2. 1.1 Why Is Psychology Important to
You?
• Understanding and applying the principles
of psychology can affect us in critical ways
– Psychology can help us understand other
people and ourselves
– Psychology can help us improve our lives
2
3. Psychology Explains Our Mental
Activity and Behavior
• Psychology
– The study of mental activity and behavior, which
are based on brain processes
• Mental activity lets us perceive the world; that is, we
use our senses—sight, smell, taste, hearing, and
touch—to take in information from outside ourselves
• Behavior refers to all of our actions that result from
sensing and interpreting information
3
4. Psychology Teaches Us to Think
Critically
• Critical thinking
– Systematically evaluating information to reach reasonable
conclusions best supported by evidence
• Three steps in becoming a skilled critical thinker
1. “What am I being asked to believe or accept?”
2. “What evidence is provided to support the claim?”
3. “What are the most reasonable conclusions?”
4
5. Psychology Teaches Us to Think
Critically (1)
• Evaluating psychology in the news
– Media reports seek to grab attention. Their claims
may be based on psychological research, but they
may be hype instead
– Thinking critically about claims in psychology will
help you in your daily life
5
7. Psychology Helps Us Succeed in
School and at Work (1)
• Academic success
– Learning about psychology’s major issues,
theories, and controversies will help you succeed
in your academic work
• Important abilities learned from psychology: Analyzing
information by breaking it into pieces, evaluating ideas
by drawing conclusions about them, and
communicating about psychological concepts
7
8. Psychology Helps Us Succeed in
School and at Work (2)
• Professional success
– Studying psychology will also prepare you for success in
your professional life
• Teachers and education professionals need to understand how
people’s thinking, social abilities, and behaviors develop over time
• People in business, marketing, advertising, and sales need to know
how attitudes are formed or changed and how well people’s
attitudes predict their behavior
• Opportunities for people with graduate degrees in psychology are
expected to grow by about 12 percent by 2022
8
10. How Can Psychology Help Me
Study?
• The following learning strategies are all based
on psychological research
– The right goals lead to success
– A little stress management goes a long way
– Cramming is a crummy way to learn
– Learning is an active endeavor
– Explaining enhances understanding
– There are many ways to learn
– Self-quizzing improves learning
10
11. 1.2 What Do Psychologists
Investigate?
• The goal of understanding human thought and
behavior originated in the study of philosophy
11
12. Psychology Originated in
Philosophical Questions
• The beginnings of psychology
– Aristotle and Plato
– Nature/nurture debate: Both nature and nurture
influence our psychological development
– Mind/body problem: Are the mind and the body
separate and distinct?
– Descartes and dualism: The mind and the body
are separate yet intertwined
12
14. Psychologists Investigate the
Conscious and Unconscious Mind (2)
• After a school of thought emerged, it would
dominate until the flaws of that approach
became apparent; then a new school of
thought would emerge
14
16. Psychologists Investigate the
Conscious and Unconscious Mind (4)
• Experimental psychology begins
– Experimental psychology began in 1879, when
Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology
laboratory
– The purpose of the laboratory was to identify the
basic parts, or structures, of the conscious mind
• Reaction time experiments
• Introspection methods
16
18. Psychologists Investigate the
Conscious and Unconscious Mind (6)
• Structuralism: Components of the conscious
mind
– Structuralism: An early school of psychology that
explored the structures of the mind through
introspection
– Titchener pioneered a school of thought that
became known as structuralism
• This school is based on the idea that conscious
experience can be broken down into underlying parts
18
21. Psychologists Investigate the
Conscious and Unconscious Mind (9)
• Functionalism: Purpose of the conscious mind
– Functionalism: An early school of psychology
concerned with the adaptive purpose, or function,
of mind and behavior
– William James argued that the mind was much
more complex than its elements and could not be
broken down
• The goal of functionalism was to describe how the
conscious mind aids adaptation to an environment
21
23. Psychologists Investigate the
Conscious and Unconscious Mind (11)
• Evolutionary theory: Natural selection aids
survival
– One of the major influences on functionalism was
