JoHo

What is the definition of psychology?

In psychology, the external and internal aspects of human behavior are studied scientifically. The external aspects consist of interactions such as verbal and non-verbal communication. The internal aspects are all the invisible, mental processes such as thinking and feeling. It is a relatively new field of study. Famous philosophers, like Plato and Aristotle, already thought about human behavior before the field existed. Physicians and physicists like Fechner and von Helmholtz laid the foundation for modern psychology.

How did a new of field of study beginf?

The first laboratory experiment ever was conducted by physiologist Wilhelm Wundt in Germany in 1879. In an attempt to study the structure of the human mind, he had students hold a rock and precisely describe the sensations it caused in an objective manner. He believed consciousness consisted of elements like thoughts, emotions and experiences. The process of objectively thinking about the own mind he called objective introspection. The ideas where brought to the U.S. by a student of Wundt, named Edward Titchener. He applied the objective introspections not only to an actual object, but also to the thoughts provoked by just naming the word. He named this new movement structuralism, which formed an alternative to structuralism.

The first to teach psychology in the U.S. was William James. He taught in the 1870s at Harvard University and he focused on the practice of consciousness in daily life, which he called functionalism. He was influenced by Darwin’s theory of natural selection, he believed behavioral traits had their origins in survival mechanisms. Functionalism inspired modern day educational, evolutionary and industrial psychology. One of James’ students, Mary Whiton Calkins, was denied a Ph.D. because of her gender, despite meeting all the requirements. Besides women, African American also where disadvantaged. Francis Cecil Sumner, the first African American to earn a Ph. D. in psychology, became the chair of the psychology department. In the early days, women and minorities had a hard time achieving their goals in the field but as time continued, more people have been able to contribute but the numbers are still relatively small.

Who were the founders of the most important ideas of early approaches?

What is Gestalt psychology?

While functionalists opposed structuralists, Max Wertheimer created a new point of view  in which the whole was more important than the elements. He argued that people are programmed to find patterns in the information they receive from their environment. This way of thinking was called Gestalt psychology, from the German word for ‘an organizing whole’. Today, these ideas form a part of cognitive psychology.

What is psychoanalysis?

Sigmund Freud developed a totally new field of study. As a physician, he received patients who suffered from nervous disorders. Attempting to explain these disorders, he argued that humans have certain desires that we repress. According to him, this takes place in our unconsciousness. These desires would have formed in the early childhood. Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Karen Horney and his daughter Anna Freud further developed his ideas. His ideas are still important, albeit in an altered form. It formed the basis of psychoanalysis, which later transformed into psychotherapy.

What is behaviorism?

Contrary to Freud, John B. Watson thought that observable behavior, like bodily response, is caused by conditioning. He was inspired by the fPavlov experiment, in which a dog who initially salivate due to food is conditioned to salivate by just hearing the sound of a metronome. He also believed that phobias, or fears, are learned behavior and not caused by repressed desires. He proved this in an experiment in which he trained a little boy to get scared of a rat by exposing him to loud sounds every time he saw the rat. A student of Watson, Mary Cover Jones, expended his ideas further and achieved to show that this trained phobias could also be reversed. She did this by associating a positive experience to seeing the feared object, like eating tasty food. This was called counterconditioning and formed the basis of cognitive psychology.

What are the perspectives used to explain human behavior today?

In psychology today, seven perspectives are used to explain human behavior:

1. Psychodynamic perspective: this perspective is built on Freud’s theory and relies on the unconscious mind and early childhood experiences in order to find the origins of a person’s behavior. It focuses on the sense of self, the image a person has of himself, and the interpersonal relations or relations he has with others.
2. Behavioral perspective: B.F. Skinner continued in the same direction as Watson and developed a new theory called operant conditioning. He focused on the way voluntary behavior is learned.
3. Humanistic perspective: as a reaction to the previously mentioned theories, the humanist perspective was developed. Here, the ability of people to make their own choices and therefore direct their own lives was most important. Determining destiny and using your capacities, or self-actualization are central themes in this theory developed by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
4. Cognitive perspective: from the Gestalt theory, the cognitive perspective emerged. This theory focuses on the memory, intelligence, perception, thought processes, problem solving, language and learning.
5. Sociocultural perspective: social rules, norms and cultural standards are the mean point in the sociocultural perspective. How we behave is influenced by the people in our environment and by our cultural standards. The bystander effect is one of the theories that resulted from this perspective. The more people are witness to an incident, the less likely they are to help the victim. This is explained by diffusion of responsibility, more people share a responsibility so each individual feels less responsible to act.
6. Biopsychological perspective: according to the biopsychological perspective, the majority of our behavior originates from processes and events in the body such as hormones and genetics. Researchers focus on a variety of topics such as sexual orientation and mental illnesses like schizophrenia for example.
7. Evolutionary perspective: in the evolutionary perspective, researchers look at the shared human characteristics and try to explain certain traits like taste. This perspective has similarities with the biopsychological perspective and relies on the theory of Darwin.

Which types of professions are there within psychology?

Which types of professions are there within psychology?

Within psychology, there is a variety of directions in which to work after finishing your studies. Some examples are academics, psychiatry, social work or counseling. These different fields all require different degrees. For example, as a psychiatrist it is necessary to have a medical degree. As a phsyciatric social worker however, a masters degree is sufficient.

Judgements are rarely correct and mainly based on stereotypes and prejudices. In daily life, it is important to be critical and not just assume that everything you hear is true. There might be a motive, for example when someone wants to sell you a certain product.

