an introduction to psycholog y & sociology oswayo valley high school
Dec 28, 2015
SOCIAL SCIENCES
HISTORY
what man has done
POLITICAL SCIENCE
how man governs
ECONOMICS
PSYCHOLOGY SOCIOLOGY
ANTHROPOLOGY
how man makes a living
how man thinks and actsas an individual
how man thinks as acts in a group
what makes groups of men similar and dissimilar
QUESTION
HYPOTHESIS
EXPERIMENT
RESULTS
CONCLUSIONS
THEORY
additional hypothesis
reject/revise hypothesis
others replicate and test theories
WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes (Rathus, 5)
• Behavior: any action that other people can observe and measure (both social and biological
• Cognitive Processes: mental activities, such as dreams, perceptions, thoughts, and memories
• Psychological Construct: theories or concepts that enable one to discuss something that cannot be
seen, touched, or measured directly (e.g. emotions)
Psychology differs from Psychiatry (a branch of medical that deals with mental, emotional, or behavioral problems).
Psychology has a number of different fields• Clinical psychologists help people with personal problems
• Counselors work in schools or industrial firms advising and assisting people the problems of everyday life
• Developmental psychologists study physical, emotional, cognitive and social changes that occur throughout life
• Educational psychologists focus on course planning and methodology
• social psychologists are concerned with people’s behavior in social situations
WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY?
Describe the behaviors to be studied and present what is known
Explain why people behave the way they do
Predict, as a result of accumulated knowledge, what people will do, think, or feel in various situations
Influence behavior in helpful ways
WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY?
Ancient Greece.
Socrates suggested that man “know thyself” – a process of introspection by “looking within” to examine our own thoughts and feelings to act in a way consistent with what each believes is right
Aristotle outlined the laws of associationism (a learned connection between two ideas or events)
During the Middle Ages emotions and behaviors were thought to be inspired by spiritual forces.
The Age of Enlightenment re-introduced science to philosophical and scientific thought: rationalism emphasized reason over faith in direct contradiction with Middle Ages thought
Structuralism (Wilhelm Wundt) – the basic elements of consciousness are divided between objective sensations (sight and taste) and subjective feelings (emotional responses and mental images)
Functionalism (William James) – study of mental processes (functions or purposes of consciousness)
Inheritable Traits (Francis Galton) – heredity determines a person’s personality and behavior
Gestalt : perception (consciousness) is more than the sum of its parts, it involves the “whole pattern”
WHAT ARE THE APPROACHES TO PSYCHOLOGY?
Evolutionary: investigates how primal survival instincts can influence behavior
Biological: focuses primarily on the activities of the nervous system, the brain, hormones, and genetics
Psychodynamic: emphasizes internal unconscious conflicts; the emphasis is on sexual and aggressive instincts that collide with cultural norms (socially acceptable behavior)
Humanistic: emphasizes an individuals potential for growth and the role of perception in guiding mental processes and behaviors
Cognitive: focuses on the mechanisms through which people receive, store, and process information
Behavioral: examines the learning process, focusing in particular on the influence of rewards and punishments
Sociocultural: explores how behavior is shaped by history, society and
culture
A Closer Look At
APPROACHES TO PSYCHOLOGY
Psychologists approach their various subjects with a number of presuppositions
The Nature of Man: an issue of philosophy
The Nature of the Question: an matter of purpose
The Nature of the Resources: a question of procedure
The Evolutionary Approach
Assumption: Adaptive organisms survive and transmit their genes to future generations
Applications:
Applies Darwin’s ideas of Natural Selection (an evolutionary process in which individuals of a species that are best adapted to their environments are the ones most likely to survive; they then pass on their traits to their offspring) to Psychology
William James: “the father of psychology”; adaptive behavior patterns are learned and maintained because they are successful
David Buss: a core principle of Psychological adaptation involves an organism’s need to reproduce
The Biological Approach
Assumption: biological/physiological processes influence behavior and mental processes
Applications:
Stanley Schachter: studied eating behaviors by manipulating external cues to determine effects on eating
Howard Gardner: studied brain damage and neurological disorders; different parts of the brain have different functions; created theory of multiple intelligences
Hans Eysenck: the importance of genetics; intelligence is inherited
William James: humans share common instincts (e.g. curiosity, parental love, sympathy, etc.) which are passed genetically from generation to generation
Masters and Johnson: studied human sexuality
The Psychodynamic / Psychoanalytic ApproachAssumption: unconscious motives and conflicts influence behavior
Applications:
Sigmund Freud: free association (patient is instructed to say anything that comes into his mind) relieves the operation
o the mental process by bringing the unconscious to the
conscious
Carl Jung: unconscious consisted of two components—a personal (or individual) one and a collective one: cultures had similar archetypes (cultural symbols that appear to be nearly
universal and that are stored in collective unconscious
Erik Erikson: people go through certain psychological crises at different phases of development, each crisis needs to be
resolved before a person can progress to the next stage of development
The Humanist ApproachAssumption: people make free and conscious choices based on their unique experiences; human behavior is primarily determined by one’s environment
