Research Methods -Psychology is first and foremost a science, thus is based on research
Hindsight Bias: the tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that you knew it all along
Overconfidence: we tend to think we know more than we do
The Barnum Effect: it is the tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterization of themselves and take them to be accurate
Applied Research vs. Basic Research
-Applied research: had clear, practical applications -Basic Research: explores questions that you may be curious about, but not intended to be immediately used
Hypothesis
-Expresses a relationship between two variables -A variable is anything that can vary among participants in a study
Independent Variable
-Whatever is being manipulated in the experiment
Dependent Variable
-Whatever is being measured in the experiment
Operational Definitions
-Explain what you mean in your hypothesis -How will the variables be measured in "real life" terms
Types of Research
Descriptive
Correlation
Experimental
Descriptive Research
-We cannot say exactly, but we can describe what we see -Any research that observes and records -Types of Descriptive Research:
The Case Study (Case Studies): a detailed picture of one or a few subjects
The Survey (Survey Methods): most common type of study in psychology
-Measure correlation -Cheap and fast -Use interview, mail, phone, internet -Low response rate -Random sampling:
Identify the population you want to study
The sample must be representative of the population you want to study
One reason is the False Consensus Effect, the tendency to over estimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors
Low response rate
People lie or misinterpret themselves
Wording effect
Naturalistic Observation
-Watch subjects in their natural environment
-Do not manipulate the environment
-Hawthorne Effect: but even the control group may experience changes
-Just the fact that you know you are in an experiment can cause change
Here's a video you might find entertaining about naturalistic observation!
Correlation Method
-Correlation expresses a relationship between two variables
-Does not show causation
-Measured used a correlation coefficient
-A number that measures the strength of a relationship
-Range is from (-1) to (+1)
-The relationship gets weaker the closer you get to zero
-Positive Correlation: the variables go in the same direction
-Negative Correlation: the variables go in opposite directions
Experimental Research
-Explores cause and effect relationships -Experimentation: is all about manipulating and controlling variables -Experimental and Control Groups
Experimental: exposes participants to the treatment
Control groups: comparison for evaluating the effect
-Experimental Methods:
Blind Study: subjects are unaware if assigned to experimental or control group
Double-Blind Study: neither subjects nor experimenters know which group is control or experimental
-Descriptive Statistics vs. Inferential Statistics
Descriptive Statistics: describe the results of research
Inferential Statistics: are used to make an inference or draw a conclusion beyond the raw data
Measures of Central Tendency
-Central Tendency: where does the center of the data tend to be -Mode: the most frequently occurring score in a distribution -Mean: average of scores -Median: middle score in a rank-ordered distribution -Range: difference between the highest and lowest scores in distribution -Standard Deviation: a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean
-The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
-Behavior is anything you do that can be observed
Mental processes: internal experiences such as: thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perception
Systematic Study: systematic collection and examinations of date to support or disapprove hypotheses rather than depending on common sense
Roots of psychology can be traced back 2000 years ago to the early philosophers, biologist, and physiologists of ancient Greece
Key Players in History
-Hippocrates: Greek Physiologist that thought the mind or soul resided in the brain
-Believed that it was not composed of a physical substance
-This is called mind-body-dualism-seeing mind and body as two different things that interact
-Plato (350 B.C.): Greek philosopher that believed that who we are and who we know are innate (inborn)
-Aristotle: Plato's student believed that who we are and what we know are acquired from experience
-He also believed in monism- seeing mind and body as different aspects of the same thing
-John Locke: Believed that knowledge comes from observation, and what we know comes from experience
-He coined the term "tabula rasa"- blanked state
-"The mind is like a blank state in which the environment writes upon."
-Rene Descartes: Believed that what we know is innate
-"I think therefore I am."
Nature vs. Nurture Controversy
-Nature: Certain elementary ideas are innate to the human mind; not gained though experience
-Man are born, not made
-Nurture: Anything that we know, we have learned through experience
-Our mind is like a blank slate (tabula rasa; Locke) that the environment writes up, man are made not born
The Birth of Psychology
-Wilhem Wundt: 1879 University of Leipzig
-Psychology's first experiment, birth of science
-Establishment of first psychology lab
-Edward Titchener
Structuralism
-Wundt, Titchener, Hall (founder and first president of APA)
-Used introspection to explore the structural elements of the mind
-Breaks down mental processes into most basic parts
Functionalism
-A reaction to structuralism
-Sought to explain how our mental and behavioral processes function
-How do they unable us to adapt survive, and flourish?
