Let’s look at our thinking…

 You are the captain of a ship. A fire on board has

destroyed the radio. From the rate the water is rising
inside the ship you estimate that you have between
two and two and a half hours before the boat sinks.
Unfortunately you did not tell the authorities of your
destination.
 People cannot jump as the water is shark infested
and someone has already bled in the water. The
nearest land is an uninhabited tropical island 30 km
distant.
 Your task is to decide which people will enter the
boat. Everyone has agreed to abide by your decision.
Items held by individuals must stay with the owner;
they cannot be transferred to other people.
 Read through the crew list and calculate how many
people can be saved
 It will take 45 minutes to launch the boat leaving a further 75
to 105 minutes before the ship sinks. Each person takes 15
minutes to lower into the boat and must go one at a time.
 You will need to reach consensus about who is to go
into the lifeboat
 Lost!!!!!

 Make your own list before sharing with the group

 Create a master list and explain why you chose the

people you did, perhaps why others deserved to be
sacrificed
 Articulate your criteria for making it into the lifeboat
 What are your top three considerations?
 Second phase

 Oh no! Before you could get everyone into the

lifeboat the captain died of a stress-related heart
attack.
 This re-opens the discussion of who to save!!!!
 Read your slips of paper to find out who you are and
renegotiate the passenger list.
 You must reach consensus by the next five minutes
 Lost - Shared

 Share your lists on the board – share out with the

class

 Things to consider as they are shared out:

 What similarities do you notice?

 What dissimilarities do you see?

 What does this reveal to you about the people in the room?
 Questions to ask yourself…

 Where do you fit in? What is your role in groups?

 Are you a player or an observer?
 Do you cooperate with others, lead, follow, contribute, guide,
advise or just watch?
 Should you take a more active role?
 Should you contribute more?
 Have you a dominant personality? If so - should you encourage
others to contribute?
 Do you have a more subdued personality? If so, should you
contribute more?
 Good group work, effective committees and successful
management teams are based on effective contributions from
everyone. Where do you fit in? Cooperating with others is vital
for every type of management task!
 The Bottom Line

 There are multiple ways to approach problems,

particularly in psychology – you need to beware of
the quick fix and easy answer
Introduction to Psychology

EXPLORING THE ROOTS AND REACH OF THE

DISCIPLINE
 In a nutshell…

 Psychology
 Psyche: Mind
 Logos: Knowledge or study

 Definition: The scientific study of behavior and mental

processes
 Behavior: Overt; i.e., can be directly observed (crying)

 Mental Processes: Covert; i.e., cannot be directly

observed (remembering); private, internal
 sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings
 Empirical Evidence: Information gathered from direct
observation
 Prescientific Psychology

 Roots lie in early philosophers

 Socrates and Plato

 Are ideas inborn or is the mind a blank slate filled
by experience?
 Is the mind separable from the body and does it
continue to exist after death?
 Yes, said Socrates and Plato

 Aristotle (Plato’s student)

 Knowledge is not pre-existing; knowledge grows
from experiences
Psychology begins to evolve

Rene Descartes
 Agreed with the idea that the mind was
distinct from the body and existed after
death
 Investigated how the immaterial mind
and corporeal body communicate
 Dissected animals and concluded that
the fluid in ventricles contained ‘animal
spirits’
 Memories created when experience
opened pores in the brain through which
the animal spirits flowed (nerves)
 Empiricism

 Bacon and Locke

 Bacon argues that humans assume a more orderly world than

actually exists and have a tendency to confirm our beliefs
 Locke argued the mind is a tabula rasa

 Empiricism
 Knowledge comes from experience via the senses
 Science flourishes through observation and experimentation
 ***What is the mind?***

 Turn to a partner and come to an agreement to the

question:
 What is the mind?

 Now, you and your partner should turn to another

set and the four of you need to come to an agreement
to the question:
 Is the mind separate from the body?
 The Beginnings of Experimentation

 Wilhelm Wundt
 Opened the first psychology
laboratory at the University of
Leipzig (c. 1879)
 Measured the time lag
between hearing a ball hit a
platform and indicating that
the sound occurred AS
WELL AS when they were
aware of hearing the sound
Made psychology
independent of philosophy
and physiology
 Wundt insisted that
psychology be a science and
that the scientific method be
used to study consciousness.

