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Summary General Introduction to Psychology
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Full Summary General Introduction to Psychology Psychology Course Radboud University Nijmegen
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General Introduction to PsychologyChapter 1: The Science of Psychology
Psychology: the study of mental activity and behavior
1.1
Psychological science: is the study, through research, of mind, brain and behavior
o Mind: mental activity, biological processes within the brain
o Behavior: totality of observable human (or animal) actions.
1.2
Critical thinking: systematically question and evaluate information using well-
supported evidence
o Amiable skepticism: being open to new ideas but carefully considering the
evidence.
1.3
Biases (inaccurate thinking) we will encounter:
o Ignoring evidence (confirmation bias)
Selective sampling
o Seeing relationships that do not exist:
Usually its coincidence
o Accepting after-the-fact explanations (hindsight bias):
Can result in distorting evidence
When you know the outcome, you interpret and reinterpret old
evidence to make sense of that outcome
o Taking mental shortcuts:
Availability heuristic (simple rules to make decisions)
1.4
We are unaware of are weaknesses because we can’t judge them and because we
start off with extreme positive views about our abilities. Therefor we fail to self-
improve.
1.5
Culture: the beliefs, values, rules and customs that exist within a group of people
who share a common language and environment
Nature/nurture debate: the arguments concerning whether psychological
characteristics are biologically innate or acquired through education, experience and
culture
Mind/body problem: are mind and body separate and distinct, or is the mind simply
the physical brain’s subjective experience?
o Dualism: mind and body separate, yet intertwined. Rational mind is separate.
1.6
Experimental psychology:
o Wundt
o Reaction time
o Introspection: a systematic examination of subjective mental experiences
that requires people to inspect and report on the content of their thoughts.
Structuralism: an approach to psychology based on the idea that conscious
experience can be broken down into its basic underlying components.
o Introspection
o Titchener + Wundt
Functionalism: an approach to psychology concerned with the adaptive purpose, or
function of mind and behavior.
o William James
, o Stream of consciousness: a phrase to describe each person’s continuous
series of ever-changing thoughts.
Evolutionary theory: the history of a species in terms of the inherited, adaptive value
of physical characteristics, of mental activity and of behavior.
o Adaptations: the physical characteristics, skills or abilities that increase the
chances of reproduction or survival and are therefore likely to be passed along
to future generations.
o Natural selection: the idea that those who inherit characteristics that help
them adapt to their particular environments have a selective advantage over
those who do not.
Survival of the fittest
1.7
Schools of thought: different ways of thinking about the content of psychology
Psychoanalysis: to bring the contents of the unconscious into conscious awareness
so that conflicts can be revealed.
o Freud
o Free association: the patient shaping the conversation so that he/she
eventually revealed the unconscious conflicts.
Behaviorism: a psychological approach that emphasizes the role of environmental
forces in producing observable behavior.
o Nature/nurture
o Stimuli -> responses
o BF Skinner and John B Watson
Gestalt Movement: a theory based on the idea that the whole of personal
experience is different from the sum of its constituent elements. (triangle is triangle
not 3 lines)
o Max Wertheimer en Wolfgang Kohler
Humanistic Psychology: focuses on the basic goodness of people and how they
become happier and more fulfilled.
o Maslow and Rogers
Cognitivism:
o Cognitive neuroscience: the study of the neural mechanisms underlying
thought, learning, perception, language and memory
o Miller and Neisser
1.8
Latest development:
o Brain chemistry
o Brain imaging: to help study mental activity
o Human genome: genetic code
1.9
Over time the brain changes in response to adaptive problems effecting survival and
reproduction
Many modern behaviors reflect adaptations to environmental pressures faced by our
ancestors. (sometimes maladaptive)
1.10
Cultural norms: specify how people should behave in different contexts.
o They reflect solutions to adaptive problems that have been worked out by a
group of individuals, and they are transmitted through learning.
1.11
Psychologists examine behavior from various analytical levels:
o Biological: brain systems, neurochemistry, genetics
o Individual: individual differences, perception and cognition, behavior
o Social: interpersonal behavior, social cognition
, o Cultural: thoughts, actions and behaviors in different societies and cultural
groups
1.12
Psychological practitioners: apply the findings of psychological science to help
improve lives
Chapter 2: Research Methodology
2.1
Four primary goals of science:
o Description
o Prediction (when phenomenon might occur)
o Control (controlling conditions)
o Explanation
Scientific method: a systematic and dynamic procedure of observing and measuring
phenomena, used to achieve the goals of description, prediction, control and
explanation; it involves an interaction between research, theories and hypotheses.
o Research: a scientific process that involves the careful collection, analysis
and interpretation of data.
o Data: a collection of measurements gathered during the research process.
o Hypothesis: a specific, testable prediction, narrower than the theory it is
based on.
o Theory: a model of interconnected ideas or concepts that explains what is
observed and makes predictions about future events. Theories are based on
empirical evidence.
Multiple hypotheses
Falsifiable
Supported by data
o Law of parsimony/Occam’s razor: when 2 competing theories exist to explain
the same phenomenon, the simpler of the two theories is generally preferred.
2.2
The 7 steps of the scientific method:
o 1. Frame a research question
o 2. Conduct a literature review
o 3. Form a hypothesis
o 4. Design a study
o 5. Conduct the study
o 6. Analyze the data
Describe data
What conclusions can you draw
o 7. Report the results
2.3
Replication: repetition of a research study to confirm or contradict the results
o Contextual factors: attitudes and circumstances change
2.4
Critical thinking
o Question the information
o Ask for definition of each part of the claim
Evaluation of information
, 2.5
Types of studies:
o Descriptive research: research methods that involve observing behavior to
describe that behavior objectively and systematically
Case studies: a descriptive research method that involves the
intensive examination of an unusual person or organization
Intensive information: observation, recording and description
No generalization
No control or explanation
Observational studies:
Participant observation: the researcher is involved in the
situation
Naturalistic observation: the researcher is a passive
observer, separated from the situation and making no attempt
to change or alter ongoing behavior.
Self-report and interviews:
Surveys, questionnaires
2.6
Socially desirable responding/faking good: person responds in a way that is most
socially acceptable
Reactivity: the phenomenon that occurs when knowledge that one is being observed
alters the behavior being observed.
Hawthorne effect: changes in behavior when people know that others are observing
them
Observer bias: systematic errors in observation that occur because of an observer’s
expectations.
Experimenter expectancy effect: actual change in the behavior of the people or
nonhuman animals being observed that is due to the expectations of the observer.
2.7
Correlational studies: a research method that describes and predicts how variables
are naturally related in the real world, without any attempt by the researcher to alter
them or assign causation between them.
o Sometimes favorable because of ethical reasons
Scatterplot: a graphical depiction of the relationship between two variables
o Positive correlation: both variables either increase or decrease together
o Negative correlation: one variable increase when the other decreases
o Zero correlation: one variable is not predictably related to the other
Directionality problem: the researchers find a relationship between two variables,
but they cannot determine which variable may have caused changes in the other
variable. (A->B or B->A?)
Third variable problem: the researcher cannot directly manipulate variables; as a
result, the researcher cannot be confident that another, unmeasured variable is not
the actual cause of differences in the variables of interest.
2.8
Experiment: a research method that tests causal hypotheses by manipulating and
measuring variables.
Independent variable: the variable that gets manipulated in a research study
o Level 1: treatment (pill) = experimental group
o Level 2: comparison (placebo) = control group
Dependent variable: the variable that gets measured in a research study
Operational definition: a definition that qualifies (describes) and quantifies
(measures) a variable so the variable can be understood objectively.
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