GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY

PSY100
-IMuazzez Merve Yksel
Clinical Psychologist, PhD.
Fall, 2014

Course Objectives

To acquire knowledge of the different subject areas

in psychology.

To learn how psychologists gather and interpret

their data.

To prepare students to take more advanced courses

in psychology.

To communicate clearly with the instructor and

other students while in the classroom.

To think more critically about the causes of

behavior.

Required Textbook

Morris, C. G. & Maisto, A. A. (2008). Understanding Psychology:

Mypsychlab edition (9th Edition). NJ: Pearson

What is Psychology?

So, what is psychology?

Psychology relies on research to lead to the
development of theories about behavior,
cognition, feeling
GREAT WHY? and

GREAT HOW?

Why people (yourself included) tend to act differently in groups?

Why we forget some things and remember others?
Why drugs make us feel the way they do?
How habits develop and how to break them? ..

Psychology is the study of behavior and mental

processes and how they are affected by an
organisms physical state, mental state, and
environment.

Greek word mean

Psycho = mind or soul
Logo = study of

Goals of Psychology
Observe

Exam, watch, or interview a persons behavior

Describe

Record specific behavior under certain situations

Explain

Give reasons for behavior in terms of feeling of anxiety or distraction

Predict

Determine how a person will behave under a certain situation based on

ODE

Control

Change the behavior or mental process by teaching patient new

ways of keeping their anxiety under control

Biological Perspective
Focus
How the body and brain create emotions, memories,
and sensory experiences.

Sample Issues
How do evolution and heredity influence behavior?
How are messages transmitted within the body?
How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives?

Behavioral/Clinical Perspective
Focus
How we learn from observable responses.
How to best study, assess and treat troubled people.
Sample Issues
How do we learn to fear particular objects or situations?
What is the most effective way to alter certain behaviors?
What are the underlying causes of:
Anxiety Disorders
Phobic Disorders
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Cognitive Perspective
Focus
How we process, store and retrieve information.

Sample Issues
How do we use info in remembering and reasoning?
How do our senses govern the nature of perception?
(Is what you see really what you get?)
How much do infants know when they are born?

Psychoanalytic Perspective
Focus
The role of unconscious conflicts on behavior
and mental processes

Humanistic Perspective
Focus
Free will, personal growth, and resilience

Social-Cultural Perspective
Focus
How behavior and thinking vary across situations
and cultures.
Sample Issues
How are we, as members of different races and
nationalities, alike as members of one human family?
How do we differ, as products of different social contexts?
Why do people sometimes act differently in groups than
when alone?

Psychological Perspectives:
Depression Example
Biological: abnormalities in neurotransmitters in the brain
Learning: depressive symptoms have been reinforced
(rewarded) by the environment (e.g., getting to stay home
from school because of feeling depressed)
Cognitive: negative, pessimistic thinking style
Socio-cultural: societal stress and role demands; modern
culture has made us increasingly isolated
Psychodynamic: depression is due to unconsciously
displacing anger towards your parent onto yourself
Humanistic: depression is due to being inauthentic or by
being otherwise blocked in fulfilling your potential

What is Psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
and how they are affected by an organisms physical,
state, mental state, and external environment.

What is Psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
and how they are affected by an organisms physical,
state, mental state, and external environment.
Scientific study requires several things:
1. Theoretical framework
2. Testable hypotheses
3. Empirical evidence

What is Psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
and how they are affected by an organisms physical,
state, mental state, and external environment.
Behavior and mental processes include overt,
observable instances but also include subtle
kinds of instances, like brain activity.

What is Psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
and how they are affected by an organisms physical,
state, mental state, and external environment.
Humans and may other creatures included in the
scientific study of behavior and mental processes

What is Psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
and how they are affected by an organisms physical
state, mental state, and external environment.
Physical state relates primarily to the organisms
biology - most especially the state of the brain
and central nervous system

What is Psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
and how they are affected by an organisms physical
state, mental state, and external environment.
Mental state does not have to be conscious - can
study mental states in many creatures without
their conscious awareness - and can be studied in
terms of brain activity.

What is Psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
and how they are affected by an organisms physical
state, mental state, and external environment.
All organisms function in an environment that is
constantly presenting them with problems and
challenges that must be solved.

