Introduction to Psychology: Science, History, and Methodologies

Food for Thought

Overview

Before you begin to work on this module, take this opportunity to familiarize yourself with the Blackboard site. If you have read the Subject Outline and are reasonably comfortable with the navigational tools of this courseware, you are ready to proceed with the tasks involved in this module.

It is important, in this first module, to gain a basic understanding of the nature of psychology, its history and its current practices.

Module Topic List

• Key Terms
• Food for Thought
• Psychology and its goals
• The importance of validity
• The Scientific Method
• Research Steps
• Methods for Testing a Hypothesis
• Brief History
• Early Methodologies
• Current Models
• Summary and Reflections

Learning Outcomes for This Module

By the end of this module, students will be able to:

1. Define psychology as a science.

2. Identify examples of how psychologists chart and utilize data.

3. Explore historical and current methodologies.

 

Required Readings

For this module, you are required to read:

The text chapter that describes "psychology" and its reliance on scientific methodologies.

Key Terms

Below are terms that are explained and defined in the readings. Take a moment to view these terms and explore their meanings as you click on each term.

• Behaviourist
• Behaviour Modification
• Case Study
• Cognitive
• Control Group
• Dependent Variables
• Empiricism
• Experimental Group
• Extraneous Variables
• Free Will
• Functionalism
• Gestalt
• Humanistic (Selling change)
• Hypothesis
• Hypothesis Testing
• Independent Variables
• Introspection
• Measurement
• Motivation
• Operant Conditioning
• Placebo Effect
• Psychoanalysis
• Representative Sample
• Scientific Method
• Structuralism
• Subconscious

Food for Thought

This module provides background information for subsequent lessons. As you go through the reading material, consider the following:

4. Is psychology the study of mental processes, is it the study of behaviour or is it the study of both?

5. What makes psychology a unified practice with multiple methodologies?

6. Why is validity important to psychology?

 

Summary of Reading Topics

Before you begin, try to answer the following pre-test question:

What is Psychology?

Using your mouse, place a dot in the radio button beside the correct answer.

 

 Top of Form
a. Dream analysis
b. The Scientific Study of Behaviour
c. An analysis of gender differences
d. A study of child development stages
e. A study of motivation
f. All of the above

 

The Importance of Validity

Psychology evolved out of philosophy with one major difference. Psychology is a science, which means that all theories must be proven. Imagine how dangerous it would be for doctors to treat patients using unproven theories. The same holds true for those who treat behavioural or mental disorders.

How are psychological theories developed and proven?

Unlike philosophy, which uses logic and ideas, psychological theories must be proven in a scientific way to be valid.

 

The Scientific Method

How would a psychologist begin to study a problem?

Methods for Testing a Hypothesis 

A research method whereby the investigator manipulates one or more independent variables (factors) to observe the effect on mental activities or behaviours (dependent variables).

Variables:

A variable is defined as "any condition that changes or that can be made to change".

7. Independent Variables are conditions altered or varied by the experimenter, who sets their size, amount. Independent variables are suspected causes for differences in behaviour.

Summary of Reading Topics

8. Dependent Variables measure the results of the experiment. It is usually the behavioural result of the application of the Independent variable.

9. Extraneous variables are conditions that a researcher wishes to prevent from affecting the outcome of the experiment.

 

Placebo Effect:

Quite often, individuals are affected by a variable simply because they believe it will have an effect. Could this affect a study designed to test the effectiveness of a new medication? How could this be controlled?

How do drug companies test new medications?

Consult your text for information on a Double Blind experiment.

 

Methods for Testing a Hypothesis 

Other Types of Studies:

Case Studies:

A case study, as opposed to an experiment, enables psychologists to examine how individuals are affected by a number of factors from physical injury to psychological trauma. It is a study of one person over time.

Surveys:

Data is usually obtained via a questionnaire. Gallup polls and group statistics are gathered in this way. It is impossible to study society as whole, so representative or random samples are used instead.

Naturalistic Observation:

This involves watching and recording individuals or animals in their natural setting. Patterns of behaviour can then be determined. This enables naturalists to understand a particular species of animal. It might also be used to better understand a particular human age group or culture. If we wanted to chart social skills of 4 year olds, how could we best do this?

Correlational Studies:

When surveys or naturalistic observations reveal that two behaviours coexist on a consistent basis, the observer might assume that that a relationship or a correlation is present.

What should be a common element in any scientific study?

Critical thinking is a key element in any psychological study. Critical thinking involves an ability to weigh evidence and evaluate the quality of that evidence.

