CHAPTER 1

the science of psychology

psychology
fourth edition
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Saundra K. Ciccarelli • J. Noland White All rights reserved.
 Learning Objectives
1.1 What defines psychology as a field of study, and what are psychology’s four primary goals?
1.2 How did structuralism and functionalism differ, and who were the important people in those early fields?
1.3 What were the basic ideas and who were the important people behind the early approaches known as Gestalt,
psychoanalysis, and behaviorism?
1.4  What are the basic ideas behind the seven modern perspectives, and what were the important contributions of
Skinner, Maslow, and Rogers?
1.5  How does a psychologist differ from a psychiatrist, and what are the other types of professionals who work in
the various areas of psychology?
1.6  Why is psychology considered a science, and what are the steps in using the scientific method?
1.7 How are naturalistic and laboratory settings used to describe behavior, and what are some of the advantages
and disadvantages associated with these settings?
1.8  How are case studies and surveys used to describe behavior, and what are some drawbacks to each of these
methods?
1.9  What is the correlational technique, and what does it tell researchers about relationships?
1.10  How are operational definitions, independent and dependent variables, experimental and control groups, and
random assignment used in designing an experiment?
1.11  How do the placebo and experimenter effects cause problems in an experiment, and how can single-blind and
double-blind studies control for these effects?
1.12 What are some basic elements of a real-world experiment?
1.13  What are some ethical concerns that can occur when conducting research with people and animals?
1.14  What are the basic principles of critical thinking, and how can critical thinking be useful in everyday life?

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 What Is Psychology?
LO 1.1 Definition and Goals of Psychology

• Psychology: the scientific study of

behavior and mental processes
– Behavior: outward or overt actions and
reactions
– Mental processes: internal, covert activity of
our minds

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 Psychology is a Science
LO 1.1 Definition and Goals of Psychology

• Prevent possible biases from leading to

faulty observations
• Precise and careful measurement

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 Psychology’s Four Goals
LO 1.1 Definition and Goals of Psychology

• Description
– What is happening?
• Explanation
– Why is it happening?
– theory: general explanation of a
set of observations or facts

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 Psychology’s Four Goals
LO 1.1 Definition and Goals of Psychology

• Prediction
– Will it happen again?
• Control
– How can it be changed?

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 Structuralism
LO 1.2 Structuralism and Functionalism

• Structuralism
– Focused on the structure or basic elements of
the mind

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 Structuralism
LO 1.2 Structuralism and Functionalism

• Wilhelm Wundt’s psychology

laboratory
– Germany in 1879
– Developed the technique of objective
introspection: the process of
objectively examining and
measuring one’s thoughts and mental
activities
– Eg. Ask student to hold rock, and ask
what he was feeling

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 Structuralism
LO 1.2 Structuralism and Functionalism

• Edward Titchener
– Wundt’s student; brought structuralism
to America
– Consciousness can be broken down into
elements
• Margaret Washburn
– Titchener’s student; first woman to earn a
Ph.D. in psychology (Cornell University)
• Structuralism died out in the early
1900s

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 Functionalism
LO 1.2 Structuralism and Functionalism

• Functionalism
– How the mind allows people to adapt, live, work, and
play
– Eg. Avoid eye contact to protect personal space
• Proposed by William James
• Influenced the modern fields of:
– Educational psychology
– Evolutionary psychology
– Industrial/organizational psychology

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 Functionalism
LO 1.2 Structuralism and Functionalism

• Functionalism
– Mary Whiton Calkins; denied Ph.D.
because she was a woman
(Harvard)
– Wellessley College Psychological
Laboratory (started)
– First female president of APA
– African Americans and early
psychology

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Structuralism & Functionalism
LO 1.2 Structuralism and Functionalism

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 Gestalt Psychology
LO 1.3 Early Gestalt, Psychoanalysis, and Behaviorism

• Gestalt (Gesh-TALT)
– “Good figure”/ “Organized whole”
psychology
• Started with Wertheimer, who
studied sensation and perception
(opposed structuralism)
• The whole is greater than the sum
of its parts

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 Gestalt Psychology
LO 1.3 Early Gestalt, Psychoanalysis, and Behaviorism

• Gestalt ideas now part of the study of

cognitive psychology
– Cognitive psychology: field focusing not only
on perception but also on learning, memory,
thought processes, and problem solving

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Figure 1.1 A Gestalt Perception
The eye tends to “fill in” the blanks hereand sees both of these figures as circles rather than as a series of dots or a
broken line.

