory. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 43

Evaluating the Findings • Why Psychologists Use Statistics • From the Laboratory to the Real World Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 44

Why Psychologists Use Statistics • Descriptive Statistics: Organize and summarize data • Inferential Statistics: Assess how meaningful results are, such as differences between groups. – Significance tests assess how likely it is that a study’s results occurred merely by chance Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 45

From the Laboratory to the Real World • Choosing the Best Explanation – Sometimes there are competing explanations for the same events • Judging the Result’s Importance – Statistical significance does not prove that a result is important, only that it is reliable – Meta-analysis combines and analyzes data from many studies Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 46

Different Research Methods • Cross-Sectional Study: Subjects of different ages are compared at a given time. • Longitudinal Study: Subjects are followed and periodically reassessed over a period of time Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 47