NURS1205 General Psychology
1 INTRODUCTION
James Wong
What is psychology?
Scientific study of people’s behavior and mind
Behavior = actions taken by an organism to
respond to the environment
What about mind?
What is science?
Domains of psychology
Perspectives of / approaches to
psychology
1
History of psychology
Philosophy x physiology
Philosophy
Empiricist vs nativist
e.g. John Locke & Immanuel Kant
Physiology
e.g. Wilhelm Wundt, William James
Short history: ~150 years
Rapidly evolving
Major domains of
psychology
Biological / neurological psychology
Learning theories
Memory & cognition
Sensation & perception
Emotion & motivation
Intelligence
Personality
Social psychology
Lifespan development
Psychological disorders & psychotherapies
2
Biological psychology
Study of physiological, developmental & evolutionary
mechanisms of behavior
Genetics
Anatomy
Functional analyses
e.g. brain, nervous systems
Basis of psychology
Learning theories
Processes that change our behavior & behavioral potential
rather consistently & permanently
How does learning take place?
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Observational learning
3
Memory
Our capacity to encode, store & retrieve information
Types of memory
e.g. implicit vs explicit
Processes of remembering
e.g. sensory memory, short-term
memory, long-term memory
Computer metaphor
Try to remember the list of vegetables
白菜 蘿蔔 莧菜 青椒
菜心 番茄 洋蔥 海帶
生菜 絲瓜 竹筍 蘑菇
芥蘭 椰菜 金菇 翠玉瓜
西蘭花 牛蒡 木耳 紅椒
豆苗 矮瓜 苦瓜 西芹
波菜 芹菜 黃瓜 薯仔
4
Try to remember the list of video games
GTA Need for
speed
Minecraft
Fruit ninja
Call of Duty
Candy Crush Half life
League of Angry birds
legends
The Sims
Counter strike
Super Mario
Halo
Battlefield
Cognition
Language acquisition, comprehension & production
Problem solving & reasoning
e.g. deductive vs inductive logic
Decision making
“Cold-processing” – computer
metaphor
5
Sensation & perception
Sensation vs perception
Absolute thresholds
Vision & Gestalt Principles
Hearing
Intelligence & Assessment
Theories of intelligence
e.g. psychometric theories / theory of “g” vs
multiple intelligences
Assessment methods
Creativity
Nature vs nurture debate
Controversies arising from IQ tests
6
Emotion
Types of emotions
e.g. arousals, moods, feelings
Theories of emotions
e.g. Darwinian, cognitive, social-constructivist
Implications
Stress & coping
Motivation
Determinants of our thoughts & actions
Usually goal-directed
Hunger
Sexual motivation
Theories of motivation
Needs theories
Goal theories
Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation
Implications
7
Personality
Psychoanalytic theory
Personality structures
Personality development
Trait theories
“Big 5” theory
Humanistic theories
Personality tests & validity
Social psychology
How people think about, influence & relate to
each other
The self
Self concepts, self esteem, biases etc
Social beliefs
Attribution error
Conformity & obedience
Group influences
Prejudice
Aggression & altruism
Cultural differences
Individualism vs collectivism
8
Lifespan development
Physical/physiological development
Cognitive development
Can young children learn higher-order reasoning?
Language development
Socio-emotional development
Psychosocial stages
Attachment
Identity formation
Moral development
e.g. abiding to law = being right?
