Psychology

260
Jo-Anne D. Petrie M.Ed.
jpetrie1@bryant.edu
September 2018

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Meet Me!
 Jo-Anne DeGiacomo Petrie
 Married 3 children 2 boys; 1 girl
 All graduated from college
 Daughter is a patient navigator in Boston
 Middle son works for a tech company in
Boston
 Youngest is an afterschool leader to
promote and design history curriculum
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My Background
 AA Early Childhood Education Mt. Ida College
 BS Early Childhood Education and Child Life
Wheelock College
 M.Ed. Western New England University Curriculum
and Instruction
 Worked as a classroom teacher for 30 years
 Worked in Early intervention
 Wrote the first book ever published on letter
formation
 Consulted for Hasbro toys
 Currently Director of Early Childhood Education at
the Dwares JCC
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Why Psychology???????
 I use critical thinking every moment of my life
 In my personal life I use psych principles to
figure out what others are thinking and why to
foster effective communication.
 My professional life when working with families
and children, my teachers at the center and
college students I supervise.
There is always a place for psychology in your
life!

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Let’s Meet each other
 Introduceyourself. We will all say “hello”
then I would like you to let something
about yourself.

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The Syllabus
 Review
 Questions
 Comments

syl·la·bus
ˈsiləbəs/

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Psychology Chapter 1

 Big
Questions
 Who studies psychology?
 What do they investigate?
 Who are psychologists (history)?
 How do they conduct research?

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 Importance
 Why we should or should not do
something. When we think about
psychology we are using critical thinking
skills. Should I drink and drive? Talk on my
cell? Skip class and go out with friends?
 This study helps us to understand ourselves
and others. How they will react, what will
happen etc….

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Critical Thinking
 Ways we weigh happenings based on
past, present and future experiences. This
is collected and grouped together.

 Thinkingcritically helps you cautiously

decide whether to believe something or
not. To take a good hard look at the
information making an informed decision
not a knee jerk or off the cuff judgment.

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Mental Activity and Behavior
 What we take in via our senses. How does
something, smell, look like, feel like, sound
like, taste like. These sensory experiences
enable us to perceive the world, draw
connections, create memories, and
learn..

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Critical thinking…
 Makes us ask ourselves what we are being
made to believe
 Examine the evidence to support the
statement
 Make reasonable conclusions
 Challenge ourselves and push forward to
decide if there may be other explanations
 Make finial decisions

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Critical Thinking Questions
 1. How did I make my decision to attend
Bryant University?
 2. How do I go about choosing friends or
those to spend leisure time with?
 What decision went into choosing my
major at Bryant?
 How do I choose my personal style
reflected in the items I purchase from
clothes and beyond?
 What decisions go into how I schedule
homework, classes, and socialization?
Critical thinking activity
 Count off 1-5 each group will have a card
and 20 minutes to ponder their question.
 Your task will be to think how you as
individuals approached the question on
the card.
 Collaborate together
 One person will document for the group;
another a spokesperson. All others feel
free to join in and share your opinions.
Results/Share
 Did you learn something surprising?
 How can this help you relate to others?
 What did this exercise make you aware of
 How can you connect this exercise to the
field of psychology?

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Is psych really helpful?
 Academically it can help you think critically,
learn how to attend better, study and
analyze, break information down and draw
conclusions
 Help you learn about people, their
personalities, and how they communicate
and like to receive communication.
Let’s learn about ourselves and others
http://www.beliefnet.com/love-
family/relationships/quiz/the-5-love-languages-
quiz.aspx

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Psych and Study Habits
Think about the following highlighted in your
text…
 Goals leading to success- breaking down
information celebrate achievement
 Keep stress under control to leave room in
your head (glass and water trick)
 The exercise above proves you can retain
everything by cramming. Review material
and self-quiz to avoid cramming.
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 What are your learning
Styles/Preferences?
 Learning is active. Work with the information you
learn- the brain is wired for movement.
 Explaining enhances understanding. Work with the
information connect it to what you know.
 How do you learn best? Take the test.
 http://www.whatismylearningstyle.com/learning-
style-test-1.html

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History of Psychology
 People have always been captivated by how
humans learn
 Psychology originated in philosophy
 Aristotle and Plato debated over psych issues
 Nature nurture debate
 Both nurture and nature influence our
psychological development

 ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9731MLLs_E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mvZ4EbPbME
&t=122s

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The brain according to the Greeks and
Romans in Ancient times
 Scholars once believed the mind was
separate from and controlled the body due
to religious beliefs
 Understood brain was needed for thought
and mental functions
 Observed people who suffered head injuries
such as a loss of consciousness, had a
change in what they were able to do
mentally, or both,

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 Time Line
 1600’s Rene Descartes investigated the
mind/body problem; idea of dualism.
 He said the mind and body are separate yet
intertwined..
 The body was thought to be a machine
directed by reflex
 The rational mind was separate from the body
 This theory is rejected by psychologists as the
mind emerges from activity – information
processing in the brain
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Fast forward to the 1800’s
 Questions whirled around from 1600’s to
1800’s about who humans were/are.
 Mid 1800’s psychology surfaced as a
science in Europe.
 Many different thoughts would be in
“vogue” for awhile then go not sticking
paving the way to current psychology.

