INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY SACE Stages 1 and 2 Professor John Taplin

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGYSACE Stages 1 and 2

Professor John Taplin

The Science of Psychology

• Evidence-based study of the behaviour of people and factors relevant to understanding this behaviour

• Employs a variety of methods for gathering and interpreting this evidence

• Investigations in psychology are subject to fundamental ethical principles

• Four levels / types of explanations for behavioural observations

Types of Explanations for Behaviour

• Biological mechanisms: brain structure and function; properties of sensory receptors and/or the

motor (muscles, joints, etc.) system; hormonal influences; genetic factors

• Basic processes: motivation and emotion; learning and cognition

• Personal attributes: intelligence; personality

• Socio-cultural influences: parents; peers; other people; media

Example: Explanations for Violent Behaviour

• Biological: Inherited disposition towards aggression

Activity within specific area of the brain

• Process: Learned response to given situation

Level of emotional arousal

• Person: Personality characteristic

• Socio-cultural: Effect of others

Media portrayals

The Profession of Psychology

• A rapidly growing profession within both public and private sectors

see http://jobsearch.gov.au/joboutlook

• Practitioners must be registered with the South Australian Psychological Board

• Professional registration requires a minimum of 4 years of university study in psychology, plus a further 2 years of supervised practice or the completion of an accredited postgraduate degree

• Code of Ethical Conduct for Psychological Practice

http://jobsearch.gov.au/joboutlook

Clinical Psychologists

• involved in the diagnosis and treatment of mental health needs.

• help people with psychological disorders like anxieties, depression, schizophrenia, etc.

• help people with disabilities (intellectual, linguistic, sensory, motor)

• help people having problems with substance abuse (alcohol, nicotine or other addictive drugs) or with gambling

• help children and adolescents with specific learning difficulties, conduct disorders or problems with psychosocial adjustment.

Clinical Neuropsychologists

• work with people who have some type of brain damage caused by:

car accidentsstrokecarbon monoxide poisoningbrain tumoursprogressive illness (multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s

disease)

• concerned with assessment of the cognitive and emotional functioning of these people

• design rehabilitation programs aimed at the recovery of behavioural competencies and psychological well-being

Health Psychologists

• also employed in the health system.

• help people with illnesses like asthma, cancer, and other conditions which are associated with chronic or recurrent pain and affect quality of life.

• help to promote good health through adherence to a balanced diet, exercise programs, stress management strategies, and compliance with prescribed medication.

Counselling Psychologists

• provide help to individuals, couples, families or groups.

• clients are people who are seeking assistance to resolve relationship difficulties, conflicts or other problems that are having a significant impact on their lives.

• the broad aim of counselling is to facilitate communication, decision making, problem solving and conflict resolution.

Educational/School Psychologists

• seek to help students with behavioural problems or learning difficulties.

• typically have teaching experience and have elected to study psychology in order to work with students with special educational needs.

• their role is to identify the factors that may be limiting the ability of individual students to respond well to the school curriculum.

• design interventions that will help students to cope more effectively with the demands that are being placed on them.

Forensic Psychologists

• work in legal and criminal justice settings.

• involved in the investigation and prevention of crime

• provide expert opinions on matters that are brought before the courts.

• employed in the prison and parole system to design programs for the rehabilitation of convicted offenders so that, on completion of their sentence, they will be more likely to lead productive, law-abiding lives.

Organisational and Human Factors Psychologists

• personnel selection, organisational and human resource management, staff training, product design and marketing, and occupational health and safety within business and industry.

• seek to optimise the fit between the individual employee and the workplace so that both job satisfaction and productivity are maximised.

• also concerned with the factors that may contribute to human error, including the degree to which the design of technology matches the capacities of users.

Sports Psychologists

• work principally with elite athletes and sporting teams to help them prepare mentally for competition

• teach athletes to cope with the psychological stresses that are inevitably involved in performing at the highest level.

Aims and Scope of Introduction to Psychology

• Compulsory topic which may be taught as a discrete, beginning part of the course and/or integrated with the teaching of other topics within SACE Psychology

• Intended to introduce students to the kinds of questions asked within psychological science, the types of methods used to find answers, and some of the ethical considerations relevant to such investigations

• Overall learning outcomes should consist of a basic understanding of how knowledge in psychology is acquired, the types of explanations that may be advanced for human behaviour, and how this knowledge may be applied and communicated

Describing Human Behaviour and Psychological Responses

1. Objective quantitative measures

Measurement of target behaviour (e.g., frequency, latency, duration, accuracy)

Psychophysiological recording (e.g., EEG, fMRI, heart rate, blood cortisol) during task

2. Subjective quantitative measures

Survey questionnaires (yes/no questions and rating scales)

Standardised psychological test scores


3. Subjective qualitative assessment

Example: Content analysis of themes and explanatory concepts invoked in relevant texts

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Natural conversation

Verbal responses in focus groups or interviews

Newspaper stories, court reports, or government policy documents


Which method of behavioural measurement and psychological assessment is best?

