The Science of Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Behavior refers to actions and responses which are observable, whereas mental processes refers to internal states such as thoughts and feelings. Mental processes cannot be directly seen .

Four Goals of Psychology

There are four goals of psychology which are to describe, to explain, to predict, and to control.

1.      To Describe
Description is one of the most basic goals of psychology. It poses the question, “What is happening?” Psychologists aim to describe how people behave, think, and feel.

2.      To Explain
To explain –to understand why people do what they do- prompts psychologists to ask the question, “Why is it happening?” Explanations may come in a variety of forms, typically hypotheses and theories that specify the causes of behavior.

3.      To Predict
Psychologists are able to predict how a behavior will appear in the future and if others will exhibit the same behavior. By understanding the behavior and why people exert a particular behavior, psychologists can make predictions regarding the behavior in the future.

4.      To Control
Finally, psychology aims to control our behavior to make practical and effective adjustments in the lives of society. By conducting experiments and forming links between variables, psychologists are able to enhance human well-being . Thus, controlling and modifying human behavior is undoubtedly a key focus in psychology.

From the four goals of psychology, we have learnt that the goals in psychology is similar to what we experience in our everyday lives when we are connecting with others. Without realizing, there are a myriad of instances when we try to describe, explain, predict, and change the conducts of the community around us. The four goals of psychology is acutely relatable especially at the current time because it is our first week as a class together this semester and there are many new people to meet and adapt to.

Besides that, the four goals of psychology allows us to understand the reasoning behind why people behave the way they do and allows us to utilize the information for the benefit of society. We have found that psychology plays a notable part in constructing the world into a better place.

Schools of Thought

Structuralism: Focused on structure or basic elements of the mind

Functionalism: How the mind allows people to function in the real world

Gestalt psychology: Good figure psychology

Psychoanalysis: The theory and therapy based on the work of Sigmund Freud

Behaviorism: The science of behavior that focuses on observable behavior only.

After going through this chapter, there are few names that we should know in the history of psychology. The names are:

Wilhelm Wundt (appsychology.com)

1. Wilhelm Wundt

-He is the founder of Structuralism in German 1879

-He also developed the technique of objective introspection

2. Edward Titchener

-He is Wundt’s student

-He was the one who bring structuralism to America

- He also the one who expend the idea

3. William James

-He is the founder of Functionalism

4. Wertheimer

-He is the one who started the Gestalt psychology

5. Sigmund Freud

- His theory and his therapy result in the foundation of Psychoanalysis.

6. John B. Watson

- The person who proposed Behaviorism

Reflection

In my opinion, these names have contributed so much to the world of psychology and we should thank them to their hard work and their determination while doing the research. Without them, maybe the psychology itself may not exist.

7 Psychology Perspectives

Psychology can be defined as the study of human behaviour and mental processes. However, the definition is too general, covering a lot of ground because the causes of behaviour and mental processes are not always clear. Therefore, many scientists had come with their own ideas and perspectives on psychology. Basically, there are 7 major psychology perspectives, which are psychodynamic, behaviourism, cognitive, biological, existential, sociocultural, and evolutionary.

Psychodynamic	Due to unconscious mind or inner force.
Behaviourism	Environmental effect or impact to the behaviour. Example: rewards/punishments.
Cognitive	Resulting from the mental processes.
Biopsychology	Variation in human behaviour due to different biological (hormones, neurotransmitters, inheritance, etc.)
Existential	Based on reality that people live and the freedom to choose their own path.
Sociocultural	Human behaviour affected by social context, environmental cues, social pressure, and cultural influences.
Evolutionary	Behaviour that results from the process that support the survival of the species.

Scientific and Descriptive methods

Scientific methods

Psychology is considered as scientific as it uses scientific method, data and measurement. Scientific method is the gathering of data so that measurement has less error and biases. Scientific method includes a few steps that need to be go through accordingly:

1.      Understand the question

2.      Form the hypothesis

3.      Test the hypothesis

4.      Drawing conclusions from the hypothesis and test

5.      Make a report so it can be replicated

Descriptive Methods

Descriptive method do not answer how/ when/ why questions. They only answer ‘what’ questions.

Type of observation	Advantage	Disadvantage
Naturalistic observation: observing animals/humans in their normal environment	Realistic picture of behaviour	Observer effect Participant observation Observer bias Blind observers
Laboratory observation: Observing animals/humans in a lab setting	Control of environment Use of equipment	Artificial situation
Case study: Study of something deeply	Large amount of information	Not applicable to others
Surveys: Researchers asking questions on the study
Representative sample: Selection of random sample of subjects from a larger population of objects	Data from large number of people Study unobservable behaviours	Have to ensure representative sample People are not accurate every time

Correlation

A measure of the relationship between two variables.

Measures of two variables goes in a math formula and produce this correlation coefficient which represents:

• -          Direction of relationship
• -          Strength of relationship

Positive correlation- variables are directly proportional to each other.

Negative correlation- variables are inversely proportional to each other.

EXPERIMENT

Experiment is a deliberate manipulation of a variable to see if corresponding changes in behavior result, allowing the determination of cause-and-effect relationships.

In experiment, there must be:

•          Operational definition which is a definition of a variable of interest that allows it to be directly measured.

•          Independent variable (IV) which is a variable in an experiment that is manipulated by the experimenter.

•          Dependent variable (DV) which is a variable in an experiment that represents the measurable response or behavior of the subjects in the experiment.

In experiment, there will be also:

•          Experimental group which are the subjects in an experiment who are subjected to the independent variable.

•          Control group which are subjects in an experiment who are not subjected to the independent variable and who may receive a placebo treatment (controls for confounding variables).

•          Random assignment which is a process of assigning subjects to the experimental or control groups randomly, so that each subject has an equal chance of being in either group.

Other than that, we also need to concern with the weaknesses of this method as it might change the results:

1.      Placebo effect - expectations of the participants in a study can influence their behavior.

a.       To avoid this effect, experimenter can carry out single-blind-study where the subjects do not know if they are in the experimental or the control group.

2.      Experimenter effect - experimenter’s expectations unintentionally influence the results of the study.

a.       To avoid this effect, experimenter can carry out double-blind study which neither the experimenter nor the subjects knows if the subjects are in the experimental or control group.

3.      Quasi-experimental designs - not considered true experiments because of the inability to randomly assign participants to the experimental and control groups.

Ethics in Psychological Research

Before this, I had always wondered how the psychologists perform their researches. For example, if they believed that watching violent programs might really transform viewers into murderers, do they really conduct the experiments to find out for sure? Isn't it unethical to conduct that kind of experiment because they could change or alter the viewers’ behavior? Also, it is unethical to perform procedures that are likely to cause significant pain, embarrassment, or any other harm. But, once I learn psychology studies, now I know that psychologists also have their ethical in psychological research and they should follow them.  From these ethics, the participants have the right to decide whether they want to participate or not. This is really helpful because they can stop participating if they feel that they are at risk. So, the psychologists cannot do whatever they want without the participant’s permissions. The ethics in psychological research has taught me that we still need to take note towards others feeling or opinion when we are doing something to them.