-Focused on purpose of behavior
-William James influenced by Darwin
The 7 Perspectives
Biological
-The interactions between anatomy (brain/nervous system) and behavior
-How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences
-What parts of the brain are involved in certain behaviors
-Affects your body and behavior
Behavioral
-Argue psychology is the study of observable behavior
-Behavior is determined by your environment and experience not genetics
-The mind and mental events are not important because they cannot be observed (feelings do not matter)
-Everything trained and learned, nothing is born
-Key People: Watson, Skinner, Pavlov
Cognitive
-Thinking
-Key Person: Piaget
Evolutionary
-Behavior can be best explained in terms of how adaptive that behavior is to our survival
-We behave the way we do because we inherited those behaviors
-Thus, those behaviors must have helped ensure our ancestors survival
-This process selects physical and behavioral characteristics
Humanistic
-Argue that humans have unique qualities of behavior different from other animals
-Free will and potential for potential growth guide behavior and mental processes
-View human nature as positive
-Emphasize the importance of feelings, love, and acceptance
-Key People: Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers
Sociocultural
-Says that much of your behavior and feelings are dictated by the culture you live in
Psychoanalytical/ Psychodnamic
-The interaction between the conscious and unconscious (mental process that we do not normally have access to but are influenced by) shape behavior
-Childhood experience is important to the development of personality
Personality: an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
Psychoanalytic Perspective: in his clinical practice, Freud encountered patients suffering from nervous disorders
-Their complaints could not be explained in terms of purely Freud's clinical experience led him to develop the first comprehensive theory of personality
-Which includes the unconscious mind, psychosexual stages, and defense mechanisms
Exploring the Unconscious: a reservoir (unconscious mind) of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories
-Freud asked patients to say whatever came to their minds (free association) in order to tap the unconscious
Dream Analysis: another method to analyze the unconscious mind is through interpreting manifest and latent contents of dreams
Psychoanalysis: the process of free association (chain of thoughts) leads to painful, embarrassing unconscious memories
-Once these memories are retrieved and released (treatment: psychoanalysis) the patient feels better
Model of Mind: the mind is like an iceberg
-It is mostly hidden, and below the surface lies the unconscious mind
-The preconscious stores temporary memory
Personality Structure: personality develops as a result of our efforts to resolve conflicts between our biological impulses (id) and social restraints (superego)
Id, Ego and Superego: the Id unconsciously strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives, operating on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification
Personality Development: Freud believed that personality formed during the first years of life divided into psychosexual stages
-During these stages the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on pleasure sensitive body areas called erogenous zones
Psychosexual Stages
Oedipus Complex: a boy's sexual desire for his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
-A girl's desire for her father is called the Electra complex
Identification: children cope with threatening feelings by repressing them and by identifying with the rival parent
-Through this process of identification, their superego gains strength that incorporates their parents' values
Defense Mechanisms: the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
Repression: banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
Regression: leads an individual faced with anxiety to retreat ro retreat to a ore infantile psychosexual stage
Reaction Formation: causes the ego to unconsciously switch unacceptable impulses into their opposites, people may express feelings of purity when they may be suffering anxiety from unconscious feelings about sex
Projections: leads people to disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
Rationalization: offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one's actions
Displacement: shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, redirecting anger toward a safer outlet
The Neo-Freudians
-Like Freud, Alder believed in childhood tensions
-However, these tensions were social in nature and not sexual
-A child struggles with an inferiority complex during growth and strives for superiority and power
-Like Alder, Horney believed in the social aspects of childhood growth and development
-She countered Freud's assumption that women have weak superegos and suffer from our species' past
-This is why many cultures share certain myths and images such as the mother being a symbol of nurturance
Assessing Unconscious Processes
-Evaluating personality from an unconscious mind's perspective would require a psychological instrument (projective test) that would reveal the hidden unconscious mind
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
-Developed by Henry Murray, the TAT is a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
Rorschach Inkblot Test
-The most widely used projective test uses a set of 10 inkblots and was designed by Hermann Rorschach
-It seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots
Projective Tests: Criticisms
