Introductio

n to
Psychology
 Define Psychology
Atkinson & hilgard defined Psychology “as the scientific study of behavior and
mental processes.”

Morgan & king defined psychology as "the science of human and animal
behavior; it includes the application of this science to human problems."

The phrase behavior and mental processes in the definition of psychology means
many things: It encompasses not just what people do but also their
thoughts, emotions, perceptions, reasoning processes, memories, and
even the biological activities that maintain bodily functioning.
Businesses analyze consumer preferences, motivations, and decision-
making processes to tailor their products, services, and marketing
 Origins of Psychology
Philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle posed fundamental
questions about mental life

What is consciousness?
Are people inherently rational or irrational?
Is there really such a thing as free choice?
These questions dealt with the nature of the mind and mental processes.

Other psychological questions deal with the nature of the body and human
behavior.

Hippocrates was interested in physiology (the study of the functions of

the living organism and its parts.)
He made observations about how the brain controls various organs
of the body. The biological perspective in psychology emerged from
 Branches in Psychology
Biological - look for the relationship between biological processes
and behavior
Eg: stress hormones like cortisol can affect decision-making and
performance during high-pressure situations.

Cognitive - focuses on the study of higher mental processes (problem

solving, memory)

Developmental - examines how people grow and change from the

moment of conception through death.

Personality psychology focuses on the consistency in people’s

behavior over time and the traits that differentiate one person
from another.
Clinical psychology deals with the study, diagnosis, and treatment of
psychological disorders.

Counseling psychology focuses primarily on educational, social, and

career adjustment problems.

Educational psychology is concerned with teaching and learning processes,

such as the relationship between motivation and school performance.

School psychology is devoted to counseling children in elementary and

secondary schools who have academic or emotional problems.

Organizational psychology - concerned with selecting people who are

most suitable for particular jobs or designing structures that facilitate
collaboration and teamwork.

Engineering psychology - try to improve the relationship between people

and machines.
Example: creating simple, clear buttons on a machine helps workers use it
 Nature - Nurture debate
Nature–nurture debate centers on the question of whether human
capabilities are inborn or acquired through experience.

The nature view holds that human beings enter the world with an
inborn store of knowledge and understanding of reality.

The nurture view holds that knowledge is acquired through

experiences and interactions with the world.

According to English philosopher, Locke, at birth the human mind is a

tabula rasa, a blank slate on which experience ‘writes’ knowledge
and understanding as the individual matures.

So the current question is not whether nature or nurture shapes human

psychology but rather how nature and nurture combine to do so
 Scientific Methods
Direct observation - Naturalistic observation

● The investigator observes some naturally occurring behavior and does not
make a change in the situation.

● The researcher simply records what occurs, making no modification in the

situation that is being observed

● Drawback: the inability to control any of the factors of interest.

● If people know they are being watched, they may alter their reactions and
produce behavior that is not truly representative.
 Scientific Methods
Indirect observation - Survey method

● Researchers using the survey method simply ask people if

they engage in the behavior of interest.

● Social desirability effects: which occur when some people try

to present themselves in a favorable light

● If the sample of people who are surveyed is not

representative of the broader population of interest, the
results of the survey will have little meaning.
 Scientific Methods
Case study

● An in-depth, intensive investigation of a single individual or a

small group.

● Carefully designed set of questions is used to gain some

insight into the personality of the individual or group.
 Psychology
research
Research involves two steps:

(1) generating a scientific hypothesis and

(2) testing that hypothesis.

Hypothesis – a statement that can be tested – about the topic of

interest.

How does a researcher arrive at such a hypothesis?

An observer of naturally occurring situations may have an advantage in
coming up with hypotheses.

The term scientific means that the research methods used to collect the
data are
(1) unbiased (do not favor one hypothesis over another) and
Experiments provide the strongest tests of hypotheses about cause and
effect.

A variable is something that can occur with different values.

Independent variable is under the complete control of the experimenter,

who creates it and controls its variation. The independent variable
represents the hypothesized ‘cause’.

The hypothesized ‘effect’ in an experiment is the dependent variable

because it is hypothesized to depend on the value of the independent
variable.
Experimental groups: groups in which the hypothesized cause is present.
Control group: the group in which the hypothesized cause is absent.

In general, a control group serves as a baseline against which experimental

groups can be compared.

Random assignment means that each participant has an equal

probability of being placed in any group. Without random assignment, the
experimenter cannot be certain that something other than the independent
variable might have produced the results.
Example: The Impact of Employee Training Programs on
Customer Service

XYZ Retail, a chain of department stores, is considering investing in a

new employee training program with the goal of improving customer
service performance. The company wants to assess whether employees
who undergo the new training program exhibit enhanced customer
service skills compared to those who do not receive the training.

Hypothesis:
H0 (Null Hypothesis): There is no significant difference in customer
service performance between employees who undergo the new training
program and those who do not.

H1 (Alternative Hypothesis): Employees who undergo the new training

program will exhibit a statistically significant improvement in customer
service performance compared to those who do not.
Experimental Design:
XYZ Retail will conduct a randomized controlled experiment with two
groups:

Experimental Group:
Employees in this group will undergo the new training program focused on
communication skills, problem-solving, and product knowledge.

Control Group:
Employees in this group will not receive the new training program and will
continue with regular on-the-job training.
Variables:

Independent Variable: Employee Training Program

Group 1: Receives the new training program
Group 2: Does not receive the new training program

Dependent Variable: Customer Service Performance

 Measurement
Experiments require some form of measurement, a system for assigning
numbers to variables.

Statistics: The discipline that deals with sampling data from a

population of individuals and then drawing inferences about the
population from those data.

Mean: which is simply the technical term for an arithmetic average, the
sum of a set of scores divided by the number of scores in the set.

Difference between the experimental group and the control group has
statistical significance means that a statistical test has been applied to the
data and the
observed difference is unlikely to have arisen by chance or because of a
few extreme cases.
correlational method : to determine whether some variable that is not
under our control is correlated with another variable of interest.

Correlation coefficient: an estimate of the degree to which two

variables are related.
symbolized by r, is expressed as a number between -1.00 and + 1.00.

The absence of any relationship is indicated by 0

A perfect relationship is indicated by 1.
As r goes from 0 to 1 , the strength of the relationship increases.
The correlation coefficient can be positive or negative, depending on
whether one variable increases with another (+) or one variable decreases
as the other increases (-).
 Ethics in Psychological Research
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=760lwYmpXbc&t=1487s
Research with humans:

Psychologists are expected to adhere to a strict set of ethical

guidelines aimed at protecting participants:

Informed consent: Before participating in an experiment, the

participants must sign a document affirming that they have been told
the basic outlines of the study and are aware of what their
participation will involve, what risks the experiment may hold, and
the fact that their participation is purely voluntary and they may
terminate it at any time.

Informed consent is sometimes at odds with another common

requirement of research: that participants be unaware of the
Minimal risk: In most cases, the risks anticipated in the research should
be no greater than those ordinarily encountered in daily life. Protection of
participants from physical and mental harm is important.

Right to privacy: Information about a person acquired during a study

must be kept confidential and not made available to others without the
research participant’s consent.