9/4/23, 3:47 PM 1: What Is Psychology?

Summary: What Is Psychology?

1.1 Psychology, Pseudoscience, and Popular Opinion
LO 1.1.A Define psychology, describe how it addresses daily life from a
scientific perspective, and differentiate it from pseudoscience and common
sense.

Psychology is the discipline concerned with behavior and mental processes and
how they are affected by an organism’s external and internal environment.
Psychologists have many pseudoscientific competitors, such as astrologers and
psychics. Psychology’s methods and reliance on empirical evidence distinguish it
from pseudoscience and “psychobabble.” An introductory Psychology course
can correct many misconceptions about human behavior.

LO 1.1.B Discuss some of the early perspectives and individuals that were
influential forerunners of modern psychology.

Psychology’s forerunners made some valid observations and had useful

insights, but without rigorous empirical methods, they also made serious errors
in the description and explanation of behavior, as in the case of phrenology.
Wilhelm Wundt formally established the first psychological laboratory in 1879,
in Leipzig, Germany, in which he conducted studies using the technique of
trained introspection. Functionalism emphasized the purpose of behavior; one
of its leading proponents was William James. Sigmund Freud’s theory
of psychoanalysis emphasized unconscious causes of mental and emotional
problems. As with many scientific fields, the early years of psychology were
dominated by White males. Over time, an increasing number of women and
people of color have entered the field and become influential psychologists, but
psychology continues to have work to do to address issues of diversity and
representativeness within the field.

LO 1.1.C List and describe four major perspectives in modern psychology.

The biological perspective emphasizes bodily events associated with actions,

thoughts, and feelings, as well as genetic contributions to behavior. The learning
perspective emphasizes how the environment and a person’s history affect
behavior; within this perspective, behaviorists reject mentalistic explanations
and social-cognitive learning theorists combine elements of behaviorism with the
study of thoughts, values, and intentions. The cognitive perspective emphasizes
mental processes in perception, problem solving, belief formation, and other

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human activities. The sociocultural perspective explores how social contexts and
cultural rules affect an individual’s beliefs and behavior.
LO 1.1.D Describe the roles that psychologists play in research, practice, and
the community.

Many psychologists conduct research and teach in colleges and universities,

where they investigate a broad range of topics. Other psychologists provide
mental health services (psychological practice), with licensed therapists varying
by training and approach. Clinical psychologists have a Ph.D., an Ed.D., or a
Psy.D.; psychiatrists have an M.D.; psychoanalysts are trained in psychoanalytic
institutes. Some psychologists conduct research and apply findings in a variety
of nonacademic settings, working to make their communities better places to
live, and to contribute to the mental, social, and physical health of people in
those communities.

1.2 Thinking Critically and Scientifically About

Psychology
LO 1.2.A Explain why critical thinking applies to all scientific pursuits and
why it should also guide everyday judgments and decision-making.

One benefit of studying psychology is the development of critical-thinking skills

and attitudes. Critical thinking helps people evaluate competing findings on
psychological issues that are personally and socially important. Critical
thinking is an evolving process rather than a once-and-for-all accomplishment.
While it is essential for being an effective researcher, it also helps us become
better in our daily lives at differentiating reliable information from
misinformation and “fake news.”

LO 1.2.B Identify important steps to critical thinking, and give an example of

how each applies to the science of psychology.

Critical thinkers ask questions, define terms clearly, analyze assumptions and
biases, examine the evidence, and weigh conclusions. In the process of
proceeding through these steps, researchers apply the principle of falsifiability in
developing operational definitions that allow them to conduct empirical tests
of hypotheses derived from theories.

1.3 Doing Research: Moving From Questions to Data

LO 1.3.A Describe the ways participants are selected for psychological
studies and how the method of selection can influence interpretations of a
study’s outcomes.

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In any study, researchers would ideally like to use a representative sample, one
that is similar in composition to the larger population that they wish to
describe. But in practice, researchers must often use “convenience” samples,
which often mean college undergraduates. In the study of many topics, the
consequences of doing so are minimal, but in other cases, conclusions about
“people in general” must be interpreted with caution.