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 Psychoanalysis
LO 1.3 Early Gestalt, Psychoanalysis, and Behaviorism

• Psychoanalysis: Theory and

therapy based on the work of
Sigmund Freud
• Freud’s patients suffered from
nervous disorders with no apparent
physical cause.
– Freud proposed the existence of an
unconscious (unaware) mind into
which we push—or repress—our
threatening urges and desires

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 Psychoanalysis
LO 1.3 Early Gestalt, Psychoanalysis, and Behaviorism

• Freud’s patients suffered from nervous

disorders with no apparent physical cause.
– Believed that these repressed urges, in trying
to surface, created nervous disorders
– Stressed the importance of early childhood
experiences

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 Behaviorism
LO 1.3 Early Gestalt, Psychoanalysis, and Behaviorism

• Behaviorism
– Science of behavior that focuses on
observable behavior only
– Must be directly seen and measured

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 Behaviorism
LO 1.3 Early Gestalt, Psychoanalysis, and Behaviorism

• Proposed by John B. Watson

– Based on the work of Ivan
Pavlov, who demonstrated that
a reflex could be conditioned
(learned)
– Watson believed that phobias
were learned
 Case of “Little Albert”: baby taught
to fear a white rat

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 Behaviorism- J.B. Watson
LO 1.3 Early Gestalt, Psychoanalysis, and Behaviorism

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 Behaviorism- Ivan Pavlov
LO 1.3 Early Gestalt, Psychoanalysis, and Behaviorism

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 Behaviorism
LO 1.3 Early Gestalt, Psychoanalysis, and Behaviorism

• Mary Cover
Jones
• Early pioneer in
behavior therapy
• Little Peter
experiment
– Change
behaviours

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 Modern Perspectives
LO 1.4 Modern Perspectives: Skinner, Maslow, and Rogers

• Psychodynamic perspective: Modern

version of psychoanalysis
– More focused on the development of a sense
of self and the discovery of motivations
behind a person’s behavior other than sexual
motivations

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 Modern Perspectives
LO 1.4 Modern Perspectives: Skinner, Maslow, and Rogers

• Behavioral perspective
– B. F. Skinner studied operant conditioning of
voluntary behavior
– Behaviorism became a major force in the
twentieth century
– Skinner introduced the concept of
reinforcement to behaviorism

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Modern Perspectives- Skinner
LO 1.4 Modern Perspectives: Skinner, Maslow, and Rogers

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 Modern Perspectives
LO 1.4 Modern Perspectives: Skinner, Maslow, and Rogers

• Humanistic perspective
– Owes far more to the early roots of
psychology in the field of philosophy
– People have free will: Freedom to choose
their own destiny
– Early founders:
 Abraham Maslow
 Carl Rogers

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 Modern Perspectives
LO 1.4 Modern Perspectives: Skinner, Maslow, and Rogers

• Humanistic perspective
– Emphasizes the human potential, the ability of each
person to become the best person he or she could be
 Self-actualization: Achieving one’s full potential or actual
self

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 Modern Perspectives
LO 1.4 Modern Perspectives :Skinner, Maslow, and Rogers

• Cognitive Perspective
– Focuses on memory, intelligence,
perception, problem solving, and
learning
– Cognitive neuroscience
 MRI, fMRI, PET
• Sociocultural Perspective
– Focuses on the relationship
between social behavior and culture

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 Modern Perspectives
LO 1.4 Modern Perspectives: Skinner, Maslow, and Rogers

• Biopsychological perspective
– Attributes human and animal
behavior to biological events
occurring in the body, such as
genetic influences, hormones,
and the activity of the nervous
system

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 Modern Perspectives
LO 1.4 Modern Perspectives: Skinner, Maslow, and Rogers

• Evolutionary perspective
– Focuses on the biological bases of universal mental
characteristics that all humans share
– Looks at the way the mind works and why it works as
it does
– Behavior seen as having an adaptive or survival
value

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Types of Psychological Professionals
LO 1.5 Psychiatrist, Psychologist, and Other Professionals

• Psychologist
– Professional with an academic degree
and specialized training in one or more
areas of psychology
– Can do counseling, teaching, and
research; may specialize in any one of
a large number of areas within
psychology
 Clinical, counseling, developmental, social,
and personality, among others

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Types of Psychological Professionals
LO 1.5 Psychiatrist, Psychologist, and Other Professionals

• Psychologist
– Basic research
 For gaining academic
knowledge
– Applied research
 Answering real world
problems
– Which one is better?

