Introduction to Psychology
Dr. William G. Huitt
Valdosta State University
Last revised: May 2005
Why Study Psychology
• Need a social science course
• Learn more about yourself
• Learn more about others
• Learn more about how others influence you
• Learn more about how you influence others
• Investigate psychology as a major
Ways to Validate Truth or
Reality
• Personal experience
• Intuition
• Social and/or cultural consensus
• Religious scripture and interpretation
• Philosophy and logical reasoning
• Science and the scientific method
Scientific Method
– The orderly, systematic process researchers
follow as they
• identify a research issue, question or problem ,
• design a study to investigate the issue,
• collect and analyze data,
• draw conclusions, and
• communicate their findings
– The database that is developed using the
scientific method
Purpose for Using Scientific
Method
Understanding Database
• Description • Facts & Concepts
• Prediction • Principles
• Explanation • Theories
• Influence or Control • Laws
Critieria for Using Scientific Method
• Knowledge must be grounded in
experience
• Knowledge must be grounded in a
paradigm or exemplar
• Any hypothesis must be potentially
falsifiable
Psychology
Definition
– The scientific study of behavior and mental
processes (or mind and behavior) especially as it
relates to individual human beings
• Related areas of study
– Philosophy
– Other sciences
• Biology
• Sociology
• Anthropology
• History
– Literature and the arts
– Religion
Science or common sense?
http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/longview/ctac/
psychology/Commonsense2.htm
Psychology
• Goals of Psychology
– Description
• First step in understanding most behaviors or mental
processes
• Describes the behavior or mental process of interest
as accurately and completely as possible
• Tells what occurred
– Prediction
• When researchers can specify the conditions under
which a behavior or event is likely to occur
Psychology
• Goals of Psychology (continued)
– Explanation
• Requires an understanding of the conditions under which a
given behavior or mental process occurs
• Enables researchers to state the causes of the behavior or
mental process they are studying
• Tells why a given event or behavior occurred
– Influence or Control
• When researchers know how to apply a principle or change
a condition to prevent unwanted occurrences or to bring
about desired outcomes
Psychology
• Two types of research that help psychologists
accomplish these goals
– Basic research
• Research conducted to advance knowledge rather than for
its practical application
– Example: studying the nature of memory
– Applied research
• Research conducted to solve practical problems
– Example: exploring methods to improve memory
Psychology
• Critical thinking
– The process of objectively evaluating claims,
propositions, or conclusions to determine whether
they follow logically from the evidence presented
– Critical thinking is the disciplined mental activity of
evaluating arguments or propositions and making
judgments that can guide the development of beliefs
and taking action.
– The foundation of the scientific method
Psychology
• Creative thinking
– Producing new ideas or thoughts. Imaginative
thinking that is aimed at producing outcomes that
involve synthesis of ideas or lateral thinking;
thinking that is more synthetical than analytical,
sometimes referred to as divergent thinking.
Descriptive Research Methods
• Descriptive research methods
– Research methods that yield descriptions of
behavior rather than causal explanations
• Naturalistic observation
• Laboratory observation
• Case studies
• Surveys
• Interviews
• Questionnaires
Research Methods
Understanding Type of Study
• Description • Descriptive
• Prediction • Correlational
• Explanation • Theoretical
• Influence or Control • Experimental
Population vs Sample
• Population
– The entire group that is of interest to researchers
and to which they wish to generalize their findings;
the group from which a sample is selected
• Sample
– The portion of any population that is selected for
study and from which generalizations are made
about the larger population
Selecting A Sample
• Representative sample
– A sample of participants selected from the larger
population in such a way that important subgroups
within the population are included in the sample in
the same proportions as they are found in the larger
population
– Biased sample
• A sample that does not adequately reflect the larger
population
– Random sample
• A sample selected where everyone in the population has
an equal chance of being included in the sample
Descriptive Research Methods
• Naturalistic observation
• Laboratory observation
• Case study
• Survey
• Interviews
• Questionnaires
Correlational Method
• Correlational method
– A research method used to establish the
degree of relationship (correlation) between
two characteristics, events, or behaviors
– For use when it is impossible to manipulate
variables of interest
Correlational Method
• Correlational coefficient
– A numerical value that indicates the strength and
direction of the relationship between two variables
– Coefficients range from +1.00 (a perfect positive
correlation) to –1.00 (a perfect negative correlation)
– The further the correlation coefficient is from zero,
the stronger the coefficient
– The sign determines the direction of the relationship
• (+) Positive – as one variable increases, the other must
also increase
• (-) Negative – as one variable increases, the other must
decrease
Experimental Method
• Experimental method
– The research method in which researchers:
• randomly assign participants to a control group or an
experimental group
• control all conditions other than one or more independent
variables, which are then manipulated
• determine their effect on some behavioral measure, the
dependent variable in the experiment
– Variable
• Any condition or factor that can be manipulated, controlled,
or measured
Experimental Method
• Independent variable
– In an experiment, the factor or condition that the
researcher manipulates in order to determine its
effect on another behavior or condition known as
the dependent variable
– Sometimes referred to as the treatment
• Dependent variable
– The variable that is measured at the end of an
experiment and is presumed to vary as a result of
manipulations of the independent variable
Experimental Method
• Experimental group
– In an experiment, the group that is exposed to the
independent variable, or the treatment
• Control group
– In an experiment, a group that is similar to the
experimental group and is exposed to the same
experimental environment but is not exposed to the
independent variable; used for purposes of
comparison
• Hypothesis
– A prediction about the relationship between two or
more variables
Potential Problems
• Confounding variables
– Any factors or conditions other than the independent
variable that could cause observed changes in the
dependent variable
• The placebo effect
• Selection bias
• Experimenter bias
– Double-blind technique
Limitations of the experimental method
• The more control a researcher exercises over
the setting, the more unnatural and contrived
the research setting becomes
• Unethical or not possible in many areas of
interest
– For instance, researchers could not addict humans
to tobacco to establish that smoking tobacco causes
cancer
– Scientists could not testify that smoking tobacco
causes cancer – only that smoking tobacco is highly
correlated with cancer
