Chapter 1: Psychology's Roots

LOQ 1-2: How has psychology's focus changed over time?

1. Wilhelm wundt, first psychology lab. Germany 1879. studied basic elements of mental experience. 2. Early psychology defined "the science of mental life" then behaviorists (1920s) changed to "the scientific study of observable behavior." 3. behaviorism is one of two major forces in 1960s. second is Freudian psychology, influences of humanistic psychology, cognitive psychology revived interest into mental processes. 4. psychology is now defined as "the science of behavior and mental processes."

LOQ 1-1: What are the three key elements of the scientific attitude and how do they support scientific inquiry?

1. curiosity helps test ideas 2. skepticism encourages attention to detail. Skeptical testing can reveal which claim best matches the facts. 3. humility help discard predictions that cant be proven through research. researchers must be willing to follow new ideas.

LOQ 1-7 How do psychologists use case studies, naturalistic observations, and surveys to observe and describe behavior, and why is random sampling important?

Case studies allow in depth study of a person/group. Naturalistic observations allow observation in uncontrolled naturally occurring situations. Surveys allow us to study many people in less depth. Random sampling is a fair way to have a representation group of a population.

LOQ 1-4 What four big ideas run throughout this book?

Critical thinking (examine assumptions, consider the source, uncover hidden values, weigh evidence and test conclusions), behavior is a biopsychosocial event. We operate on dual-processing. Psychology explores human strength (positive psychology) and challenges (clinical psychology).

LOQ 1-3 What are psychology's current perspectives, and what are some of its subfields?

Current perspectives - neuroscience, evolutionary, behavior genetics, psycho-dynamic, behavioral, cognitive and social cultural. subfields are biological, developmental, cognitive, personality, social, counseling, health, clinical, industrial-organizational and community.

LOQ 1-11 Why do psychologists study animals, and what ethical guidelines safeguard human and animal research participants? How do personal values influence psychology's research and applications?

Experimenting on animals helps our understanding of other species as well as ourselves. Ethical standards and legal guidelines help protect participants. The APA says to protect, well-being, getting informed consent and debriefing after the experiment. Psychologists values influence research topics, theories and observations and professional advise, labels for behavior. psychology could be used for good or evil.

LOQ 1-9 How do experiments clarify or reveal cause-effect relationships?

Experiments create a controlled simplified version of reality. Researchers manipulate one or more factors (independent variable). The researchers can then measure changes in other factors (dependent variable) Researchers use random assignment to minimize confounding variables (pre-existing differences between groups). They compare experimental group and controls groups results. or may also use double blind procedure to control for the placebo effect.

LOQ 1-5 How does our everyday thinking sometimes lead us to the wrong conclusions?

Hindsight bias (after learning the outcome we would have foreseen it). Overconfidence. We see order in random events to make sense of our world. We overestimate our intuition and common sense.

LOQ 1-8 What are positive and negative correlations, and how can they lead to prediction but not cause-effect explanation?

Positive correlations - both items increase or decrease together. Negative correlations - one increases while one decreases. Correlations hows how well one event can predict another (using a measure called correlation coefficient). But does not show if one event caused the other or if a third factor influenced both events.

LOQ 1-10 How can simplified laboratory experiments help us understand general principles of behavior?

Studying specific examples in controlled environments can help show important general principles, not specific findings can help explain everyday behaviors.

LOQ 1-12 How can psychological principles help you learn, remember, and thrive

Testing effect helps survey, question, read, retrieve and review. Also, distribute your time, learn to think critically, process information actively and over learn. People who succeed manage their time, have a growth mindset, get sleep, prioritize relationships, make space for exercise.

LOQ 1-6 How do theories advance psychological science?

Theories are explanations using principles that organize observations and predict behaviors or events. Theory's help create hypotheses that can be tested using descriptive, correlational or experimental methods. Research leads to revision of theory's. Operational definitions allow replication to confirm the conclusion.