Psychological disorders &
psychotherapies
Anxiety disorders
Obsessive-compulsive disorder &
Trauma-related disorders
Dissociative disorders
Mood disorders
Personality disorders
Schizophrenia
Various forms of psychotherapy
9
Perspective of /
Approaches to psychology
Psychodynamic / Psychoanalytic
Behaviorist
Humanistic
Cognitive
Biological
Evolutionary
Sociocultural
Psychodynamic /
Psychoanalytic approach
Important figure: Sigmund Freud
Motivators are inner forces – deterministic
Resolution of inner conflicts /
tension reduction model
Importance of the unconscious (“-analytic”)
Influences from early development
10
Behaviorist approach
Important figure: B. F. Skinner
Reaction to psychoanalysis
Focus on the observable
Stimuli
Behavioral responses
Consequences
Reinforcement & learning
Emphasis on the scientific method
Humanistic approach
Important figures: Carl Rogers & Abraham
Maslow
Reaction to both psychoanalysis &
behaviorism
Motivator = natural tendency to grow &
self-actualize
Holistic view – mind, body, behavior
Contributions to counseling psychology
11
Cognitive approach
Important figure: Jean Piaget, Noam Chomsky
Behavior is based on thinking
Mental processes
Attention
Thinking
Memory
Understanding
Cognitive development
Subjective reality
Biological approach
Psychological & social phenomenon can be
explained by biochemical processes
e.g. learning a word = certain physical & chemical
changes in neurons
Behavioral neuroscience – sensation, learning etc
Cognitive neuroscience – memory, decision making etc
Highly scientific –
closest to medicine
12
Evolutionary approach
Important figure: Charles Darwin
Mental abilities & behavior = evolutionary
product
Helps human beings survive
Long history of humans as hunter-gatherers
Inferential approach
Sociocultural approach
Cross-cultural differences
Comparisons in various domains
e.g. self-concept, emotional expressions, perception
Reaction to ethnocentrism / assumed universality of
psychological findings
13
Positive psychology
Earlier studies in psychology devoted too much
attention to pathology, weakness, damage, and ways to heal
suffering
Martin Seligman & Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
From “repairing the worst things in life” to also “building positive
qualities”
Better understand the positive,
adaptive, creative, and fulfilling
aspects of human existence
Strengths & limitations of
various approaches
Psychoanalysis
Strengths
Addresses influences of the unconscious
Stresses importance of early childhood experience on development
Limitations
Lack of scientific evidence
Some claims can hardly be verified
Behaviorism
Strengths
Scientific & empirical
Methods contributed to psychotherapy
Limitations
Views human beings as passively responding to environment
Reductionism – reducing experiences to observable behaviors only
14
Humanism
Strengths
Holistic view of human experiences
Contributions to psychotherapy
Limitations
More empirical evidence needed
Excessively optimistic about human nature and potentials
Cognitive approach
Strengths
Addresses higher-order psychological processes
Strong empirical support
Limitations
Over-emphasis on rationalism
Views human as computational
devices
Biological approach
Strengths
Studies the basis of behavior and mental processes
Strong empirical support
Limitation
Subjective experiences may not be reflected by biochemical
processes
Evolutionary approach
Strength
Explains the origins & functions of behavior & mental processes
Limitation
Inferential – claims may not be tested
Sociocultural approach
Strengths
Addresses criticisms on psychology being founded solely on
Western value
Draws attention to the influence of culture & social forces
Limitation
Understanding of cultures still takes place mainly with a Western
perspective
15
Domain X Approaches
– an example
Domain – emotion
Psychoanalysis: derived from the interaction between
internal drives and environmental demands, & attempt to
protect the self
Behaviorism: experience given rise by reinforcement or
punishment; not a major focus
Humanism: experience triggered by events with reference
to an individual’s self-actualizing tendency & need for
growth
Cognitive approach: emotions are generated by
cognitive appraisals of events with reference to the
individual’s value and preferences
Biological approach: emotions are triggered by physiological
arousals; cognition may help identify the nature of emotions
Evolutionary approach: certain emotional expressions are
universal, and therefore share the same origin; some emotions
serve survival value
Sociocultural approach: emotions are a product of culture;
culture determines where, when & what to feel, and where,
when & how to act accordingly
16
Research in psychology –
an introduction
Observation / literature review
Formulate a research question that interests you
Formulate a hypothesis
Design the study
Obtain data
Analyze data
Report findings
Important concepts
Theory – a set of concepts that summaries &
explains phenomena
Hypothesis – a testable statement tentatively specifying the
relationship between causes & consequences
e.g. “If we increase the number of members in a workgroup, then
productivity will be enhanced” (instead of “a relationship may exist
between group size and productivity”)
Operational definition – the definition of a variable set in terms
of the specific process / test used to determine its presence &
quantity
e.g. defining “productivity” as “the amount of gross income
acquired per business season” (instead of “how hard employees
work”)
17
Research methods
3 main types: descriptive, correlational &
experimental
Descriptive research methods
To systematically observe & describe behavior
Naturalistic observation
To detect behavioral patterns that
exist naturally
Observers not to intervene
Allows researchers to study behaviors
that cannot be ethically manipulated;
e.g. bullying at school
Case study
An intensive & in-depth investigation of a person,
a family or social unit
Using various sources of information;
e.g. interviews, medical records, schoolwork
Also used in rare or extreme conditions; e.g. a rare disease
Survey
Using a structured set of questions about people’s
experiences, beliefs, behaviors & attitudes
Performed using various formats;
e.g. paper-and-pencil,
telephone, internet
Can gather information from a
large group of people
18
Question: how many people
do we have to study?
