PSYCHOLOGY: Chapter 1 Introducing Psychology Lecture Notes
PSYCHOLOGY: Chapter 1 Introducing Psychology Lecture Notes
* Items in bold are not in the text.
1-1: Why Study Psychology?
Psychologist: a scientist who studies the mind and behavior of humans and animals.
Physiological: having to do with an organism's physical processes.
Cognitive: having to do with an organism's thinking and understanding.
3 things you can learn from psychology:
1.) Helps you gain a better understanding, insight, of your own behavior.
2.) Gives you knowledge about how psychologists study human and animal behavior.
3.) Gives you practical applications of the knowledge for enriching your life.
2 reasons to study psychology:
1.) Insight: gain knowledge of how and why people do things
* "A little learning is a dangerous thing." Just because you have learned some psychology, doesn't give you the expertise to diagnose others.
2.) Practical information: Psychology gives you information that you can use each day.
Social psychology: a broad field of psychology that seeks to explain how our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and behaviors are influenced by interactions with others.
Shaping: a systematic way of dispensing rewards and punishments.
Mnemonic devices: memory aids that help you retain information.
Emotions: occur as the result of a physical stimulation paired with some social or personal event.
Psychology: the scientific study of behavior that is tested through scientific research.
- what it covers: everything that people think, feel, and do.
- systematic: step by step; following a set plan.
4 goals of psychology:
1.) To describe
2.) To explain
3.) To predict
4.) To influence behavior
psychological principles: generally valid ideas about behavior.
hypothesis: an assumption or prediction about behavior that is tested through scientific research. It is a researcher's prediction about what the results of
a study are expected to be.
- 2 methods of collecting data: observation and experimentation. Psychologists may use a questionnaire or a survey.
** There are many hypotheses, but real answers to psychological questions come only through agreement of experts after years of research on
many different aspects to a problem.
theory: is usually a complex explanation based on findings from a large number of experimental studies. Theories change as new data improves our
understanding, and a good theory becomes the source of additional ideas for experiments.
basic science: the pursuit of knowledge about natural phenomena for its own sake.
- subjects: Term used for the human, or animal, participants in psychological research.
2 ways basic scientists observe behavior:
1.) Naturalistic observation: is analyzing the behavior of humans and animals in their environment.
2.) Controlled observation: is observation done under laboratory conditions.
applied science: discovering ways to use scientific findings to accomplish practical goals.
- patients/clients: Term used for the humans in the counseling side of psychology.
- 4 types of applied scientists:
1.) Clinical psychologists
2.) Industrial/organizational psychologists
3.) Counseling psychologists
4.) Engineering psychologists
3 areas of delayed development in orphans raised in orphanages:
1.) physical development
2.) intellectual development
3.) emotional development
- Wayne Dennis: Psychologist who studied the effect of stimulation on children in orphanages.
* date of study: 1960
* conclusion: This lack of normal development to the fact that these babies have nothing to look at but a blank, white ceiling and white crib cushions,
and are handled only when they need to be fed or changed. They get very little stimulation.
* levels of stimulation and effects on children: Even though children who lack stimulation tend to develop poorly, it does not follow that
providing infants with maximum stimulation will cause them to grow up emotionally sound and
intellectually superior. Quite the contrary, most babies do best with a medium level of stimulation
* social interaction: Interacting with other people.
- Rice, Cunningham, and Young (1997): Psychologists whose study concluded that social interaction is much more important than visual stimulation.
Normal development is more likely to result from long-term interactions with a responsive caregiver.
Scientific method: a general approach to gathering information and answering questions so that errors and biases are minimized.
- 3 methods for obtaining data:
1.) experiments
2.) surveys
3.) case studies
- 4 steps in the scientific method:
1.) identifying a specific problem or question
2.)formulating a hypothesis
3.) collecting data through observation and experimentation
4.) analyzing the data.
Wilhelm Wundt: doctor who began psychology as a separate, formal field of study. Some feel he is the founder of psychology.
- what he created: Laboratory of Psychology - Wundt’s school of psychological study.
- when: 1879
- where: Leipzig, Germany
- idea: He proposed the idea that psychological experience is composed of compounds, much like the compounds found in chemistry.
