dr. william g. huitt valdosta state university introduction to psychology last revised: may 2005
TRANSCRIPT
Dr. William G. HuittValdosta State University
Introduction to Psychology
Last revised: May 2005
Why Study Psychology
• Learn more about yourself
• Investigate psychology as a major
• Learn more about others
• Need a social science course
• Learn more about how others influence you
• Learn more about how you influence others
Ways to Validate Truth or Reality
• Intuition
• Religious scripture and interpretation
• Philosophy and logical reasoning
• Science and the scientific method
• Social and/or cultural consensus
• Personal experience
Scientific Method
– The orderly, systematic process researchers follow as they
• identify a research issue, question or problem , • design a study to investigate the issue, • collect and analyze data, • draw conclusions, and • communicate their findings
– The database that is developed using the scientific method
Purpose for Using Scientific Method
• Description
• Explanation
• Prediction
Understanding
• Influence or Control
Database• Facts & Concepts
• Theories
• Principles
• Laws
Critieria for Using Scientific Method
• Knowledge must be grounded in experience
• Knowledge must be grounded in a paradigm or exemplar
• Any hypothesis must be potentially falsifiable
Psychology
Definition– The scientific study of behavior and mental
processes (or mind and behavior) especially as it relates to individual human beings
• Related areas of study– Philosophy– Other sciences
• Biology• Sociology• Anthropology• History
– Literature and the arts– Religion
Science or common sense?
http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/longview/ctac/psychology/Commonsense2.htm
Psychology
• Goals of Psychology– Description
• First step in understanding most behaviors or mental processes
• Describes the behavior or mental process of interest as accurately and completely as possible
• Tells what occurred
– Prediction• When researchers can specify the conditions under
which a behavior or event is likely to occur
Psychology
• Goals of Psychology (continued)– Explanation
• Requires an understanding of the conditions under which a given behavior or mental process occurs
• Enables researchers to state the causes of the behavior or mental process they are studying
• Tells why a given event or behavior occurred
– Influence or Control• When researchers know how to apply a principle or
change a condition to prevent unwanted occurrences or to bring about desired outcomes
Psychology
• Two types of research that help psychologists accomplish these goals– Basic research
• Research conducted to advance knowledge rather than for its practical application
– Example: studying the nature of memory
– Applied research• Research conducted to solve practical problems
– Example: exploring methods to improve memory
Psychology
• Critical thinking– The process of objectively evaluating claims,
propositions, or conclusions to determine whether they follow logically from the evidence presented
– Critical thinking is the disciplined mental activity of evaluating arguments or propositions and making judgments that can guide the development of beliefs and taking action.
– The foundation of the scientific method
Psychology
• Creative thinking– Producing new ideas or thoughts. Imaginative
thinking that is aimed at producing outcomes that involve synthesis of ideas or lateral thinking; thinking that is more synthetical than analytical, sometimes referred to as divergent thinking.
Descriptive Research Methods
• Descriptive research methods– Research methods that yield descriptions of
behavior rather than causal explanations• Naturalistic observation• Laboratory observation• Case studies• Surveys• Interviews• Questionnaires
Research Methods
• Description
• Explanation
• Prediction
Understanding
• Influence or Control
Type of Study• Descriptive
• Correlational
• Experimental
• Theoretical
Population vs Sample
• Population– The entire group that is of interest to researchers
and to which they wish to generalize their findings; the group from which a sample is selected
• Sample– The portion of any population that is selected for
study and from which generalizations are made about the larger population
Selecting A Sample
• Representative sample– A sample of participants selected from the larger
population in such a way that important subgroups within the population are included in the sample in the same proportions as they are found in the larger population
– Biased sample• A sample that does not adequately reflect the larger
population
– Random sample• A sample selected where everyone in the population has
an equal chance of being included in the sample
Descriptive Research Methods
• Naturalistic observation
• Laboratory observation
• Case study
• Survey
• Interviews
• Questionnaires
Correlational Method
• Correlational method– A research method used to establish the
degree of relationship (correlation) between two characteristics, events, or behaviors
– For use when it is impossible to manipulate variables of interest
Correlational Method
• Correlational coefficient– A numerical value that indicates the strength and
direction of the relationship between two variables– Coefficients range from +1.00 (a perfect positive
correlation) to –1.00 (a perfect negative correlation)– The further the correlation coefficient is from zero,
the stronger the coefficient– The sign determines the direction of the relationship
• (+) Positive – as one variable increases, the other must also increase
• (-) Negative – as one variable increases, the other must decrease
Experimental Method
• Experimental method– The research method in which researchers:
• randomly assign participants to a control group or an experimental group
• control all conditions other than one or more independent variables, which are then manipulated
• determine their effect on some behavioral measure, the dependent variable in the experiment
– Variable• Any condition or factor that can be manipulated, controlled,
or measured
Experimental Method
• Independent variable– In an experiment, the factor or condition that the
researcher manipulates in order to determine its effect on another behavior or condition known as the dependent variable
– Sometimes referred to as the treatment
• Dependent variable– The variable that is measured at the end of an
experiment and is presumed to vary as a result of manipulations of the independent variable
Experimental Method
• Experimental group– In an experiment, the group that is exposed to the
independent variable, or the treatment• Control group
– In an experiment, a group that is similar to the experimental group and is exposed to the same experimental environment but is not exposed to the independent variable; used for purposes of comparison
• Hypothesis– A prediction about the relationship between two or
more variables
Potential Problems
• Confounding variables– Any factors or conditions other than the independent
variable that could cause observed changes in the dependent variable
• The placebo effect• Selection bias• Experimenter bias
– Double-blind technique
Limitations of the experimental method
• The more control a researcher exercises over the setting, the more unnatural and contrived the research setting becomes
• Unethical or not possible in many areas of interest– For instance, researchers could not addict humans
to tobacco to establish that smoking tobacco causes cancer
– Scientists could not testify that smoking tobacco causes cancer – only that smoking tobacco is highly correlated with cancer