the work of the naturalist Charles Darwin. In 1859,
Darwin published his revolutionary book On the
Origin of Species. This work introduced the world
to evolutionary theory
• Darwin’s ideas have deeply influenced science,
philosophy, and society
23
25. Psychologists Investigate the
Conscious and Unconscious Mind (13)
• Psychoanalytic theory: Unconscious conflicts
– Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalytic theory
• To try to understand the connections between
psychology and physical problems
– Freud used psychoanalysis to treat unconscious
mental forces that conflicted with acceptable
behavior and produced psychological disorders
– Freud’s goals: To understand how unconscious
thoughts cause psychological disorders
25
27. Psychologists Explore Behavior
and Mental Activity (1)
• In the early twentieth century, psychologists
shifted away from studying the conscious and
unconscious experiences of the mind
27
28. Psychologists Explore Behavior
and Mental Activity (2)
• Gestalt psychology: Experiencing the “whole”
– Gestalt psychology developed in opposition to
structuralism
– Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Kohler
– Gestalt theory: The idea that the whole of
personal experience is different from simply the
sum of its parts
28
30. Psychologists Explore Behavior
and Mental Activity (4)
• Behaviorism: Stimuli and responses
– John B. Watson
– Behaviorism: A psychological approach that
emphasizes the role of environmental forces in
producing behavior
• Behaviorism dominated psychological research well
into the early 1960s
• Watson’s views have been furthered by thousands of
psychologists, including B. F. Skinner
30
33. Psychologists Explore Behavior
and Mental Activity (7)
• Humanistic psychology: Focus on positives
– Humanistic psychology: A school of psychology
that investigates how people grow to become
happier and more fulfilled and focuses on people’s
basic goodness
– Psychologists such as Abraham Maslow and Carl
Rogers focused on how people are free to choose
activities that make them happy and bring them
fulfillment
• Positive psychology
33
35. Psychologists Explore Behavior
and Mental Activity (9)
• Cognitive psychology: Mental activity
– Miller and Neisser: Learning was not as simple as
the behaviorists believed
– Cognitive psychology: The study of how people
think, learn, and remember
– Cognitive neuroscience is the interaction of
• Cognitive psychologists
• Computer scientists
• Philosophers
• Brain researchers
35
38. Psychologists Work Across
Levels of Analysis (1)
• Four levels of analysis used by psychologists
1. The biological level of analysis deals with how
the physical body influences our thoughts and
behavior
2. The individual level of analysis focuses on
individual differences in personality and mental
processes that affect perception and
understanding
38
39. Psychologists Work Across
Levels of Analysis (2)
3. The social level of analysis involves investigating
how groups affect people’s interactions and
people’s influence on each other
4. The cultural level of analysis explores how
people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions are
similar or different across cultures
39
41. Psychologists Work Across
Levels of Analysis (4)
• Culture: The beliefs, values, rules, and customs
that exist within a group of people who share a
common language and environment and that are
transmitted through learning from one generation
to the next
41
43. Psychologists Investigate Many
Different Topics (2)
• A psychologist’s career involves predicting
behavior or understanding mental activity
– Researchers who study the brain, the mind, and
behavior may work in schools, businesses,
universities, or clinics
43
46. Psychologists Today Follow Strict
Ethical Guidelines (1)
• When psychologists conduct research, they
must fully consider the ethical issues involved
– Institutional Review Boards (IRBs): Groups of
people responsible for reviewing proposed
research to ensure that it meets the accepted
standards of science and provides for the physical
and emotional well-being of research participants
46
47. Psychologists Today Follow Strict
Ethical Guidelines (2)
• For research to be ethical, five main issues
must be addressed
1. Privacy: Researchers must respect participants’
privacy
2. Confidentiality: Participants’ information must
be kept secret
3. Informed consent: Informed consent means that
people must be told about the research and can
choose whether to participate
47
48. Psychologists Today Follow Strict
Ethical Guidelines (3)
4. Deception: Knowing a study’s specific goals can
sometimes alter participants’ behavior, so
deception may be permissible but must be
revealed at the study’s end.