* 2 kinds of elements: sensations and feelings.
- importance of his work: the importance of Wundt’s work is the procedure he followed, not the results he obtained.
- introspection: a method of self-observation in which an individual observes, analyzes, and reports his or her own mental experiences.
Effect of scientific method on psychological theories: Although psychologists use the scientific method to demonstrate and support many theories, many questions about behavior remain unanswered. Psychological theories are continually reviewed and revised. New theories and technological developments are constantly generating new questions and new psychological studies.
1-2: A Brief History of Psychology
Marmaduke B. Sampson: In the 1800's wrote an account (page 14) to explain why crime occurs.
-idea: According to Sampson, the behavior of S.S. was the direct result of the shape of his head.
Phrenology: the study of the structure of the skull to determine an individual's character, personality and mental capacity.
(Basically, they felt the bumps on your head to figure out what "type" of person you were.)
- when created: created in the late 1700’s, but it became an important practice in the United States in the mid-1800s.
- pseudoscience: a false science.
- Franz Joseph Gall: founder of phrenology in the late 1700’s.
- 3 theories on phrenology:
* Believed certain traits were in specific areas of the brain wherever there was a bump on the skull.
* A less developed a trait showed as an indentation
* Anyone's personality could be charted by studying bumps, and dents, on the head
- effect on medical science: Modern scientists credit phrenology for encouraging study into the role of the brain in human behavior.
Phrenology may have inspired scientists to consider the brain, instead of the heart, as being responsible for human behavior.
*** Phrenology was a scam but very popular. In fact, in the election of 1860, there were even campaign ads describing the candidate's phrenological charts.
Ancient Greeks: The first to study human behavior. (See info from page 23)
- date: 400's and 500's BC
- basic idea: people’s lives were dominated not so much by the gods as by their own minds.
* rational: Level-headed, clear thinking.
- philosophy: the search for absolute truth.
* philosophers: attempted to interpret the world they observed around them in terms of human perceptions.....objects were hot or cold,
wet or dry, hard or soft....and these qualities influenced people’s experience of them.
- use of systematic study: They didn't use one.
- contributions: They set the stage for the development of the sciences, including psychology, through their reliance on observation as a means of knowing
their world.
Nicolaus Copernicus: Polish scientist in the mid 1500's.
- dates: 1473-1543
- idea: that the earth was not the center of the universe, but revolved around the sun. (Catholic Church taught that the geocentric universe theory was the ONLY
correct one. To go against it was heresy.)
* Geocentric universe: earth-centered universe.
* Heliocentric universe: Sun-centered universe.
** In doing this, he introduced observation as a key element of the scientific procedures that had begun to develop. ***
Galileo Galilei: Italian scientist who was forced to recant his ideas in front of the Inquisition. (He had the same problem as Copernicus.)
- dates: 1564-1642
- use of telescope: he used a telescope to confirm predictions about star position and movement based on Copernicus' work.
** This introduced the modern concept of experimentation through observation.
Renaissance scientists: Continued questioning scientific ideas… and the Church. They made great strides in the area of science.
- date: 1350-1700's
- effort: They continued to refine the modern concept of experimentation through observation.
Dualism: the concept that the mind and body are separate and distinct. The mind was considered "God's domain" so you couldn't question it.
- Dualists: 17th Century philosophers that popularized the concept that the mind and body were separate and distinct.
Rene Descartes: (1596-1650) proposed that a link existed between mind and body.
- 3 points:
1.) Proposed that a link existed between mind and body.
2.) Reasoned that the mind controlled the body’s movements, sensations, and perceptions.
3.) His approach to understanding human behavior was based on the assumption that the mind and body influence each other to
create a person's experiences.
* Doctrine of Interaction: Descartes' idea that the mind and body influence each other to create a person's experiences.
*** We are still studying the mind-body connection in psychology today. ***
John Locke: English philosopher of the same time period that stated his theory called
- Empiricism: the idea that ALL knowledge is obtained through observation and experience.
* tabula rasa: Locke said that all people were born tabula rasa, a blank tablet - and our experiences etch knowledge onto our brains.
* "Experience is the best teacher" It is from John Locke's idea of tabula rasa that we get this modern saying.
