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Lesson 2: Foundations of Psychology

30/08/2019

• Understand the scope of modern psychology • Apply your knowledge of research goals to formulate plausible research questions • Create something new based on your knowledge of the major historical figures in the field of psychology (+ evaluate the work of others) • Understand modern psychological perspectives, and analyze a real-life problem based on these perspectives Psychology does not equal common sense.  Will not give you the power to analyze people  Is not the same as parapsychology or pseudoscience o James Randi and the Million-dollar challenge  Guy tries to debunk psychic “powers”, offers a million dollars o If you cannot prove it scientifically, it probably doesn’t exist What’s the difference between…  Psychologist: o M.A. or Ph.D. in psychology o Understand human behavior and learn techniques to help resolve psychological difficulties o Must be registered under OPQ  Psychiatrist: o M.D. specialized in mental health

o Must be referred by a doctor o Focus: severe mental illness, often requires prescription  Psychotherapist: o Offers services in psychotherapy o No registration required  Make sure they have proper training Animals and Psych  Are interested in the behavior of any living creatures  Animal models can be helpful  Ex: social deprivation 5 Goals of Psychology 1. Description of Behaviors: (what?) name and classify behaviors and mental processes. Ex: i. cell phones in class, what are they doing on their cellphones, what mental processes are involved with using a cell phone? What age did they start using cell phones? ii. What are the behaviors of top basketball players on the court? 2. Explain: (why?) Understand the reason(s)/processes of behaviors (individual differences) Ex: i. how does the process of forgetting to occur? How does the brain forget? ii. why do serial killers kill people? /motives iii. why is it that some people struggle in school but not others? Why do some have autism and not others? iv. Why is it that people have different music tastes?

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3. Prediction: (will it?) Predict behavior or mental processes with some accuracy based on people’s past. Ex: i. Delay of gratification (marshmallow experiment) ii. How does the quality of parent-child relationship predict divorce later in life? iii. (Will this occur…if this?) iv. Temporal* v. Will couples who form because of similarities more likely to stay together later on in life, than couples with less similarities? 4. (and 5) Control: Altering conditions that influence behavior i. Positive Use: to manipulate unwanted (bad habits, undesirable) behavior or mental processes without their knowledge. Ex: 1. How can we reduce depressive symptoms? 2. How can we reduce mal adjustments in new immigrants? 3. How can we help parents at risk be less likely to abuse their children? ii. Negative Use: to manipulate/control behavior or mental processes without their knowledge. Ex: 1. Gender conformity. Social psychology experiment with the doors to a building with different gender signs on them. a. Will males and females conform to an arbitrary gender poster?

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2. Elevator experiment/conformity experiment. Think the video in the office with the beeps, every time it goes off, they stand up and sit back down. 3. Does intentionally vs unintentional sleep deprivation affect a student’s success. Father of Psychology: Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)  1879: first lab to study conscious experience  Stimulus: physical energy: image sound.  Introspection: Looking inward in terms of perception  Titchener and Structuralism (school of thought) o Basic “elements” or “building blocks” o Did not last long because it is almost impossible to categorize human emotion  McFlurry example:  Ice cream machine  Ice cream is vanilla soft serve  Broken chocolate chunks mixed in… William James (1842-1910)  Functionalism: comes from an interest in how the mind functions. o Focus is on what the mind does and how behavior functions  How does behavior allow us to adapt to our environment?  How does behavior allow us to satisfy our needs?  Inspired applied fields (educ. Psychology, industrial psychology) o Darwin, how conformity lead to reproduction and the survival of a species. If you do not conform, you are outcasted and in times of trouble no one will help.

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Behaviorism and John B. Watson (1878-1958)  Psychology should give up the mind o Focus on what people do o Observable behaviors  The study of what people do  Little Albert—son of a nurse…paid $1 a day to experiment on the child. Loud bang every time white rat appeared. Now child scared around anything white and fluffy

Behavior and B.F. Skinner  Psychology is the scientific study of behavior  No reference to internal state  Rewards and punishment Psychodynamic Psychology and Sigmund Freud  Psychoanalysis o An approach to psychotherapy o Cocaine theory and very sexual theories (all men are in love with their mothers and want to kill their fathers, women all have penis envy) o Dream analysis theory, personality theories, internal conflicts

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 Psychodynamic Theory o Emphasizes internal conflicts, motives, and unconscious forces. The Self: 3 Components of Personality (According to Freud)  ID: the driving force of personality o Pleasure principle (“I want it, and I want it now!”)  Ego: The operator (steering wheel of your personality) o Reality principle (“how can I satisfy the id?”)  Superego: the conscience o Right and wrong (“Do not steal” …what your parents taught you as your core values)

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