What is Psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
and how they are affected by an organisms physical
state, mental state, and external environment.
Most people think of psychology as the study of
differences between people, but it also includes
the study of similarities between people.

John B. Watson - Behaviorist

Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and
my own specified world to bring them up in and
I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train
him to become any type of specialist I might select
doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes,
even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his
talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations,
and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my
facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of
the contrary and they have been doing it for many
thousands of years.(1930)

 ____________ believed that childhood

experiences greatly influences the development
of later personality traits and psychological
problems, emphasized unconscious conflict &
past events.
According to ____________, environment
factors mold behavior and, behavior is
reinforced by rewards and punishment.
___________ psychology approach deals with
perception (Max Wertheimer)

FIELDS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Developmental Psychology
Physiological Psychology
Experimental Psychology
Personality Psychology
Clinical and Counseling Psychology
Social Psychology
Industrial and Organizational Psychology

CAREERS IN PSYCHOLOGY

A psychiatrist
A psychoanalyst
A clinical psychologist
Counseling psychologist
A social worker

RESEARCH METHODS IN
PSYCHOLOGY

Naturalistic Observation
Case Studies
Surveys
Correlations Research
Experimental Research

Experimental Research
Take some action and observe its effects

Extension of natural science to social science

Best for limited and well defined concepts
Useful for hypothesis testing - need theory
Focus on determining causation, not just
description

Components of Experiment
Three components:

Independent and dependent variables

Effects of stimulus on some outcome variable

Pretesting and posttesting

Ability to assess change before and after manipulation

Experimental and control groups

Comparison group that does not get stimulus

Pre-Experimental Designs
On-Shot Case Study

One Group PretestPosttest Design

Static Group
Comparison

True Experimental Design

Experimental Method
Strengths:
Isolation of the experimental variable over time.
Experiments can be replicated several times using
different groups of subjects.
Weaknesses:
Artificiality of laboratory setting.
Social processes that occur in a lab might not occur in a
more natural social setting.

CORRELATION / The Process

Problem selection

Variables to be correlated are selected on the basis of some

rationale
Math attitudes and math achievement
Teachers sense of efficacy and their effectiveness

Increases the ability to meaningfully interpret results

Inefficiency and difficulty interpreting the results

from a shotgun approach

Objective 2.1

CORRELATION / The Process

Participant and instrument selection
Minimum of 30 subjects
Instruments must be valid and reliable

Higher validity and reliability requires smaller samples

Lower validity and reliability requires larger samples

Design and procedures

Collect data on two or more variables for each subject

Data analysis

Compute the appropriate correlation coefficient

Objectives 2.2 & 2.3

Correlation Coefficients
A correlation coefficient identifies the size and
direction of a relationship
Size/magnitude

Ranges from 0.00 1.00

Direction

Positive or negative

Objectives 3.1, 3.2, & 3.3

Correlation Coefficients
Interpreting the size of correlations
General rule

Less than .35 is a low correlation

Between .36 and .65 is a moderate correlation
Above .66 is a high correlation

Predictions

Between .60 and .70 are adequate for group

predictions
Above .80 is adequate for individual predictions
Objective 3.5

Correlation Coefficients
Interpreting the direction of correlations
Direction

Positive

High scores on the predictor are associated with high scores on the
criterion
Low scores on the predictor are associated with low scores on the
criterion

Negative

High scores on the predictor are associated with low scores on the
criterion
Low scores on the predictor are associated with high scores on the
criterion

Positive or negative does not mean good or bad

Objective 3.3

How to be a critical thinker

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

6.
7.
8.

Ask Questions be curious

Define Your Terms frame your question in concrete, measurable terms
(operationalize)
Examine the Evidence ask what evidence supports and refutes your
hypothesis, conduct research or read about others who have tested your
hypothesis, take into account the quality of the research
Analyze Assumptions and Biases what assumptions might you be making or
what biases do you have that narrows your view: acknowledge these and force
yourself to expand your view
Avoid Emotional Reasoning try to take your emotions out of your thinking
(i.e., if you feel passionately that your view is correct it may cloud your
judgment)
Dont Oversimplify dont generalize from a single (or a few) cases or events
Consider Other Interpretations force yourself to consider and test other
explanations/hypotheses that are contrary to your own, but would also explain
your observations
Tolerate Uncertainty avoid drawing firm conclusions unless others have
replicated your findings