Foundations of Psychology Chapter 1
Reinforcers
Complex behaviors could be learned and maintained by manipulation of rewards.
4. Drawing conclusions about the hypothesis.
Investigators draw conclusions about their hypotheses based on the evidence their research has produced. To test their hypotheses, they turn to statistics. Investigators use statistical methods to determine whether relationships between variables or differences between groups, are statistically significant (relatively unlikely to have been due to chance).
Introspection
Inward focusing on mental experiences, such as sensations or feelings.
Psychodynamic perspective
Is a view that explains personality in terms of conscious and unconscious forces, such as unconscious desires and beliefs.
Psychiatrists
Medical doctors who specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of mental or psychological disorders.
Max Wertheimer (1880-1943)
One of the three who founded Gestalt Psychology.
Eclectic approach
One that draws on theories and principles representing different perspectives.
Placebo effects
Positive outcomes of an experiment resulting from a participant's positive expectations about the treatment rather than from the treatment itself.
1. Developing a research question.
Psychologists generate research questions from many sources, including theory, careful observation, previous experience, and commonly held beliefs.
Forensic psychologists
Psychologists involved in the application of psychology to the legal system. They may perform psychological evaluations in child custody cases, testify about the competence of defendants to stand trial, develop psychological profiles of criminal types, give expert testimony in court on psychological issues, or assist attorneys in selecting potential jury members.
Experimental psychologists
Psychologists who apply experimental methods to the study of behavior and mental processes. Conduct research on learning, cognition, sensation and perception, biological bases of behavior, and animal behavior.
Sport Psychologists
Psychologists who apply psychology to understanding and improving athletic performance. They help athletes develop relaxation skills, and use positive self-talk and mental-focusing skills to overcome performance anxiety and enhance athletic performance. Some sport psychologists help athletes handle competitive pressures and balance travel, family, and life demands as well as team dynamics. Sport psychologists also counsel players who experience psychological difficulties adjusting to the rigors of competition.
School psychologists
Psychologists who evaluate and assist children with learning problems or other special needs.
Developmental psychologists
Psychologists who focus on processes involving physical, cognitive, social, and personality development across the lifespan.
Geropsychologists
Psychologists who focus on psychological processes involved in aging. They may work with geriatric patients to help them cope with the stresses of later life, including retirement, loss of loved ones, and declining physical health.
Physiological psychologists
Psychologists who focus on the biological underpinnings of behavior.
Health psychologists
Psychologists who focus on the relationship between psychological factors and physical health. Study the relationships between psychological factors and the prevention and treatment of physical illness.
Counseling psychologists
Psychologists who help people clarify their goals and make life decisions or find ways of overcoming problems in various areas of their lives. Help people with adjustment problems.
Comparative psychologists
Psychologists who study behavioral similarities and differences among animal species.
Social psychologists
Psychologists who study group or social influences on behavior and attitudes.. Study the nature and causes of people's thoughts, feelings, and behavior in social situations.
Educational psychologists
Psychologists who study issues relating to the measurement of intelligence and the processes involved in educational or academic achievement.. Construct standardized psychological and educational tests (such as the SAT); improve course planning and instructional methods.
Industrial/organizational psychologists
Psychologists who study people's behavior at work. Study the relationships between people and their work environments.
Neuropsychologists
Psychologists who study relationships between the brain and behavior.
Environmental psychologists
Psychologists who study relationships between the physical environment and behavior. Study the ways in which people's behavior and mental processes influence, and are influenced by, their physical environments.
Personality psychologists
Psychologists who study the psychological characteristics and behaviors that distinguish us as individuals and lead us to act consistently over time. Study the psychological characteristics that make each of us unique.
Consumer psychologists
Psychologists who study why people purchase particular products and brands. Study relationships between psychological factors and consumers' preferences and purchasing behavior.
Clinical psychologists
Psychologists who use psychological techniques to evaluate and treat individuals with mental or psychological disorders. Evaluate and treat people with psychological problems and disorders, such as depression and schizophrenia.
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) & Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
Rejected the deterministic views of behaviorism and psychodynamic psychology—beliefs that human behavior is determined by the environment (in the case of behaviorism) or by the interplay of unconscious forces and motives lying outside the person's awareness.
Basic Research
Research focused on acquiring knowledge even if such knowledge has no direct practical application. These psychologists typically work for universities or government agencies.
Applied Research
Research that attempts to find solutions to specific problems. These include clinical, counseling, school, and industrial/organizational psychologists.
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
Skinner studied how behavior is shaped by rewards and punishments, the environmental consequences that follow specific responses. Skinner showed he could train animals to perform simple behaviors by rewarding particular responses.
Samples
Subsets of a population.
Tendencies or predispositions
Such as aggressive tendencies, might be rooted in our genes, having been passed along from generation to generation from ancestral times all the way down the genetic highway to us.
Replication
The attempt to duplicate findings.
Statistics
The branch of mathematics involving the tabulation, analysis, and interpretation of numerical data.