Applications: Carl Rogers: human behavior is governed by ‘self-concept’—the
image a person has of himself
Abraham Maslow: people have a “hierarchy of needs”, beginning with the basics (food, shelter), progressing to the “higher” (love, self-esteem, understanding), and culminating in self-actualization
The Cognitive ApproachAssumption: perceptions and thoughts influence behavior; how people
process information and images is part of our “mental programming”
Applications: Jean Piaget: people develop through different
stages, at different rates
Albert Bandura: social cognition theory (a form of learning in which the person observes and imitates the behaviors of others); people
approach a situation based on “expectancies” learned from previous experiences
Lawrence Kohlberg: explains moral development through a period of stages
The central idea of the cognitive approach is one of a logical progression—whether applied to personality, morality, or behavior
The Behavioral ApproachAssumption: personal experience and reinforcement guide individual development; it is not what a person thinks, but what he does
Applications:
John Watson: psychology must be limited to overt, observable
behavior; controlling a person’s environment would influence him in a certain direction
Ivan Pavlov: developed the idea of “psychic reflexes” whereby an action can bring about an unrelated action; classical conditioning
B.F. Skinner: behavior is strongly influenced by rewards and punishment
The Socio-cultural ApproachAssumption: socio-cultural, biological, and psychological factors create
individual differences
Applications:
Solomon Asch: people tend to conform to other people’s ides of truth even when they disagree with those
truths
Stanley Milgram: people will change their behavior at the request of—
or even in the presence of— someone they perceive to be an authority figure
Which of these approaches serves Psychology best?
Psychology
Evolutionary
Biological
Psychodynamic
Humanist
Cognitive
Behavorial
Sociocultural
A Closer Look At
RESEARCH
Psychologists must choose research methodology that is not only scientifically sound but also suitable for the topic. Each type has advantages and disadvantages.
Interview
Researchers study people face to face by asking questions
Researchers can obtain personal, detailed information
Subjects’ responses may not be completely honest
Researchers’ biases can influence behavior
Laboratory StudyParticipants are observed in a laboratory setting
Independent variable: the factor that the experimenter manipulates or changes in a study
Dependent variable: the factor in a study that changes or varies as a result of changes in the independent variable
Experimental group: the group on which the critical part of the experiment is performed
Control group: the group that does not participate in the critical part of the experiment
Researcher can be completely Objective
Method usually provides accurate Information
Setting is somewhat artificial; may not reflect the “real world”
Survey MethodPeople respond to a series of questions about a particular subject
Sample: a group that represents a larger group
Representative sample: a group that truly represents a selected characteristic of a larger population
Stratified sample: subgroups in the population are represented proportionally in the sample
Researchers can gather information on feelings, opinions, and behavior patterns
Results can be amazingly accurate
Allows for a large number of subjects
Survey’s sample may not be representative of population as a whole
Questions may not be phrased objectively
Interpretation of results may be distorted
Naturalistic Observation
Researchers observe the behavior of people or animals in their natural habitat
Correlation: a measure of how closely one thing is related to another
Causation: how one event makes another event happen
Behavior is completely natural Researchers cannot interact with subjects and my interpret subjects’ responses incorrectly
No control over the setting or the events that occur
Case Study
Researchers conduct in-depth investigations of individuals or small groups
Method provides background information that may shed light on present behavior
Subjects’ responses may not be completely honest
Researchers’ biases can influence behavior
May focus on isolated circumstances or events that cannot be replicated
Psychological Test
Tests provide accurate, objective information—there is little chance of distorting results
Convenient
Tests are limited in the amount of information they can obtain
Does not always provide a complete representation of an individual’s true abilities or personality
Longitudinal Method
A group of participants is observed at intervals over an extended period of time
Method provides information needed for certain kinds of research, such as studies on development
Enables researchers to see how individuals change over time
Method is expensive and time consuming
Participants may not be available for the duration of the study
Cross-sectional Method
Researchers compare the differences and similarities among people in different age groups at a given time
Method provides information needed for certain kinds of research, such as studies on development
Enables researchers to see how individuals change over time
Method is expensive and time consuming
Participants may not be available for the duration of the study
Problems and Solutions in Research
Avoiding a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. A self-fulfilling prophecy is a situation in which a researcher’s expectations influence that person’s own behavior, and thereby influence the participant’s behavior. This can be minimized by:
Single-blind experiment: an experiment in which the participants are unaware of which participants received the treatment
Double-blind experiment: an experiment in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know which
participants received the treatment
The Placebo Effect. A change in a participant’s illness or behavior that results from a belief that the treatment will have an effect rather than the actual treatment.