What are the criteria for critical thinking?

There are four guidelines to follow when it comes to critical thinking:

1. When we receive information, we should always ask what evidence it is based on.
2. Not all evidence is equal. We should also be aware of the way a research is carried out. There is a possibility of faultiness.
3. Being an authority does not automatically make your claim true.
4. Keeping an open mind is important. A lack of evidence does not always mean a claim is false.

What is the scientific approach?

Usually, when a research is conducted, steps are followed with the goal to learn more about a specific topic. A researcher can use the following steps:

• Describing a phenomenon or a behavior
• Explaining the observations described before in order to understand why something is happening
•  Predicting what will happen in the future
• Controlling the future, for example by replacing unwanted behavior for wanted behavior
• If all steps are followed depends on the type of investigation.

A scientific is divided in five phases, this is called the scientific approach. These phases are based on the previous steps.

1. First, the research question should be determined. 
2. A hypothesis is then formed based on the observations made. It is important that the hypothesis can be tested. It must be possible that it is true but there must also be a way to show it is false, it is then falsifiable.
3. The hypothesis is then tested.
4. Next, a conclusion is drawn. With the help of statistics, all the information gathered in the testing phase is analyzed.
5. Finally, the results are reported. A conclusion has to be drawn whether the investigation was a success or a failure. In this part of the study, all the details of what you did and how should be provided so that the study can be replicated.  

Which methods are used to describe behavior?

There are different ways of investigating and answering a research question:

• Naturalistic observations: observing natural behavior, mainly used for animals. Beforehand must be determined exactly which behavior is being observed. It is important to remember that subjects that are aware they’re being watched might behave differently, which is called the observer effect. The ways to prevent this are making sure the subjects don’t know they’re being watched. Another way is that the researching infiltrates as a member of a group, this is called participant observation. If the observer has a particular opinion, his judgement might be influenced and subjective. This is called the observer bias. A disadvantage of this way of doing research is that natural situations never are identical and therefore, outcomes may vary.
• Laboratory observation: the answer to a questioned can be researched in a laboratory setting. All the factor can be determined precisely by the researcher. A disadvantage is that subjects might react different than in a natural situation.
• Case studies: another way of doing research is by investigating an individually thoroughly. Freud used this technique in developing psychoanalysis. The advantage of this method is that cases can be studies that no one would want to be a volunteer for, such as cases of brain damage. The disadvantage is that the results only apply to the individual and therefore are not representative. Furthermore, this way of investigating has a higher risk of bias.
• Surveys: using surveys, a broad selection of topics can be investigated, including topics that people would normally be embarrassed to talk about due to the anonymous character. Its an easy and quick way to investigate a big group, which makes it easy to form a representative sample of the population. A disadvantage is that people don’t always answer honestly, sometimes they fill in what they think the researcher wants to hear. Also, the way a question is formulated may influence the answer of the participant.

How are relationships between variables studies?

What are correlations?  

To find relationships in information, the correlational technique is used. This technique looks for patterns and relations between variables, which is called correlation. From the gathered information for two variables, for example eating sugar regularly and developing diabetes, a correlation coefficients is formed. This is a number that shows the strength and direction of the relationship between the two variables. This coefficients is formed using a mathematical formula. The number is between -1.00 and +1.00. The direction says something about the influence of one variable on the other, and the strength says something about how big the influence is. The closer the number is to 0, the weaker the correlation is.

How is the cause found?

Correlations don’t say anything about the cause. To find this, a research must be conducted. This research has various steps:

• Selection: a specific group must be selected. This is done randomly, so the population is imitated best.
• Variables: the variables must be determined, one for the behavior and one that might influence that behavior. The behavior should be described precisely, which is called operationalization. In the research, there is an independent variable that is not affected by behavior of participants, and a dependent variable that should be influenced by the presence of the other variable.
• Confounding variables: there might be other factors in the group of participants that influence the behavior. To take those in account, a second group has to be formed who are not exposed to the independent variable, which is called the control group. The behavior is measured in both groups and if there’s a significant difference, an influence of the variable is likely.  The first group is called the experimental group.
• Randomization: it is important to use random assignment, which means that participants are randomly assigned to one of the groups. This is to prevent other variables, or extraneous variables, to influence one group

Which problems occur studying relationships?

Participants that are informed about the possible effects of a variable, might be affected just by believing in it. An example is the influence of a medicine, believing in it’s efficacy might lead to the actual improvement of a condition. This is called the placebo effect. Furthermore, the expectations of the participants might influence the results, this is called the experiment effect. This effects can be prevented by single-blind studies, where the control group is given an actual placebo. In double-blind studies, neither the participants nor the researchers know which group received the actual medicine and which the placebo.

What should researchers take into account about ethics?

In research, it is important that no harm is done to the participants, either human or animal. There are several guidelines to protect the participants. For humans, the following rules should be taken into account:

• Participants must be allowed to make an informed decision about participating.
• The rights and well-being of participants must be weighed against the study’s value to science.
• Any deception must be justified.
• Participates are allowed to withdraw from the study at any time.
• Data must remain confidential.
• Participants must be protected from risk or told explicitly of risks.
• Researchers must debrief participants, telling the true nature and expectations of the study.
• If any undesirable consequences may occur, the researcher is responsible of detecting and correcting them.

For animals, the rules are way less strict when it comes to participating in studies. There's one basic rules, which is that they should not be exposed to unnecessary pain or suffering. However, a lot of research that can't be conducted on humans because of ethics is actually conducted on animals.