5. Risks: Researchers cannot ask participants to
endure unreasonable pain or discomfort.
48
50. 1.4 How Do Psychologists
Conduct Research?
• Psychologists cannot answer questions based
on beliefs, hearsay, rumor, or even expert
opinions
50
51. Psychologists Use the Scientific
Method (1)
• Psychology is a science
– Scientific method: A systematic procedure of
observing and measuring phenomena (observable
things) to answer questions about what happens,
when it happens, what causes it, and why. This
process involves a dynamic interaction between
theories, hypotheses, and research methods
51
52. Psychologists Use the Scientific
Method (2)
• There are five steps in the scientific method
1. Theory: A model of interconnected ideas or
concepts that explains what is observed and
makes predictions about future events
2. Hypothesis: A specific prediction of what should
be observed if a theory is correct
3. Testing the hypothesis: Three main types of
research methods to test your research
question: descriptive, correlational, and
experimental
52
53. Psychologists Use the Scientific
Method (3)
4. Analyze the data to see whether your hypothesis
is supported: Summarize the raw data using
descriptive statistics, then use inferential
statistics to determine whether differences really
exist
5. Report results and embark on further inquiry
53
56. Descriptive Methods Describe
What Is Happening (1)
• Descriptive method
– A research method that provides a systematic and
objective description of what is occurring
56
57. Descriptive Methods Describe
What Is Happening (2)
• Observational study
– A specific type of descriptive method involving
systematically assessing and coding observable
behavior
• Observational studies can be used either in the
laboratory or in natural environments
57
59. Descriptive Methods Describe
What Is Happening (4)
• Self-report
– A descriptive method that consists of obtaining
self-reports from research participants
• Questionnaires or surveys can be used to gather data
from a large number of people in a short time
• Self-report bias must be considered
59
60. Descriptive Methods Describe
What Is Happening (5)
• Case studies
– Case studies involve intensive examination of a
few unique people or organizations
• Case studies of people with psychological disorders are
used frequently in psychology
60
62. Correlational Methods Test
Associations (1)
• Correlational methods
– Research methods that examine how variables are
naturally related in the real world. The researcher
makes no attempt to alter the variables or assign
causation between them
• Measure two factors and then determine the degree of
association between the two variables
62
66. Experimental Methods Test
Causation (1)
• Experimental methods
– Research methods that test causal hypotheses by
manipulating independent variables and
measuring the effects on dependent variables
66
68. Experimental Methods Test
Causation (3)
• Variables and operational definitions
– Independent variable: The variable that the
experimenter manipulates to examine its impact
on the dependent variable
– Dependent variable: The variable that is affected
by the manipulation of the independent variable
– Operational definition: Detailed description of the
variables
68
69. Experimental Methods Test
Causation (4)
• Groups
– Control group: In an experiment, a comparison
group of participants who receive no intervention
or receive an intervention that is unrelated to the
independent variable being investigated
– Experimental group: In an experiment, one or
more treatment groups of participants who
receive the intervention of the independent
variable being investigated
69
70. Experimental Methods Test
Causation (5)
• Control is necessary to determine causality
– A properly performed experiment depends on
rigorous control
– Confound: Anything that affects a dependent
variable and that may unintentionally vary
between the study’s different experimental
conditions
70
71. Experimental Methods Test
Causation (6)
• Random assignment removes confounds
– Random assignment: Placing research
participants in the conditions of an experiment
such that each participant has an equal chance of
being assigned to any level of the independent
variable
71
72. Experimental Methods Test
Causation (7)
• Sampling
– Random sample: A sample that fairly represents
the population by allowing each member of the
population an equal chance of being included
72
