lec 2 – how psychology became a science

8/12/2019 Lec 2 How Psychology Became a Science

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Lecture 02How Psychology Became a Science(Reading pp 28-38)January 16th, 2013

A)

What is Psychology?

Psychologyis defined as the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes.

- focuses on the ABCs ~ affect, behaviour, cognition It spans many levels of explanationfrom biological to social influences:

o rungs on a ladder of explanation, with lower levels tied most closely to biological

influences and higher levels tied most closely with social influences.o biotropesbelieve that biological factors are most critical for understanding the causes

of behaviour (actions of the brain and nerve cells)-sociotropesbelieve that social factors are most critical for understanding the causesof behaviour (parenting practices, peer influences, culture)

o One must gain new knowledge from each vantage pointtriangulation(ex; sameconcept as surveying property lines- there is a possibility that one single measurement

may be inaccurate, therefore, 3 measurements taken and averaged out to removepossible error)

Attempts to answer many exceptionally difficult questions (e.g., consciousness)o

Mysterians - believe that certain questions regarding human nature are unanswerable

Originated from philosophy

o Descartes Reasoning- French philosopher

- doubted everything, but could not doubt that he was doubting (he knew he existed)- cogito ergo sumI think, therefore I am

B)

10 Things That Make Psychology Challenging

1. Human behaviour is hard to predict

MeehlsMaxim ~ guideline that states that the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour.

2. Behaviour is multiply determined

almost all actions are multiply determined~ caused by many factors

we should be skeptical of single-variable explanations of behaviour

Example: one might assume that violence occurs due to single factors such as poverty or genes,

however, it is affected by a wide array of causes

3. Psychological Influences Are Rarely Independent of One Another

multicollinearity~ the overlap among different causes of behaviour, often making it difficult to

determine which cause or causes are operating

Example: Explaining why some women develop eating disordersfactors such as anxiety,

exercise and perfectionism play a role, however, you can not simply focus on only one of thesefactors. Women who are perfectionists also tend to exercise and worry a lot, therefore, the factorsare all interrelated.

4. Psychological Influences Are Often Unknown

Example:differences between identical twins can be caused by influences that were never noticedor measured

5. People Affect Each Other


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behaviour in experiments is oftenstandardized~ maintained the same across all subject

reciprocal determinism~ tendency for people to mutually influence each others behaviour

Example:if you are an extroverted person, you are more likely to make people around you

comfortable and outgoing. Their outgoing response may feedback to make you even moreextroverted. Circular Relationship.

6. Many Psychological Concepts Are Difficult to Define

defining concepts is called operationalizingin psychologyhard process.

Example; Studying aggression in childrenwhat defines aggression in children? When a child hits

another is itbeing aggressive or simply defending itself? It is hard to distinguish and clearly

define.

The way we perceive things is influenced by who we are

Famous experiment: A baby in pink called Beth would be brought to a person sitting in a room. The

individual would play with the baby for 15 minutes and then asked their opinion about child. Same

experiment done with baby Adam. For baby Beth, the responses would be along the lines of shes

going to be a nurturing mother.For baby Adam, people said hesgoing to be a strong man

SAME BABY. This proves that our cultural biases change the way we experience and perceivereality.

Thus, how can we ever be 100% certain with our definitions? We cant. This is the nature of

science it is always open to revision.

Example: Many people deny that climate change is occurring because scientists cannot prove

definitively that it is. However, nothing in science can be proven conclusively.

7. The Human Brain Didnt Evolve to Understand Itself

brain evolved to maximize the chances that our genes are passed on to later generation

paradox of reflexivity~ psychologists are trying to use the human brain to understand itself

evolutionary theorist Robert Triversbelieved that the human mind evolved to deceive itself

8. People in Psychological Research Often Know Theyre Being Studied

reactivity~ tendency for people to behave differently when they know theyre being studied

quantum physics teaches us that when we measure something, we change itsame concept with

psychology

Example : Measuring someones length of urination will change it.When people are aware that you

are measuring them, they will take less time.