 Wundt is considered the

founder of experimental
psychology.
 Edward Titchner was
Wundt’s student and pushed
further - Structuralism
 The New Science

 G. Stanley Hall studied

under Wundt
 Hall opened the first
psych lab in the USA
 Hall established the
American Psychological
Association (APA)
 Structuralism

 The goal of structuralism

was to break consciousness
down into its basic parts so it
could be analyzed.
 Used introspection (looking
in) to explore the elemental
structure of the human mind
 What immediate sensations, images
and feelings were experienced?

 Ack!! – It relied on subjects

who were intelligent/verbal
 Functionalism

 Focused on how behavioral

processes function - how they
enable organism to adapt,
survive, and flourish not
analyzing its parts

 William James
 Consciousness serves a purpose
and should be studied
• Functionalists began studying
intelligence, child development, sex
roles, emotion, memory, streams of
consciousness, and other aspects of
the real world.
 Behaviourism

 “Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely

objective experimental branch of natural science.
Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of
behavior.” -- John B. Watson, 1913
 Behaviorism

 You cannot observe thoughts or perceptions but you can

observe behaviour
 John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner – science of behaviour
 Psychology must study observable behavior objectively

 Watson studied Little Albert with Rosalie Raynor;

Skinner studied animals almost exclusively
 Psychoanalytic (Psychodynamic)

 Psychoanalytic: Freud
 Our behavior is largely influenced by
our unconscious wishes, thoughts,
and desires, especially sex and
aggression.
 Freud performed dream analysis and
was an interactionist (combination of
our biology and environment make us
who we are).
 Repression: Unconscious thoughts held
out of awareness because they are
threatening
 All thoughts and actions are
determined; nothing is an accident
 Freud & Psychoanalysis

Freud’s approach was

controversial because 1)
it is antithetical to
behaviorism and 2) it
often has an emphasis on
sex, a topic which
scientists were
uncomfortable studying
at the time.
 Gestalt Psychology
 Wolfgang Köhler,
 Rebelled against Wundt and
structuralist reductions of
experience into individual parts

 Emphasized human
tendency to integrate pieces
of information into
meaningful wholes

 The whole exceeds the

sum of its parts
 The design you see here is entirely made up of broken circles. However, as
the Gestalt psychologists discovered, our perceptions have a powerful
tendency to form meaningful patterns. Because of this tendency, you will
probably see a triangle in this design, even though it is only an illusion.
Your whole perceptual experience exceeds the sum of its parts.
 Humanism: A Reaction to Behaviourism and
Psychoanalytic theory
 Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
 Goal of psychology is to study unique aspects of the person; focuses
on subjective human experience.
 Each person has innate goodness and is able to make free choices
(contrast with Skinner and Freud). The self-concept governs us and
we grow to our potential
 Client centered therapy with unconditional positive regard at its
centre

 Maslow: Self-actualization - develop one’s full potential and

become the best person one can be
 Other Reactions

 Also a reaction to behaviorism, cognitive

psychologists argued that behavior can’t be
understood without understanding the underlying
mental processes that control behavior.

 Biological psychologists insist that we also have to

understand the physical structures and biochemistry
that allow cognition
 Cognitive and Cognitive Behavioural

 Cognitive:
 Is in opposition to Behavioural Psychology
 Study thoughts, memory, expectations, perceptions, and
other mental processes

 Cognitive Behaviorism: Albert Ellis and Albert Bandura

 Our thoughts influence our behaviors; used often in
treatment of depression
 Biological Psychology

 Our behavior can be explained through physiological

processes
 Uses brain scans to gather data (CT, MRI, PET)
 Looks at neurotransmitters, hormones
 Treats psychological problems with medications
 Sociocultural

 Psychological approach that emphasizes social and

cultural forces outside the individual
 Focuses on the study of rules, roles, in- group behaviour and
relationships
 Cultural norms, values and expectations
Evolutionary

 Based in Darwin’s evolutionary

theory
 Asserts that behavioural
characteristics are subject to
natural selection
 Thus, it attempts to explain useful
mental and psychological traits—
such as memory, perception, or
language—as adaptations, i.e., as the
functional products of natural
selection
 Biopsychosocial

 Melding of paradigms
 The biopsychosocial approach
was developed at Rochester
decades ago by Drs. George
Engel and John Romano.

