Psych 10

• Psychology


  The scientific study of the mind and behavior
• Psychology is not the study of atypical behaviors and mental disorders
• Wilhelm Wundt opened first experimental psychology lab


  1879
• Psychology has been influenced by philosophy and sciences (physics, evolution, medicine/physiology)
• Perspectives on nature vs. nurture


  • Plato (nativist) - nature
  • Aristotle (empiricist) - nurture
• Hippocrates developed the world's first personality classification
• Charles Darwin: evolution by natural selection, "survival of the fittest", Behaviors are shaped by natural selection
• Localization of brain function was studied using Phrenology (study of bumps on your skull to diff psychological attributes)
• Phineas Gage - Case studies of brain injury, had an iron rod shot through his head but he survived, Post traumatic personality change
• Wilhelm Wundt conducted reaction time studies
• Schools of thought in psychology


  • Structuralism
  • Functionalism
  • Behaviorism
  • Cognitive psychology
  • Psychoanalytic
  • Cross-cultural psychology
• Structuralism


  Attempted to analyze conscious experience by breaking it down into basic elements
• Introspection


  Subjective observation of one's own experiences
• Limitations of structuralism: Experience is subjective, Limitations DOES NOT EQUAL weakness
• Functionalism


  The study of the purpose and function of behaviors and mental processes
• Behaviorism


  Study only observable behavior
• Cognitive psychology


  Learning, memory, attention
• Psychoanalytic theory


  Attempts to explain how behavior and personality are influenced by unconscious processes
• Cross-Cultural Psychology


  A field that draws comparisons about individual and group behaviors across cultures
• Characteristics of WEIRD samples


  • Western
  • Educated
  • Industrialized
  • Rich
  • Democratic
• What does psychology today encompass?


  • Basic research
  • Applied research
  • Translational research: translating scientific findings for public use
  • Biological/Physiological/Neuroscience, cognitive, developmental, social, Clinical, educational, forensic, industrial-organizational
• The scientific method helps us overcome/reduce our biases and learn not so obvious findings
• Hindsight bias


  Belief that an outcome was foreseeable (after it occurred), "Knew it all along" effect
• Theory


  Broader, can be falsified
• Hypothesis


  Specific and testable prediction
• No study "proves" anything; don't say "prove" in psychology
• Correlational designs


  Measure how closely two factors (variables) vary together, or how well you can predict a change in one variable from observing a change in the other variable
• Predictor variable


  The variable that is used to predict the outcome
• Outcome/Criterion variable


  The variable that is being predicted
• Positive correlation


  Both variables either increase or decrease together
• Negative correlation


  One variable increases when the other decreases
• Zero correlation


  One variable is not predictably related to the other
• Correlation cannot infer causation
• Operational definition


  A description of a property in concrete, measurable terms
• Independent variable (IV)


  The factor that is varied/manipulated
• Dependent variable (DV)


  The behavior that is measured (and is expected to change as a function of change in the independent variable)
• Random assignment: assigning participants randomly to experimental conditions (or levels of the IV)
• Population


  Everyone in the group the experimenter is interested in
• Sample


  A subset of the population
• Random sampling


  Every person in the population has an equal chance of being selected