Introducing Psychology

Introducing Psychology Chapter 1

OBJECTIVES • Describe the range of topics that are covered in an introductory course in psychology • Cite questions psychologists ask and describe how research is performed • Explain Important trends within psychology • Summarize the careers and specialized fields in psychology

Terms • Applied Science • Basic Science • Cognitive • Hypothesis • Introspection • Physiological • Psychiatry • Psychology

RUTH & GARY • Ruth and Gary… skit

RUTH & GARY • The story is simple but is it? • From a psychologist point of view, the behavior is complex • Ruth decided to eat lunch because of her physiological (physical) state, which was what? • She was hungry

RUTH & GARY • Ruth was also motivated by her cognitive (mental) elements? • Why did Ruth know she had to eat now? • She had classes scheduled for the next several hours

RUTH & GARY • When Ruth entered the cafeteria, she perceived sensory stimuli different from those outside, but paid little attention to them. • New sights • New sounds • New smells (except that the food smelled good)

RUTH & GARY • Ruth went through the line and paid for her food, what was her learned behavior? • She had to go through line and pay for her food like how a rat runs a maze for food reward • Do you see the same in you at lunch? • Do you have a routine? • Do you take the same path? • Sit at same table?

RUTH & GARY • Ruth looked for a social group to join, but found none to which she belonged? • What would you do in this situation? • Ruth sat alone until Gary joined her. • Why do you think Gary felt free to join Ruth at her table? • In most schools and colleges there is an informal rule, or norm, that students who have a class together may approach each other socially. • Do you agree with this informal rule or norm? • Does the same apply to people who ride the same public bus and why?

RUTH & GARY • Ruth remembered how Gary behaved in the past and his note borrowing routine, what did this trigger in Ruth? • Emotional reaction of Anger • Why didn’t Ruth dumped her food on Gary’s head as a 2-year old might have done? • Ruth acted in a way more appropriate to her stage of development • What does development mean to you? • Ruth’s response was a characteristic of her what? • Personality • She told Gary she didn’t have the notes (even though he had seen them) and left

RUTH & GARY • When these situations occur, and followed by depression, either student’s behavior could indicate psychological disturbance. • If Gary relied on others for help and manipulated people to get his way, his behavior might be a sign of… • A personality disorder • Ruth might as well since she interprets simple request as demands but finds herself unable either to meet or refuse the request in a direct way. • Does either student’s behavior seem abnormal?

ANY SITUATION • What we learned from Ruth and Gary is that situations or occurrences raise many questions about why people behave and feel as they do. • How is behavior influenced by their physiological states? • What motivates them to choose one action instead of another? • What we talk about, analyze, interrupt, and evaluate are reflected by how psychologists analyze and view behavior.

WHY STUDY PSYCHOLOGY • New ways of looking at and interpreting your behavior • Daily events you might ordinarily take for granted may now become fuel for thought • Learning about psychology can help you gain a better understanding of your own behavior, knowledge about how psychologists study human and animal behavior, and practical applications for enriching your life • Insight • Practical Information

WHY STUDY PSYCHOLOGYinsight • Psychology can provide useful insight into behavior • Ex: Suppose a student is convinced that he is hopelessly shy and doomed forever to feel comfortable in groups. • He learns through social psychology that different groups tend to have different effects on their members. • He is not comfortable at parties but comfortable at meetings at school • What can you analyze why he is uncomfortable at parties and not meetings? • The student is not paralyzingly shy, he just does not like unstructured groups • Thinking about your feelings can help you gain confidence in yourself. • After this class, you may see yourself in a new way

WHY STUDY PSYCHOLOGYPractical Information • Diversity of human and animal behavior • How to train a puppy • How to shape the behavior of those around you • Mnemonic devices (memory aids) • “30 day has September” • “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” • ROY G BIV

Overview of psychology • Psychology: Is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Can involve both animal and human behaviors. • Humans: Psychology covers everything that people think, feel, and do • Some psychologists believe that you should study only behavior that you can see, observe, or measure directly (Ruth’s behavior) • Some psychologists believe that our fantasies, thoughts, and feelingsare also important, even though these behaviors are not directly observable. (Ruth’s thoughts) • While psychologist differ on which kinds of behavior are important, they do agree that the study of behavior must be systematic • Systematic? • The use of systematic method of asking and answering questions about why people think, act, and feel as they do reduces the chances of coming to false conclusions.