 The biopsychosocial approach

systematically considers
biological, psychological, and
social factors and their
complex interactions in
understanding health, illness,
and health care delivery.
 What is the Purpose of Psychologists?
To investigate....

 Development: Course of  Social: Human and

human growth and social behavior
development  Cultural: How culture
 Learning: How and why it affects human behavior
occurs in humans and  Cognitive: How
animals reasoning, problem
 Personality: Traits, solving, and other
motivations, and mental processes relate
individual differences to human behavior
 Sensation and Perception:
 Evolutionary: How our
How we come to know the behavior is guided by
world through our five
patterns that evolved
during human history
senses
What is the Purpose of Psychologists - Rephrased
 Provide description of behaviors - naming and
classifying various observable, measurable behaviors
 Understand the causes of behavior(s)
 Predict future behavior accurately
 Obtain/facilitate control: Altering conditions that
influence behaviors
 Positive Use: To control unwanted behaviors, (e.g.,
smoking, tantrums, etc.)
 Negative Use: To control/influence peoples’
behaviors without their knowledge or consent –
Hello John B. Watson and his move to marketing
 Other Areas of Research

 Psychometrics is the measurement of behavior and

mental processes, usually through the use and
development of psychological tests.
 Social Psychology studies interpersonal behaviour and
the social forces which govern behaviour.
 Experimental Psychology focuses on
sensation/perception, motivation, emotion, and learning.
However, psychologists in all areas of research do
experiments.
 Personality studies an individual’s consistency in
behaviour and factors which shape personality.
 Developmental Psychology studies human
development across the life span.
 Professional Psychology
 Clinical Psychology (Ph.D)
 Clinical psychologists study, assess, and treat people with
psychological disorders as well as less severe behavioral and
emotional problems
 Uses psychotherapy to treat psychological disorders
 Psychiatry (M.D.)
 A specialty in medicine dealing with psychological disorders
 Psychiatrists are physicians who use medical as well as
psychotherapeutic treatments
 Counseling Psychologists (Ph.D)
 Perform similar work as clinical psychologists, but tend to work
with people dealing with more common and less severe
problems.
 Some of the areas of specialization include marriage, family,
grief, and career counseling.
 Professional Psychology

 Educational Psychologists improve

curriculum, teacher education, and standardized
tests.

 School Psychologists test and counsel children

with school related problems

 Industrial and Organizational Psychologists

work in business and industry to improve HR
departments, improve staff morale, and increase
worker productivity.
 For Discussion…

 Does the plurality of paradigms make

Psychology stronger as a science?

 Or, does it suggest an inability to understand

human behaviour and mental processes?

 Discuss with a partner your thoughts and be

prepared to share with the class.
Let’s Build a PATH
 Contemporary Psychology: Research

 Basic Research
 pure science that aims to increase the knowledge base

 Applied Research
 scientific study that aims to solve practical problems
Contemporary Psychology
 Contemporary Psychology

Nature-Nurture Controversy
 Behaviourism led to one of the fundamental
questions in psychology:
 Is behaviour determined more by heredity (nature) or
by environment and experience (nurture)?
 How big a role does each play in determining a certain
behavior?
 Where are we now with that question?

 Not an either/or scenario but an examination of how

they interact

 Epigenetics - the study of heritable changes in gene

expression that do not involve changes to the
underlying DNA sequence — a change in phenotype
(the observable traits from ) without a change
in genotype (inherited genetic make-up)
 The Science of Psychology:
Methodology

 Psychologists, like all scientists, use the scientific

method to construct theories that organize
observations and imply testable hypotheses
 The Science of Psychology

 Hindsight Bias
 We tend to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would
have foreseen it
 the “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon

 Overconfidence
 We tend to think we know more than we do
 The Scientific Attitude

 Critical Thinking
 thinking that does not blindly
accept arguments and
conclusions
 examines assumptions
 discerns hidden values
 evaluates evidence
 assesses conclusions

The Amazing Randi--Skeptic

 The Scientific Method

 Theory
 an explanation using an integrated set of principles that
organizes and predicts behaviours or events

