General Theoretical Perspectives What is Psychology Scientific study of thought and behavior cognition affect and behavior Affect feelings Behavior action Cognition what goes on in your head Goals Describe observe behavior and describe in minimal detail what was observed Explain beyond overall data answer why Predict what will happen in the future based off of past Control once we know what happens and why and for the future we can exert control over it Improve in addition to control it attempts more of a positive manner to improve a persons life Sociobiological Theory evolutionary approach The drive to survive and ensure the survival of our offspring not as much the individual fittest survive and reproduce Founded on patterns that on average maximized reproductive potential Evolutionary psychology and both the physical structure and behavior of an organism Genetic chaos Thought and behavior can be inherited Life is hard resources are limited Much of what exists is adaptive Sex and War Male displays and bravado evolved as a reproductive strategy to impress females if they allow it Machismo I have good genes let me mate females have more power because they bear the physicality Sex as many genes into next generation at low cost Sociobiology explains why men are older than their mates b c higher resources for women Males take greater risk death in combat over female exclusion of breeding by stronger male but gain more due to spread of genes Men fight for the women but women are more selective because of pregnancy and the physical aspects they endure for it Sociocultural Theory Our affect behavior and cognition are products of our culture Influenced wanting to meet expectations of others Vygotsky main advocate of this approach Our thought and behavior is shaped by the culture in which we grow up Group norms guide thought and behavior True v False Right v Wrong Attractive v Repulsive Masculine v Feminine Social Cognitive Theory Affect behavior and cognition all affect each other Behavior in terms of beliefs attitudes affect and motivation Behavior is based off of information we have and process Thoughts and behavior guided by Beliefs facts Attitudes evaluations Expectations Goals Memory Learning Theory behaviorism Change in behavior based on experience behavior is the key and outcome Some species can learn by observation Organism are designed to seek pleasure and avoid pain Pleasure biological psychological need Pain anything detrimental to your well being Based on positive and negative consequences Watson behavior is learned through experience Skinner Bandura aggression is learned through observation and behavior is based on processing information and observing it What Makes Psychology a True Science Types of Data Collection Methods Naturalistic Observation researcher unobtrusively collects information without the participant s awareness Advantage researcher does not influence the behavior so it is more representative Disadvantage not everything can be observed in its natural environment Behavior is interpreted by researcher which can cause discrepancies Individuals do not have the ability to decide if they want to participate Structured Observation researchers can set up a situation and observe the participants behavior Advantage researcher has more control over the situation and can control the variables as well as collect information from participants Disadvantage The researcher may still need to interpret behavior Participant is aware of the researcher and may be influenced by the situation and expectations Self Report participants are asked to provide information or responses to questions on a survey or structure assessment Advantage Surveys are inexpensive and efficient as well as easy to create and score based off of a variety of participants all over the world Disadvantage Differences between what people thing and do and what they believe or want the researcher to believe Misinterpretation of questions and unwillingness to answer Controlled Experiment researchers create a controlled environment in which they can carefully manipulate one variable to test its effect on another Advantage The researcher can be relatively sure that any difference observed was caused by whats being studied Disadvantage Not everything can be manipulated in an experiment Longitudinal researchers periodically collect data from the same participants over a long period of time Advantage Researchers can track changes over time Disadvantage Studies take a long time and participants may drop out attrition Samples may change because participants may drop out for a reason Cross Sectional researchers can gather participants from different ages and look for differences between the groups Advantage Researchers can study the effect of time or experience in less time than a longitudinal study Attrition is not an issue Disadvantage Cohort effects different experiences for different time periods Case Study Research can conduct a detailed analysis of a person group or business Advantage Can study unusual rare or difficult to find participants Disadvantage Results are limited to describing that particular case Cannot generalize results Archival researcher examine data that has already been collected for other purposes Advantage Can conduct analysis of large data sets without having to spend that much time doing it Disadvantage Data may be missing incomplete filled with errors or difficult to access Correlation vs Causation http stats org faq vs htm Types of Correlations Positive Correlation as A increases so does B Spurious correlations what happens when one thing does not cause the other Negative Correlation As A increases B decreases No Correlation one has nothing to do with the other Curvilinear relationships Groups and Variables in Experimental Research Independent variable what is being manipulated by the experimenter Dependent variable what is being measured Random Assignment Break people into groups randomly to give each participant the same chance of being assigned to the different groups that way when comparing the outcomes of the two equivalent groups we can measure things properly Cannot be done in Correlational studies Preventing Research Bias and Errors Selection Bias a researcher might create groups within the study that are different in some important way Solution Random Assignment to prevent any biases and make the groups start on the same page of equality Placebo Effect the mind is so powerful that
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