Blind men and the elephant • A long time ago, three very wise, but blind men were out on a journey when they came across a sleeping elephant. Because they could not see the elephant, they did not know what was blocking their way so they set about to discover what they could about the obstacle. As it happened, each man put his hands on a different section of the elephant, examining it in great detail and with much thought. The first man, having felt the elephant’s trunk, described a creature that was long, wormlike, and quite flexible. “No, no! You must be mistaken.” said the second man who was seated astride the elephant, “This creature is wide, very round, and does not move very much.” The man who was holding one of the elephant’s tusks added his description of a small, hard, pointed creature. • Was each man correct? • How can you compare this story to human behavior? • Many different approached are necessary to understand the complex richness of human behavior

Intuitions about behavior • HANDOUT • Test your intuitions about behavior by answering true or false to the statements.

Scientific basis of psychology • Psychologists rely on the scientific method • Scientific method: Psychologists reach their conclusions by identifying a specific problem or question, formulating a hypothesis, collecting data through observation and experiment, and analyzing the data. • By asking specific, well-defined questions, psychologists can gain insight into the behavior they are studying. • Hypothesis: An “educated guess”- the researcher has some evidence for suspecting a specific answer. • In a hypothesis, researchers state what they expect to find, expressed in such a way that it can be proved or disproved

4 Goals psychology • Psychologists seek to do 4 things • 1.Description: First task for any scientist or psychologist is to gather information about the behavior being studied and to present what is known. • (Ruth’s behavior in the cafeteria)

4 Goals psychology • 2. Explanation: Psychologists do not want to simply state the facts • Seek to explain why people (animals) behave as they do • Propose hypotheses • Research studies designed to test hypothesis. When completed more complex explanations are constructed • Theories: A complex explanation, based on findings from a large number of experimental studies assembled to explain the results. • **Theories can change with new data, as it improves our understanding. • Understanding of mental illnesses (genetic?) • Theories allow us to describe and to explain observed behavior

4 Goals psychology • 3.Prediction:As a result of accumulated knowledge, what organisms will do, and in the case of humans, what they will think or feel in various situations. • By studying past behaviors, psychologists can predict subsequent behaviors

4 Goals psychology • 4. Control: Psychologists seek to influence or control behavior • Basic science: The pursuit of knowledge about natural phenomena for its own sake • When psychologists are conducting studies with a long-term goal to find out more about human or animal behavior (research) • Applied science: Discovering ways to use scientific findings to accomplish practical goals • When other psychologists are more interested in discovering ways to use what we already know about people to benefit others and solve more immediate problems.

Basic & Applied science examples • Basic science: • Studying the infants ability to perceive visual patterns • Not concerned with design of crib • Studying rapid eye movement in sleep and discover a disturbance. • Will try to understand and explain the situation, but will not try to correct it • Applied science: • Will try to correct disturbance in REM during sleep • Clinical psychologists • Consultant to a toy manufacturer (applying psychological principles)

What is psychology? • A group of students are gathering around the commons area between 2nd and 3rd period. The late bell rings and does little to disperse the students. The crowds of students is getting larger making it nearly impossible to get to the two students that are fighting. Mr. Hatcher intervenes and stops the skirmish as quickly as it started. Both students are given a 10 day out of school suspension. When the students return to my class late, they are buzzing about the fight. My psychology students pose questions about the incident? What questions can be posed about the incident?

Questions about the incident • Are some of us born more aggressive than others? • How are levels of aggression affected by what we learn from our parents, peers, and culture group? • What are the biological influences on aggression? • What motivates some people to settle their differences physically while others talk them out? • Are young adults more likely than middle-aged adults to take part in physical confrontations? • How could this situation been avoided or defused? • Why we students so much more likely to watch this conflict (and to be late to class) than to break it up?

Assignment • In a minimum one page typed essay or two page written essay answer one of the posed questions from students from your own opinion about the incident and aggression. • You may have to look at yourself or others differently! • Double spaced typed or written • 12 font

Psychologist doing basic research • Read page 10 and discuss • Broadness of studies

Brief history of psychology • Greek philosophers in 5th & 6th centuries • People’s lives were not dominated by gods but by their own minds • People were rational • Nicolaus Copernicus: • Mid 1500s The Earth was not the center of the universe, it revolved around the sun • Introduced observation as key element • Galileo Galilei • Used a telescope to confirm predictions about star positions and movements based on Copernicus work • Modern concept of experimentation through observation

Brief history of psychology • Dualism: The concept that the mind and body are separate and distinct • Rene Descartes: • Disagreed, claiming link existed between mind and body • Reasoned that mind controlled the body’s movements, sensations, and perceptions • Mind and body influence each other to create a person’s experiences. • Still being studied to

Causes of behavior: a case study • Handout • Complete individually • Review as a class • Answer the 3 questions