Ernst Hilgard quotation: "Modern science began to emerge by combining philosophers' reflections, logic, and mathematics with the observations and
inventiveness of practical people."
- meaning: It took people questioning and inventing all around to piece together scientific knowledge.
4 later scientific discoveries: (mostly from the Scientific Revolution 1700’s)
1.) Biologists had announced the discovery of cells as the building blocks of life.
2.) Later, chemists developed the periodic table of elements.
3.) Physicists made great progress in furthering our understanding of atomic forces.
4.) Natural scientists were studying complex phenomena by reducing them to simpler parts.
History of psychology: is a history of alternative perspectives. As the field of psychology evolved, various schools of thought arose to compete and offer new
approaches to the science of behavior.
7 historical areas of the study of psychology
- Early Thought (what we just covered above from the Greeks through the Scientific Revolution 1700's)
- Psychology as a Discipline
- Psychology as the study of Individual Differences
- Psychology as the study of Unconscious Processes
- Psychology as the study of Observable Behavior
- Psychology as the study of Cognitive Processes
- Psychology as the study of Neurophysiological (Biopsychological) Processes
Psychology as a Discipline
Structuralism: school of psychology, which studies the structure of consciousness, what it consists of, rather than what it does.
Wilhelm Wundt: doctor who established modern psychology as a separate, formal field of study.
- date: 1879
- where: Leipzig, Germany
- Laboratory of Psychology: Wundt's school for psychological study.
- major recognition: Is considered as the founder of psychology.
- physiology: the study of how the body works.
- area of real interest: the study of the human mind.
- Structuralist: a psychologist who studied the basic elements that make up conscious mental experiences.
- 3 contributions:
1.) He modeled his research on the mind after research in other natural sciences he had studied.
2.) He developed a method of self-observation called introspection to collect information about the mind.
* introspection: a method of self-observation in which participants report their thoughts and feelings.
3.) He tried to map out the basic structure of thought processes.
* form of brain mapping: It was sort of like an early version of the brain mapping we are doing today.
- historical importance: Wundt's experiments were very important historically because he used a systematic procedure to study human behavior.
This approach attracted many students who carried on the tradition of systematic research.
Functionalism: a school of psychology which focuses on the functions of the conscious mind and the goals or functions of behaviors.
William James: American psychologist who is a close rival for the title of "founder of psychology" with Wundt.
- what he did at Harvard: taught the first class in psychology at Harvard University.
* date: 1875
- 5 contributions:
1.) He wrote the first textbook of psychology, The Principles of Psychology (1890). It covered all that was known about psychology at that time.
2.) He speculated that thinking, feeling, learning, and remembering (all activities of the mind) serve one major function: to help us survive as a species.
3.) He focused on the functions or actions of the conscious mind and the goals or purposes of behaviors.
4.) Created Functionalism as a new school of thought.
* Functionalists study how animals and people adapt to their environments.
5.) His writings and theories on motivation and emotion are still influential.
Did You Know (page 16)
3 problems with researchers:
1.) Scientists are not always objective. They sometimes ignore data that does not support their theories, rather than impartially examining all
available evidence.
2.) Some scientists are not all that open-minded. (Like Newton, Darwin, Einstein and numerous others.)
3.) The best scientists are not always the brightest. Studies demonstrate that no strong relationship exists between scientists' I.Q.s and their contributions.
Psychology as the study of Individual Differences
Sir Francis Galton: a nineteenth century English mathematician and scientist.
- idea: He wanted to understand how heredity influences a person’s abilities, character, and behavior.
* heredity: includes all the traits and properties that are passed along biologically from parent to child.
- 5 ideas/actions:
1.) Traced the ancestry of various eminent people and found that greatness runs in families.
2.) Concluded that genius (or eminence) is a hereditary.
3.) Raised the question: "Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we could get rid of the less desirable people?"
4.) Encouraged "good" marriages to supply the world with talented offspring. (Possibly early ideas on genetic engineering.)
5.) Invented procedures for directly testing the abilities and characteristics of a wide range of people. These tests were the primitive ancestors
of the modern personality tests and intelligence tests.
* Charles Darwin: was Galton's cousin. (Hence the heavy dose of evolution ideas.)
