Introduction
Definition: Psychology is a scientific study of human behavior and mental processes.
Key words to remember:
SCIENCE: uses systematic methods to observe, describe, predict and explain behavior.
BEHAVIOR: everything we do that can be observed directly
MENTAL PROCESSES: thoughts, feelings and motives that can’t be observed directly
Brief History:
Two schools of thought or disciplines that created psychology:
Philosophy + Natural Sciences = Psychology
Early Scientific Approaches:
1. Structuralism
- attempts to discover basic elements of the human mind.
- uses introspection and self reports/senses to determine mental processes
Eg: eating a candy: was it sweet, bitter, sour etc?
2. Functionalism
- emphasized the interaction between the mind and outside environment.
- centers on the feelings and emotion.
Eg: eating candy: did it make you feel happy, sad, frustrated?
Modern Psychological Approaches
1. Behavioral Approach – scientific study of behavior and asserts that behavior is shaped by the environment (B.F. Skinner – rewards and punishment)
2. Psychodynamic App. – emphasizes the unconscious aspect of the mind. It also deals with the conflict between biological instincts and society’s demands. It also involves early family and childhood experiences.
3. Cognitive App. – focuses on the mental processes involved in knowing how we direct our attention, perception, how we remember, and how we think and solve problems
4. Behavioral Neuroscience App. – views understanding the brain and nervous system as the key in understanding behavior, thoughts and emotion
5. Evolutionary App. (one of the newest) – emphasis on the importance of functional purpose and adaptation in explaining why behaviors are formed, modified, survive
6. Socio-Cultural App. – uses social and cultural/traditional elements to explain behavior.
7. Other emerging movements
* Humanistic movement: emphasis on a person’s capacity for personal growth, freedom to choose any destiny and other positive qualities.
* Positive psychology: emphasis on the experiences that people value subjectively (happiness, hope, optimism), positive traits (capacity for love, talent, creativity) and positive group civic values (responsibility, tolerance, civility). This was brought about because psychology tend to always talk about the negatives or abnormalities
Keep in mind!
a. Psychology may seem to focus on the individual but human beings are profoundly social. How we treat others and vice versa affect our thoughts and emotions.
b. Theories can help understand behavior in general but there is still enormous individual variation. Psychology charts not only commonality but also individuality
c. One approach is not necessarily better than the others.
Key words to remember:
SCIENCE: uses systematic methods to observe, describe, predict and explain behavior.
BEHAVIOR: everything we do that can be observed directly
MENTAL PROCESSES: thoughts, feelings and motives that can’t be observed directly
Brief History:
Two schools of thought or disciplines that created psychology:
Philosophy + Natural Sciences = Psychology
Early Scientific Approaches:
1. Structuralism
- attempts to discover basic elements of the human mind.
- uses introspection and self reports/senses to determine mental processes
Eg: eating a candy: was it sweet, bitter, sour etc?
2. Functionalism
- emphasized the interaction between the mind and outside environment.
- centers on the feelings and emotion.
Eg: eating candy: did it make you feel happy, sad, frustrated?
Modern Psychological Approaches
1. Behavioral Approach – scientific study of behavior and asserts that behavior is shaped by the environment (B.F. Skinner – rewards and punishment)
2. Psychodynamic App. – emphasizes the unconscious aspect of the mind. It also deals with the conflict between biological instincts and society’s demands. It also involves early family and childhood experiences.
3. Cognitive App. – focuses on the mental processes involved in knowing how we direct our attention, perception, how we remember, and how we think and solve problems
4. Behavioral Neuroscience App. – views understanding the brain and nervous system as the key in understanding behavior, thoughts and emotion
5. Evolutionary App. (one of the newest) – emphasis on the importance of functional purpose and adaptation in explaining why behaviors are formed, modified, survive
6. Socio-Cultural App. – uses social and cultural/traditional elements to explain behavior.
7. Other emerging movements
* Humanistic movement: emphasis on a person’s capacity for personal growth, freedom to choose any destiny and other positive qualities.
* Positive psychology: emphasis on the experiences that people value subjectively (happiness, hope, optimism), positive traits (capacity for love, talent, creativity) and positive group civic values (responsibility, tolerance, civility). This was brought about because psychology tend to always talk about the negatives or abnormalities
Keep in mind!
a. Psychology may seem to focus on the individual but human beings are profoundly social. How we treat others and vice versa affect our thoughts and emotions.
b. Theories can help understand behavior in general but there is still enormous individual variation. Psychology charts not only commonality but also individuality
c. One approach is not necessarily better than the others.
Psychology's Scientific Method
Attitudes in the scientific approach:
--> Curiosity: leads to asking questions
--> Skepticism: leads to look for evidence to prove or disprove a supposed TRUTH. It also finds if the evidence is strong enough to be accepted as accurate/factual.