LO 1.3.B Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using different

descriptive methods such as case studies, observational methods, tests, and
surveys.

Descriptive methods seek to provide descriptions of behavior but not causal

explanations for why it occurs. There are many types of descriptive
studies. Case studies are detailed descriptions of individuals and can also be
valuable in exploring new research topics and addressing questions that would
otherwise be difficult to study. In observational studies, researchers
systematically observe and record behavior without interfering with the
behavior. Naturalistic observation is used to find out how animals and people
behave in their natural environments, whereas laboratory observation allows
more control and the use of special equipment. Psychological tests provide a
standardized means of measuring and evaluating personality traits, emotional
states, aptitudes, interests, and abilities, usually by comparing scores to
previously established standards of performance. A good test has
both reliability and validity. Surveys are questionnaires or interviews that ask
people directly about their experiences, attitudes, and opinions.

1.4 Correlational Studies: Looking for Relationships

LO 1.4.A Illustrate with an example how a correlation coefficient gives both
the size and direction of the relationship between two variables.

Studies that look for relationships between phenomena are known

as correlational. A correlation is a measure of the strength of a positive or
negative relationship between two variables and is expressed by the correlation
coefficient. A positive correlation means that as one variable increases, so does
the other. A negative correlation means that as one variable increases, the other
decreases.

LO 1.4.B Explain why a correlation between two variables does not establish
a causal relationship between those variables.

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A correlation between two variables does not necessarily demonstrate a causal

relationship between the variables. The first variable could be causing the
second to happen, the second variable could be causing the first to happen, or a
third variable could be causing both of the other two to happen. Correlational
designs are not equipped to shed light on the causal relationship between
variables.

1.5 Experiments: Hunting for Causes

LO 1.5.A Distinguish an independent variable from a dependent variable,
and give an example of each.

Psychologists turn to experimental research design to test the causal

relationship between variables. Experiments allow researchers to control the
situation being studied, manipulate an independent variable, and assess the
effects of the manipulation on a dependent variable.

LO 1.5.B Explain how random assignment helps create conditions in an

experiment, and explain the difference between an experimental group and a
control group.

Randomly assigning participants to conditions, especially with a large enough

sample, allows researchers confidence that the groups being compared in an
experiment are more or less equivalent to begin with. Experimental studies
then compare outcomes across two or more conditions, often
including experimental and control groups. A cross-sectional study compares
groups at a given point in time, whereas a longitudinal study follows and
reassesses participants over a period of time.

LO 1.5.C Discuss the methodological advantages, limitations, and ethical

considerations related to experimental research design.

Experiments offer researchers many advantages, but also have limitations and
challenges. Single-blind and double-blind procedures can be used to prevent the
expectations of the participants or the experimenter from affecting the
results. Field research can help address the concern that many experiments are
conducted in an artificial laboratory setting. It is also important for researchers
to keep in mind ethical considerations, including the process of informed
consent.

1.6 Evaluating the Findings

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LO 1.6.A Explain how descriptive statistics can be used to compare the

performance of groups of research participants.

Psychologists use descriptive statistics, such as the arithmetic mean and

the standard deviation, to summarize data. By finding the average score in a set
of measurements and how clustered or spread out the scores are around that
average, scientists get a good idea of what the measurements as a whole look
like.

LO 1.6.B Explain what a statistically significant research result does and does
not mean.

Psychological scientists use inferential statistics to find out how reliable any
relationships between variables are. Significance tests tell the researchers how
likely it is that the results of a study would have turned out the way they did if
there weren’t a real relationship between the variables in question; the results
are said to be statistically significant if this likelihood is very low. The effect
size is a standardized way of describing the strength of the independent
variable’s influence on the dependent variable.

LO 1.6.C Describe why openness and replication are important qualities of

the scientific enterprise.

Scientists must be willing to tell others where they got their ideas, how those
ideas were tested, and what the results were, so that studies can be repeated
and findings can be verified independently. Increasingly, today’s psychological
scientists conduct replications in which they try to repeat exactly the procedures
of a previous research study to determine whether the results turn out the same
way.

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