Introduction to Psychology

1. Introduction to Psychology Dr. William G. Huitt Valdosta State University Last revised: May 2005

2. Why Study Psychology • Need a social science course • Learn more about yourself • Learn more about others • Learn more about how others influence you • Learn more about how you influence others • Investigate psychology as a major

3. Ways to Validate Truth or Reality • Personal experience • Intuition • Social and/or cultural consensus • Religious scripture and interpretation • Philosophy and logical reasoning • Science and the scientific method

4. Scientific Method • The orderly, systematic process researchers follow as they • identify a research issue, question or problem , • design a study to investigate the issue, • collect and analyze data, • draw conclusions, and • communicate their findings • The database that is developed using the scientific method

5. Purpose for Using Scientific Method Understanding Database • Facts & Concepts • Description • Principles • Prediction • Theories • Explanation • Laws • Influence or Control

6. Critieria for Using Scientific Method • Knowledge must be grounded in experience • Knowledge must be grounded in a paradigm or exemplar • Any hypothesis must be potentially falsifiable

7. Psychology Definition • The scientific study of behavior and mental processes (or mind and behavior) especially as it relates to individual human beings • Related areas of study • Philosophy • Other sciences • Biology • Sociology • Anthropology • History • Literature and the arts • Religion

8. Science or common sense? http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/longview/ctac/psychology/Commonsense2.htm

9. Psychology • Goals of Psychology • Description • First step in understanding most behaviors or mental processes • Describes the behavior or mental process of interest as accurately and completely as possible • Tells what occurred • Prediction • When researchers can specify the conditions under which a behavior or event is likely to occur

10. Psychology • Goals of Psychology (continued) • Explanation • Requires an understanding of the conditions under which a given behavior or mental process occurs • Enables researchers to state the causes of the behavior or mental process they are studying • Tells why a given event or behavior occurred • Influence or Control • When researchers know how to apply a principle or change a condition to prevent unwanted occurrences or to bring about desired outcomes

11. Psychology • Two types of research that help psychologists accomplish these goals • Basic research • Research conducted to advance knowledge rather than for its practical application • Example: studying the nature of memory • Applied research • Research conducted to solve practical problems • Example: exploring methods to improve memory

12. Psychology • Critical thinking • The process of objectively evaluating claims, propositions, or conclusions to determine whether they follow logically from the evidence presented • Critical thinking is the disciplined mental activity of evaluating arguments or propositions and making judgments that can guide the development of beliefs and taking action.   • The foundation of the scientific method

13. Psychology • Creative thinking • Producing new ideas or thoughts. Imaginative thinking that is aimed at producing outcomes that involve synthesis of ideas or lateral thinking; thinking that is more synthetical than analytical, sometimes referred to as divergent thinking.

14. Descriptive Research Methods • Descriptive research methods • Research methods that yield descriptions of behavior rather than causal explanations • Naturalistic observation • Laboratory observation • Case studies • Surveys • Interviews • Questionnaires

15. Research Methods Understanding Type of Study • Descriptive • Description • Correlational • Prediction • Theoretical • Explanation • Experimental • Influence or Control

16. Population vs Sample • Population • The entire group that is of interest to researchers and to which they wish to generalize their findings; the group from which a sample is selected • Sample • The portion of any population that is selected for study and from which generalizations are made about the larger population

17. Selecting A Sample • Representative sample • A sample of participants selected from the larger population in such a way that important subgroups within the population are included in the sample in the same proportions as they are found in the larger population • Biased sample • A sample that does not adequately reflect the larger population • Random sample • A sample selected where everyone in the population has an equal chance of being included in the sample

18. Descriptive Research Methods • Naturalistic observation • Laboratory observation • Case study • Survey • Interviews • Questionnaires

19. Correlational Method • Correlational method • A research method used to establish the degree of relationship (correlation) between two characteristics, events, or behaviors • For use when it is impossible to manipulate variables of interest

20. Correlational Method • Correlational coefficient • A numerical value that indicates the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables • Coefficients range from +1.00 (a perfect positive correlation) to –1.00 (a perfect negative correlation) • The further the correlation coefficient is from zero, the stronger the coefficient • The sign determines the direction of the relationship • (+) Positive – as one variable increases, the other must also increase • (-) Negative – as one variable increases, the other must decrease

21. Experimental Method • Experimental method • The research method in which researchers: • randomly assign participants to a control group or an experimental group • control all conditions other than one or more independent variables, which are then manipulated • determine their effect on some behavioral measure, the dependent variable in the experiment • Variable • Any condition or factor that can be manipulated, controlled, or measured

22. Experimental Method • Independent variable • In an experiment, the factor or condition that the researcher manipulates in order to determine its effect on another behavior or condition known as the dependent variable • Sometimes referred to as the treatment • Dependent variable • The variable that is measured at the end of an experiment and is presumed to vary as a result of manipulations of the independent variable

23. Experimental Method • Experimental group • In an experiment, the group that is exposed to the independent variable, or the treatment • Control group • In an experiment, a group that is similar to the experimental group and is exposed to the same experimental environment but is not exposed to the independent variable; used for purposes of comparison • Hypothesis • A prediction about the relationship between two or more variables

24. Potential Problems • Confounding variables • Any factors or conditions other than the independent variable that could cause observed changes in the dependent variable • The placebo effect • Selection bias • Experimenter bias • Double-blind technique

25. Limitations of the experimental method • The more control a researcher exercises over the setting, the more unnatural and contrived the research setting becomes • Unethical or not possible in many areas of interest • For instance, researchers could not addict humans to tobacco to establish that smoking tobacco causes cancer • Scientists could not testify that smoking tobacco causes cancer – only that smoking tobacco is highly correlated with cancer