The document provides an overview of several key topics in introductory psychology: 1) It describes a famous twin study where identical twins were separated at birth and adopted into different homes to explore the influences of nature vs nurture on development. 2) It explains different fields, perspectives, and approaches in psychology such as behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, and sociocultural approaches. 3) It discusses important concepts in research methods like variables, the scientific method, and challenges in descriptive research approaches like case studies and surveys.

1. INTRODUCTION
TO THE
SCIENCE OF
PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter 1
PSYCHOLOGY DEBORAH M. LICHT MISTY G. HULL COCO BALLANTYNE

2. Presenting Psychology (part 1)
• On March 22, 1952, twins were born in Mount Holly, New Jersey. After
being relinquished by their unmarried birth mother, one week later, they
were adopted and sent to different homes.
• Throughout this chapter, we will see how inherited biological factors
(nature) and different environments (nurture) can influence development of
twins who are reared apart.
• What would happen if these twins met later in life? Let’s explore this
chapter to find out.

3. Presenting Psychology (part 2)
• WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?
– Psychology
• Scientific study of behavior and mental processes
– Psychologists
• Scientists who work in a variety of fields, including many
perspectives and subfields, all of which include the study of
behavior and underlying mental processes
– Major professional organizations
• American Psychological Association (APA)
• Association for Psychological Science (APS)

4. Fields of Psychology

5. Presenting Psychology (part 3)
• SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY AND SUBFIELDS
– Basic research
• Focuses on collecting data to support or refute theories
• Gathers knowledge for the sake of knowledge
– Applied research
• Focuses on changing behaviors and outcomes
• Often leads to real-world applications
– Discipline, not common sense
• Unlike common sense, psychology is a rigorous discipline
based on meticulous and methodical observation and data
analysis.

6. DISPELLED: SEVEN “COMMONSENSE”
MYTHS (part 1)
• MYTH
– People only use 10% of
their brains.
– Most older people live sad
and solitary lives.
– Once you’re married and
have kids, your sex life goes
down the tubes.
• REALITY
– We use essentially all of our
brains (Boyd, 2008,
February 7; Howard-Jones,
2014).
– Many people become
happier with age (Lilienfeld,
Lynn, Ruscio, & Beyerstein,
2010).
– According to the National
Survey of Sexual Health
and Behavior (2010), men
and women in their late
twenties and early thirties
are having more sex than
people in other age groups.

7. DISPELLED: SIX “COMMONSENSE”
MYTHS (part 2)
• MYTH
– After birth, your brain no
longer generates new
neurons.
– Sugar makes kids hyper and
inattentive.
– People have distinct “learning
styles.” For example, “visual
learners” absorb information
better when it is presented in
ways they can see (graphs,
animations, etc.).
• REALITY
– Neurons in certain areas of
the brain are replenished
during adulthood (Eriksson et
al., 1998; Ernst & Frisén,
2015).
– This common belief is not one
supported by solid scientific
data (Howard-Jones, 2014;
Vreeman & Carroll, 2008).
– Although we all have different
skill sets and areas of
interest, there is no
compelling evidence that we
possess specific learning
styles (Riener, 2010/2011).

8. Presenting Psychology (part 4)
• GOALS OF DISCIPLINE OF PSYCHOLOGY
– Goals vary by subfield
– Common goals
• Describe: Describe or report what is observed.
• Explain: Organize and understand observations of behaviors.
• Predict: Predict behaviors or outcomes.
• Control: Use research findings to shape, modify, and control
behavior.

9. Roots, Schools, and Perspectives of
Psychology (part 1)
• PHILOSOPHY AND PHYSIOLOGY
– Plato (427−347 BCE): Truth and knowledge exist in the
soul before birth; nature contributes to human capacity for
cognition
– Aristotle (384−322 BCE): Knowledge is the result of
experiences; nurture plays a role in knowledge acquisition
– Descartes (1596−1650): Body and mind interact as
separate entities; dualism
– Fechner (1801−1887): Mind and body connection
understood by studying sensation; one of the founders of
physiological psychology

10. Roots, Schools, and Perspectives of
Psychology (part 2)
• PSYCHOLOGY IS BORN
– Wundt (1832-1920)
• Founded first psychology lab and
first psychology journal in
Germany
• Measured psychological
processes through introspection
and used objective reports
• In 1861, Wilhelm Wundt
conducted an experiment on
reaction time, which was a turning
point in the field of psychology.

