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Topic: Introduction to Psychology. Aim: How does the field of psychology attempt to explain human behavior? Do Now: What exactly is psychology? What does psychology study? *Get Syllabus signed.
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Topic: Introduction to Psychology Aim: How does the field of psychology attempt to explain human behavior? Do Now:What exactly is psychology? What does psychology study? *Get Syllabus signed
*The next few slides are a modification (shortened) version of the main points on the course syllabus, located on the class website. Contact Information: Email:nelsonsaphumangeography@gmail.com Social Studies department phone (516-488-9631) Course Website: www.nelsonspsychology.weebly.com *All materials, videos, class PowerPoints, handouts, and assignments (including this syllabus) are on the website. Should you need to view materials over again, or need extra copies (if you lose or are absent), please download off of the website – do not ask me for more copies!
Talking Points About This Class: • You chose this class – take it seriously – if you’re here to hang out please drop class – you don’t have to be in here. • Maturity of topics in Psychology • Purpose of films and video clips – not a waste of time. • Active participation and engagement in class – this is not a lecture course! • One of the most common college electives/majors – want people to get good idea of what Psychology is before college/applied psych
Grading • Your semester grade is a 50/50 combination of class participation (speaking in class during discussions) and the assignments in your Assignment packet. The COURSE grade overall is combination is comprised of the following 3 grades: • WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS:(50%) Projects, media assignments (films/documentaries), article write-ups, research projects, and/or social experiments will be given regularly. *ALL PROJECTS MUST BE EMAILED. LATE WORK DOESN’T EXIST! • Class Participation: (50%) As previously stated, class participation will weigh heavily on your grade. Participation does not necessarily mean that you have your hand up every 5 minutes in class, but rather that you take an active role in class during discussions, questions asked by myself, and in any group work. • FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT & PRESENTATION: (20% of your overall course grade AND 20% of your 2nd marking period average) this course has a mandatory in-class presentation as a final exam.
Grading Equation: **Grades for this course are calculated on a point system, meaning you will accumulate a certain amount of points throughout the course. Your accumulated points, divided by the total amount of points offered, equals your grade. For example: • Teacher gave: 500 total points (tests, quizzes, projects, etc) • Student received: 400 of those points • 400/500 • Student Grade= 80%
Participation Grading Rubric (how I evaluate this grade): • Participation is graded as a 1 time test grade (per marking period), evaluated out of 100 points. This is equivalent to 2 full project grades – appropriate when we have over 80 classes in which there are daily opportunities to participate. So you can better understand where the grade I gave you came from, please see the following rubric (this is on the website as well, top of page). • *In all cases the range (e.g., 60-70%) is subject to my personal evaluation of BOTH the quality and the frequency of your comments, taken in tandem. To receive the highest grades, both variables should be high. • 90-100% Daily, High Quality Contributions: participation that is thoughtful, insightful, reflects a strong understanding of sociological concepts, is relevant to what we’re discussing, makes a clear contribution to class, and occurs daily (if not several times per class). • 80-90% Consistent (but not daily) High Contributions: This accounts for participation that occurs several times a week, shows a good understanding of course content and sociological concepts, and makes a good (not great) overall contribution to the class. • 70-80% Occasional, Non-Consistent Contributions: these are comments that are occasional in nature, of varying quality, and make some connection to course content, • 60-70% Rare Contributions: these are for the students who speak very sporadically, making little tangible contribution to class discussions. This could be localized to only participating on a single topic that interests you, rather than all (or most) topics. • 50% Non-Class Contributor: you have either only participated a handful of times, or never participated whatsoever in class.
Procedure for any missed emails (*to avoid the “What do you mean I got a zero! I emailed it to you, I swear!” moments…) I say that you are missing work, and you say that you emailed me, on time, this is what you do…) You must take screen shots of BOTH of the following (see example below): The “SENT” email from your “SENT” folder, which shows your address, my address, time stamp, and that there was an attached file. No one erases sent emails, so if you sent it, it will still be there. Below is an image of this handout emailed to myself The opened Assignment itself with you: name & date clearly visible, to the following email (check you spelling, please):
What is Psychology? The scientific study of behavior (actions) and mental processes (internal thoughts and brain patterns). Uses the scientific method Includes the study of both humans and animals
Psychology can help you learn about yourself: • Why am I shy or outgoing? • Why do I like or dislike certain types of foods? • Why am I attracted to certain types of people and not others? • Why do I always worry? Or, why am I so calm all the time? • Why are my moods so different from day to day? • Why do I choose the types of friends that I do • Why am I afraid of certain things that other people are not?
Psychology can help guide your future jobs/careers (not just in Psychology) Criminal Justice: What motivates people to commit crimes? Why would someone confess to a horrible crime that they didn’t commit (Central Park 5, West Memphis 3, etc). Why, after hearing a false confession, is it nearly impossible for people to change their opinion of perpetrators guilt, even in the face of physical evidence? Politics Why does image matter so much to voters? What motivates people to vote or not vote? Journalism To what extent do people believe everything they read? How much of an influence does media have over perception, thought, and behavior? Why does choice of media say about personality and intelligence? (e.g. – reading news on Facebook vs. the Wall Street Journal)
Psychology is everywhere in our lives… • Why do you think stores put so many candies and sweet snacks on the center shelves of most isles?
Psychology helps us understand our own cognition (though processes)…for example
Survivorship Bias: • Success is made more visible to us than failure, therefore we OVERESTIMATE our chances of success is certain areas. The millions of people who fail don’t write books, they don’t appear on T.V., and they don’t travel the country giving lectures on how they didn’t accomplish their goals! How do you think this works with celebrity success stories? Think of Mark Zuckerberg and FB, or a successful hip-hop artist, or a famous athlete?