--> Objective: avoids bias by conduction research studies and employing decision making methods to prove what is the TRUTH
--> Critical thinking: extensive evaluation of the evidence presented
The Scientific Method
Key words:
THEORY – a broad idea or a set of closely related ideas that attempts to explain and predict observations
HYPOTHESIS – an idea that is testable prediction, often arrived at logically from a theory. An educated guess
SCIENTIFIC METHOD – a process of developing and testing theories. A step-by-step procedure that tried to find supporting evidence.
Steps in the scientific method
STEP 1. Conceptualize a Problem: you try to define the problem and create a particular dilemma
STEP 2. Operational Definition: objective description of how a research variable is going to be observed and measured. This helps in clarifying our concepts and ideas.
STEP 3. Collect Research Information/ Data Gathering
A. Participants: know who should be studied and those who will play a part in the study.
x. Population: entire group you want to study
y. Sample: subset of the population the investigator chose to study
z. Random Sampling/Random Sample: gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected and participating in the study.
B. Research Methods: ways and means on how you would be able to find answers to your problems
a. Descriptive research: can not prove the relationship of some phenomena
- Observation (laboratory and naturalistic)
- Surveys and Interviews
- Standardized Tests
- Case Study/Case History
b. Correlation Research: describe the strength of the relationship between 2 or more events or characteristics.
*(note)correlation does NOT equal with CAUSATION
- positive correlation
- negative correlation
- correlation coefficient (+)1----- 0 ----- (-)1
c. Experimental research: carefully regulated procedure where 1 or more factors believed to influence the behavior being studied are manipulated while holding other constant
- Independent variables: can be manipulated independently
- Dependent variables: changes in response to changes in the independent variable
- Experimental group: a group whose experience is manipulated
- Control group: treated like the experimental group excluding the manipulated variables
- Random assignment: designate participants to E.G. /C.G by chance
Caution: experimenter bias and participant bias
STEP 4. Analyzing and interpreting data: what does your data tell you?
a. Descriptive Statistics: mathematical procedure to describe and summarize sets of data meaningfully
Measures of central tendency (a single number that tells you the overall characteristics of a data
- mean/average (add all the scores and divide by the total number of scores)
- median (score that falls directly in the middle or center)
- mode (scores that occurs most often in the set of data)
b. Inferential Statistics: gives significance to your study, mathematical method used to draw conclusions about the data gathered
eg. .05 significance level or 95% confident that the study is true: the odds that the study is false is 5/100 times due to chance
--> Curiosity: leads to asking questions
--> Skepticism: leads to look for evidence to prove or disprove a supposed TRUTH. It also finds if the evidence is strong enough to be accepted as accurate/factual.
--> Objective: avoids bias by conduction research studies and employing decision making methods to prove what is the TRUTH
--> Critical thinking: extensive evaluation of the evidence presented
The Scientific Method
Key words:
THEORY – a broad idea or a set of closely related ideas that attempts to explain and predict observations
HYPOTHESIS – an idea that is testable prediction, often arrived at logically from a theory. An educated guess
SCIENTIFIC METHOD – a process of developing and testing theories. A step-by-step procedure that tried to find supporting evidence.
Steps in the scientific method
STEP 1. Conceptualize a Problem: you try to define the problem and create a particular dilemma
STEP 2. Operational Definition: objective description of how a research variable is going to be observed and measured. This helps in clarifying our concepts and ideas.
STEP 3. Collect Research Information/ Data Gathering
A. Participants: know who should be studied and those who will play a part in the study.
x. Population: entire group you want to study
y. Sample: subset of the population the investigator chose to study
z. Random Sampling/Random Sample: gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected and participating in the study.
B. Research Methods: ways and means on how you would be able to find answers to your problems
a. Descriptive research: can not prove the relationship of some phenomena
- Observation (laboratory and naturalistic)
- Surveys and Interviews
- Standardized Tests
- Case Study/Case History
b. Correlation Research: describe the strength of the relationship between 2 or more events or characteristics.
*(note)correlation does NOT equal with CAUSATION
- positive correlation
- negative correlation
- correlation coefficient (+)1----- 0 ----- (-)1
c. Experimental research: carefully regulated procedure where 1 or more factors believed to influence the behavior being studied are manipulated while holding other constant
- Independent variables: can be manipulated independently
- Dependent variables: changes in response to changes in the independent variable
- Experimental group: a group whose experience is manipulated
- Control group: treated like the experimental group excluding the manipulated variables
- Random assignment: designate participants to E.G. /C.G by chance
Caution: experimenter bias and participant bias
STEP 4. Analyzing and interpreting data: what does your data tell you?
a. Descriptive Statistics: mathematical procedure to describe and summarize sets of data meaningfully
Measures of central tendency (a single number that tells you the overall characteristics of a data
- mean/average (add all the scores and divide by the total number of scores)
- median (score that falls directly in the middle or center)
- mode (scores that occurs most often in the set of data)
b. Inferential Statistics: gives significance to your study, mathematical method used to draw conclusions about the data gathered
eg. .05 significance level or 95% confident that the study is true: the odds that the study is false is 5/100 times due to chance