- major problem with his idea: He did not consider the possibility that the tendency of genius to run in distinguished families might be a result of the exceptional
environments and socioeconomic advantages that also tend to surround such families.
- what he used for data: biographies.
- 2 types of tests he invented:
1.) Personality
2.) Intelligence
- Inquiries Into Human Faculty: Galton's book which is regarded as the first study of individual differences.
* date: 1883
- major psychological debate question he raised: the issue of whether behavior is determined by heredity or environment. This remains a focus
of controversy today.
3 German Gestalt psychologists: Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka
- their idea: disagreed with the principles of structuralism and behaviorism. They argued that perception is more than the sum of its parts. It involves a "whole
pattern".
- Gestalt: German meaning pattern or configuration.
- Gestalt Psychology: the study of how sensations are assembled into perceptual experiences.
* forerunner of: cognitive approaches to the study of psychology.
6 Contemporary Approaches to Psychology (see chart page 21)
1.) Psychoanalytic
2.) Behavioral
3.) Humanistic
4.) Cognitive
5.) Biological
6.) Sociocultural
Psychology as the study of Unconscious Processes
Psychoanalytic Psychology: The study of how unconscious motivations influence behavior.
- Sigmund Freud: a physician who practiced in Vienna< Austria until 1938. He pioneered the study of the unconscious mind, and of psychology in general,
in the 1930's and 40's.
* area of interest: the unconscious mind
+ unconscious: * "unconscious" then, means the term "subconscious" we use today.
* 4 ideas:
1.) Believed that our conscious experiences are only the tip of the iceberg.
2.) Believed that beneath the surface are primitive biological urges that are in conflict with the requirements of society and morality.
3.) Believed that these unconscious motivations and conflicts are responsible for most human behavior.
4.) He also thought that they (the unconscious motivations) were responsible for many medically unexplainable physical symptoms that
troubled his patients.
+ These today are referred to as psychosomatic symptoms - meaning that the physical symptoms an individual is
experiencing are not due to organic cause, but they are created in one's mind.
* free association: a therapy technique in which a patient said everything that came to mind—no matter how absurd or irrelevant it
seemed—without attempting to produce logical or meaningful statements. The person was instructed not to edit or
censor the thoughts.
* psychoanalyst: a psychologist who studies how unconscious motives and conflicts determine human behavior.
* what Freud thought free association revealed: the operation of unconscious processes.
* dreams: are expressions of the most primitive unconscious urges.
+ dream analysis: basically an extension of free association, in which he applied the same technique to a patient’s dreams.
> symbolism: Freud believed that each dreamer used symbols to represent his or her unconscious wishes, fears, or
desires. The symbolism is as individual as the dream. In order to understand one's dreams,
Freud felt one had to figure out the symbolic language.
* Freud’s case studies: extensive notes on all his patients and treatment sessions.
+ use: to develop and illustrate a comprehensive theory of personality.
- 3 ways modern psychologists view Freud and his theories: They may support, alter, or attempt to disprove it. But everyone has an opinion on Freud.
- Case study (modern usage): is an analysis of the thoughts, feelings, beliefs, experiences, behaviors, or problems of an individual.
PROFILES IN PSYCHOLOGY (page 19)
Mary Whiton Calkins
- who: female pioneer in psychology.
- degree she was seeking: Ph.D.
- problem she encountered: Women were not allowed to seek Ph.D.'s anywhere.
* William Jame's intervention: James decided to admit her into his graduate seminar, even if it was against university policy. All the students
dropped out in protest, so James tutored her alone.
- Harvard's resistance: Even though she taught and studied, they refused to admit her to the program. Finally, they agreed to give her an informal examination.
* informal examination: Their own made up test that was designed to fail all who attempted it.
+ Calkins' score: She completed the requirements for the doctoral degree and outperformed all her male counterparts on the examination.
- Radcliffe University: A nearby college.
* student population: All female.
* their offer to Calkins: offered to give her the doctoral degree.
+ her response: She refused. She did the work at Harvard and wanted a degree from their program. A degree from an all
female school was much less prestigious than one from Harvard.
- 3 positions she held later: served as a full professor of psychology at Wellesley College, and became the first female president of both the
American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Philosophical Association.