Social Proof (aka ‘herd instinct’): • People feel something is the correct thing to do/say when they are doing the same as others. Why? Evolutionary psychologists believe it was a survival strategy from Neolithic days. How do you think advertising and businesses take advantage of this?
The Clustering Illusion: • The human brain craves patterns to make sense of the world – we are oversensitive to patterns that don’t exist. We see shapes in the clouds, patterns in your scantron test answers, patterns in lottery winnings/slot machines!
Sunk Cost Fallacy: • When we hold onto bad things because we feel like we’ve invested so much into them. • How do you think this works with relationships? • Businesses? • Even something like reading a book or watching a movie?
Reciprocity (first give, then take): • Psychologist Robert Cialdini studied the tendency for people to be very uncomfortable being in other’s debt. • Giving presents? • Charitable organizations who want you to donate to them? • Inviting people to events you have?
Confirmation Bias: • We have beliefs about the world we live in, and we tend to only listen to information that confirms those beliefs, and disregard information the contradicts them. • How we feel about people? • How you feel about SHS? • Religious or philosophical beliefs?
What is the difference between the fields of “Psychology” and “Psychiatry”?
Psychology vs. Psychiatry: • Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that utilizes the use of medication. Psychiatrists are MD’s (medical doctors) - psychologists are not - they have college degrees in Psychology • Psychopharmacology: the scientific study of the actions of drugs and their effects on mood, sensation, thinking, and behavior.
The Placebo Effect: • When people show a reaction to a drug or treatment that isn’t real because they believe that it is real and will help them. • Used in psychological lab experiments
So how exactly do psychologists study all those things? • How do you think psychologists go about finding answers to questions about human behavior, the human brain, human emotions, and other aspects of human activity?
Psychology starts with questions…(how would you attempt to answer these questions scientifically?) • Does involvement in HS athletics improve academic performance? • Does excessive texting impede face-to-face relationships? • Does personality influence musical preferences? • Do ads portraying unrealistic body types reduce the self-image of the viewer? • Does student consumption of caffeine in the morning improve first period grades? Do teacher websites improve student performance in class? • Does focus on minor rules (flip-flops and hats) reduce student adherence to major rules (insubordination or class cutting)?
6 Psychological Methodologies: • Observation • Research • Therapy • Analysis of case studies (Freud’s “Rat Man”, for example) • Analysis of brain biochemistry • Experimentation
Naturalistic Observation Observation in natural setting Negative of this is observer bias(What do you think this means?) Observing and recording behavior of animals in the wild, to recording self-seating patterns in lunch rooms in a multiracial school constitutes naturalistic observation. Has anyone bothered to observe interesting behaviors in the hallways between classes or the cafeteria?
Surveys: A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes, opinions or behaviors of people usually by questioning a representative, random sample of people. EXAMPLE: Would you rate how much you care about your education as: A.) very much B.) Somewhat C.) Not a lot D.) I don’t care at all
Personality Survey Testing: Sample Self-Esteem Personality Questions: • “On the whole, I’m satisfied with myself” T/F • “I feel useless at times” T/F • “I feel that I have a number of good qualities” T/F Sample Jealousy Test (Imagine you are in a relationship with person X) • “I suspect that X may be attracted to someone else” T/F (How would you react to the following emotionally?) • “X hugs and kisses a member of the opposite sex” • “X comments to you how attractive a member of the opposite sex is”
If you were to create a story as to what happened in this picture, what you say?
Developed by Henry Murray, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.
9 dots: connect the 9 dots using 4 straight lines, never lifting your pen, and never retracing any lines “A century of research has established that in the laboratory, at most 5 percent of participants manage to crack it, and very likely fewer manage to do so.” -Scientific American Mind, December 2012 “Think Like a Genius” issue
Solving this requires letting go of the idea that the dots form the border of an imaginary grid (which they don’t!). We tend to see the dots as forming a square with rigid boundaries.
The Stroop Effect: Volunteer??? • Read the colors, not the words!
Free Association Activity: • For each word below, write down in your notebook what you immediately think of when you see the word. Don’t think too much! • Parents • School • Love
Problems with Psychological Research: Think of all the psychological research methods we discussed (observation, lab experiments, etc.) - what are some problems with this type of research?
Correlation Research: What is the difference between a correlation and causality? • Correlation: There is a relationship between 2 variables – doesn’t mean one causes the other • Causality: One variable causes the other to happen Correlated variables: homosexuality and older brothers, cavities and test scores, price of stocks and women’s skirt lengths…drowning deaths and ice cream consumption.
Examples of Correlations • Cities with a lot of murders also tend to have a lot of police officers • Some of the most talented doctors have the highest mortality (death) rate of their patients
Correlation Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships could cause (1) Low self-esteem Depression or (2) Depression could cause Low self-esteem or Low self-esteem (3) Distressing events or biological predisposition could cause and Depression
Correlation is not Causation:It only predicts!!!! Children with big feet reason better than children with small feet. (Children who are older have bigger feet than younger children; thus they can reason better) Study done in Korea: The most predictive factor in the use of birth control use was the number of appliances in the home. (Those who have electrical appliances probably have higher socioeconomic level, and thus are probably better educated.)
Correlation is not Causation:It only predicts!!!! People who often ate Frosted Flakes as children had half the cancer rate of those who never ate the cereal. Conversely, those who often ate oatmeal as children were four times more likely to develop cancer than those who did not. Cancer tends to be a disease of later life. Those who ate Frosted Flakes are younger. In fact, the cereal was not around until the 1950s (when older respondents were children, and so they are much more likely to have eaten oatmeal.)