 Hypothesis
 a testable prediction

 often implied by a theory

 Example: Lack of sleep will lead to increased experience of

negative affect
The Scientific Method
 The Scientific Method
 Operational Definition
 a statement of procedures (operations) used to define research
variables
 Intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence
test measures
 The Scientific Method
 Replication
 repeating the essence of a research study to see whether
the basic finding extends to other participants and
circumstances
 usually with different participants in different situations
Comparing Research Methods
 Case Studies
 Are useful observation
techniques in which one
person or group or event
is studied in depth in the
hope of revealing
universal principals

 Pro: Can provide new insights

or areas for further study;
rich descriptive info and can
study rare phenomena
 Con: Can be unrepresentative
and non-generalizable and
relies on subjective
interpretations
Phineas Gage
Naturalistic Observation
 Involves observing and recording
behavior in naturally occurring
situations without trying to
manipulate and control the
situation
 Pro: Can give detailed
information about the nature,
frequency and context of
naturally occurring behaviour
 Con: Cannot determine causal
relationships and the presence of
the observer can change the
behaviours
 Necessary Components

 Population
 The whole group you want to study and from the
population come samples (manageable)
 Sample size matters
 The larger the sample size the better
 Representative Sample
 a sample that is a perfect reflection of a population,
only smaller in size
 Random Sample
 a sample that fairly represents a population because each
member has an equal chance of inclusion
 Survey
 Technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes
or behaviors of people
 Usually by questioning a representative, random
sample of people

 Pro: Can be used to look at many cases or respondents – and a

representative sample provides accurate information about the
population in general
 Con: Prone to question phrasing/wording influencing how
people respond as well as the fact that interviewer bias and
social desirability bias can distort findings
 Also does not investigate causal relationships
 Correlational Studies

 Variables are measured and the strength of the

relationship is then calculated

 Pro: This allows for prediction and is a way to study

topics that cannot be ethically or practically
investigated by experimentation
 Smoking and birth weight, neglect and attachment difficulties,
etc.
 Con: Correlation does not imply causation
 Correlation
 Correlation Coefficient
 a statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary
together, and thus how well either factor predicts the other

Indicates direction
of relationship
(positive or negative)

Correlation
r = +.37
coefficient

Indicates strength
of relationship
(0.00 to 1.00)
 Correlation
Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships
could cause
(1)
Depression
Low self-esteem
or

(2) could cause

Low self-esteem
Depression

or
Low self-esteem
(3)
Distressing events could cause
and
or biological
predisposition
Depression
 Illusory Correlation

 Illusory
Conceive Do not conceive
Correlation
confirming disconfirming
 the perception of a evidence evidence
Adopt
relationship where
none exists

disconfirming confirming
evidence evidence
Do not
adopt
 Experimentation

 Experiment
 an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent
variables) to observe their effect on some behavior or mental
process (the dependent variable)
 by random assignment of participants the experiment controls
other relevant factors
 Experimentation
 Single-Blind
 Research participants don’t know if they are getting the
placebo or active agent
 Double-Blind Procedure
 both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant
(blind) about whether the research participants have received the
treatment or a placebo
 commonly used in drug-evaluation studies

 Placebo
 an inert substance or condition that may be administered instead
of a presumed active agent, to see if it triggers the effects believed
to characterize the active agent
 Experimentation

 Experimental Condition
 the condition of an experiment that exposes participants to the
treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable
 Control Condition
 the condition of an experiment that contrasts with the
experimental treatment
 serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the
treatment
 Experimentation

 Random Assignment
 assigning participants to experimental and control conditions
by chance
 minimizes pre-existing differences between those assigned to
the different groups
 Experimentation

 Independent Variable
 the experimental factor that is manipulated

 the variable whose effect is being studied

 Dependent Variable
 the experimental factor that may change in response to
manipulations of the independent variable
 in psychology it is usually a behavior or mental process
 Remember!!!!

 Research is not value free!!!

 The scientific method helps us access knowledge and

learn about the world but what we choose to study
and the questions we ask reflect our personal biases
Frequently Asked Questions About
Psychology

Is psychology
free of value
judgments?
Two Random Sequences

 Your chances of
being dealt
either of these
hands is
precisely the
same: 1 in
2,598,960.