GOAL: Learn the historical background to Psych

WARM-UP: Exploring our opinions sheet

JUNK SCIENCE VS. JUNK SCIENCE VS. PSYCHOLOGYPSYCHOLOGY

Junk Science research is based on faulty, insufficient, unreliable, twisted, dredged up, or biased data.

It often has a hidden agenda!!Here are some points to consider

when reading statistics.Says Who? How did they ask why? What are alternative explanations?

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What Wouldn’t We Know w/o Psychology?

Memory and perception are influenced by altering just a single verb in a sentence

Jamming an ice pick throughthe orbital plate and scramblingthe frontal lobe is a bad idea

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What Wouldn’t We Know w/o Psychology?As a group, humans do nothing to help a

person being raped and stabbed to death

Shooting a steel rod throughyour head can seriously alteryour personality

Certain colors can change or mood or mindset

We can study the ways to get other people to do what we want.

What Wouldn’t We Know w/o Psychology?

Freud believed that all boys fall in love with their moms as young children and all girls fall for their dads.

Human beings and animals can experienced learned helplessness – they just give up. (abusive relationships)

What Wouldn’t We Know w/o Psychology?

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What Wouldn’t We Know w/o Psychology?Non-conscious informationinfluences perception andaction (illusion of free will?)

We are born with universal grammar able to, potentially, learn any language at birth.

65% of humans wouldknowingly give a lethalelectric shock to a stranger

PSYCHOLOGYpsycho “mind” , “mental”

logy “science”

science of behavior and mental processes

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What is ‘Psychology’?Ancient Greek psukhe + logosModern psyche + ology“Science of the Mind and Human Behavior”

Mind interacts with behavior, and vice versaMany schools of thought and research

methods in psychology

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What is ‘Psychology’?“Mind” vs. “Brain”Can’t see cognitionand mental operationBrain is physicallyobservable through EEG/ERPfMRI, PET, MRI, MEGIs the mind simply a byproduct of physical

brain activity?

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Is it all “Mind and Behavior”?Many sciences contribute to psychology

Psychology

Medicine Linguistics

Biology

ComputerScience

Sociology

Chemistry

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Is it all “Mind and Behavior”?Many factors influence behaviorBehavior can be studied different levels

Biological/Physiological Level

Psychological Level

Environmental Level

Behavior-X

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Is it all “Mind and Behavior”?Example: Factors underlying alcoholism?

“Behavior”Alcoholism

Biological Factors Psychological Factors

Environmental FactorsOther Factors

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Areas of Psychological ResearchBasic Research

Controlled laboratoryBasic, fundamental problems

Applied ResearchRealistic settingsSolving practical problems

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Areas of Psychological ResearchBasic Research Areas Applied Research Areas

Physiological Research Health Psychology

Behavior Analysis School Psychology

Behavior Genetics Consumer Psychology

Comparative Psychology Community Psychology

Cognitive Neuroscience Clinical Neuropsychology

Developmental Psychology

Organizational Psychology

Social Psychology Engineering Psychology

Personality Psychology Forensic Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology

Clinical Psychology

Cross-Cultural Psychology

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Big Questions in Psychology“Mind-Body Debate”“Is the mind physical or non-physical?”

Can non-physical control physical“Nature-Nurture Debate”

Internal (genetic) vs. external (learning) influences

“How do you quantify mental processes?”

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Goals of PsychologyUltimate goal is to explain some behavior

Describing the BehaviorIdentifying Potential CausesPredicting the Behavior

Psychology as a science Uses scientific

principles

Carefully designed methods

Precise procedures

Psychology as the science of behavior and mental processes Psychologists observe

many aspects of human functioning

overt actions social relationships mental processes emotional responses physiological reactions

Three Principles of Scientific Behavior Objectivity

Evaluating research and the theory based on their merits, without preconceived ideas or biases.

Accuracy Gathering data from laboratory and the real world in

precise ways Healthy Skepticism

Curious view of the data, hypotheses, and theories until results are repeated, verified and established over time.

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Why Study Psychology?What could be more interesting than how we

(humans) function?!?!Increases awareness of yours and others’

behaviorsGood major, double-major or minor

Topics span many disciplinesIs a very challenging topic

Teaches and requires critical thinking

Test Question4 goals:DEPI

DEPIUsing the answers you entered on the index card yesterday as the 4 goals of psychology, choose a problem in today’s society and fill in the corresponding information.