-Critics argue that projective tests lack both reliability (consistency of results) ad validity (predicting what it is supposed to)
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective
-Personality develops throughout life and is not fixed in childhood
-Freud under emphasized peer influence on the individual, which may be as powerful as parental influence
-Gender identity may develop before 5-6 years of age
-There may be other reasons for dreams besides wish fulfillment
-Verbal slips can be explained on the basis of cognitive processing of verbal choices
-Suppressed sexuality leads to psychological disorders
-Sexual inhibition has decreased, but psychological disorders have not
-Freud's psychoanalytic theory rests on the repression of painful experiences into the unconscious mind
The Modern Unconscious Mind
-Modern research shows the existence of non-conscious information processing
Schemes that automatically control perceptions and interpretations
The right-hemisphere activity that enables the split-brain patient's left hand to carry out an instruction the patient cannot verbalize
Parallel processing during vision and thinking
Implicit memories
Emotions that activate instantly without consciousness
Self-concept and stereotypes that unconsciously influence us
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective
-The scientific merits of Freud's theory have been criticized
-Psychoanalysis is meagerly testable
-Most of its concepts arise out of clinical practice, which are the after-the-fact explanation
Humanistic Perspective
-By the 1960's psychologists became discontent with Freud's negativity and the mechanistic psychology of the behaviorists
Self-Actualization Person
-Maslow proposed that we as individuals are motivated by a hierarchy
-Beginning with physiological needs, we try to reach the state of self-actualization--fulfilling our potential
Person-Centered Perspective
-Carl Rogers also believed in an individual's self-actualization tendencies
-He said that unconditional positive regard is an attitude of acceptance of others despite their failings
Assessing the Self
-In an effort to assess personality, Rogers asked people to describe themselves as they would like to be (ideal) and as they actually are (real)
-If the two descriptions were close the individual had positive self-concept
-All of our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in an answer to the question, "Who am I?" refers to self-concept
Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective
-Humanistic psychology has a pervasive impact on counseling, education, child-rearing, and management with its emphasis on a positive self-concept, empathy, and the thought that people are basically good and can improve
Concepts in humanistic psychology are vague and subjective and lack scientific basis
The individualism encouraged can lead to self-indulgence, selfishness, and an erosion of moral restraints
Humanistic psychology fails to appreciate the reality of our human capacity for evil, it lacks adequate balance between realistic optimism and despair
The Trait Perspective
-An individual's unique collection of durable dispositions and consistent ways of behaving (traits) constitutes his or her personality
-Examples of traits:
Honest
Dependable
Mood
Impulsive
Exploring Traits
-Each personality is uniquely made up of multiple traits
-Allport and Odbert, identified almost 18,000 words representing traits
-One way to condense the immense list of personality traits is through factor analysis, a statistical approach used to describe and relate personality traits
Factor Analysis
-Hans and Sybil Eysenck suggested that personality could be reduced down to two polar dimensions, extroversion-introversion and emotional stability-instability
Biology and Personality
-Personality dimensions are influenced by genes
Brain-imaging procedures show show that extroverts seek stimulation because their normal brain arousal is relatively low
Genes also influence our temperament and behavioral style, differences in children's shyness and inhibition may be attributed to nervous system re-activity
Assessing Traits
-Personality inventories are questionnaires (often with true-false or agree-disagree items_ designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors assessing several traits at once
MMPI
-The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests
-It was originally developed to identify emotional disorder
The Big Five Factors
-Today's trait researchers believe that earlier trait dimensions, such as Eysencks' personality dimensions, fail to tell the whole story
Evaluating the Trait Perspective
-The Person-Situation Controversy Walter Mischel points out that traits may be enduring, but the resulting behavior in various situations is different
-Therefore, traits are not good predictors of behavior
The Person-Situation Controversy
-Trait theorists argue that behaviors from a situation may be different, but average behavior remains the same
-Traits matter
-Traits are socially significant and influence our health, thinking, and performance
Consistency of Expressive Style
-Expressive styles in speaking and gestures demonstrate trait consistency
-Observers are able to judge people's behavior and feelings in as little as 30 and in one particular case as little as 2 seconds
Social-Cognitive Perspective
-Bandura believes that personality is the result of an interaction that takes place between a person and their social context
Individuals and Environments
-Specific ways in which individuals and environments interact
Different people choose different environments interact