9. People Differ From Each Other

People differ in thought, emotion and personalityresponse to situations is different

Hard to come up with psychological explanations that apply to everyone

individual differences~ variations among people in their thinking, emotion, and behaviour

we have a tendency to assume that people we hang out with or even like think like us not true

we make divisions automaticallyex; is that a man or a woman? Most of us will always know

10. Culture Influences Peoples Behaviour

psychologists must take into account individual and cultural differences when explaining behaviourbecause culture shapes how we interpret the world

people from Western culture tend to focus on central details while people from Eastern culture tendto focus on peripheral details


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western society is fiercely individualistictherefore, we raise children that talk back, because they

must know how to defy authority in order to look after themselves

easter society, children are more polite and respectfulthis is because the societies are more

family-oriented, closer

experiment: kids from china and North America shown digital images of fish that move in different

waysexample: red fish separates from a group, other fish remain together , two outlooks on thissituation:

o Western kids: fish has separated because it got tired of the pack, didnt want to deal

with others anymore

Chinese kids: fish was removed from group because it did not behave itself

o shows how culture influences behaviour and thought

emic~ approach of studying a cultures behaviour from an insiders perspective

~ may understand the unique characteristics of a culture but overlook characteristics that the culture

shares with others

etic~ approach of studying a cultures behaviour from an outsiders perspective

~ able to view the culture within a broader perspective but unintentionally impose perspectivesfrom their own culture

Example; studying gay communities

C) Historical Perspective of Psychology

Its liberation from Philosophy

Psychology has been around since at least the time of the early Greeks, although its only been atruly experimental science for approximately 130 years.

was originally viewed as department of philosophy Immanual Kant even argued that it didntneed to become a sciencebelieved that mental experiences could not be quantified and

experimented with

In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt :

founded the first full-fledged psychological laboratory in Germany.

founded a less formal lab at Harvard- psychology became launched as an experimental science.

developed the practice of introspection~ method by which trained observers carefully reflect

and report on their mental experiences.

developed the field ofNew Psychologybecause he broke the chains of philosophy and

stemmed from traditional science (ex; physics)

Found that mental events could be quantified.

Its liberation from Spiritualism

term psychology literally means study of the psychespirit or soul

In the 1800s, Americans were obsessed with theparanormal:Paranormal~ events, like extrasensory perception, that fall outside the boundaries of traditionalscience.

The general public saw psychology and spiritualism as inextricably linked


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Some psychologists (William James) investigated spirit mediums and psychics, but never

uncovered scientific evidence

Psychology distanced itself from spiritualism by forging a new field: the psychology of human

error and self-deceptionHow can one fool themselves into believing things for which there

isnt solid evidence?

Parapsychology still exists as a tiny branch of the field

D) Psychology Today: Reasons for Optimism and Concern

today there are approximately 500 000 psychologists worldwide

with so many specialties, psychologists sometime disagree in their approach to subject matter

and interpretation of evidence

main controversy in modern psychology ~ fault line between psychologists who believe that

clinical practice should primarily reflect scientific findings and those who believe that clinical

practice should primarily reflect subjective clinical experience and intuition

first group disagree with all non-scientific aspects of psychology and new bizarre therapeutic

techniques

second group believes that psychotherapy is more of an art than a science -this disagreement is

known as thescientist-practitioner gap the gap widened in the 80s and early 90s when thousands of people claimed to recover

childhood memories of sexual abuse during or after psychotherapy

scientist portion believed that these recovered memorieswere false and induced by carelesstherapies

E)

Psychological TheoriesGreat theoretical frameworks of psych

1) Structuralism- founded by british Edward Bradford Titchener (influenced by Wundt)- aimed to identify the basic elements, or structures, of psychological experience

- divide experience into images, feelings, sensations- wanted to create a comprehensive map of the elements of consciousness using introspection - eventually dissolved because of two major problems:

- findings lacked reliability, reproducibilitypeople would not see findings that replicated each

other- needed something more systematic

- Ex; if room is always same temperature, a reliable thermometer will always give the same reading,

if not, it is unreliable and useless

~ highly trained introspectionists often disagreed on their subjective reports (lack of

consensus)

