1. CHAPTER 1: THE
SCIENCE OF
PSYCHOLOGY
PSY 200 15PR
JSRCC

2. WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?

3. WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?
• What is Psychology?
• The study of our inner feelings and behaviors
• Scientific study of behavior and mental processes
• Critical Thinking
• The process of thinking deeply and actively; asking questions. And evaluating the evidence
• Critical thinkers question ant test what some people say are facts
• Also, comes into play when scientist consider the conclusions they draw from research
• Asses claims on the basis of well-supported reasons and evidence – not on emotional or anecdotal reasoning

4. WHAT IT PSCHOLOGY?
• Empirical (Scientific) Method
• Gaining knowledge through the observation of events the collection of data and logical reasoning
• Scientist would say, that empirical question means that hard evidence is required to answer the question

5. HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

6. HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
• Wilhelm Wundt
• Founded the first psychology laboratory in 1879 at the University of Leipizing in Germany
• Discover the basic elements or structures of the mental process
• Structuralism
• The basic elements of the mind
• Structuralism- analyze consciousness into basic elements and study how the are related
• Neurospepection
• Introspection
• Introspection means to look in the inside oneself
• Also a technique used in which subjects report a response to stimuli
• Introspection- self-observation of one’s conscious experiences

7. HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
• James’ Functionalism
• William James the first American psychologist, felt that structuralism was too limited
• James founded functionalism, which studied how complex the mid processed evolve because of life preserving
functions
• Functionalism- investigate the function, or purpose of consciousness rather than its structure
• Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection
• Reparations of common ancestry among animals
• Use of rats and other animals for psychological experiments
• Position of humans within the animal kingdom, rather than above it

8. CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO
PSYCHOLOGY

9. CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO
PSYCHOLOGY
• Nature/ Nurture debate
• Biological Approach
• Approach to psychology emphasizing the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their environmental
determinants
• Focuses on organism’s visible interactions with the environment that is, behavior not thoughts or feelings
• Neuroscience
• Neural aspects of basic processes
• Growing field or psychopharmacology
• Neuroscience: the scientific study of the structure, function development, genetics and biochemistry of the nervous system

10. NATURE VS NURTURE
• Nature
• Intistintic
• Genetics
• Heredity
• Biological
• Factors
• innate
• Nurture
• Learned
• How you were raised
• Where you were raised
• Environment
• Experiences

11. CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO
PSYCHOLOGY
• Behavioral approach
• Approach to psychology emphasizing the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their environmental determinants’
• Focuses on organism’s visible interactions with the environment-that is, behavior not thought or feeling
• Psychodynamic approach
• Emphasis on unconscious interapsychic dynamics
• Belief in the importance of early childhood
• Belief that development occurs in fixed stages
• Focus on fantasies and symbolic meanings of events
• Psychodynamic approach: emphasizes unconscious thoughts the conflict between biological drive
• Freud
• Sigmund Freud’s Psychodynamic perspective focused on unconscious determinant of behavior
• Freud also developed a treatment approach known as psychoanaylysis

12. CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO
PSYCHOLOGY
• Sociocultural Approach
• Approach psychology that examines the influences of social and cultural environments on behavior
• Cognitive Approach
• Approach to psychology emplacing the mental processes involded in knowing; how we direct our attention,
perceive, remember, think, and solve problems
• Humanistic Approach
• Approach to psychology emphasizing a persons' positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth
• Maslow/Rogers’
• Abraham Maslow: personality gradually develops towards self- actualization
• Carl Rogers: our inner experience of ourselves may different from what we show others

13. TYPES OF RESEARCH

14. TYPES OF RESEARCH
• Descriptive Research
• Naturalistic Observation
• Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate or control the situation
•
• Surveys and Interviews
• The survey
• A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people, usually by questioning a
representative, random sample of them
• Best basis for generalizing is from a representative sample of cases
• Pros:
• Data can often be collected and analyzed fairly quickly
• The results from the sample can be generalized to the entire population
• Surveys can provide reliable information for planning programs and messages
• Surveys can be anonymous, which is useful for sensitive topics
• Cons;
• They can only provide correlation, not cause and effect
• They can be very costly

15. SOCIAL DESIRABILITY
RESPONSE

16. SOCIAL DESIRABILITY RESPONSE
• Case Studies
• An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in hope of revealing universal principles
• Case Studies—four use
• A source of insights and ideas
• To describe particularly rare phenomena
• Psycho-biographies with psychological concepts applied to understand famous people
• Provides illustrative anecdotes to demonstrate principles for teachers and researchers
• Pros:
• Provides a wealth of information
• Relatively easy and inexpensive
• Writes up as a narrative
• Cons:
• Useless in proving a theory
• Tend to rely on the observations of a single investigator

17. CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH

18. CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH
• Correlational Research
• Tells whether the values of two variables are related
• 1. Correlational Coefficient
• A measure of the relationship between two variables
• Found from case studies, surveys and naturalistic observations
• 2. Positive v. Negative Correlations
• Positive correlation
• Means that two sets of scores, such as height and weight, tend to rise or fall together
• Negative Correlation
• Means that two things relate inversely. If one things goes up, the other goes down
•
•
• 3. Third Variable Problem
• 4. Longitudinal Designs
• Longitudinal studies- periodic tests on the same participants over a number of years

19. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
• Experimental Research
• Purpose is to identify cause and effect through the manipulation of variables
• 1. Random Assignment
• `2. Independent and Dependent Variables
• Independent Variable
• A factor that can be selected and manipulated by the experimenter
• Dependent Variable
• A measurable behavior exhibited by the participant in the experiment. It will change because of the IV’s
• 3. Confederates

20. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
• 4. Experimental v. Control Groups
• In proper experiments, you will always have a control group by which you anchor the rest of the
experiment
• Experimental groups will experience the independent variables as determined by the researchers
• Experimental controls- control group, experimental group, avoid extraneous varibles
•
• Quasi-Experimental Designs
• Not considered true experiments because of the inability to randomly assign participants to the experimental and
control groups

21. CAUTIONS ABOUT EXPERIMENTAL
RESEARCH
• Experimenter Bias
• Predisposed beliefs of the experimenter can confound the research findings
• Creates a self-fulfilling prophesy
• Demand Characteristics
• D. Participant Bias
• When participants try to present themselves in a good light or deliberately attempt to mislead the researcher
• Offer confidentiality double blind studies don’t tell them what they are really being tested for
• Placebo Effect
• The phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can influence their behavior
• Subject’s expectations lead them to believe some change has occurred
• Double-Blind Experiments
• A study in which neither the experimenter nor the subjects know if the subjects are in the experimental or control group
• Research Samples
• A sample that fairly represents a population because each member of the population has an equal chance of being included