PSYCH 100 NOTES

What is psychology?

 Psychology refers to the study of the human mind and behavior.

How is the study of psychology beneficial to people in other fields or professions, such as
business, education, or law?

 In my own perspective, by taking Psychology courses, you can learn a lot about the
human mind and how it works, and also people’s behavior. Psychology is beneficial in
helping us further understand how and why people in our lives or in our surroundings
behave the way they do. It is mentioned on the top part of the reading material, that an
education in psychology hones critical thinking skills and can also develop better
communication skills. On top of this, psychology courses deal with various numbers of
issues in a variety of setting that's why studying Psychology is very beneficial to people
in other fields, such as business, education or law.

What are the four goals of Psychology?

 The four goals of Psychology are the following:

 Describe which means to simply describe behavior because through describing
the behavior of human mind and other species we are able to understand them and
gain a better perspective on what is considered abnormal or normal.
 Explain, after describing, psychologist also need to explain what they (observe
and) describe; they need to go beyond what is obvious.
 Predict, once they understand or know what happened and why it happened,
psychologists began to create predictions of, why, how, and when it might happen
again in the near future. As the saying goes, ―the best predictor of future behavior
is past behavior.‖
 Control, once psychologists know what happens and why it happens and what is
most likely to happen in the future, you can exert control over it.

History of Psychology

Who created the operant chamber and what did it show?

 B.F Skinner created the operant chamber that isolates a certain subject from the external
environment and has a behavior indicator such s a lever or a button.
To what aspect of psychology was the behaviorist approach to psychology a reaction?

 Behaviorists only study observable behaviors partly in reaction to the psychologists of the
mind who were studying things that were completely opposite to what behaviorists are
studying—studying things that were not directly observable.

Describe the cognitive revolution. Why was it called a ―revolution‖?

 Based on my research, cognitive revolution started during the 1950s when cognitive
psychology replaced behaviorism and psychoanalysis as the main approach when it
comes to psychological fields. Cognitive revolution is known when new disciplinary
perspectives in linguistics, neuroscience, and computer science were emerging, and these
areas revived interest in the mind as a focus of scientific inquiry.

Based on your reading, which theorist would have been most likely to agree with this statement:
Perceptual phenomena are best understood as a combination of their components?

 Max Wertheimer

Contemporary Psychology

If a researcher is studying memory loss after brain injuries, what type of psychologist are they
most likely to be?

 Biological Psychologist

What are the potential ethical concerns associated with Milgrim’s research on obedience?

 According to Blass (2009), there were no formal ethical guidelines for the protection of
the human subject. The potential ethical concerns with Milgram’s research on obedience
or The Milgram Shock Experiment are the following:
o Deception – since in his experiment, the participants actually believed that they
were administering shocks to real people, unaware that the aforementioned people
are Milgram’s accomplices.
o Protection of participants involved – based on my research, during the
experiment, the participants, injured severe circumstances that could have
attributed to psychological impairment, since some of the participants are anxious
about the harm that they could possibly bring to their fellow participants.
o Right to withdrawal – the British Psychological Society (BPS) states that
researchers should explain to participants that they are free to withdraw whenever
 they want, regardless of the payment. But the experimenter probably discouraged
the participants from withdrawing from the experiment because of Milgrim’s four
verbal prods which are: (1) Please continue, (2) the experiment requires that you
continue, (3) it is absolutely essential that you continue, and lastly (4) you have no
other choice, you must go on (Shanab & Yahya, 2009).

Careers in Psychology

Why is an undergraduate education in psychology so helpful in a number of different lines of

work?

 An undergraduate education in psychology is associated with knowledge base and skill

set, and as a result, individual’s earning their bachelor’s degrees in psychology find
themselves in a number of different careers.

Other than a potentially greater salary, what would be the reasons an individual would continue
on to get a graduate degree in psychology?

 Getting a graduate degree in psychology would be a stronger guarantee that you can work
in a more independent or supervisory capacity, and also it would allow you to practice
your chosen field of psychology.

Approaches to Research

Aside from biomedical research, what other areas of research could greatly benefit by both
longitudinal and archival research?

 Possibilities include research on the behavior of graduated students from a prestigious

university, if they had records in the guidance office or if they are the role model
students in the university. And for the longitudinal research, researchers can follow the
students if they get decent jobs or not.
Human Genetics

Explain why a section on human genetics is included in this chapter?

 Psychological researchers study genetics in order to better understand the biological

factors that contribute to certain behaviors. While all humans share certain biological
mechanisms, we are each unique. And while our bodies have many of the same parts—
brains and hormones and cells with genetic codes—these are expressed in a wide variety
of behaviors, thoughts, and reactions.