~ experiments involved imageless thoughtwhich demonstrated that some important aspects

of human psychology lie outside of conscious awareness

- structuralism went astray by assuming that a single method (introspection) could provide all the

information for a complete science of psychology

- no longer exists today - people eventually understood the importance ofsystematic observation~

to become a science, psychology must rely on rigorous and carefully standardized reports, not on

casual or informal impressions


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2) Functionalism- aimed to understand the adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics (thoughts, feelings,

behaviours)

- founded by William James influenced by Charles Darwin, origin of species, survival of species

- mind promoted survival (taste divided into sweet, sour, etc. helps us distinguish foods)

- involved the use of why questions- argued that careful introspections yields not a fixed number of static elements of consciousness

but an ever-changing stream of consciousness

- psychological components serve an adaptive purpose just as physical components do

- no longer exists in its original form, has become absorbed into mainstream scientific psychology

and continues to influence it today

- psychologists are attempting to use evolutionary theory to explain the nature of romantic

attraction, origins of human personality, etc.

3) Behaviourism (Black Box Psychology)- focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning underlying human and animal behaviour by

looking outside the organism to rewards, punishments, and behaviour delivered by or present in theenvironment- founded by John B. Watsoncalled himself a radical behavioristsothers thought mind was aghost, could not be seen

- based on punishments and rewards from the environment- psychological science must be objective and focus on observable behaviour

- the human mind is a black box~ an unknown entity that we dont need to understand to explainbehaviour- B.F. Skinner (a follower of Watson) believed that thoughts, feelings, and observable behaviours all

fall within scientific psychology. Thoughts and feelings are behaviour, they are just unobservable. operons conditioning

- key concept: if there is no change in behaviour, there is no learning

Contribution to Scientific Psychology

- by identifying the fundamental laws of learning that help to explain human and animal behaviour,behaviourists have placed psychology on a firmer scientific footing- warned us of the hazards of relying on reports that we cant verify objectively

4) Cognitivism

-proposes that our thinking (cognition) affects our behaviour in powerful ways- cognition~ mental processes involved in different aspects of thinking- argued that a psychology based solely rewards and punishments from the environment is inaccurate

because our interpretation of rewards and punishments is a crucial determinant in our behaviour- without understanding how people evaluate information, well never understand the causes of their

behaviour- we learn by insight~grasping the underlying nature of problems

- Jean Piaget (conservation of matter) and Ulric Neisser are cognitivistsopened up the black box

- Albert Bandurabobo doll experiments -collective name of the experiments studying childrens

reaction/behavior after watching an adult model act aggressively towards a Bobo doll

- encouraged psychologists to peek in the black box to examine connections between inputs and

outputs


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- established strong linkages to the study of brain function

5) Psychoanalysis

- founded by Sigmund Freud

- focuses on internal psychological processes (impulses, thoughts, and memories) of which were

unaware- primary influences on behaviour are unconscious drives, specifically sexuality and aggression

- much of our every day psychological life is filled with symbols (referring to a female prof. as

mommy because she secretly reminds you of your mother)

- purpose of a psychoanalyst is to decode the symbolic meaning of our slips of the tongue (Freudian

slips), dreams, and psychological symptoms

- by doing this, psychologists can get to the deep-seated psychological conflicts

- core of personality is molded in the first few years of life

- problem: unconscious processes are difficult to verify

- Freud (parapraxisslip of the tongue, defense mechanisms)

- Jung (collective unconscious- not just personal, looked at other cultures and myths, archetypes- ex;

heros journey)

- The three parts of the psyche:

o Idbasic part of personality, wants instant gratification for our needs. If needs not met,

becomes anxious/tense.

