Chapter 1 Introduction Research Methods What is psychology Psychology studies Behavior outward actions reactions what is able to be seen and measured Mental processes internal activity thinking feeling remembering Physiological sensations arousal sensations Psychology s Four Goals Description What is happening Explanation Why is it happening Prediction When will it happen again Control How can it be changed Beginnings of Psychology Wilhelm Wundt Founder of psychology Opened first psychology lab Germany 1879 Developed objective introspection Openly examining measuring one s thoughts mental activities Edward Titchner Student of Wundt brought Structuralism to America Structuralism focused on structure or basic elements of the mind relied on the process of introspection Structuralism died out in early 1900s Margaret Washburn student of Titchner first woman to receive Ph D in psychology Structuralism Functionalism how the mind allows people to adapt live work and play first proposed by William James Influenced the modern fields of educational psychology evolutionary psychology and industrial organizational psychology Gestalt Psychology Gestalt whole The whole is greater than the sum of its parts good figure psychology Began with Werheimer who studies sensation perception Principles have influenced cognitive psychology future psychotherapy techniques Psychoanalysis Theory therapy based on the work of Sigmund Freud Freud s patients suffered from nervous disorders with no found physical cause Freud proposed the unconscious mind that pushes or represses all of our threatening urges desires He believed these repressed urges can create nervous disorders He also stressed the importance of early childhood experiences Depression Two types Chemical Caused by imbalance of chemicals in the brain example lack of serotonin Situational Caused by traumatic events and situations example death in the family Behaviorism The science of behavior that focuses on observable behavior only must be directly seen measured our personalities are the result of training First proposed by John B Watson Based on work of Ivan Pavlov who demonstrated that a reflex could be conditioned or learned Watson believed that phobias are a result of learned behavior Little Albert taught to fear a white rat Stimulus generalization also learned to fear the color white Classical conditioning over time we learn by seeing patterns Neutral stimulus vs Unconditioned stimulus neutral is meaningless unconditioned is instinct When a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus it becomes a conditioned stimulus Conditioning has occurred when the neutral stimulus elicits the same response as the unconditioned stimulus Humanistic Psychology Humanistic perspective focuses on free will the human potential for growth Developed by Carl Rogers Abraham Maslow Emphasized by human potential Ability of each person to become the best person he or she could possibly be Self actualization achieving one s full potential Reinforcement Positive adding Money for good grades Punishment Spanking Negative removing Curfew extension because of good behavior Can t use the Playstation Positive does not mean good things it means adding something Negative does not mean bad things it means taking something away Punishment decreases the likelihood that a behavior will occur again Reinforcement increases the likelihood that behavior will occur again Maslow proposed the idea of the hierarchy of needs Contemporary Psychology Biological perspective Attributes human animal behavior to biological events Genetic influences hormones activity of the nervous system Behavioral perspective Operant conditioning a type of learning in which an individual s behavior is modified by its consequences the behaviour may change in form frequency or strength Operant conditioning of voluntary behavior A major force in the 20th century Skinner introduced the concept of reinforcement to behavior Genes account for up to 50 of the variation in personality Psychodynamic perspective Modern version of psychoanalysis Humanistic perspective strive for growth potential emphasis on self concept Focused on the development on a sense of self other motivations Positive psychology positive emotions psychological states environments that foster these qualities the idea that thinking positively improves health Cognitive perspective focuses on memory intelligence perception problem solving and learning now a major force in psychology Cross cultural perspective focuses on relationship b w social behavior the culture how cultural factors can influence behavior social loafing individualistic vs social striving collectivistic Evolutionary perspective focuses on biological bases of universal mental characteristics that all humans share examines how the mind works why it works as it does behavior is seen as having an adaptive or survival value Types of psychological professions Job Description Rx Time Money Training Psychiatrist 15 minutes 150 25 Psychologist Therapy 50 minutes 150 25 Psychology the scientific method Scientific method system of gathering data so that bias error in measurement are reduced 1 Perceive the question 2 Forming a hypothesis 3 Testing the hypothesis 4 Drawing conclusions 5 Reporting the results Naturalistic observation watching animals or humans in their normal environment Major advantage realistic picture of behavior Disadvantages observer effect observer bias Case study study of one individual in great detail Advantage tremendous amount of detail Disadvantage cannot apply to others Surveys asks a series of questions about the topic under study given to a representative sample Advantages data from large numbers of people study covert behaviors Disadvantages must ensure a report responses are not always accurate Population the entire group being studied Sample part of the population being surveyed if it is not large and demographically accurate enough leads to inaccurate results Representative sample a sample proportionate to each demographic of the population Generalizability a statistical framework for conceptualizing investigating and designing reliable observations Presentation bias when we want to be seen a certain way leads to inaccurate results Variable something that has different levels or groups Nominal variable none are more or better than the other groups example ethnicity Continuous variable number represents order or strength example how much does Joel like ice