Ch 1 - Lecture notes 1 PDF

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Note: Review big questions, learning objectives, and question answers I. The Science of Psychology A. What is Psychological Science? 1. Psychology: study of mental activity and behavior 2. Psychologist: loose term to describe someone who's career involves studying mental life or predicting behavior B. Psychological Science is the Study of Mind, Brain and Behavior 1. Mind: mental activity resulting from biological processes in the brain which is responsible for memories, thoughts and feelings 2. Behavior: totality of human or animal actions ranging from subtle to the complex 3. Psychologists used to focus on behavior rather than mental states bc they had few objective techniques to observe mental states C. Psychological Science Teaches Critical Thinking 1. Media often overblows reports of new psychological discoveries 2. Amiable skepticism combines openness and awareness and is a hallmark of a good scientist or scientific information consumer a) Involved carefully weighing the facts to decide what to believe 3. Critical thinking: systematically question and evaluate info using well supported evidence a) Involves looking for holes in evidence, whether or not it makes sense and considering alternatives b) You should also judge info for biases 4. Intuition has often been wrong in predictable ways. Thought has been biased in ways that make critical thinking difficult. D. Psychological Science Helps Us Understand Biased or Inaccurate Thinking 1. Most biases occur because we are motivated to use our intelligence 2. The human brain is highly efficient at noticing patterns, but sometimes we see patterns out of nothing. 3. Major Biases a) Ignoring evidence (confirmation bias): people place great importance on evidence that only supports their own belief (1) Selective sampling of behavior contributes to this bias. Viewing only certain news sites is an example. People also show selective memory. b) Seeing relationships that do not exist: (1) Fueled by our desire to find predictability in the world c) After the fact explanations: coming up with explanations for why events happened that often distort the evidence (1) Hindsight bias: we can explain why things happened but we can’t predict future events d) Taking mental shortcuts: heuristics are mental shortcuts that are often valuable because they lead to good decisions without much effort. Too many can lead to inaccurate judgements and biased outcomes.

(1) Availability heuristic: occurs when thinks that come most easily to our minds guide our thinking E. Why are People Unaware of their Weaknesses? 1. People interpret information in ways that support their positive beliefs about themselves. 2. One factor that promotes overconfidence is that people often don’t recognize their weaknesses. 3. Fremdschamen: times when we feel embarrassment for people when they don’t realize they should feel embarrassed for themselves 4. A lack of skill prevents people from knowing who is good or bad at that skill, and prevents them from making efforts in improve. What Are the Scientific Foundations of Psychology? F. Many Psychological Sciences have a Long History 1. Example: Aristotle and Plato debating nature vs nurture 2. Does it come from culture: beliefs, values, rules norms and customs existing within a group of people sharing language and environment 3. Psychologists now recognize both nature and nurture 4. Example: mind/ body problem: are the mind and body distinct or is the mind just the subjective experience of brain activity 5. Rene Descartes and dualism: mind and body are separate but intertwined 6. Today psychologists believe the mind results from brain activity, and that the mind is not a separate thing G. Experimental Psychology Initially Focused on the Structure, not the Function, of Mental Activity 1. Wundt realized that psychological processes took time to occur. He used reaction time to measure how quickly people respond to events. 2. Introspection: a systematic explanation of subjective mental experiences that requires people to inspect and report on the content of their own thoughts a) This is subjective because it assesses how each individual personally experiences an event b) This is a problem as every person brings a unique perceptual experience and it’s difficult to determine whether each participant is employing introspection or similarity Structuralism 3. Structuralism : an approach to psychology established by Titchener based on the idea that conscious experience can be broken down into its basic underlying components 4. An understanding of the basic elements of conscious experience helps understand the mind 5. The problem is also that reporting an experience changes the experience, so this isn’t a reliable method to understand the psychological process Functionalism 6. Principles of Psychology was the most influential book in the early history of psych