Our personalities shape how we react to events
Our personalities shape situations
Behavior
-Behavior emerges from an interplay of external and internal influences
Personal Control
-Social-cognitive psychologists emphasize our sense of personal control, whether we control the environment or the environment controls us
-External locus of control refers to the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate internal locus of control refers to the perception that we can control our own fate
Learned Helplessness
-When unable to avoid repeated adverse events an animal or human learns helplessness
Optimism vs. Pessimism
-An optimistic or pessimistic attributional style is style is your way of explaining positive or negative events
-Positive psychology aims to discover and promote conditions that enable individuals and communities to thrive
Positive Psychology and Humanistic Psychology
-Positive psychology, such as humanistic psychology, attempts to foster human fulfillment
-Positive psychology, in addition, seeks positive subjective well-being, positive character, and positive social groups
Assessing Behavior in Situations
-Social-cognitive psychologists observe people in realistic and simulated situations because they find that it is the best way to predict the behavior of others in similar situations
Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective
-The social-cognitive perspective on personality sensitizes researchers to the effects of situations on and by individuals
-It builds on learning and cognition research
-Critics say that social-cognitive psychologists pay a lot of attention to the situation and pay less attention to the individual, his unconscious mind, his emotions, and his genetics
Exploring the Self
-Research on the self has a long history because the self organized thinking, feelings, and actions and is a critical part of our personality
Research focuses on the different selves we posses, some we dream and others we dread
Research studies how we overestimate our concern that other evaluate our appearance, performance, and blunders (spotlight effect)
Benefits of Self-Esteem
-Maslow and Rogers argued that a successful life results from a healthy self-image (self-esteem)
-The following are two reasons why low self-esteem results in personal problems
When self-esteem is deflated, we view ourselves and other critically
Low self-esteem reflects reality, our failure in meeting challenges, or surmounting difficulties
Culture and Self-Esteem
-People maintain their self-esteem even with a low status by valuing things they achieve and comparing themselves to people with similar positions
Self-Serving Bias
-We accept responsibility for goods deeds and successes more than for bad deeds and failures
-Defensive self-esteem is fragile and egotistic whereas secure self-esteem is less fragile and less dependent on external evaluation
Psychological Disorder
-Psychological Disorder: a "harmful dysfunction" in which behavior is judged to be a typical, disturbing, maladaptive, and unjustifiable
-Early Theories: afflicted people were possessed by evil spirits
-Current Perspective:
A. Medical Perspective: psychological disorders or sicknesses and can be diagnosed, treated and cured
B. Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective: assumes biological, psychological and sociocultural factors combine to interact causing psychological disorders
-Used to be called diathesis-stress model, diathesis meaning predisposition and stress meaning environment
Classifying Psychological Disorders
-DSM-N: Diagnostic Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders: the big book of disorders
-Neurotic Disorders: distressing but one can still function in society and act rationally
-Psychotic Disorder: person loses contact with reality, experiences distorted perceptions
Anxiety Disorders
-A group of conditions where the primary symptoms are anxiety or defenses against anxiety
-The patient fears something awful will happen to them
-They are in a state of intense apprehension, uneasiness, uncertainty, or fear
Phobias
-A person experiences sudden episodes of intense dread
-Must be an irrational fear
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
-An anxiety disorder in which a person is continuously tense, apprehensive and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal
-The patient is constantly tense and worried, feels inadequate, is oversensitive, cannot concentrate and suffers from insomnia
Panic Disorder
-An anxiety disorder marked by a minute-long episode of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking and other frightening sensations
Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder
-Persistent unwanted thoughts (obsessions) cause someone to feel the need (compulsion) to engage in a particular action
-Obsession about dirt and germs mat lead to compulsive hand washing
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
-Flashbacks of nightmares following a person's involvement in or observation of an extremely stressful event
-Memories of the event cause anxiety
Somatoform Disorder
-Occurs when a person manifests a psychological problem through a physiological symptoms
Hypochondriasis
-Has frequent physical complaints for which medical doctors are unable to locate the cause
-They usually believed that the minor issues (headache, upset stomach) are indicative are more severe illnesses
Conversion Disorder
-Report the existence of severe physical problems with no biological reason
-Like blindness of paralysis
Dissociative Disorders
-These disorders involve a disruption in the conscious process
Psychogenic Amnesia