A baby cries until it is fed

o Egoreality, tries to meet the desires of the id in a socially acceptable way

Even though Michael needed money, he decided not to steal the money from

the cash register because he didnt want to get in trouble.

o Superegodevelops last, moral judgmentswhat is right/wrong

Sarah knew that she could steal the supplies from work and no one would

know about it. However, she knew that stealing was wrong, so she decided notto take anything even though she would probably never get caught

- some critics say that psychoanalysis retarded the progress of scientific psychology because it focused

so heavily on unconscious processes that are so hard to verify while some psychoanalytic claims (such

as the assertion that important mental processing goes on outside of the conscious mind) have held up

well

Modern Psychology

- Critical Multiplism~ approach of using many different methods in concert (surveys, lab experiments,

real-world observation, etc)AKA triangulation

- the diversity ofpsychology is a disadvantage because its hard to come up with a grand theory thatunifies all subdisciplines of psychology and is an advantage because there are so many approached at

our disposal to address questions regarding human nature

Basic versus Applied Research

- basic research~ research examining how the mind works

- applied research~ research examining how we can use basic research to solve real-world problems


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- translating research findings into real-world applications (e.g yellow fire trucks, third brake light,

sequential police lineups, childrens cereal, impulse items at cash register, etc)

- John B. Wattson- look up

Types of Psychologists

1)

Clinical Psychologists

- focus of the assessment, diagnosis, causes, and treatment of mental disorders

- some conduct research on people with these disorders while others primarily assess, diagnose, and

treat them

- in Canada, they cannot prescribe medication

2) Counselling Psychologists- work with relatively normal people who are experiencing temporary or relatively self-contained life

(situational) problems- work in counselling centers, hospitals, or private practices

3) School Psychologists- work with teachers, parents, and children to remedy students behaviour, emotional, and learning

difficulties- assess these problems and develop behavioural intervention programs- not the same as educational psychology~ identify better methods for teaching and presenting course

material

4) Developmental Psychologists- study why and how people change over time- most conduct research on infants and children emotional, social, physiological, and cognitive

processes and how they change with age

5) Experimental Psychologists- use sophisticated research methods (reaction time equipment, etc) to study the memory, language, andthinking of humans- work in research setting and sometimes consult for business

6) Biopsychologists (include neuropsychologists)- sometimes called psychobiologists or physiological psychologists- examine the physiological bases of behaviour in animals and humans

7) Forensic Psychologists (ex; Elixabeth Loftess?)- work in prisons, jails, and other settings to assess and diagnose inmates and assist in their

rehabilitation and treatment- others conduct research on eye-witness testimony or jury decision-making

8) Industrial-Organizational Psychologists- work in companies and businesses to help select productive employees, evaluate employee

performance, examine the effects of different working or living conditions on peoples behaviour, or

design equipment to maximize performance and minimize accidents

The Great Debates of Psychology

The Nature-Nurture Debate- Tabula rasa? No, research conducted by behaviour geneticists and others suggests that most

psychological traits are substantially influenced by genes

- for most of the 20thcentury, most psychologists assumed that all human behaviour was a product


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of learning, however it was found that the most important psychological traits are influenced by

genes

- human behaviour is attributable to our environment and our geneology

- Behaviour is attributable to both genes and environment, but the relative balance of the two

depends on which characteristic we measure (e.g., risk for ADHD vs. religious affiliation)

-

Evolutionary psychology- applies Darwins theory of natural selection to human and animalbehaviour

-just-so stories ~ superficial explanations made-up after the fact; a term sometimes applied by

critics to some evolutionary psychology hypotheses

The Free WillDeterminism Debate- to what extent are our behaviours freely selected rather than caused by factors outside of our control? insanity defense~ the legal system assumes that severe mental illness can interfere with a persons

free will

- many psychologists believe that free will is an illusion; Skinner argues that our sense of free will

stems from the fact that we are unaware of the thousands of subtle environmental influences

impinging on our behaviour at any moment (like puppets)

Some psychologists argue most behaviours are generated automatically, without conscious

awareness, though we perceive them as under our control (e.g., philosopher Nietzsche &

causality)

- we believe we are free because we are unaware of all of the influences acting on our behaviour

- readiness potential~ brain wave measures our preparedness for bodily action

- compatibilism~ compromise between free will and determinism says that the two can coexist

The Mind-Body Debate

- are our behaviours due to the functioning of the brain and nervous system or also the action of a

nonmaterial entity, like a soul?- mind-body monists~ scientists who believe that the mind is the brain and nervous system in

action

- mind-body dualists~ scientists who believe that the mind is more than the brain and nervous

system

- cannot scientifically test if the soul exists

lec 2 – how psychology became a science

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