What Is Psychology?
"Most psychologists study mental and emotional problems and work as psychotherapists." Is this statement true or false? Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. It seeks to both describe and explain every aspect of human thought, feelings, perceptions, and actions.
What are the major areas of study within the field of psychology? Psychology has many major subdivisions. Developmental psychology is concerned with processes of growth and change over the life course, from the prenatal period through old age and death. Physiological psychology focuses on the body's neural and chemical systems, studying bow these affect thought and behavior. Experimental psychology investigates basic psychological processes, such as learning, memory, sensation, perception, cognition, motivation, and emotion. Personality psychology looks at differences among people in traits such as anxiety, aggressiveness, and self-esteem. Clinical and counseling psychology specializes in diagnosing and treating psychological disorders, while social psychology focuses on how people influence one another's thoughts and actions. Finally, industrial and organizational psychology studies problems in the workplace and other kinds of organizations.
Enduring Issues
Given this broad range of careers and interests, what holds psychology together? A number of fundamental questions cut across the various sub fields of psychology, unifying them with similar themes. Five fundamental questions are: (1) Person Situation: Is behavior caused more by inner traits or by external situations? (2) Nature-Nurture: How do genes and experiences interact to influence people? (3) Stability- Change: How much do we stay the same as we develop and how much do we change? (4) Diversity -Universality: In what ways do people differ in how they think and act? (5) Mind-Body: What is the relationship between our internal experiences and our biological processes?
What does psychology have in common with other sciences? Psychology is a science because it relies on the scientific method to find answers to questions. This method involves careful observation and collection of data, efforts to explain observations by developing theories about relationships and causes, and the systematic testing of hypotheses (or predictions) to rule out theories that aren't valid.
The Growth of Psychology
"Psychology has a long past but a short history." What does that mean? As a subject of interest to people, psychology has a long past because humans have wondered about behavior and mental processes since ancient times. As a scientific discipline, however, psychology has a short history, dating back only to the late-nineteenth century.
How did Wundt help to define psychology as a science of the mind? Why did James think that sensation and perception alone couldn't explain behavior? Why was Freud's theory of the unconscious shocking at the turn of the twentieth century? Two leading psychological researchers were Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener. Wundt established the first psychology laboratory in 1879 at the University of Leipzig in Germany. His use of experiment and measurement marked the beginnings of psychology as a science. One of Wundt's students, Edward Titchener, established a perspective called structuralism, which was based on the belief that psychology's role was to identify the basic elements of experience and how they combine.
The American psychologist William James criticized structuralism, arguing that sensations cannot be separated from the mental associations that allow us to benefit from past experiences. Our rich storehouse of ideas and memories is what enables us to function in our environment, James believed. His perspective became known as functionalism.
The theories of Sigmund Freud added another new dimension to psychology: the idea that much of our behavior is governed by unconscious conflicts, motives, and desires. Freud's work gave rise to psychodynamic theories.
How was Watson's approach to human behavior different from Freud's? How did Skinner expand behaviorism? John B. Watson, a spokesman for the school of thought called behaviorism, argued that psychology should concern itself only with observable, measurable behavior. Watson based much of his work on the conditioning experiments of Ivan Pavlov.
B. F. Skinner's beliefs were similar to Watson's, but he added the concept of reinforcement or rewards. In this way, he made the learner an active agent in the learning process. Skinner's views dominated American psychology into the 1960s.
How did Gestalt psychologists influence the way we think about perception? How might existential psychology help us to feel less alienated? What aspects of life do humanistic psychologists stress? According to Gestalt psychology, perception depends on the human tendency to see patterns, to distinguish objects from their backgrounds, and to complete pictures from a few clues. In this emphasis on wholeness the Gestalt school radically differed from structuralism.
Existential psychology is a school of thought that attributes psychological problems to feelings of alienation in modern life. The goal of existentialist psychology is to guide people toward an inner identity and the freedom to exercise their personal will. Humanistic psychology is another perspective, one that emphasizes the goal of reaching one's fullest potential.
Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes in the broadest sense, focusing on how people perceive, interpret, store, and retrieve information. Unlike behaviorists, cognitive psychologists believe that mental processes can and should be studied scientifically. This view has dramatically changed American psychology from its previous behaviorist focus.
Where do evolutionary psychologists look for the roots of human behavior? What new focus is positive psychology bringing to the study of human behavior? Is there a single perspective dominating psychology today? Evolutionary psychology focuses on the functions and adaptive values of various human behaviors, trying to understand how they have evolved. Positive psychology studies subjective feelings of happiness and well-being; the development of individual traits such as integrity and leadership; and the settings that encourage individuals to flourish. In this way it seeks to add a new dimension to psychological research. Most contemporary psychologists do not adhere to just one school of thought. They believe that different theories can often complement one another and together enrich our understanding of human behavior.
