Links to Learning Objectives WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY LO 1.1 Definition and goals PSYCHOLOGY THEN LO 1.2 ism and functionalism LO 1.3 Gestalt, psychoanalysis PSYCHOLOGY NOW LO 1.4 perspectives LO 1.6 Psychiatrists, Psychologists LO 1.12 Placebo/experimenter effects LO 1.13 Conducting a real experiment ETHICS & CRITICAL THINKING LO 1.14 Ethical concerns LO 1.15 Critical thinking LO 1.16 Applying critical thinking PSYCHOLOGY THE SCIENCE LO 1.7 Scientific method LO 1.8 Naturalistic/laboratory settings LO 1.9 & surveys LO 1.10 Correlational techniques LO 1.11 Experimental design Psychology: The Science Scientific Method 1.7 Why is psychology a science? PERCEIVE HYPOTHESIZE FIVE STEPS DRAW CONCLUSIONS You mean you tell them what happened, even if it failed? 1
Methods for Describing 1.8 How do psychologists use naturalistic and laboratory settings? Naturalistic Observation advantages & disadvantages Laboratory Observation advantages & disadvantages Methods for Describing 1.9 and surveys Next question: I believe that life is a constant striving for balance, requiring frequent tradeoffs between morality and necessity, within a cyclic pattern of joy and sadness, forging a trail of bittersweet memories until one slips, inevitably, into the jaws of death. Agree or disagree? Case Studies advantages & disadvantages Surveys advantages & disadvantages Finding Relationships: Correlation 1.10 Correlational Technique Correlation a measure of the relationship between two variables Variable Smoking Income1 Education Variable Health 2 Variable anything that changes or varies 2
Positive Correlation +.70 Positive correlation variables related in same direction Show graph Negative Correlation -.70 Negative correlation variables related in opposite direction Show graph Perfect and Non- If we found a perfect correlation between cigarette smoking and health, does this mean that smoking causes a decrease in health? 3
1.11 Designing an experiment Operational definitions Independent and dependent variables (e.g., type of dog and level of fear) Experimental, control groups & random assignment From Population To Sample 70 % Representative Sample POPULATION Non-representative Sample The Experiment 1.12 Placebo and other experimental effects Placebo effect Single-blind Experimenter effects & double blinding Quasiexperimental designs 4
1.14 What are the ethical concerns when conducting research? Universities and colleges (where most psychological research h iis carried i d out) t) usually ll have h ethics thi committees, itt groups of psychologists or other professionals who look over each proposed research study and judge it according to its safety and consideration for the participants -Page 35 (Ciccarelli & Meyer) in Psychological Research in Animal Research Animal research answers questions we could never do with human research Focus is on avoiding unnecessary pain/suffering Animals used in approximately 7% of psychological studies 5
1.15 What are the basic principles of critical thinking 1 2 3 4 Truths Evidence Authorities Open minds Pseudopsychologies Pseudopsychologies unscientific systems explaining behaviors Phrenology Palmistry Graphology Astrology 6
Lecture Activities Limits of Common Sense With which of the following do you agree? Why? Attraction Commitment Motivation Birds of a feather flock together Opposites attract Absence makes the heart grow fonder Out of sight, out of mind Can t teach an old dog new tricks Never too old to learn Correlation Research 1. Find a partner and develop a list of two numeric variables that you think would be associated (i.e., amount of sleep and GPA) ) and survey/observe at least 10 people in class. 2. Graph your findings in a scatterplot. 3. Discuss the findings with your partner and write your conclusions. 7
OPERATIONALIZING ROMANCE Are you currently in love? How do you know for sure? Get together with a few other students and operationally define being in love. In your group, discuss the practical implications of operationalizing your feelings. 1.16 How might critical thinking be applied to a real-world example? Applying to Astrology Are astrologer s charts up-to-date? The basic astrological charts were designed over 3,000 years ago. The stars, planets, and constellations are no longer in the same positions in the sky due to changes in the rotation of the Earth s axis over long periods of time over 24 degrees in just the last 2,000 years. So a Gemini is really a Cancer and will be a Leo in another 2,000 years. Acknowledgements 8
Photos used with permission under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license from the internet domain of www.flickr.com Star Walker username Jon go Wreck username JennyHuang A week in Vienna: Angel username guldfisken Tiger barb fish animation by Dave Sutton, developer of Seven Oaks Art Some royalty-free images adapted from www.clipart.com, an internet domain of Jupiterimages Corporation Various menu boxes and menu bubbles adapted from PowerPoint templates (distributed for business and commercial use) by www.themegallery.com and developed by Guild Design, Inc. 9