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Types of Psychological Professionals
LO 1.5 Psychiatrist, Psychologist, and Other Professionals

• Psychiatrist
– Medical doctor who has specialized in the
diagnosis and treatment of psychological
disorders
– Can prescribe medication

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Types of Psychological Professionals
LO 1.5 Psychiatrist, Psychologist, and Other Professionals

• Psychiatric social worker

– Social worker with some training in therapy
methods
– Focuses on the environmental conditions that
can have an impact on mental disorders, such
as poverty, overcrowding, stress, and drug
abuse

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Figure 1.2 Work Settings and Subfields of Psychology
(a) There are many different work settings for psychologists. Although not obvious from the chart,many psychologists
work in more than one setting. For example, a clinical psychologist may work in a hospital setting and teach at a
university or college. (Tsapogas et al., 2006) (b) This pie chart shows the specialty areas of psychologists who recently
received their doctorates. (Hoffer et al., 2007)

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Psychology and the Scientific Method
LO 1.6 Psychology Is a Science; Steps in the Scientific Method

• Scientific method
– System of gathering data so that bias and
error in measurement are reduced

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Psychology and the Scientific Method
LO 1.6 Psychology Is a Science; Steps in the Scientific Method

• Steps in the scientific method:

1. Perceive the question
2. Form a hypothesis: tentative explanation of a
phenomenon based on observations.
3. Test the hypothesis
4. Draw conclusions
5. Report your results so that others can try to
replicate, or repeat, the study or experiment to see
whether the same results will be obtained in an
effort to demonstrate reliability of results

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 Descriptive Methods
LO 1.7 Naturalistic and Laboratory Settings

• Naturalistic observation
– Watching animals or humans behave in their
normal environment
– Major advantage: Realistic picture of behavior

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 Descriptive Methods
LO 1.7 Naturalistic and Laboratory Settings

• Naturalistic observation: Disadvantages

– Observer effect: Tendency of people or
animals to behave differently when they know
they are being observed
 Participant observation: A naturalistic
observation in which the observer becomes a
participant in the group being observed (to reduce
observer effect)

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 Descriptive Methods
LO 1.7 Naturalistic and Laboratory Settings

• Naturalistic observation: Disadvantages

– Observer bias: Tendency of observers to see
what they expect to see
 Blind observers: people who do not know what
the research question is (to reduce observer bias)
– Each naturalistic setting is unique, and
observations may not hold

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 Descriptive Methods
LO 1.7 Naturalistic and Laboratory Settings

• Laboratory observation
– Watching animals or humans behave in a laboratory
setting
– Advantages
 Control over environment
 Allows use of specialized equipment

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 Descriptive Methods
LO 1.7 Naturalistic and Laboratory Settings

• Laboratory observation: Disadvantage

– Artificial situation may result in artificial behavior
• Descriptive methods lead to the formation of
testable hypotheses

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 Descriptive Methods
LO 1.8 Case Studies and Surveys

• Case Study
– Study of one individual in great
detail
– Advantage
 Tremendous amount of detail
– Disadvantage
 Cannot apply to others
– Famous case study: Phineas
Gage (accident, personality
change)
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 Descriptive Methods
LO 1.8 Case Studies and Surveys

• Surveys
– Researchers ask a series of questions about
the topic under study
• Given to representative sample
– Representative sample: randomly selected
sample of subjects from a larger population of
subjects
– Population: the entire group of people or
animals in which the researcher is interested

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 Descriptive Methods
LO 1.8 Case Studies and Surveys

• Survey advantages
– Data from large numbers of
people
– Study covert behaviors
• Survey disadvantages
– Researchers have to ensure
representative sample or the
results are not meaningful
– People are not always accurate
(courtesy bias)

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 Descriptive Methods
LO 1.8 Case Studies and Surveys

• Random Sampling from Population

INFERENCE
(to make a conclusion
SAMPLE
about)

POPULATION
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 Finding Relationships
LO 1.9 Correlational Technique

• Correlation
– Measure of the relationship between two
variables
– Variable: anything that can change or vary

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Figure 1.3 Five Scatterplots
These scatterplots show direction and strength of correlation. It should be noted that perfect correlations, whether
positive or negative, rarely occur in the real world.

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 The Experiment
LO 1.10 Experimental Approach and Terms

• Experiment
– A deliberate manipulation of a variable to see whether
corresponding changes in behavior result, allowing
the determination of cause-and-effect relationships
– Eg. Does watching violent TV programs increase
aggressive play?
• Operational Definition
– Definition of a variable of interest that allows it to be
directly measured
– Definition: What is aggressive play?