In psychology's early years, why were relatively few women accepted in the field? Although psychology has profited from the contributions of women from its beginnings, women often faced discrimination: Some colleges and universities did not grant degrees to women, professional journals were often reluctant to publish their work, and teaching positions were often closed to them.
Human Diversity
Why should you learn about human diversity? A rich diversity of behavior and thought exists in the human species, among individuals and groups. Knowledge of this diversity can help reduce the tensions that arise when people misunderstand one another. It can also help us to define what humans have in common.
How are psychologists helping us to understand the differences between men and women? One area of research on diversity involves differences in thought and behavior between the two sexes or genders. Popular beliefs regarding these differences are called gender stereotypes.
Psychologists are trying to determine the causes of gender differences both the contributions of heredity to them and those of culturally learned gender roles. They have also begun to explore the sensitive issues associated with sexual orientation.
Why are psychologists interested in racial and ethnic differences? Race and ethnicity are two traditional dimensions of diversity in humans. Because it is so difficult to define race, most psychologists have abandoned the term as a scientific concept. Ethnicity and ethnic identity, however, remain meaningful. They involve a shared cultural heritage based on common ancestry, a shared heritage that can affect norms of behavior.
How does culture contribute to human diversity? The intangible aspects of culture, the beliefs, values, traditions, and norms of behavior that a particular people share make an important contribution to human diversity. In a society as large and diversified as ours, there are also many sub-cultural groups with their own sub-cultural identities.
Research Methods in Psychology
What are some of the research methods that psychologists use in their work? Psychologists use a variety of methods to study behavior and mental processes. These include naturalistic observation, case studies, surveys, correlational research, and experiments. Each method has its own advantages and limitations.
Why is a natural setting sometimes better than a laboratory for observing behavior? Psychologists use naturalistic observation to study behavior in natural settings. Because there is minimal interference from the researcher, the behavior observed is likely to be more accurate, spontaneous, and varied than behavior studied in a laboratory. Researchers using this method must be careful to avoid observer bias.
When can a case study be most useful? Researchers conduct a case study to investigate the behavior of one person or a few persons in depth. This method can yield a great deal of detailed, descriptive information that is useful for forming hypotheses.
What are some of the benefits of survey research? Survey research generates a large amount of data quickly and inexpensively by asking a standard set of questions of a large number of people. Great care must be taken, however, in how the questions are worded.
What is the difference between correlation and cause and effect? Correlational research investigates the relation, or correlation, between two or more variables. But, while two variables may be related to each other, that does not imply that one causes the other.
What kinds of research questions are best studied by experimental research? An experiment is called for when a researcher wants to draw conclusions about cause and effect. In an experiment, the impact of one factor can be studied while all other factors are held constant. The factor whose effects are being studied is called the independent variable because the researcher is free to manipulate it at will. The factor on which there is apt to be an impact is called the dependent variable. Usually an experiment includes both an experimental group of subjects or participants and a control group for comparison purposes. Often a neutral person records data and scores results, so experimenter bias doesn't creep in.
What does multi-method research allow psychologists to do? Because each research method has benefits as well as limitations, many psychologists use multiple methods to study a single problem. Together they can give much fuller answers to questions.
How can sampling affect the results of a research study? Regardless of the particular research method used, psychologists almost always study a small sample of subjects and then generalize their results to larger populations. Proper sampling is critical to ensure that results have broader application. Random samples, in which subjects are chosen randomly, and representative samples, in which subjects are chosen to reflect the general characteristics of the population as a whole, are two ways of doing this.
Can we generalize about research findings from one group to another? Because of differences among people based on age, sex, ethnic background, culture, and so forth, findings from studies that use white, male, American college students as participants cannot always be generalized to other groups. In addition, the gender, race, and ethnic background of a psychologist can have a biasing impact on the outcome of research.
Ethics and Psychology: Research on Humans and Animals
Are there ethical guidelines for conducting psychological research? What objections have been raised regarding research on animal subjects? The American Psychological Association (APA) has a code of ethics for conducting research involving human participants or animal subjects. Researchers must obtain informed consent from participants in their studies. Participants must be told in advance about the nature of the research and the possible risks involved. People should not feel pressured to participate if they do not want to.
Although much of what we know about certain areas of psychology has come from animal research, the practice of experimenting on animals has strong opponents because of the pain and suffering that is sometimes involved. Although the American Psychological Association and the federal government have issued guidelines for the humane treatment of laboratory animals, many animal rights advocates argue that the only ethical research on animals is naturalistic observation.
Careers in Psychology
What can you do with a background in psychology or with an advanced degree? Psychology is one of the most popular majors in colleges and universities. A background in it is useful in a wide number of fields because so many jobs involve a basic understanding of people. Careers for those with advanced degrees in psychology include teaching, research, jobs in government and private business, and a number of occupations in the mental health field. Opportunities in the mental health field depend on one's degree of training. They include the occupations of psychiatrist that requires medical training; the job of clinical psychologist, which involves getting a doctoral degree; and the jobs of counseling psychologist and social worker.
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