7. William James argued that the mind is more complex then its elements and therefore cannot be broken down, and that structuralism failed to capture the most important parts of the mental experience 8. The stream of consciousness=(a  phrase coined by Williams James to describe each person’s continuous series of ever changing thoughts) cannot be frozen in time, so the structuralists’ techniques were sterile and artificial 9. Functionalism: an approach to psych concerned with the adaptive purpose or function, of mind and behavior Evolution, Adaptation, and Behavior 10. One of the major influence on functionalism was Darwin’s work, which introduced evolutionary theory a) Evolutionary theory: a theory that views the history of a species in terms of the inherited, adaptive value of physical characteristics of mental activity and of behavior b) Changes passed along this way are adaptations c) Natural selection: mechanism of evolution in which adaptive changes (that facilitate survival and reproduction) are passed along while those that are not adaptive are not → survival of the fittest where fittest had to do with reproductive success and not strength H. Different Schools of Thought Reflected Different Perspectives of Mind, Brain and Behavior 1. Major Schools of Thought in the History of Psychology

2. Psychoanalytic Approach a) Unconscious = the place where mental processes operate below the level of conscious awareness b) Psychoanalysis = a method developed by Sigmund Freud that attempts to bring the contents of the unconscious into conscious awareness so that conflicts can be revealed c) Freud pioneered the clinical case study approach and used free association: a  method of research in which a patient would talk about whatever he or she wanted to for as long as she or she wanted in an effort to reveal the unconscious Behaviorism d) Watson challenged psych’s focus on conscious and unconscious mental processes e) Behaviorism: a psychological approach that emphasizes the role of environmental forces in producing observable behavior f) nature/ nurture was central to Watson. For behaviorists nurture was all, theresure stimuli must be studied in order to understand responses Gestalt Movement

g) Gestalt theory = states that the whole of personal experience is not simply the sum of its constituent elements → whole is different than sum of its parts h) This reflected an important idea at the heard of criticism against structuralism: the perception of objects is subjective and dependent on context Humanistic Psychology i) Humanistic psychology: this approach focuses on the basic goodness of people and how they become happier and more fulfilled j) Positive psychology emphasizes the quality of relationships and taking enjoyment from life’s accomplishments Cognitivism k) Perceptions of situations can influence behavior l) Learning theorists showed that animals could learn by observation, and other studies showed that the simple laws of behaviorism weren’t adequate to explain the entirely of psychological information m) Studies came to suggest that mental functions are important for understanding behavior n) Cognitive neuroscience = the study of neural mechanisms underlying thought, learning, perception, language and memory What Are the Latest Developments in Psychology? I. Biology is Increasingly Emphasized in Explaining Psychological Phenomena 1. Brain Chemistry: we know chemistry and hundreds of substances play critical roles in mental activity and behavior 2. Brain Imaging: this has made clear that there is some localization of function, although brain regions must work together to produce behavior and mental activity 3. The Human Genome: this map represents the foundational knowledge for studying how specific genes affect thoughts, actinos, feelings and disorders. a) Very few single genes cause specific behaviors b) Although, many physical and mental characteristics are inherited to some degree J. Evolutionary Thinking is Increasingly Influential 1. Solving Adaptive Problems a) Evolutionary theory is useful for considering whether behaviors and physical mechanisms are adaptive (affect survival and reproduction) 2. Our Evolutionary Heritage a) Knowledge of the challenges of our early ancestors helps us understand our current behavior K. Culture Provides Adaptive Solutions 1. Human cultural evolution has occurred much faster than human biological evolution

2. globalization: the flow of people, commodities, and financial instruments among all regions of the world 3. Many of a culture’s rules (norms) reflect adaptive solutions worked out by previous generations 4. Culture plays a foundational role in shaping how people view and reason about the world around them L. Psychological Science Now Crosses Levels of Analysis 1. Researchers have recently started to explain behavior at several levels of analysis to promote a more complete picture 2. Biological level of analysis: how the physical body contributes to mind/ behavior 3. Individual level of analysis: individual differences in personality/ mental processes that affect worldview 4. Social level of analysis: how group contexts affect the ways in which people interact/ influence each other 5. Cultural level of analysis: how people’s thoughts, feelings and actions are similar or different across cultures M. Subfields in Psychology Focus on Different Levels of Analysis 1. Researchers: study brain, mind and behavior in organizations 2. Psychological practitioners: apply the findings of science to help people 3. Forensic psychologists: help choose jurors or identifying dangerous offenders 4. Sports psychologists: work with athletes to improve performance 5. Health psychologist: study factors affecting physical health N. Will Psychology Benefit You in Your Career? 1. Yes, dealing with people is important...