Early Methodologies

Thought provoking question:

Who was the first person to classify types of mental illnesses and personality disorders?

Top of Form
a. Sigmund Freud
b.Wilhelm Wundt
c. Charles Darwin
d. Carl Jung
e. Hypocrites (400 B.C.)

Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener (1800s)

• Developed a model called structuralism - studied the fundamental elements of thinking, consciousness, emotions and other mental states and activities using the patient's introspection
• Analyzed elements (structure) of conscious mental experience

Introspection was considered by some to be unreliable. Subsequent researchers felt that Individuals could not analyze their own mental processes.
What methodology replaced Structuralism?

Functionalism (Outer Interpretation of Reality)

Sir Francis Galton and William James

10. Replaced structuralism in the early 1900s

11. Focused on what the mind does - the functions of mental activity and behaviour.

12. Included study of animals, children and mentally impaired.

The Importance of Validity

One theory (Structuralism) considered an inner view of reality while the other (Functionalism) favoured what could be observed. What is the theory that was developed to look at the whole person?

Gestalt Psychology (Integration of Inner and Outer Realities)

(Germany 1912)

• The whole is more than the sum of its parts - focus on how perception is organized. Centered in the present, focus on moving individuals from dependence to independence. "Gestalt" is the German word for "whole".
• Focus on the integration of a person's inner reality (needs perceptions and emotions) and the outer reality (environment) in order to look at the whole experience.
• Fritz Perls, Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Kohler

What famous theory did Freud develop? What was his view of mental processes?

Psychoanalysis (Subconscious Reality)

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) a Viennese physician in the early 1900s

Freud recognized that repressed thoughts and emotions are stored in the subconscious and can trigger disturbing sexual and/or aggressive impulses. He used talk therapy, dream analysis and hypnosis to release repressed thoughts.

Current Psychological Models

These models include:

• Gestalt (described in the preceding material)
• Psychodynamic
• Behaviourist
• Humanism
• Biopsychology
• Cognitive
• Developmental

Below is a brief overview of some currently used psychological models. Browse through this summary and note that these models will be repeated and discussed in greater detail as we progress through this subject.

The Psychodynamic (Psychoanalytic) Perspective

The psychoanalytic model is an important element in the evolution of psychology. Some methods used by Freud and subsequent Neo Freudians are still widely practiced. Sigmund Freud pioneered this model.

Freud based his theories on:

13. The premise that human behaviour is motivated by inner conflicts and subconscious emotions over which we have little control.

14. Unconscious determinants of behaviour that may be revealed in dreams or slips of the tongue.

 

People and animals learn behaviours or change existing behavioural patterns via environmental conditioning. Skinner called this positive and negative reinforcement. He placed rats in a "Skinner box" and trained them to press a bar for a reward of food. What he found was that the frequency of a behaviour was related to the schedule of reinforcement. Do we train our children and pets using a behavioural system of rewards and punishment?

 

The Biological (Biopsychology) Perspective

This model is based on human biology and the Medical Model.

Biology plays a significant part in thinking and behaviour. For this reason, it is important for psychologists to understand how information travels to the brain or from the brain to peripheral areas.

• Bodily functions, transmission of messages via nerve pathways, heredity and evolution are all factors that influence behaviour.
• Treatments include surgery, medication and other forms of medical intervention.

The Cognitive Perspective

Cognitive psychologists explore the way that people comprehend.

Cognitive psychology:

• Seeks to explain how we think about the world and how this, in turn, influences our behaviour.
• Uses the term, "mind mapping", to explain the way that we organize information.
• Emphasizes individual processing of information.
• Explains that distorted thinking can magnify ordinary threats and failures leading to anxiety and distress.

The Developmental Perspective

Changes, as we develop along the life span, influence our perspective and our ability to learn.

• Developmental psychologist - Piaget considered cognitive stages or a readiness to learn different things at different early developmental stages.
• Erikson looked at the entire lifespan.

Understanding developmental stages is important so that we can intervene when children fail to grow according to expectations along a continuum. It is also critical to our educational system where learning readiness is essential to sound curriculum.

We have examined the reason that psychological theory must be proven via the scientific method and we have explored what this involves.

We have looked at the history of psychology and noted the different models that exist today.

With so many models, what is it that unifies the field as "psychology"?

It is the adherence to scientific methodology that unifies the field as "psychology".

Is it useful to have a diverse field with different methodologies (models)?

• Human behaviour is complex.
• Different behavioural or cognitive issues require different solutions.