PSYC1101 Final: PSYCHOLOGYYYYYYYY
Chapter 1: The Science of Psychology:
The nature of psychology:
• Psychology is the scientific study and behaviour of the mind
Term
Definition
Behaviour
Refers to actions and responses that we can directly observe
Mind
Internal states and processes (such as thoughts or feelings), those that cannot be directly seen (these need
observable and measurable responses). E.g. We cannot feel when someone loves anther but we can infer it
when they say ) love you.
Clinical psychology
The study and treatment of mental disorders (usually in clinics, hospitals or private practises), some of
these psychologists are even scientists
Cognitive psychology
Specialises in the study of mental processes, especially from a model that views the mind as an information
processor (these psychologists examine topics such as consciousness, attention, memory, decision making
and problem solving.
→
this cognitive study can also study language (psycholinguistics)
Types of psychology:
• In Australia there are 9 types of psychological practice, these include:
o Clinical neuropsychology
o Clinical psychology
o Community psychology
o Counselling psychology
o Educational and developmental psychology
o Forensic psychology
o Health psychology
o Organisational psychology
o Sports and recreational/exercise psychology
• There are other subfields of psychology that tend to overlap one another, these include:
Psychologys scientific approach
• Science: process that involves systematically gathering and evaluating empirical evidence to answer
questions and beliefs about the natural world
• Empirical evidence: Gained through experience and observation (i.e. experimentation)
• Systematic (needs to be systematic): Performed according to a system of rules or conditions—so they will be
as objective and as precise as possible (Shaughnessy et al., 2010)
Biopsychology or Behavioural
Neuroscience
Focuses on the biological underpinnings of behaviour (how the brain processes genes, hormones,
etc.) and how evolution could have shaped out psychological capabilities
Developmental Psychology
Examines human physical and social development across the life span and the effects of ageing on
cognitive and behavioural processes (infants emotions, parenting styles, how our mental abilities
change during adolescence and adulthood
Experimental Psychology
Focuses on basic processes such as learning, sensory items (vision, hearing), perception and
motivational states (sexual motivation, hunger, thirst), most research in this field involves lab
experiments (often with non-human subjects)
Industrial Organisation (I/O
Psychology)
Examines peoples behaviours in the workplace. These psychologists study leadership, teamwork
and factors that influence job satisfaction, work motivation and performance. (helps identify the
best job applicants and the designing of systems to evaluate employee performance)
Personality Psychology
Focuses on the study of human personality, seek to identify core personality traits and the way these
traits relate to each other and influence behaviour (they also develop tests to measure personality)
Social Psychology
Examines peoples thoughts, feelings and behaviour pertaining the social world, the word of other
people (how people influence one another, behaving in groups and form first impressions and
attitudes). They study social relationships like love, prejudice & discrimination to help aggression
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Understanding behavior:
Some Pitfalls of everyday approaches:
• There are many ways in which we promote misconceptions
• People via conversations, books, internet and popular media may provide us with information and insights
that they believe to be accurate – but which really are not
• Using personal experience/ bringing in own bias→ promoting misconceptions/inaccurate beliefs
• Our own experiences may be atypical and not representative of what most people experience, yet we ay not
acknowledge this
• Misconceptions can also be a result of our own faulty thinking, such as:
o Mental shortcuts: Cant judge ones personality based on appearance, etc.
o Fail to consider alternative explanations: We always assume only one factor caused
something
o Confirmation bias: Selectively paying attention to info consistent w/ our beliefs
Using science to minimise pitfalls:
• The use of more than one observation methods (video, questionnaires, brain imaging)
→
Using quantitative
measures: Statistics, etc. to reduce subjectivity instead of imprecise casual observations
• Use of statistics and multiple observers
• Conduct fair tests with only one changed variable
• Scientists challenge each other (publishing articles by each other)
→
Publishing findings
o Enables scientists to scrutinize /challenge others findings.
o Useful since it forces scientists to modify beliefs.