• Each method has advantages and limitations

• Need to tailor the method of measurement to the question being asked and the resources available

• Sometimes better to use more than one type of measure

Research Designs for Psychological Investigations

1. Experimental designs

• Effect of variations of a particular factor (the independent variable) on the behavioural/ psychological response (the dependent variable) investigated under controlled conditions

• Various designs

• Differences between treatment and control group

• Associations between the variables within a group of participants

• Mixed between- and within-group designs


Experimental designs may assess the effect of the independent variable on the psychological response by qualitative or quantitative means

Quantitative example

• Vary amount of caffeine-containing beverage consumed before testing reaction time and accuracy in mental addition task

Qualitative example

• Assign process workers to different contexts (e.g., competitive or cooperative work groups) before asking them to describe their work satisfaction in their own words


2. Observational or field designs

• Effect of natural (i.e., uncontrolled) variation in a particular factor (predictor variable) on the behavioural/ psychological response

• These designs are susceptible to invalid inferences about cause-and-effect relationships due to potential influence of uncontrolled variables

• Employed when predictor variable cannot be manipulated for ethical, cost, or other reasons


It may be unethical to manipulate the predictor variable

For example:

Quantitative assessment of psychological response

• Relationship between prenatal alcohol exposure and children’s subsequent scores on an intelligence test

Qualitative assessment of psychological response

• Differences between adolescents who have or have not experienced abuse as children on how they describe their bodies


It may be too costly to manipulate the predictor variable

For example:

Quantitative assessment of the psychological response

• Association between the size of a unexpected financial windfall and changes in ratings of personal happiness

Qualitative assessment of the psychological response

• Effect of space travel on beliefs about God


• Some predictor variables are impossible to manipulate

• For example:

Age

Gender

Ethnicity

Family composition

Medical diagnosis

Criminal record

Urban or rural place of residence


3. Qualitative research designs

• More open-ended approaches to investigating the thoughts of a select sample of people about a topic of interest

• Often used when exploring a completely new topic

• May serve as a precursor to a subsequent

quantitative survey of the population


Specific Qualitative Designs: Focus Groups

• Small number of individuals who are brought together to discuss a given issue face-to-face

• Group moderator facilitates discussion and ensures relevance, equity of participation, etc.

• Several focus groups will typically be used to explore the issue in question

• Content analysis of ideas emerging during group discussion

• Independent raters used to assess the reliability of coding


Specific Qualitative Designs: Delphi technique

• Experts in a given field asked to respond (anonymously and in writing) to a set of (usually open-ended) questions

• Responses are collated and used to develop a more comprehensive and refined questionnaire

• The new questionnaire is then re-administered to the same group of participants as before

• Results again analysed to identify consistent themes

• Further iterations of this process may take place


Examples of research questions for which a qualitative design might be usefully employed

• What psychological services are needed by patients receiving palliative care and their families?

• What strategies might be effective in helping a given organisation improve its performance?


Advantages and Disadvantages of Each Design

• No one research design suits the purposes of every type of psychological investigation. The preferred design will depend on the nature of the research question and the practical constraints involved.

• See table on page 18 of Psychology: Key Ideas SACE Stage 2 textbook for list of advantages and disadvantages for each design

• Important for students to be able to justify in their proposals the research designs they have chosen for the psychological investigations that they wish to undertake

Ethical Issues

• All psychological investigations require independent approval based on the NHMRC Statement of Ethical Conduct in Research Involving Humans (see http://www.nhmrc.gov.au)

• Any risks associated with the investigation must be disclosed so that participants can give their informed consent to be involved

• Participants must also be free to withdraw from the investigation subsequently if they wish to do so

• The data collected for individual participants must be kept confidential unless permission is given for its release – privacy laws

http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/

Ethical Issues

• The need for independent ethics approval for an investigation is not due to a lack of trust in the integrity and competence of the investigator.

• Approval by an independent ethics committee protects the investigator as well.

• All of the research programs to be made available on the SSABSA website for SACE Psychology Stages 1 and 2 will have approval from a properly constituted ethics committee

• See Psychology: Key Ideas SACE Stage 2, chapter 5 for examples of unethical research in Psychology

Writing up a Report on a Psychological Investigation

• Abstract: Short summary of each section of the report

• Introduction: Background to and rationale for the investigation, including research

hypotheses and/or questions

• Method: Description of participants, research design, materials, procedures and measures employed in the investigation

• Results: Description of the findings obtained (text, tables, figures), without any attempt to explain these findings

Writing up a Report on a Psychological Investigation

• Discussion: Interpretation of the findings, significance for hypotheses/ questions and for previous research mentioned in the Introduction,

methodological limitations of the study, implications for future investigations

• References

• Appendices (where relevant)

Documents

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY SACE Stages 1 and 2 Professor John Taplin