11. Roots, Schools, and Perspectives of
Psychology (part 3)
• PSYCHOLOGY IS BORN
– Titchener (1867−1927)—Structuralism
• Set up lab at Cornell and conducted introspection
experiments aimed at determining most basic elements of
the mind
• Trained participants to provide detailed reports of subjective
experiences
– James (1842−1910)—Functionalism
• Offered first psychology classes in United States
• Focused on study of the purpose of thought processes,
feelings, and behaviors

12. Roots, Schools, and Perspectives of
Psychology (part 4)
• HERE COME THE WOMEN
– Mary Whiton Calkins (1863−1930)
• Denied PhD graduation from Harvard but established her
own lab at Wellesley College
• Became first female president of APA
– Margaret Floy Washburn (1871−1939)
• First female PhD in psychology
– Mamie Phipps Clark (1917−1983)
• First Black female PhD; denied faculty position because of
gender
• Explored impact of race relation on self-esteem

13. Roots, Schools, and Perspectives of
Psychology (part 5)
• MAJOR PERSPECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGY
- Psychoanalytic
- Freud
• Focused on “abnormal”
functioning of mind
• Believed behavior and
personality influenced by conflict
between inner desires and
societal expectations
• Used as explanatory tool in
many of psychology’s subfields

14. Roots, Schools, and Perspectives of
Psychology (part 6)
• MAJOR PERSPECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGY
– Behavioral
• Pavlov
– Conducted classical conditioning experiments
• Watson
– Established behaviorism, which viewed psychology as the
scientific study of behavior that could be seen and/or measured
• Skinner
– Focused on operant conditioning, which is learning that occurs
when behaviors are rewarded or punished

15. Roots, Schools, and Perspectives of
Psychology (part 7)
• MAJOR PERSPECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGY
– Humanistic
– Rogers and Maslow
• Founded humanistic psychology, which suggested that
human nature is essentially positive
• Posited that people are naturally inclined to grow and change
for the better

16. Roots, Schools, and Perspectives of
Psychology (part 8)
• MAJOR PERSPECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGY
– Cognitive psychology
– Miller
• Researched memory, which provided catalyst for cognitive
revolution
• Examined mental processes that direct behavior, focusing on
concepts such as thinking, memory, and language
– Cognitive neuroscience
• Explores physiological explanations for mental processes
and connections between behavior and the human nervous
system

17. Roots, Schools, and Perspectives of
Psychology (part 9)
• MAJOR PERSPECTIVES OF
PSYCHOLOGY
– Evolutionary
– Darwin
• Based on theory of evolution and
principles of natural selection
• Proposes that humans have many
adaptive traits and behaviors that
appear to have evolved over time
• Used to explain a variety of
personality traits, intelligence, and
behaviors

18. Roots, Schools, and Perspectives of
Psychology (part 10)
• MAJOR PERSPECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGY
– Biological
• Uses knowledge about underlying physiology to explain
behavior and mental processes
• Explores how biological factors, such as hormones, genes,
and the brain, are in behavior and cognition

19. Roots, Schools, and Perspectives of
Psychology (part 11)
• MAJOR PERSPECTIVES
OF PSYCHOLOGY
– Sociocultural
• Vygotsky
– Proposed social and cultural
features influence
• Clark
– Studied impact of prejudice,
segregation, and
discrimination
– Theorized the importance of
sociocultural factors as
related to development of self

20. Roots, Schools, and Perspectives of
Psychology (part 12)
• MAJOR PERSPECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGY
– Biopsychological
• Examines biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors,
including behavior
• Suggests these factors are interactive

21. Science and Psychology (part 1)
• In 1997, these twins first met at age
45. They sounded, gesticulated, and
looked alike. Over time, they
discovered many common interests,
habits, and traits. Now after 19 years
of friendship, the twins are very close.
Sometimes they feel as if they know
what the other is thinking.
Can identical twins communicate on a
supernatural level through some sort of
twin telepathy? What do you think?
Why?

