1. SOSC 2
GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter 1: The Science ofPsychology
 Psychology – is the scientific study of behavior and mental
processes.
 FieldsofSpecialization:
o Developmental: How humans grow and change
o Physiological: The biological bases of behavior,
thought, and emotion
o Experimental: Basic explanations for human behavior
and mental processes
o Personality: How individuals differ in basic traits
o Clinical and Counseling: How mental illnesses and
adjustment problems are diagnosed and treated.
o Social: How others influence our own behavior and
thinking.
o Industrial and Organizational : How the principles
of psychology can be applied in the workplace.
Enduring Issues in Psychology:
Person-Situation How important are internal
thoughts and feelings versus
external events?
Nature-Nurture Is behavior the result of
hereditary or environmental
forces?
Stability-Change Is the behavior ofan individual
stablethroughout the life span
or does it changein response to
life events?
Diversity-Universality To what extent are all people
alike?
Mind-Body To what extent is our sense of
personal awareness a
consequence of biological
processes occurring in the
nervous system?
Early Views of Psychology and Psychological Processes:
o 5,000 BCE -Trephining: used to allow the escape of evil spirits.
o 430 BCE-Hippocrates argues for 4 temperaments ofpersonality.
o 1637 – Descartes describes animal spirits; founder ofmodern
psychology
o 1690 –John Locke –tabula rasa
o 1807 –FranzJosefGall: proposes PHRENOLOGY
o In Germany, in 1879, Wilhelm Wundt sets up the first
psychologicallaboratory tostudy mental processes scientifically:
establishes the Structuralist view; Father of Experimental
Psychology; use Introspection-asking research participants to
describe exactly what they experience as they work on mental
tests.
o In the United States, William James (1890) argues that conscious
experience is ever-changing:establishes the Functionalist view.
o In 1900, Sigmund Freud emphasizes the role of unconscious
processes: establishes the Psychodynamic view.
o 1905 - Mary Whiton Calkins analyzehow welearn verbalmaterial
and self-psychology; 1st female President ofAPA.
o 1904 –Ivan Pavlov wins NobelPrize for work on digestion thatled
to fundamental principles oflearning; Classical Conditioning
o 1920 – Gestalt Psychology: organization of perception and
thinking in a wholesenserather than on the individual elements
of perception.
o 1924 - John B. Watson redefines psychology as thesciencelimited
to the study of observable behavior: establishes Behaviorism, a
view later popularized by B.F. Skinner (1953).
o 1928 –LetaStetter Hollingworth publishes work onadolescence.
o 1951 – Carl Rogers – Client-Centered Therapy; Humanistic
perspective
o 1954 –Abraham Maslow –self-actualization
o 1957 –Leon Festinger –Social Psychology
o 1980 –Jean Piaget –Developmental Psychology
o 1985 - Cognitive psychologists use scientific methods to study
mental processes such as thinking and feeling.
o 1990 –Multiculturalism and Diversity
o 2000 –Elizabeth Loftus –falsememoryandeyewitness testimony
o 2010 –Clinical neuroscience, Evolutionary psychologists examine
how human behavior has evolved and focus on how behavior
helps us adapt to our surroundings.
o Positive psychologists study mental wellness and successful
adjustment patterns.
STRUCTURALISM: School of psychology that stresses the basic units of
experience and the combinations in which they occur.
FUNCTIONALISM: Theory ofmentallifeand behavior that is concerned with
how an organism uses its perceptual abilities to functionin its environment.
PSYCHODYNAMIC: Personality theories contending that behavior results
from psychological factors thatinteractwithintheindividual, often outside
conscious awareness.
BEHAVIORISM: School of psychology that studies only observable and
measurable behavior.
GESTALT: School of psychology that studies how people perceive and
experience objects as whole patterns.
HUMANISTIC: School ofpsychology thatemphasizes mentalhealth and well-
being, self-understanding, and realizing one’s full human potential.
COGNITIVE: School ofpsychology devotedto thestudy ofmental processes
in the broadest sense.
EVOLUTIONARY: An approach to, and subfield of, psychology that is
concerned withtheevolutionary origins ofbehaviors and mental processes,
their adaptive value, and the purposes they continue to serve.
POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: An emerging field of psychology that focuses on
positiveexperiences, including subjectivewell-being,self-determination,the
relationship betweenpositiveemotions and physicalhealth, and the factors
that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish.
How Psychologists use the Scientific Method:
o Psychologists rely on the scientific method to describe,
understand, predict,andexplain behaviorandmentalprocesses.
How the Scientific Method works:
o As data are collected, patterns of results are explained with
theories, whichin turn generateadditionaltestable hypotheses.
DESCRIPTIVEMETHODS:
o Naturalistic Observation: systematicstudy ofbehavior in natural
rather than laboratory settings, but with limited control.
Observer bias: expectations orbiases ofthe observer
that mightdistort orinfluencehis orherinterpretation
ofwhat was actually observed.
o Case Study: detailed description of an individual, but open to
potential observer bias.
o Survey: use ofinterviews or questionnaireto collect information
about a group ofpeople, but open to sampling bias.

2. CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH:
o Correlation: numerical expression ofthe degree to which two
variables are related to each other.
o Correlation can be used to describe a relationship, but not to
establish cause-and-effect.
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH:
o Can be used to study cause-and-effect relationships
o Often involves themanipulation ofan Independent Variable by
the experimenter to see ifit affects the Dependent Variable of
interest.
o Results obtainedon participants in the Experimental Group are
compared to thoseobtained onparticipants in a Control Group.
o Experimental bias must belimited through careful planning and
control of the experiment.
- Factors that distort how the independent variable affects
the dependent variable in an experiment.
o Results in allmethods dependon whois included inthesample of
participants studied. RandomSample: Allpotential participants
have an equalchance ofbeing selected. Representative Sample:
Sample chosensothat the characteristics ofits participants match
those in the larger population.
o Placebo: A false treatment such as a pill, “drug,” or other
substance,without any significantchemical properties or active
ingredient.
Ethical Principles that Guide Research in Psychology:
o Informed consent must be given by participants
- A document signed byparticipants affirming that they have
been told thebasic outlines ofthe study and are aware of
what their participation will involve.
o Confidentiality must be maintained
o Participants have the right to not participate or discontinue
participation
o Deception can be employed only in carefully limited ways.
REFLECTION:
1. What do you think are the major problems affecting society
today? What are the psychological issues involved in these
problems, and how might psychologists help find solutions to
them?
2. Can you describe how a researcher might use naturalistic
observation, case studies, and survey research to investigate
gender differences in aggressive behavior attheworkplace? First
state a hypothesis andthen describeyour research approaches.
What positive and negative features does each method have?
Reference:
Feldman, R. S. (2010). Understanding Psychology. 9th
Edition. McGraw Hill Companies,
Inc.
Morris, C.G.,et al. (2007). Psychology Concepts and Applications. Pearson Education, Inc.
New Jersey.
Prepared by:
Mrs. Maria Angela L. Diopol
Instructor