Christine Ladd-Franklin (1847-1930)
The earliest woman pioneer in psychology. Christine completed all the requirements for a PhD at Johns Hopkins University in 1882, but the university refused to award her the degree because it did not issue doctoral degrees to women at that time. Nonetheless, she went on to pursue a distinguished research career in psychology, during which she developed a new theory of color vision. She finally received her PhD in 1926.
Dependent variables
The effects or outcomes of an experiment that are believed to be dependent on the values of the independent variables.
William James (1842-1910)
The father of American psychology. Trained as a medical doctor but made important contributions to both psychology and philosophy. Although he too used introspection, he shifted the focus to the functions of behavior, he founded functionalism.
G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924)
The first American to work in Wundt's experimental laboratory. In 1892, Hall founded the American Psychological Association (APA), now the largest organization of psychologists in the United States, and he served as its first president. Nine years earlier, in 1883, he had established the first psychology laboratory in the United States, which was housed at Johns Hopkins University.
John Broadus Watson (1878-1958)
The founder of behaviorism. Watson reasoned that because you can never observe another person's mental processes, psychology would never advance as a science unless it eliminated mentalistic concepts like mind, consciousness, thinking, and feeling. He rejected introspection as a method of scientific inquiry and proposed that psychology should become a science of behavior, not of mental processes. Watson believed that the environment molds the behavior of humans and other animals.
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
The founding of psychology as an independent science is generally credited to Wundt. He established the first scientific laboratory dedicated to the study of psychology. With the founding of Wundt's laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, in 1879, psychology made the transition from philosophy to science.
3. Gathering evidence to test the hypothesis.
The investigator develops a research design or strategy for gathering evidence to provide a scientific test of the hypothesis. The type of research method used depends on the nature of the problem.
Clinical neuropsychologists
Use specialized tests to evaluate the cognitive effects of brain injuries and strokes. These tests can help them pinpoint the particular areas of the brain affected by injury or disease. Clinical neuropsychologists may also work with rehabilitation specialists in designing programs to help people who have suffered various forms of brain damage regain as much of their functioning as possible.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy
Which incorporates techniques for changing maladaptive thoughts as well as overt behaviors.
Gestalt
A German word meaning "unitary form" or "pattern."
Evolutionary psychology
A branch of psychology that focuses on the role of evolutionary processes in shaping behavior.
Operational definition
A definition of a variable based on the procedures or operations used to measure it.
Variable
A factor or measure that varies within an experiment or among individuals.
Behavior Therapy
A form of therapy that involves the systematic application of the principles of learning.
Empirical approach
A method of developing knowledge based on evaluating evidence gathered from experiments and careful observation.
Scientific Method
A method of inquiry involving careful observation and use of experimental methods. It can be conceptualized in terms of four general steps that scientists use to test their ideas and to expand and refine their knowledge: (1) developing a research question, (2) framing the research question in the form of a hypothesis, (3) gathering evidence to test the hypothesis, and (4) drawing conclusions about the hypothesis.
Random assignment
A method of randomly assigning subjects to experimental or control groups.
Naturalistic Observation Method
A method of research based on careful observation of behavior in natural settings.
Random Sampling
A method of sampling in which each individual in the population has an equal chance of being selected.
Experimental method
A method of scientific investigation involving the manipulation of independent variables and observation or measurement of their effects on dependent variables under controlled conditions.
Hypothesis
A precise prediction about the outcomes of an experiment.
Survey method
A research method in which structured interviews or questionnaires are used to gather information about groups of people.
Correlational method
A research method used to examine relationships between variables, which are expressed in the form of a statistical measure called a correlation coefficient.
Child psychologists
Are developmental psychologists who limit their focus to child development.
Mental Processes
Are the private experiences that constitute our inner lives. These private experiences include thoughts, feelings, dreams and daydreams, sensations, perceptions, and beliefs that others cannot directly observe or experience.
Francis Sumner (1895-1954)
Became the first African American to receive a doctorate in psychology in the United States. Sumner went on to a distinguished career in teaching and research. He helped establish the psychology department at Howard University and served as its chairperson until his death in 1954.
Darwin (1809-1882)
Believed that all life forms, including humans, evolved from earlier life forms by adapting over time to the demands of their natural environments.
Theory
A formulation that accounts for relationships among observed events or experimental findings in ways that make them more understandable and predictable.
Unconscious
In Freudian theory, the part of the mind that lies outside the range of ordinary awareness and that contains primitive drives and instincts.
Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930)
A brilliant student of William James, Calkins completed all her PhD requirements at Harvard, but Harvard denied her a doctorate; like Johns Hopkins, it did not grant doctoral degrees to women. She was offered the doctorate through Radcliffe College, a women's academy affiliated with Harvard, but she refused it. Not easily deterred, she went on to a distinguished career in psychology—teaching and conducting important research on learning and short-term memory. In 1905, she became the first female president of the APA.
Social-cognitive theory
A contemporary learning based model that emphasizes the roles of cognitive and environmental factors in determining behavior.
Correlation coefficient
A statistical measure of association between variables that can vary from -1.00 to +1.00.