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Here’s the deal….
 The first psych lab began in 1879 established by
Wilhelm Wundt. He noted that psychological
processes are products of brain activity which take
time to “occur” . He coins this term as reaction time.
The time it takes to finish a psychological task.
Or…Reaction time is a measure of how quickly an
organism can respond to a particular stimulus.
 Reaction time has been widely studied, as its
practical implications may be of great
consequence, e.g. a slower than normal reaction
time while driving can have grave results.
 This marked the beginning of modern experimental
psychology.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRosXcIyNG4
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 Reaction time is still used today
 Not happy with cerebral reaction times Wundt used
introspection. Research participants reflected and
shared past conscious experiences. This practice
became critical to the advancement of psych.
 Wundt went on to train early psychologists who
then practiced on their own.

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Wundt branches out
Titchener
 Student Edward Titchener initiated a school of
thought called structuralism- in a nutshell
consciousness could be broken down into underlying
parts.
 Basic elements of conscious = scientific
understanding of the mind. Person would perform
self-examination about an object. Example in our
text. The apple is bright and red.
 The cat is…. The ball is… the beach is….The reports
revealed the person’s conscious mind. This theory
was tossed out because folks found it to be
unreliable and bias.
 Their work was important because of the science
and terminology they helped developed.
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James Williams
 Founder of Functionalism- concerned with the
adaptive purpose or role of the mind and
behavior.
 He pondered what the purpose is of mental
experience.
 He was a critic of structuralism because it did
not capture mental experience.
 Said mind helps humans adapt to
environmental demands which humans pass
along in their genes to future generations.

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Charles Darwin
 1859 introduced world to evolution theory.
 Darwin referenced species change over time.
 Past years this was only discussed.
 He introduced natural selection.
 The units of natural selection are genes which
carry hereditary information passed to offspring.
These changes make us better adapted to the
environment, to survive and reproduce. Known as
survival of the fittest called evolution.
 Darwin's ideas deeply influenced science,
philosophy and society.
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Freud
 20th century psychology founded Psychoanalytic
theory to understand the connection between
psychology and physical symptoms folks feel.
 Most famous thinker
 Trained in medicine
 Worked with population who had nervous
disorders, paralysis of certain body parts
 Included troubling childhood experiences blocked
from memory with sexual urges conflicted with
acceptable behaviors.
 Those blockages produced psychological
discomfort and disorders.

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Freud
 Psychoanalysis was developed from Freud’s
findings
 Patient and therapist work together to bring
things in the patients unconscious into their
conscious awareness.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM2FGc
0wDg8

 Large impact on early treatment

 Most psychologists use different treatments
other than psychoanalysis to treat patients.
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Behavior and Mental Activity
 20th century psychological researchers moved
from learning about the conscious and
unconscious experiences of the mind.
 Gestalt psychologists believed mental
experiences cannot be broken down into
underlying parts.
 Behaviorists stepped in and believed the
conscious/unconscious mind were not topics
for study rather gestalt (the whole).
 Behaviorism is now the root for modern
psychological research on mental activity.

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 Gestalt Psychology
 In opposition to structuralism
 Wanted to understand how people take in
information.
 Most prominent were Max Wertheimer and
Wolfgang Kohler.
 1912 work done to explore how people take
in sensory input. The big question surrounded
the following question. “How can people see
the same thing and interpret it differently the
second time”.

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Gestalt is seeing the whole vs. everything that makes up the whole.
The key here is to see the pieces which make up the whole.
Let’s play!

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Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Watson
 1913 John Watson believed that conscious and
unconscious mental processes were unscientific.
 To be a science man had to stop trying to study
unobservable mental events yet environmental
behavioral triggers.
 Humans and animals learned all behaviors through
environmental factors. For example get a dog to
bark then give a treat.
 Developed the school of behaviorism which
investigated environmental effects on behavior.
 Dominated research into the 1960’s
 Focused on positives how people bring things into
their lives to fulfill and make them happy.
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Carl Rogers
 Founder of humanistic psychology.
 Believed that people grow and make
changes to improve their lives.