The Milgram Experience. Researchers must follow ethical guidelines in experimentation
experimenter
subject
“answerer”actor
Socrateshttp://www.kidspast.com/images/socrates.jpg
Aristotlehttp://westernparadigm.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/aristotle.jpg?w=263&h=315
Wilhelm Wundthttp://psych.wisc.edu/henriques/resources/Wilhelm_Wundt.gif
William Jameshttp://psych.wisc.edu/henriques/resources/William_James.GIF
Francis Galtonhttp://www.reproductive-revolution.com/francis-galton.png
Terapias Gestalthttp://www.terapiasnaturales.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/gestalt.jpg
Evolutionhttp://daily.swarthmore.edu/static/uploads/by_date/2009/02/19/evolution.jpg
Nervous Systemhttp://www.capitalcitychiro.net/images/stock/nervous%20system.gif
Middle Ages Exorcismhttp://www.australianparanormalsociety.com/news/wp-content/uploads/am4.jpg
Age of Enlightenmenthttp://www.memo.fr/Media/MOD_LUM_000.jpg
Brain (cartoon)http://www.st-augustines.worcs.sch.uk/images/Departments/psychology/psych_2.jpg
Good v. Evilhttp://www.blacksunjournal.com/wp-content/images/1506l.jpg
Group Hughttp://graphics.tomrue.net/images/group-hug.jpg
Lab rathttp://www.101usesforajohnhoward.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/25labrat.gif
Herdhttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1V7wnZxPqok/RoOCiW5wfoI/AAAAAAAAFPc/1MdGesWwUJM/s400/herd-of-sheep.jpgPH
OTO
CRE
DITS
Intro
duct
ion
to P
sych
olog
y
Darwinhttp://oreh.pef.uni-lj.si/~markor/Darwin/Charles_Darwin.jpg
William Jameshttp://psych.wisc.edu/henriques/resources/William_James.GIF
David Busshttp://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0204/020904bussdavid.jpg
Stanley Schachterhttp://www.socialpsychology.org/images/socialfigures/schachter.gif
Howard Gardnerhttp://www.howardgardner.com/images/Howard%20Gardner%20Compressed.jpg
Hans Eysenckhttp://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Hans.Eysenck.jpg/200px-Hans.Eysenck.jpg
William Jameshttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/images/voices/james_sidebar.jpg
Masters and Johnsonhttp://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/resources/sex625may3.jpg
Sigmund Freudhttp://blog.syracuse.com/shelflife/2008/05/freud.jpg
Carl Junghttp://www.crystalinks.com/jung.jpg
Erik Eriksonhttp://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic20826.files/Erikson2.jpg
Carl rogershttp://www.myers-online.de/myers/zeitleiste/images/vRogers.jpg
Abraham Maslowhttp://quangkhoi.net/learningcenter/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/maslow1.jpgPH
OTO
CRE
DITS
Intro
duct
ion
to P
sych
olog
y
Jean Piagethttp://lakeplacidcsd.net/lpcsweb/highschool/dev.web/piaget.jpg
Albert Bandurahttp://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/december5/gifs/graw_bandura.jpg
Lawrence Kohlberghttp://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/images/kohlberg_lecture.gif
John Watsonhttp://www.nndb.com/people/078/000030985/john-b-watson-1-sized.jpg
Ivan Pavlovhttp://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1904/pavlov.jpg
B.F. Skinnerhttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/Faculty/wasserman/Glossary/skinner.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/Faculty/wasserman/Glossary/homepage.html&usg=__kkqrz4g-NzKQbOC4D3GR1mJe5ZE=&h=316&w=319&sz=24&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=T29QO16IxvOGLM:&tbnh=117&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Db%2Bf%2Bskinner%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den
Solomon Aschhttp://aschcenter.blogs.brynmawr.edu/files/2008/10/aschpipeforweb.jpg
Stanley Milgramhttp://www3.niu.edu/acad/psych/Millis/History/2003/Milgram_head.gif
PHO
TO C
REDI
TSIn
trodu
ctio
n to
Psy
chol
ogy
SELE
CTED
BIB
LIO
GRA
PHY
Intro
duct
ion
to P
sych
olog
yBelch, Hal. What is Psychology?: Psychology Approaches. Culver City, CA: Social Studies School Service. 2004
Kasschau, Richard A. Understanding Psychology. New York, NY: Glencoe McGraw-Hill. 2003
Rathus, Spencer A. Psychology: Principles in Practice. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 2003