Py1102-week 1

• Psychology is the scientific study of human mental processes and behavior, including thinking, feeling, and actions
• Psychology is not mind-reading or pseudoscience like astrology
• There are many branches of psychology, including clinical, biological, cognitive, developmental, and social psychology
• Psychology relies on the scientific method, where theories are developed and tested through empirical research studies
• Psychologists study real-world issues like distracted driving and the effects of the pandemic to further understanding and improve lives
• Psychiatry focuses on treating mental illness with drugs, while psychology is broader and most practitioners are not medical doctors or able to prescribe drugs
• The scientific method in psychology distinguishes it from pseudopsychology fields like astrology and graphology
• Psychological research often examines causal relationships between variables to explain phenomena
• Independent variables are manipulated while dependent variables are measured as the outcome
• Variables can be categorical (e.g. gender) or continuous (e.g. height), and measurement allows variables to be quantified
• Common measures in psychology include self-report questionnaires, other ratings, ability tests, physiological measures, behavioral observation, and timing
• Reliability refers to whether a measure produces consistent results over time or across raters, while validity refers to whether a measure accurately captures the intended construct
• Bias can contaminate measures, such as experimental bias where the investigator inadvertently influences the results, even with animal subjects
• To address these issues, researchers should be transparent in reporting and careful in study design, and replication by other researchers helps validate findings