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George Miller
 Founder of cognitive psychology (1957)
 Questioned how do mental processes affect
behavior.
 Modern in thinking. Used experimental
methods to investigate how people think,
remember, pay attention and problem solve.
 In the 1980 cognitive psychologists worked
with others in the field who studied the brain
giving those an integrated lens into the brain
and mind.

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 Levels of psychological
analysis
 Biological- brain, neurochemistry, genetics.
 Individual- differences, perception/cognition
and behavior
 Social-interpersonal- behavior (groups,
relationships, persuasion, influence), social
cognition (attitudes/ stereotypes)
 Cultural-Thoughts actions and behaviors in
different groups (beliefs, values, symbols)

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Subfields in Psychology
 Biological- study of brain chemistry
 Cognitive- learning
 Developmental-how children learn to “X”
 Personality-what shapes personality, why are some
people introverted/extroverted
 Social-relationships, impressions of others
 Cultural- shaping the sense of self, perceptual
differences
 Clinical- what leads people to be depressed. How
does the brain chemistry change during depression
 Industrial- positive morale in the workplace,
teamwork

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Ethics
 Privacy- respect clients privacy
 Confidentiality- private information must be
kept from others
 Informed Consent-parties must be told about
the research before engaging in it.
 Deception -keeping goals so study will not be
skewed then letting participants know
afterwards.
 Risks-is the research important enough to
cause risk?
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Is psychology a science?
 YES!!!
5 step method
 Focus on a theory
 State a hypothesis
 Test the research method
 Analyze the data
 Report the results

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Investigation of the Hawthorne
Effect
 True or false?
Watch and investigate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV9Wj
8ohT0k

Let’s discuss why you believe this to be

viable or not viable.

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Correlation Method Problems
For example:
Does lack of sleep cause anxiety or anxiety
lack of sleep?
To determine one must use experimental
methods. Let’s do a crash course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg7sns
ZWk7w
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Let’s wrap it up
 Why is psychology important to you or how
do you think it can play a positive role in your
life?
 Ways it can help with your studies.
 What do psychologists investigate?
 Who are psychologists today?
 How do psychologists conduct research?

Next class:
 Read and highlight key terms in chapter 2.
 Key Terms
Psychology- systematic objective study of our mental activity
and our behavior

Critical thinking- Systematically evaluating information to

reach reasonable conclusions best supported by evidence

Structuralism - An early school of psychology hat explored the

structures of the mind through introspection ( reporting on the
object by color of what characteristics it exhibits. For example
an apple – the apple is bright and red

Functionalism - An early school of thought concerned with the

adaptive purpose or function of the mind and behavior.
Natural selection- In evolutionary theory the idea that
those who inherit characteristics that help them
adapt to their particular environments have a
selective advantage over those who do not.

Gestalt theory -The idea that the whole of personal

experience is different from simply the sum of its parts

Behaviorism- A school of thought that emphasizes the

role of environmental forces in producing behavior.

Humanistic psychology -A school of psychology that

investigates how people grow to become happier
and more fulfilled; it focuses on the basic goodness of
people.
 Cognitive psychology - The study of how people think, learn and
remember
 Culture-The beliefs, values, rules and customs that exist within a group
of people who share a common language and environment and that
are transmitted through learning from one generation to the next.
 Student Participants- When you volunteer to participate in
psychological research you will be protected by ethical guidelines as
you learn about psychology and contribute to the field.
 Institutional review boards IRBS- Groups of people responsible for
reviewing proposed research to ensure that it meets the accepted
standards of science and provides for the physical and emotional well
being of research participants.
 Scientific method- A systematic procedure of observing and
measuring phenomena (observable things) to answer questions about
what happens when it happens, what causes it, and why. This process
involves a dynamic interaction between theories, hypotheses, and
research methods.
 Theory- A model of interconnected ideas or concepts that explains
what is observed and makes predictions about future events.
 Hypothesis- a specific prediction of what should be observed if a
theory is correct.
 Descriptive methods –A research method that
provides a systematic and objective description of
what is occurring.
 Correlation methods- a research method that
examines how variables are naturally related in the
real world. The researcher makes no attempt to
alter the variables or assigns causation between
them.
 Experimental methods- Experimental research
methods provide information about the causes of
particular mental activities of behaviors.
 Independent variable -In an experiment the
variable that the experimenter manipulates to
examine its impact on the dependent variable.
 Dependent variable - In an experiment the variable
that is affected by the manipulation of the
independent variable.
 Control group -In an experiment a comparison
group of participants that receives no
intervention of receives a intervention that is
unrelated to the independent variable being
investigated
 Experimental group- In an experiment one of
more treatment groups of participants that
receive the intervention of the independent
variable being investigated.
 Random assignment- Random sample-A
sample that fairly represents the population
because each member of the population had
an equal chance of being included.