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…

And things aren’t always consistent with what we’ve heard… or “common sense”…

Do they?

Is aggression cathartic?

Handout 1-2

“Explaining Research”

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

Medication vs. psychotherapy experiment

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