o
Risk of confirmation bias
o Science is a self-correcting process
• Poor data = poor studied = misleading/invalid conclusions
Thinking critically about behavior:
• Critical thinking
→
taking an active role in understanding the world around you, not just facts given to you
• When someone make a claim or states something as fact, we need to ask ourselves (the 5 questions of critical
thinking):
o What exactly is the claim or assertion
o Who is making the claim and is it credible/trustworthy
o What is evidence and how good is it
o Are other explanations possible? If so, can I evaluate them
o What is the most appropriate conclusion
Parsimony:
• When two theories have the same explanatory power, the simpler theory is preferred
Placebos and The Placebo Effect:
• In medicine, a placebo refers to a substance with no pharmacological effect (with respect to the
phenomenon of interest)
→
E.g. Sugar pill, saline injections
• Trials were conducted on mentally depressed patients and most (75%) said they felt better, despite being
given placebos
• Placebos need a control group to be tested
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Thinking like a psychologist:
The Scientific Process: Gathering Evidence:
Step
Case Study: Kitty Genovese (1968)
1. Identify question of interest
• Curiosity!
• Question it!
• John Darley + Bibb latane observed no one helped
Kitty Genovese
• Why?
2. Gather info and form a hypothesis
• Examine whether any already existing theories/info can help
answer question
• Hypothesis: A specific prediction about some phenomenon. )f-then
statement
• Proposed explanation: diffusion of responsibility
reduced may have occurred
• IF multiple bystanders present, THEN likelihood that
any one bystander will intervene is reduced
3. Test hypothesis by conducting research
• Create emergency in controlled setting
• Manipulate (control) number of other bystanders
that each participant believes to be present
• Measure wether how quickly each participant helps
victim with seizures
4. Analyse data, draw tentative conclusions, report findings
• Data reveal that helping as perceived number of
bystanders
• Hypothesis supported. Revise hypothesis /procedures
/ retest
5. Build body of knowledge ask further questions, conduct more
research, develop + test theories
• i.e. what other factors affect bystander intervention?
• Theory: set of formal statements that explains how and why
certain events are related to another
• Theories broader than hypotheses
• Scientific process: self-correcting
• Additional experiments support hypothesis.
• Theory of social impact is developed based on this
• Theory tested directly by deriving new hypotheses +
conducting new research
Goals of Psychology (DECA)
1. Description: Seek to understand how people behave, think, feel
2. Explanation: Explain to understand how people act as they do. Using hypotheses + theories that specify causes of
behaviour
3. Control: By designing experiments/types of research to test if proposed explanations are accurate
4. Application: Apply on psychological knowledge in ways to enhance human welfare
Basic and Applied Research:
• Basic research: reflects quest for knowledge for its own sake
o Examines how people behave, think, feel the way they do
o Purpose: Not to apply knowledge gained from study to directly modify participants beliefs or
behaviour
o i.e. First instinct fallacy: Kruger et. Al tested that if change MCQ answer, will more likely be correct.
• Applied research: Designed to solve specific, practical problems
o Use basic scientific knowledge (can be from basic research) to design interventions
o Purpose: To apply knowledge from basic research to design + test effectiveness of an intervention
program aimed at altering participants behaviour/beliefs
o i.e. First instinct fallacy: Altering students misconceptions RE: changing exam answers
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Document Summary
The nature of psychology: psychology is the scientific study and behaviour of the mind. Refers to actions and responses that we can directly observe. Internal states and processes (such as thoughts or feelings), those that cannot be directly seen (these need observable and measurable responses). We cannot feel when someone loves anther but we can infer it when they say (cid:494)) love you(cid:495). The study and treatment of mental disorders (usually in clinics, hospitals or private practises), some of these psychologists are even scientists. Cognitive psychology specialises in the study of mental processes, especially from a model that views the mind as an information processor (these psychologists examine topics such as consciousness, attention, memory, decision making and problem solving. This cognitive study can also study language (psycholinguistics) Focuses on the biological underpinnings of behaviour (how the brain processes genes, hormones, etc. ) and how evolution could have shaped out psychological capabilities.