Impossible to study all people / the whole population
Doing so also defeats one purpose of establishing a theory –
prediction
Use of random sample from the population
Everyone in the population has an equal chance of being
included in the study
Therefore the sample matches the various characteristics of
the population; e.g. % of sex, age, ethnicity, marital status…
We call it a representative sample
Correlational research
To study how strongly variables are related
e.g. how strong is the relationship between
studying time & academic performance?
Interpreting correlations
Direction
Positive – 2 variables go in the same direction
e.g. when studying time increases, performance also goes
up
Negative – 2 variables go in opposite directions
e.g. when time spent on TV increases, performance drops
Strength
Correlation coefficient ranges from -1 to +1
For instance
0.81 is strong positive correlation
0.17 is weak positive correlation
-0.58 is a moderate negative correlation
19
Advantage
Can be performed in natural settings, e.g. observing the
relationship between group size and productivity at different
corporations
Factors like race, sex, social status cannot be practically
manipulated in laboratory settings
Factors like quality of medication & amount of educational
resources cannot always be ethically manipulated
Disadvantage
Ambiguous interpretation of cause & effect (i.e. causal
relationship), e.g. does group size increases productivity? Is
there a 3rd factor that affects both group size & productivity
(such as business nature)?
20
Productivity Group size
Productivity Group size
Productivity Group size
3rd factor
Experimental research
To study causal relationships by manipulating one
or more variable & controlling others
(holding them constant)
e.g. testing if a new medicine is effective for treating flu
Independent variable = the variable being manipulated
e.g. whether the new medicine is applied
Dependent variable = the variable being measured
e.g. whether flu is cured
Extraneous variables = factors that are not a focus of the
experiment, but which may
produce unwanted experimental
results; they are controlled
e.g. other medications the
patients may be taking
21
At least 2 conditions
Experimental group – participants receive treatment
Control group – participants do not receive treatment
Participants are randomly assigned to the groups
Therefore they have an equal chance of being assigned to either
group
Potential differences are spread out evenly minimizing biases
Double-blind technique is often used
Both researchers & participants do not know in what way the
participants are assigned to the conditions
If researchers know it, they may display demand characteristics,
communicating what behavior is expected to the participants
Placebo effect
Sometimes a placebo (i.e. a fake drug / treatment that has no direct
effect) is given to participants in the control group
A placebo effect is any change attributed to participants’
expectations / beliefs rather than the drug / treatment
Advantage
Can reveal causal relationships clearly
Better control for any confounding variable
Disadvantage
Not all variables can be manipulated or controlled in a
practical & ethical sense
Sometimes results obtained in a laboratory setting may not
be generalized (i.e. applied & inferred) to other contexts
22
Ethics in research
Implications from Milgram’s obedience experiment
Informed consent
Informing participants about the procedures of the study, potential
benefits & risks
Participants to indicate whether they consent to continue
Risk / gain assessment
Weighing whether the risks are
worthwhile with reference to the
potential gains from the study
Risks must be minimized &
conveyed
Deception
Sometimes necessary to induce real-life psychological
processes
Can only be used when no better alternative is available
Participants must be debriefed at the conclusion of study
Participants hold the right to withdraw data
Debriefing
To provide information about the purpose, hypothesis,
expected results, potential benefits etc to the participants
23