Questionnaire
A written set of questions or statements to which people reply by marking their responses on an answer form.
Population
All the individuals or organisms that constitute particular groups.
Gilbert Haven Jones (1883-1966)
An African American, received a doctorate in psychology from a university in Germany.
Edward Titchener (1867-1927)
An Englishman who was a disciple of Wundt, brought Wundt's teachings and methods of introspection to the United States and other English-speaking countries.
Humanistic Perspective
An approach to the study of psychology that applies the principles of humanistic psychology.
Sociocultural perspective
An approach to the study of psychology that emphasizes the role of social and cultural influences on behavior. More specifically, they focus on the influences of age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, lifestyle, income level, disability status, and culture on behavior and mental processes.
Cognitive perspective
An approach to the study of psychology that focuses on the processes by which we acquire knowledge.
Physiological perspective
An approach to the study of psychology that focuses on the relationships between biological processes and behavior.
Behavioral perspective
An approach to the study of psychology that focuses on the role of learning in explaining observable behavior.
Case study method
An in-depth study of one or more individuals. The psychologist draws information from interviews, observation, or written records.
Placebo
An inert substance or experimental condition that resembles the active treatment.
Structured interview
An interview in which a set of specific questions is asked in a particular order.
2. Framing the research question in the form of a hypothesis.
An investigator reframes the research question in the form of a hypothesis, Hypotheses are often drawn from a theory.
Behavior
Anything an organism does, for example sitting, dancing, reading, smiling, and raising your arm.
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
Developed a theory of cognitive development by closely observing and interviewing a small number of children. Many of the early findings on brain function came from studies of brain-injured patients that matched the types of injuries they sustained with particular deficits in memory functioning and motor skills.
Margaret Floy Washburn (1871-1939)
Encountered similar discrimination when she pursued studies in psychology at Columbia University. In 1894, having found a more receptive environment at Cornell University, she became the first woman in the United States to earn a PhD in psychology. She wrote an influential book, The Animal Mind, and in 1921, became the second female president of the APA.
Independent variables
Factors that are manipulated in an experiment.
Positive Psychology
Founded by psychologist Martin Seligman. A contemporary movement within psychology that emphasizes the study of human virtues and assets, rather than weaknesses and deficits.
Psychoanalysis
Freud's method of psychotherapy; it focuses on uncovering and working through unconscious conflicts he believed were at the root of psychological problems.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Freud's psychology focused not only on the mind, but also on a region of the mind that lay beyond the reach of ordinary consciousness—a region he called the unconscious. Freud conceived of the unconscious as the repository of primitive sexual and aggressive drives or instincts and of the wishes, impulses, and urges that arise from those drives or instincts. He believed that the motives underlying our behavior involve sexual and aggressive impulses that lie in the murky depths of the unconscious, hidden away from our ordinary awareness of ourselves. In other words, we may do or say things without understanding the true motives that prompted these behaviors.
Control groups
Groups of participants in a research experiment who do not receive the experimental treatment or intervention.
Structuralism
The school of psychology that attempts to understand the structure of the mind by breaking it down into its component parts.
Humanistic psychology
The school of psychology that believes that free will and conscious choice are essential aspects of the human experience.
Functionalism
The school of psychology that focuses on the adaptive functions of behavior.
Behaviorism
The school of psychology that holds that psychology should limit itself to the study of overt, observable behavior.
Gestalt Psychology
The school of psychology that holds that the brain structures our perceptions of the world in terms of meaningful patterns or wholes.
Psychology
The science of behavior and mental processes.
Social desirability bias
The tendency to respond to questions in a socially desirable manner.
Volunteer bias
The type of bias that arises when people who volunteer to participate in a survey or research study have characteristics that make them unrepresentative of the population from which they were drawn.
Cognitive factors
The value placed on different objects or goals (for example, getting good grades) and expectancies about the outcomes of behavior.
Psychodynamic Perspective.
The view that behavior is influenced by the struggle between unconscious sexual or aggressive impulses and opposing forces that try to keep this threatening material out of consciousness.
Wolfgang Köhler (1887-1967) & Kurt Koffka (1886-1941)
Two assistants to Wertheimer. Their experiments led to major discoveries about the nature of perception—the processes by which we organize our sense impressions and form meaningful representations of the world around us. Two of the three who founded Gestalt Psychology.
Correlation method benefits:
▪ It offers clues to underlying causes. Though correlational relationships cannot determine cause-and-effect relationships, they may point to possible causal factors that can be followed up in experimental research. For example, evidence of a correlation between smoking and lung cancer led to experimental studies with animals that showed that exposure to cigarette smoke induced the formation of cancerous lesions in the lungs. ▪ It can identify groups of people at high risk for physical or behavioral problems. Knowing that a relationship exists between the positive expectancies of adolescents toward alcohol use and the later development of problem drinking may direct us toward developing alcoholism prevention efforts that focus on changing attitudes of youngsters before drinking problems arise. ▪ It increases understanding of relationships between variables or events. Such an understanding is one of the major objectives of science. From time to time in this text, we explore such relationships.