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 The Experiment
LO 1.10 Experimental Approach and Terms

• Independent variable (IV)

– The variable in an experiment that is
manipulated by the experimenter
– IV: Violent TV
• Dependent variable (DV)
– The variable in an experiment that represents
the measurable response or behavior of the
subjects in the experiment
– DV: Aggressive play
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 The Experiment
LO 1.10 Experimental Approach and Terms

• Experimental group
– Subjects in an experiment who are subjected
to the independent variable
– Experimental group: Watch TV

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 The Experiment
LO 1.10 Experimental Approach and Terms

• Control group
– Subjects in an experiment who are not
subjected to the independent variable and
who may receive a placebo treatment
(controls for confounding variables).
– Control group: No TV

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 The Experiment
LO 1.10 Experimental Approach and Terms

• Random assignment
– Process of assigning subjects to the
experimental or control groups randomly, so
that each subject has an equal chance of
being in either group
– Controls for confounding (extraneous,
interfering) variables
 Increase diversity, increase generalizability

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 The Experiment
LO 1.10 Experimental Approach and Terms

Experimental Group
• Random Assignment

SAMPLE Test for Differences

Control Group

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 The Experiment
LO 1.10 Experimental Approach and Terms

• Confounding Variables Experimental Group

Are differences due to manipulation

SAMPLE or confounding variable (mood)?

Control Group

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 The Experiment
LO 1.10 Experimental Approach and Terms

• No Confounding Variables Experimental Group

Differences are due to manipulation,

SAMPLE not an extraneous variable, because
mood is randomly determined.

Control Group

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 The Experiment
LO 1.11 Placebo and the Experimenter Effects

• Placebo effect
– Phenomenon in which the
expectations of the participants
in a study can influence their
behavior
• Single-blind study
– Subjects do not know whether
they are in the experimental or
the control group (reduces
placebo effect)

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 The Experiment
LO 1.11 Placebo and the Experimenter Effects

• Experimenter effect
– Tendency of the experimenter’s
expectations for a study to
unintentionally influence the
results of the study
• Double-blind study
– Neither the experimenter nor the
subjects know which subjects are
in the experimental or control
group (reduces placebo effect
and experimenter effect)

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 Example of a Real Experiment
LO 1.12 Conducting a Real World Experiment

• Hypothesis
– Knowing that other people might think one’s
success in school is due to athletic ability
rather than intelligence can make an athlete
perform poorly on an academic test
• Independent variable
– Timing of “high threat” question
• Dependent variable
– Test scores
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 Example of a Real Experiment
LO 1.12 Conducting a Real World Experiment

• Experimental group
– Answered “high threat” question before taking the
test
• Control group
– Answered “high threat” question after taking the
test
• Results-supported hypothesis
– Those asked the “high threat” question before the
intellectual test scored significantly lower on that
test

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Ethics in Psychological Research
LO 1.13 Ethical Concerns in Conducting Research

• Institutional (ethics) review boards

(IRB/ERB)
– Groups of psychologists/professionals
– Look over each proposed research study
– Judge according to its safety and
consideration for the participants in the study

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Ethics in Psychological Research
LO 1.13 Ethical Concerns in Conducting Research

• Common ethical guidelines:

– The rights and well-being of participants must
be weighed against the study’s value to
science
– Participants must be allowed to make an
informed decision about participation
– Deception must be justified
– Participants may withdraw from the study at
any time

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Ethics in Psychological Research
LO 1.13 Ethical Concerns in Conducting Research

• Common ethical guidelines (cont’d):

– Participants must be protected from risks or
told explicitly of risks
– Investigators must debrief participants, telling
them the true nature of the study and their
expectations regarding the results
– Data must remain confidential

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Ethics in Psychological Research
LO 1.13 Ethical Concerns in Conducting Research

• Common ethical guidelines (cont’d):

– If for any reason a study results in undesirable
consequences for the participant, the
researcher is responsible for detecting and
removing, or correcting, these consequences

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Ethics in Psychological Research
LO 1.13 Ethical Concerns in Conducting Research

• Animal research answers questions we

could never investigate with human
research
• The focus is on avoiding exposing animal
subjects to unnecessary pain or suffering
• Animals are used in approximately 7
percent of psychological studies

Psychology, Fourth Edition Copyright ©2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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 Critical Thinking
LO 1.14 Principles of Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking
– Making reasoned judgments about claims

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 Critical Thinking
LO 1.14 Principles of Critical Thinking

• Four basic criteria:

1. There are very few “truths” that do not need
to be subjected to testing
2. All evidence is not equal in quality
3. Just because someone is considered to be
an authority or to have a lot of expertise
does not make everything that person claims
automatically true
4. Critical thinking requires an open mind

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