Psychology as a discipline • Structuralism: • Wilhelm Wundt: (Founder of psychology) • Originally trained as a physiology (how the body works) • Real interest human mind • 1st psychology lab • Turned psychology into a science • Developed method of self-observation, to collect information about the mind • Introspection: A method of self-observation in which subjects report on their thoughts and feelings. • Experiments important historically, his work attracted many students who carried on the tradition of psychological research

Psychology as a discipline • Functionalism: • William James (Close rival as the founder of psychology) • Speculated that thinking, feeling, learning, remembering-all activities of the mind-serve one major function, to help us survive as a species • Rather than focusing on the structure of the mind as Wundt did, James focused on the functions of the conscious mind and the goals or functions of behavior

Psychology as the Study of Unconscious processes • Sigmund Freud • Interested in unconscious mind • Importance of unconscious & early childhood experiences • Beneath the surface are primitive biological urges that conflict with society and morality • Unconscious motivations and conflicts are are responsible for most human behavior • ID, Ego, Superego

Id, Ego, & superego

Freud’s Free Association • Free association: • Patient said everything that came to mind, no matter how absurd or irrelevant, without attempting to produce logical or meaningful statements • Freud’s role, psychoanalyst, to be objective • Sat & listened, then interrupted • Freud believed free association, revealed the operation of unconscious processes • Dreams are expressions of the most primitive unconscious urges • To learn about urges • Dream analysis: Extension of free association, which the patient applied the same techniques to dreams • Freud’s theories challenged by some today

Psychology as the Study of Individual Differences • Sir Francis Galton (Mathematician & scientist 19th century) • Wanted to understand how heredity influences a person’s abilities, character, and behavior • Traced the ancestry of various eminent people and found that greatness runs in families • Concluded that genius is a hereditary trait • Did not consider genius to be a result of exceptional environments or sociological advantages • Galton’s writings raised the issue of whether behavior is determined by heredity or environment (still a focus of controversy)

Psychology as the study of observable behavior • Behaviorism: • Ivan Pavlov • Rang a tuning fork each time he gave a dog some meat powder • The dog would naturally salivate when the powder reached its mouth • Eventually, the dog would salivate even if no food appeared • Conditioned to associate the sound with food • Response: Salivation • Stimulus: Tuning fork • New tool for psychologists, enabled them to explain how certain acts and certain differences among individuals were the result of learning

Psychology as the study of observable behavior • Behaviorism continued • B.F. Skinner • Conditioning, rewarding (& punishments) those who display behavior that is considered desirable • Ex: Potty trained children, lose weight, quit smoking, overcome phobias • Criticized by many for what they say are manipulative conditioning techniques

Psychology as the study of observable behavior • Humanism: • Developed as a reaction to the behavioral movement • Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, & Rollo May • Described human nature as active and creative rather than passively reacting to external stimuli • Humanists feel that the human mind is able to influence and change the world in which it functions

Psychology as the study of cognitive processes • Ever stall asking for something because of past reaction? • Ever stall asking for something because of what recently happened? Breakup, loss job, or studying? • Your knowledge of their condition or your memory of the results of asking for a favor last time has altered your behavior.

Ways to view behavior • Handout Part A • Group work • Read over description of approaches as a group • Answer questions from flip side of paper

Psychoanalytic • Billy’s problems stem from his early childhood experiences, especially having his mother desert him. Because his father feels inadequate. Billy cannot fulfill his identification with him. During his various developmental stages, inherent conflicts were not resolved.

behaviorist • Billy was rewarded by his father with toys and trips, never quite knowing why he received these rewards. He sought attention throughout his school years with the same expectations. He learned that inappropriate behavior got him rewards.

humanist • Billy’s main problem was that his basic needs were not fulfilled. As he grew, his sense of self-worth was not realized by relationships or success in school. Others did not recognize his worth except in athletics.

Cognitive • Billy had many false perceptions. He thought that he was not the favored child. He may have developed some faulty notions about his role in his parents’ divorce. Later, as an adolescent he believed that he could not succeed.

biological • Billy needed to have his father take his medical condition seriously. If the ADHD diagnosis was correct, treatments and medication could have alleviated the problem. Had this happened, the troubles that started in school may have resulted in success rather than frustration.

Ways to view behavior • Classroom questions • Which approach seems to have the best explanation of Billy’s situation? • What factors make this approach most plausible? • Rank-order the remaining approaches. Give a rationale for your choices.

Diversity in psychology • Mary Calkins • initially denied Ph.D. • first female president of APA • Margaret Washburn • first woman to receive a Ph.D. in psychology • Anna Freud • child psychoanalysis • Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark • “Doll studies”: work was cited in SC decision Brown v. Bd of Educations ending racial discrimination in schools

Introducing Psychology