Chapter 1 Psy

• Aristole ~ a naturalist and philosopher, theorized about psychology’s
• concepts. He suggested that the soul and body are not separate and that
• knowledge grows from experience.

• Wundt and psycology's 1st graduate students; studied the "atoms of the mind" by conducting experiments in Germany in 1879
• "Walt always had to ride the burros first"

• established first psychology lab in Germany; studied the "atoms of the mind"
• conducted psychology's first experiment: measured time lag btwn hearing a ball hit a platform and pressing a key

• James B Watson
• Like Sherlock Homes, Watson always observed

American philosopher, wrote important 1890 psycology textbook

• William James's student, became the APA's first female president
• "Mary and James, sitting in a tree"

• An Austrian physician, emphasized importance of unconscious mind and effects on human behavior
• "Sigmund was always unconscious, SwIGing on the bottle"

• the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. 
• Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2)

historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual's potential for personal growth

the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language)

the science of behavior and mental processes

• the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors.  Today's science sees traits and behaviors arising from the interaction of nature and nurture
• *Simply put: do our human traits develop through experience, or are we born with them?

• psychology's three main levels of analysis
• include biological, psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon

an integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis

pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base

scientific study that aims to solve practical problems

a branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living (often related to school, work, or marriage) and in achieving greater well-being

a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders

a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical (for example, drug) treatments as well as psychological therapy

• focuses on how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences
• Ex ?'s: How are messages transmitted within the body? How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives?

• focuses on how the natural selection of traits promoted the survival of genes
• Ex ?'s: How does evolution influence behavior tendencies?

• focuses on how much our genes and our environment influence our individual differences
• Ex ?'s: To what extent are psychological traits such as intelligence, personality, sexual orientation, and vulnerability to depression attributable to our genes? To our environment?

• focuses on how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts
• Ex ?'s: How can someone's personality traits and disorders be explained in terms of sexual and aggressive drives or as the disguised effects of unfulfilled wishes and childhood traumas?

• how we learn observable responses
• Ex ?'s: How do we learn to fear particular objects or situations? What is the most effective way to alter our behavior, say, to lose weight or stop smoking?

• how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information
• Ex ?'s: How do we use information in remembering? Reasoning? Solving problems?

• how behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures
• Ex ?'s: How are we humans alike as members of one human family? As products of different environmental contexts, how do we differ?

biology is to experience

• the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would have foreseen it
• *also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon

thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions

• an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events
• simplifies things

a testable prediction, often implied by a theory

• a statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables. 
• For example, human intelligence may be operationally defined as "what an intelligence test measures"

repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances

an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles

• the scientific method
• description: to observe and record behavior
• correlation: to detect naturally occurring relationships; assess how well one variable predicts another
• experimentation: to explore cause and effect

• The scientific attitude is composed
• of curiosity (passion for exploration), skepticism (doubting and questioning) and humility (ability to accept responsibility
• when wrong).

• 1. organizing and linking observed facts
• 2. implying hypotheses that offer testable predictions and, sometimes, practical applications

• a case study
• naturalistic observation
• survey

a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group

all the cases in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn (NOTE: except for national studies, this does NOT refer to a country's whole population)

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation

• the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.
• *Correlation indicates the possibility of a cause-effect relationship, but does not prove causation
• The correlations coefficient is the mathematical expression of the relationship, ranging from -1 to +1

in psychology, it is to say one trait or behavior is related to another

(btwn 0 and +1.00) indicates a direct relationship, meaning that two things increase together or decrease together

• is a graph comprised of points that
• are generated by values of two variables. The slope of the points depicts the
• direction, while the amount of scatter depicts the strength of the relationship

(btwn 0 and -1.00) indicates an inverse relationship; as one thing increases, the other decreases

the perception of a relationship where none exists

• a research method in which an ivestigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable)
• by random assignment of participants, the experimenter aims to control other relevant factors

assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences btwn those assigned to the different groups

unlike correlational studies, which uncover naturally occurring relationships, an experiment manipulates a factor to determine it's effect

in an experiment, the group that is exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable

• in an experiment, the group that is NOT exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment
• (receives the placebo)

an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo. Commonly used in drug-evaluation studies

experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent

the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied

the outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

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