-A person cannot remember things with no physiological basis for the disruption in memory
-Ex: Retrograde Amnesia
Dissociative Fugue
-People with psychogenic amnesia find themselves in an unfamiliar environment
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
-Used to be known as multiple personality disorder
-A person has several rather than one integrated personality
-People with DID commonly have a history of childhood abuse or trauma
Mood Disorders
-Experience extreme or inappropriate emotions
Major Depression (Unipolar Depression)
-Unhappy for at least two weeks with no apparent cause
-Depression is the common cold of psychological disorders
Seasonal Affective Disorder
-Experience depression during the winter months
-Based not on temperature, but on amount of sunlight
-Treated with light therapy
Bipolar Disorder
-Formally manic depression
-Involves periods of depression and manic episodes
-Manic episodes involve feelings of high energy
Personality Disorders
-Well established, maladaptive ways of behaving that negatively affect people's ability to function
-Dominates their personality
Antisocial Personality Disorder
-Lack of empathy
-Little regard for other's feelings
-View the world as hostile and look out for themselves
Dependent Personality Disorder
-Rely too much on the attention and help of others
Historic Personality Disorder
-Needs to be the center of attention
-Whether acting silly or dressing provocatively
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
-Having an unwarranted sense of self-importance
-Thinking that you are the center of the universe
Schizophrenia Disorder
-About 1 in every 100 person are diagnosed with schizophrenia
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Disorganized thinking
Disturbed perceptions
Inappropriate emotions and actions
Disorganized Thinking
-The thinking or a person with schizophrenia is fragmented and bizarre and distorted with false beliefs
-disorganized thinking comes from a break down in selective attention, they cannot filter information
Delusions (false beliefs)
-Delusions of persecution, delusions of grandeur
Disturbed Perceptions
-Hallucinations: sensory experiences without sensory stimulation
Inappropriate Emotions and Actions
-Laugh at inappropriate times
-Flat effect
-Senseless, compulsive acts
-Catatonoia, motionless
Positive vs. Negative Symptoms
-Positive: Hallucinations, disorganized, diluted in talk (salad), inappropriate laughter, tears, or rage
-Negative: Toneless voice, expressionless face, mute, rigid body
-Positive means presence of inappropriate symptoms
-Negative means absence of appropriate symptoms
Disorganized Schizophrenia
-Disorganized speech or behavior, or flat or inappropriate emotion
-Clang associations
Paranoid Schizophrenia
-Preoccupation with delusions or hallucinations
-Feels like someone wants to get you
Catatonia Schizophrenia
-Flat effect
-Waxy flexibility
-Parrot like repeating of another's speech and movement
Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
-Many and varied symptoms
Psychological Therapies
-Psychological treatments that are based upon psychological principles
-Biomedical Therapies: treatments that focus on alternating the brain with drugs, psycho surgery, or electro-compulsive therapy
-Therapy: used to be that if someone exhibited abnormal behavior, they were institutional
-Because of new drugs, and better therapy, the U.S. went to a policy of deinstitutionalized
Psychoanalysis
-Freud's therapy
-Freud used free association, hypnosis and dream interpretation to gain insight into the client's unconscious
Humanistic Therapy
-Focuses on people's potential for self-fulfillment (self-actualization)
-Focuses on the present and future (not the past)
-Focuses on conscious thoughts (not unconscious ones)
-Take responsibility for your actions, instead of blaming childhood anxieties
Group therapy (alcohol addiction)
Self-help support group (family help)
-Most widely used humanistic techniques client (person) centered therapy, developed by Carl Rogers
-Therapist should use genuineness, acceptance, and empathy to show unconditional positive regard towards their clients
Behavior Therapy
-Therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors
-The behaviors are the problems, so they must change the behaviors
-Systematic Desensitization: a type of counter conditioning that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli
-Exposure Therapy: form of desensitization where the client directly confronts the anxiety-triggering stimuli
-Adversive Conditioning: a type of counter conditioning that associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior
-Token Economy: a conditioning procedure that rewards a desired behavior
-A patient exchanges a token of some sort, earned from exhibiting the desired behavior
Cognitive Therapy
-A therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and actin, based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions
Biomedical Therapies
-Psychopharmacology: the study of the effect of drugs on mind and behavior
-Antipsychotic Drugs: class of medicines used to treat psychosis and other mental and emotional conditions
-Used if suffer from hallucinations, agitations, and delusions
-Beginning to help schizophrenia with both positive and negative symptoms
-Often have powerful symptoms
-Antianxiety Drugs:includes drugs like Valium and Librium
-Like alcohol, the depress nervous system activity
-Most widely abuse drug
-Antidepressant Drugs: lift you up out of depression, mostly increase the neurotransmitter Nor-epinephrine (Prozae, Paxil, Zoloft)
-Electroconvulsive Therapy: biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient
