Psychology Exam 1 Psychology the scientific study of mental processes and behaviors Studied as a science uses tests research labs etc Hindsight bias once you know something it seems obvious even though it wasn t originally Types of psychologists include developmental social clinical cognitive industrial organizational educational health sports and neuroscience Scientific psych vs Folk psych Folk psych does not have to be consistent and can have contrasting beliefs Scientific psych will test and figure out when each belief is true in what circumstances Science needs to be falsifiable Philosophers and Types of Psychology Greek philosophers they studied thought but they were not psychologists Plato nativism some knowledge is inborn Often seen in animals Aristotle empiricism everything comes from experiences born with blank slate Nature vs Nurture they work together to cause behavior Francis Gall looked at the relationship between the mind and the brain Phrenology the study that said the shape of your skull influenced cognition and mental processes That study was inaccurate because the brain is specialized and localized Wilhelm Wundt first to open a research lab Voluntarism voluntary behavior was result of conscious will or behavior Intention affects your attention system Introspection looking inward at one s thoughts and being able to explain what one is experiencing Edward Titchner he trained with Wundt Opened the first psychology lab in the United States Structuralism looking at the structure of thought by breaking it down to its most basic elements This relied on introspection It ran into problems because everyone got different results which meant it was not verifiable William James influenced by Darwin and how cognition evolved over time and how we came to have emotions He wrote Principles of Psychology Functionalism what are the functions of behavior Gestalt Psychology by looking at specific parts we miss the whole Law of Similarity grouping things that are similar Law of Figure Ground depending on what the figure is one can only see one thing at a time Law of Closure we perceive things and fill in the blanks Used a lot in logos Sigmund Freud a lot of his theories were not falsifiable Psychoanalysis looks at the unconscious Developed way to look at that ink blots dreams interpretations He believed everyone had unconscious sexual and aggressive urges and used defense mechanisms to block them out Behaviorism behavior is falsifiable John Watson believed psychology was the study of behavior and that you couldn t talk about mental processes BF Skinner shaped environment to act a certain way Nurture and manipulation Humanism study of what makes us human We are all potentially good people but we can be lead astray Carl Rogers unlimited positive regard people will do bad things but we still love them He believed that would unlock potential Abraham Maslow pyramid of needs o Basic needs physiological needs safety needs o Psychological needs belongingness and love esteem needs o Self fulfillment needs self actualization Cognitive psychology analogy of how computers work how you are programmed Behaviorism says its all nurture but its all nature We can all learn language because we all have innate knowledge about how to learn knowledge Neuroscience study of the brain Became popular in the last 15 years because of new tools that allow people to look at what was happening in the brain The brain is localized so everything is processed in different parts of the brain Evolutionary psychology a modern view that takes the nature point of view Methods to Studying Psychology Scientific Method the theory or hypothesis needs to be falsifiable Studies that prove something wrong are more important that students that confirm the evidence Pseudoscience things that seem like science but aren t falsifiable Example phrenology Hypothetic deductive approach use experience formulate deduct test hypothesis verify and falsify Research allows one to gain a hypothesis and theory Types of studies Case study a study of 1 or 2 people who are relevant to the information being tested They are not always accurate because studying 1 or 2 people does not give the big picture Many different variables affect each case Benefits include getting a lot of information and having a controlled environment Survey a relatively large group Similar to a case study Problems include a response bias and cultural things that could affect the responses Some positives include that surveys are easy to complete and the surveyor could survey relatives or teachers as well Random samples are more helpful because it s too difficult to generalize Once complete the researcher publishes their results so other psychologists can test it o Operationalization must be specific when publishing reports so other people can test it in other places Set of operations to define the concept you re interested in Naturalistic observation observing people from a distance The main benefit is that since the person does not know they are being studied they wont have a response bias and people wont change the way they act Research study independent variable can be manipulated and the dependent variable changes based on the independent variable Results will have a correlation Positive correlation is all up 1 00 negative correlation is all down 1 00 no correlationship 0 Dogmatism the tendency for people to cling to their assumptions Empiricism belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation This requires a method Reductionism everything humans do is a function of a neuron Emergence holism everything is more than the sum of its parts Neuroscience Neuroscience is studying the brain so as to be able to understand behavior and mental processes Methods of studying the nervous system include Examining autopsy tissue Peter Huttenlocher did work on synaptic pruning Testing people with brain damage Martha Farah studied people which showed specialization for recognition of faces and objects Recording brain activity through the scalp EEG This was hard to localize Peter Marshall studied the infant brain through EEGs Neuroimaging easy to localize PET radioactive and fMRI and PTI magnetic are some examples Jason Chein did work studying the adolescent brain and risk taking Parts of the brain Neuron main part central unit o Nucleus holds genetic info control center o Dendrites receive information o Myelin fatty acid covering that coats axons insulates o Axon sends