《Intro to Psychology》Shishak

1、INTRODUCTION

　　Human behavior was motivated by unconscious conflicts that were almost always sexual or aggressive in nature.
　　--Sigmund Freud

　　2000 years ago, once Ancient Greek was wild about SOUL. Since people are born, environments affect them incessantly. Day by day, nature was hidden in deep; somebody else controlled the action they appear. When the death is coming, the time to free their soul is coming as well. As the time goes by, from Dormant until the Renaissance, many people tried to figure out how did the body and mind work together. Locke’s opinion—Tabula Rasa indicated that human beings come with blank canvas; something marks on it as people grow up. Genes, but environment do not decide the thing.

　　Common sense attaches great significance to a distinction between the mind and body. According to this view, the actions of the body are determined by external forces, including those imposed on it by the mind. The mind, however, is self-determined. It knows the circumstance of the body and, through its own free will, dictates the body’s actions. This freedom endows the behavior of human creatures, and possibly no others, with dignity and worth. (Psychology-the hope of a science, Gregory A. Kimble)

　　Many thoughts came out, but not a science came into being until 250 years ago. A Germany physiologist, Wilhelm Wundt, founded structuralism—introspection, replication, trained observers, understanding of the elements. Later, a totally opposite school functionalism was founded by William James, Harvard professor in the United States. Functionalism focuses on conscious experience and adaptation. You may think of Darwin, who wrote the origin of species. Natural Selection is a typical example of adaptation.

　　Then, we back to the very beginning. What is Psychology? Psychology is a scientific study of organism behavior and 1. Physiological 2. Cognitive processes that underlie it. As a profession, psychology applies accumulated knowledge to practical problems. Origins based in philosophy and science/medicine.

　　What’s the difference between subconscious and unconscious?

　　THE RESEARCH ENTERPRISE IN PSYCHOLOGY

　　Assumptions in science
　　-Determinism (probability)
　　Cause-effect
　　-Finite Causation-limited number of causes
　　-Parsimony-simplest explanation

　　Operational definitions: a precise description of how the variables in a study will be manipulated or measured.
　　-Issue of language and being able to communicate to one another.
　　-Operational definitions must have
　　Quantity
　　Quality
　　i.e. How hungry a rat? 24 hours without food.

　　Scientific method
　　-Hypothesis
　　-Design and execute a study
　　-Evaluate results
　　-Interpretation

　　Crucial ingredients
　　-Replication
　　-Reliability
　　-Validity

　　Major research methods
　　-In depth interview/ Case study: an intensive study of a single individual or small group of individuals.
　　-Naturalistic
　　Observation/observation study
　　-Survey method-demographic information
　　-Correlational research
　　More powerful, allows us to predict, but also cannot get cause-effect.
　　-Correlational Coefficient-range from +1to-1
　　-Positive
　　-Negative
　　It can be zero; a zero correlation means there is no relationship (prediction) about the variables.
　　-Interpretation