Professor Veronica Emilia Nuzzolo

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

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CultureEnduring values, beliefs, behaviors, and traditions that are shared by a large group of people and passed from one generation to the next.

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CultureSociocultural Perspective:

+ Combines social psychology and cultural psychology

Culture and Abnormality: + How your culture affects the definition of abnormal behavior

Individualistic and Collective Cultures:+ Working together or working alone

Culture Fair Tests: + Developing tests that are not affected by culture

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Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

Psychologists view behavior from several perspectives.• Psychological

Understanding behavior in terms of psychological events• Behavioral• Neuroscience• Cognitive• Group

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Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

Psychologists view behavior from several perspectives.• Psychological• Behavioral

Understanding behavior in terms of the principles of learning• Neuroscience• Cognitive• Group

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Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

Psychologists view behavior from several perspectives.• Psychological• Behavioral• Neuroscience

Understanding behavior in terms of biology• Cognitive• Group

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Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

Psychologists view behavior from several perspectives.• Psychological• Behavioral• Neuroscience• Cognitive

Understanding behavior in terms of cognitive events• Group

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Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

Psychologists view behavior from several perspectives.• Psychological• Behavioral• Neuroscience• Cognitive• Group

Understanding abnormal behavior in terms of the effects of groups on behavior

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Areas of Specialty in Psychology• Clinical

Diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders, research on causes of disorders and treatment effectiveness

• Counseling• Developmental• Educational• Experimental• Cognitive• Personality• Quantitative• Industrial/Organizational• Social

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

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Areas of Specialty in Psychology• Clinical• Counseling

Consultation with clients on issues of personal adjustment; vocational and career planning; interest and aptitude testing

• Developmental• Educational• Experimental• Cognitive• Personality• Quantitative• Industrial/Organizational• Social

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

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Areas of Specialty in Psychology• Clinical• Counseling• Developmental

Study of physical, mental, emotional, and social development across the entire life span

• Educational• Experimental• Cognitive• Personality• Quantitative• Industrial/Organizational• Social

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

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Areas of Specialty in Psychology• Clinical• Counseling• Developmental• Educational

Study of psychological aspects of the educational process; curriculum and instructional research; teacher training

• Experimental• Cognitive• Personality• Quantitative• Industrial/Organizational• Social

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

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Areas of Specialty in Psychology• Clinical• Counseling• Developmental• Educational• Experimental

Research (typically laboratory experiments, often with non- humans) on basic processes such as learning, perception, and motivation

• Cognitive• Personality• Quantitative• Industrial/Organizational• Social

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

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Areas of Specialty in Psychology• Clinical• Counseling• Developmental• Educational• Experimental• Cognitive

Study of mental processes such as memory, problem solving, planning, consciousness, and language (psycholinguistics)

• Personality• Quantitative• Industrial/Organizational• Social

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

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Areas of Specialty in Psychology• Clinical• Counseling• Developmental• Educational• Experimental• Cognitive• Personality

Study of individual differences in personality and their effects on behavior; development of personality tests

• Quantitative• Industrial/Organizational• Social

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

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Areas of Specialty in Psychology• Clinical• Counseling• Developmental• Educational• Experimental• Cognitive• Personality• Quantitative

Measurement issues and data analysis; development of mathematical models of behavior

• Industrial/Organizational• Social

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

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Areas of Specialty in Psychology• Clinical• Counseling• Developmental• Educational• Experimental• Cognitive• Personality• Quantitative• Industrial/Organizational

Examination of behavior in work settings; study of factors related to employee morale and performance, development of tests to select job applicants; development of machines and tasks to fit human capabilities

• Social

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

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Areas of Specialty in Psychology• Clinical• Counseling• Developmental• Educational• Experimental• Cognitive• Personality• Quantitative• Industrial/Organizational• Social

Examination of how the social environment—the presence of other people—influences an individual’s behavior, thoughts and feelings

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Profession of Psychology

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Introductory Psychology Concepts: Perspectives in Psychology

Perspectives in PsychologyWays of Understanding Behavior

Issue Neuroscience Psychodynamic Behavioral Cognitive Humanistic

Key issues in psychology and the positions taken by psychologists subscribing to the five major perspectives of psychology.

Nature (heredity) vs. nurture (environment)

Nature(heredity)

Nature(heredity)

Nurture(environment)

Nurture(environment)Both

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Introductory Psychology Concepts: Perspectives in Psychology

Perspectives in PsychologyWays of Understanding Behavior

Issue Neuroscience Psychodynamic Behavioral Cognitive Humanistic

Key issues in psychology and the positions taken by psychologists subscribing to the five major perspectives of psychology.

Conscious vs. unconscious determinants of behavior

Unconscious Unconscious Conscious Both Conscious

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Introductory Psychology Concepts: Perspectives in Psychology

Perspectives in PsychologyWays of Understanding Behavior

Issue Neuroscience Psychodynamic Behavioral Cognitive Humanistic

Key issues in psychology and the positions taken by psychologists subscribing to the five major perspectives of psychology.