*** She paved the way for other women in the field, and those seeking advanced degrees.
Psychology as the study of Observable Behavior
Behavioral Psychology: Believes that events in our environment (rewards and punishments) can influence our behavior. Also a school of psychology that holds that the
proper subject matter of psychology is objectively observable behavior - and nothing else
- Ivan Pavlov: Russian physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in 1904 for his studies related to the physiology of digestion. His pioneering
work charted a new course for psychology.
Important vocabulary terms for understanding Pavlov's ideas:
Stimulus: anything that causes a response
Response: any reaction to a stimulus
Neutral: causing no effect
Unconditioned: natural, automatic
Conditioned: learned; taught
* experiment: Pavlov would strike a tuning fork and give the dog some meat powder. The dog would naturally salivate when the meat powder
reached his mouth. After Pavlov had repeated the procedure several times the dog would salivate when it heard the tuning
fork, even if no food appeared. The dog had been conditioned to associate the sound with the food. (See page 19)
* conditioned reflex: was a response (salivation) elicited by a stimulus (the tuning fork) other than the one that first produced it (the
meat powder).
+ how it was used by psychologists: used as a new tool as a means of exploring the development of behavior.
+ what it allowed: It enabled psychologists to explain how certain acts and certain differences among individuals were
the result of learning.
+ Classical Conditioning: a learning procedure in which associations are made between a natural stimulus and a neutral stimulus.
- Behaviorists: psychologists who analyze how organisms learn or modify their behavior based on their response to events in the environment.
* John Watson: American psychologist who formulated the Behaviorist position around 1924.
+ "Father of American Behaviorism": Many people believe he deserves this title.
+ 3 ideas:
1.) He said that psychology concerned itself with only the observable facts of behavior.
2.) He further maintained that all behavior, even apparently instinctive behavior, is the result of
conditioning and occurs because the appropriate stimulus is present in the environment.
3.) He truly defined and solidified the Behaviorist position.
* B. F. Skinner: American psychologist who refined and popularized the Behaviorist position. He attempted to show how Behaviorist
principles could be applied in everyday life.
+ reinforcement: is a response to a behavior that increases the likelihood the behavior will be repeated.
+ what he attempted to do: attempted to show how his laboratory techniques might be applied to society as a whole.
> Walden Two: (1949) Skinner's novel in which he portrayed a Utopia (a perfect society) in which conditioning,
through rewarding those who display behavior that is considered desirable, rules every facet of life.
The book was very popular.
+ Criticism: Many people criticized Skinner's ideas because they said conditioning was "manipulative", and would be used to
limit personal freedom.
Psychology as the study of Cognitive Processes
Humanistic Psychology: Believes that individual or self-directed choices influence our behavior.
- humanists: a psychologist who believes that each person has freedom in directing his or her future and achieving personal growth.
- 3 humanistic psychologists: Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Rollo May
- 5 main points:
1.) Humanists describe human nature as evolving and self-directed.
2.) Humanists do not view humans as being controlled by events in the environment or by unconscious forces.
3.) Humanists believe that the environment and other outside forces simply serve as a background to our own internal growth.
4.) Humanists emphasize how each person is unique and has a self-concept and potential to develop fully.
5.) Humanists believe that the potential for personal growth and development can lead to a more satisfying life.
Cognitive Psychology: school of psychology which believes that some process that govern human and animal behavior are internal. They believe we process, store,
and retrieve information influences our behavior.
- 3 main contributors: Jean Piaget, Noam Chomsky, and Leon Festinger.
- Cognitivists: a psychologist who studies how we process, store, retrieve, and use information and how cognitive processes influence our behavior
* 2 ideas:
1.) Believe that behavior is more than a simple response to a stimulus.
2.) Behavior is influenced by a variety of mental processes, including perceptions, memories, and expectations.
Psychology as the study of Neurophysiological (Biopsychological) Processes
Biological Psychology: School of psychology that believes biological factors influence our behavior.
- viewpoint emphasized: the impact of biology on our behavior.
- Psychobiologists: a psychologist who studies how physical and chemical changes in our bodies influence our behavior.
* 2 findings:
1.) Genetic factors influence a wide range of human behaviors.
&