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Psychology as a science
“Hey kids, I’m a social scientist. That means I can’t explain electricity or anything like that, but if you ever want to know about people, I’m your man.”
Adapted from New Yorker Collection
What is Psychology?
•Asking questions about the mind and behavior.•How do my moods relate to my health?•What is it like to be a soldier or a citizen in Afghanistan today? And how will today’s experiences there affect my psyche and my relationships?
• Utilizing multiple perspectives in our attempt to understand these types of questions• Applying research findings to the promotion of health, education, and the public welfare.
What is Psychology?Examples of Perspectives that Psychologists take
Perspective Focus
Neuroscience How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, andsensory experiences
Behavioral How much our genes, and our environment, influence ourgenetics individual differences
Behavioral How we learn related to consequences we experience
Evolutionary How nature selects traits that promote the perpetuation ofone’s genes
Psychodynamic How behavior springs from unconscious drives andconflicts
Cognitive How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information
Social-cultural How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures
Perspectives and the Science of Psychology
Candid Camera – elevator segment Use perspectives to explain the subject’s
behavior
Scientific Problem Solvers – Conduct research Promote health Help educate Provide social services Assist business and industry
Operational Definitions
Defining and measuring are key aspects of the scientific method…
How to turn a “concept” into something that can be defined and detected
Operational Definition: Description of a property (e.g., “happiness,” “intelligence”) in measurable terms
Happiness / Embarrassment (How to define and measure)
One defn: “ a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy.” -- Cambridge Dictionary
Scientific Psychology
• How do we go about asking and answering questions? We…
• Are skeptical (but not cynical)• Have humility (and actually try to prove ourselves wrong)•Can tolerate uncertainty & don’t use emotional reasoning•Use critical thinking (i.e., don’t accept “facts” or conclusions blindly)•Use common sense, but recognize that “common sense” has its own set of problems
Challenges to critical thinking
What about common sense and intuition in this whole process? Three envelopes and a dollar bill bullet dropped off of a 3-foot table vs. shot across a
football field Next slides…. Things aren’t always how they
appear…
Challenges to critical thinking
Hindsight Bias tendency to believe, after learning
an outcome, that one would have foreseen it
Overconfidence we tend to think we know more
than we do
How do psychologists carry out observations?
1. Descriptive Studies2. Correlational Studies3. Experiments
Descriptive Studies
Case Study an observation technique in which one
person or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles
strengths and weaknesses?
Descriptive Studies
Survey technique for learning the self-
reported attitudes or behaviors of people
usually by questioning a representative, random sample of them
strengths and weaknesses?
Descriptive StudiesNaturalistic
Observation observing and
recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation
http://www.janegoodall.org/chimp_names
Correlational studies
Measure how two things are related… how they “co – relate”
Question: What is the relationship between a child’s aggression level and his/her T.V. viewing habits (i.e. watching violent T.V.) ?? Are they correlated??
Correlation and CausationThree possible cause-effect relations
could cause(1)Watching violent
T.V.Aggression
(2)Aggressive personality
Watching violent T.V.
Aggression
Watching violentT.V.
(3)Child abuse
could cause
could cause
or
or
and
Experiments in Psychology
Experiment a research method in
which an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe their effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable) control group
IVs & DVs
Independent Variable the experimental factor that is manipulated the variable whose effect is being studied
Dependent Variable the experimental factor that is being
measured (e.g., a behavior or mental process)
may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable
Comparing Research Methods
Research Method Basic Purpose How Conducted What is Manipulated
Descriptive To observe and Case studies, surveys, Nothing record behavior and naturalistic
observations
Correlational To detect naturally Computing statistical Nothing occurring relationships; association, sometimes to assess how well among survey one variable predicts responses
Experimental To explore cause Manipulating one or Independent and effect more factors and using variable(s)
random assignmentto eliminate preexistingdifferences among subjects