Observable behavior vs. internal mental processes

Internal emphasis

Internal emphasis

Observable emphasis

Internal emphasis

Internal emphasis

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Introductory Psychology Concepts: Perspectives in Psychology

Perspectives in PsychologyWays of Understanding Behavior

Issue Neuroscience Psychodynamic Behavioral Cognitive Humanistic

Key issues in psychology and the positions taken by psychologists subscribing to the five major perspectives of psychology.

Free will vs. determinism

Determinism Determinism Determinism Free will Free will

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Introductory Psychology Concepts: Perspectives in Psychology

Perspectives in PsychologyWays of Understanding Behavior

Issue Neuroscience Psychodynamic Behavioral Cognitive Humanistic

Key issues in psychology and the positions taken by psychologists subscribing to the five major perspectives of psychology.

Individual differences vs. universal principles

Universal emphasis

Universal emphasis

Both Individual emphasis

Individual emphasis

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The Scientific Method: The approach used by psychologists to systematically acquire knowledge and understanding about behavior and other phenomena of interest.

Introductory Psychology Concepts : Research Methods and Research Studies

1. Identify questions of interest stemming from

• Behavior and phenomenon requiring explanation

• Prior research findings

•Curiosity, creativity, insight

2. Formulate an explanation

Specify a theory

Develop a hypothesis

3. Carry out research

Operationalize hypothesis

Select a research method

Collect the data

Analyze the data

4. Communicate the findings

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Self Report Psychological Behavioral

Descriptive MethodsMethods of Observing Behavior

Introductory Psychology Concepts : Research Methods and Research Studies

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Researcher Jane Goodall studies the behavior of wild chimpanzees in their native habitat.

Descriptive MethodsNaturalistic Observation: Observing subjects in natural environments

Introductory Psychology Concepts : Research Methods and Research Studies

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In this experiment, preschoolers’ reactions to the puppet are monitored.

Descriptive MethodsLaboratory Observation: Observing subjects in artificially controlled environments

Introductory Psychology Concepts : Research Methods and Research Studies

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The Hmong Sudden Death Syndrome

• Many Hmong refugees who escaped the ravages of war in their homeland experienced great stress and guilt when they resettled in North America.

• This stress, combined with cultural beliefs about angry spirits, may have contributed to the Hmong sudden death syndrome, which eventually claimed more than 40 lives.

Descriptive MethodsCase Studies: In-depth analysis of an individual, group, or event

Introductory Psychology Concepts : Research Methods and Research Studies

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Descriptive MethodsSurveys and Polls: • Methods of gathering information or data from persons in which they provide answers themselves.

• Conclusion from samples are drawn using scientific method.

Population

Unrepresentative sample

Representative sample

Sampling procedure

Introductory Psychology Concepts : Research Methods and Research Studies

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Sample of participants

Experimentalgroup (noisecondition)

Control group(no-noisecondition)

Measure amount of learning

Measure amount of learning

Scientificallycompare

performanceof the two

groups

The logic of designing an experiment. The experimenter manipulates the amount of noise to which participants are exposed, measures their learning, and attempts to treat them equally in every other way.

This creates an experiment group and a control group.

Introductory Psychology Concepts : Research Methods and Research Studies

Experimental Method

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Scientific Method: 5 steps

Perceiving a Question1

Forming a Hypothesis2

Testing the Hypothesis3

Drawing Conclusions4

Reporting Results5

Introductory Psychology Concepts : Scientific Method

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Self Report Psychological Behavioral

Descriptive MethodsMethods of Observing Behavior

Introductory Psychology Concepts : Scientific Method

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Self Report Psychological Behavioral

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Descriptive Methods

Descriptive MethodsMethods of Observing Behavior

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Researcher Jane Goodall uses naturalistic observation to study the behavior of wild chimpanzees.

Descriptive MethodsNaturalistic Observation: Observing subjects in natural environments

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Descriptive Methods

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1-35

In this experiment, preschoolers’ reactions to the puppet are monitored.

Descriptive MethodsLaboratory Observation: Observing subjects in artificially controlled environments

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Descriptive Methods

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1-36

The Hmong Sudden Death Syndrome

• Many Hmong refugees who escaped the ravages of war in their homeland experienced great stress and guilt when they resettled in North America.

• This stress, combined with cultural beliefs about angry spirits, may have contributed to the Hmong sudden death syndrome, which eventually claimed more than 40 lives.

Descriptive MethodsCase Studies: In-depth analysis of an individual, group, or event

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Descriptive Methods

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1-37

Descriptive MethodsSurveys and Polls: • Method of gathering information or data from persons where they provide the answers themselves.

• Conclusion are drawn using scientific method.

Introductory Psychology Concepts: Descriptive Methods

Population

Unrepresentative sample

Representative sample

Sampling procedure