22. Science and Psychology (part 2)
• CRITICAL THINKING AND
PSEUDOPSYCHOLOGY
– Critical thinking
• Process of weighing various pieces of evidence, synthesizing
them (putting them together), and determining how each
contributes to the bigger picture
– Pseudopsychology
• Approach to explaining and predicting behavior and events
that appears to be psychology but is not supported by
empirical, objective evidence
– Astrology and horoscopes

23. The Scientific Method (part 1)
• USING THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
– Scientific method
• Process scientists use to conduct research, which includes a
continuing cycle of exploration, critical thinking, and
systematic observation
– Empirical evidence
– Hypothesis
– Experiment
• Controlled procedure that involves careful examination
through scientific observation and/or manipulation of
variables

24. The Scientific Method (part 2)
• STEPS
– Develop a question
– Develop a hypothesis
• Theories and scientific evidence
– Design study and collect data
• Operational definitions
– Analyze the data
• Descriptive and inferential statistics
– Publish the findings
• Peer-review process and replication
Dr. Nancy L. Segal stands between
twins Tim Carpenter (left) and
Bill Henry, who participated in the
historic Minnesota Study of Twins
Reared Apart (MISTRA).

25. Research Basics (part 1)
 Variables
 Population
 Sample
Let’s look more closely at
each of these.
THE TWIN’S RESEARCH
ADVENTURE
Sharon and Debbie became part
of 137 twin pairs participating in
the two-decade-long MISTRA
project.
• Powerful method for
understanding influence of
environmental and genetic
factors on human
• Wealth of data about
physical and psychological
characteristics

26. Research Basics (part 2)
 Variables
 Measurable characteristics
that vary, or change, over
time or across people
 Population
 All members of an
identified group about
which a researcher is
interested

27. Research Basics (part 3)
• Random sample
– Subset of the population
chosen through a
procedure that ensures all
members of the population
have an equally likely
chance of being selected
to participate in the study
• Representative sample
– Subgroup of a population
selected so that its
members have
characteristics that closely
reflect those of the
population of interest

28. Representative Sample?
• People gather on the National
Mall in Washington, D.C., to
advocate for immigration reform.
• If a researcher aims to
understand American attitudes
about immigration, she would be
foolish to limit her study to a
single state because immigrant
populations vary significantly
across the country. (Pew
Research Center, 2014,
November 18).

29. From the Pages of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
• ARE PEOPLE INCLINED TO ACT COOPERATIVELY OR SELFISHLY? IS
SUCH BEHAVIOR GENETIC?
– Human nature supports prosocial and selfish traits.
– Twin study research reveals genetic effects on sharing and empathy.
– A gene is linked to altruistic behavior; a variant of this gene is associated with more
selfish preschooler behavior.
• Explanations from evolutionary scientists
– Cooperative behavior may have evolved first among relative and then among
increasingly diversified communities.
– Humans cooperate to gain advantage; evolutionary processes take place at group
level.
• But
– No behavior is entirely genetic.
– Culture, school, and parenting are important cooperation determinants.
– Selfish or cooperative behavior is individually unique and dependent on genetic and
environmental influences.

30. Descriptive Research (part 1)
• NATURALISTIC RESEARCH
– Important features
• Environment not disturbed
• Systematic observation used
• Variables operationally defined
– Challenges
• Unwanted variables in natural environment
• Replication of research more difficult
– Observer bias
• Errors due to researcher’s value system, expectations,
attitudes reduced with comparison from multiple observers

31. Descriptive Research (part 2)
• CASE STUDIES
– Important features
• Involve detailed examination of individuals or small groups
• Include large amount of data on particular people or groups
• Are especially useful investigating unique cases
– Challenges
• Cannot be used to support or refute hypotheses

32. CLASSIC CASE STUDIES IN
PSYCHOLOGY (part 1)
• DESCRIPTION
– Phineas Gage
• A railroad worker who
survived after an iron rod
blasted through his skull
– H.M.
• A man who suffered from
profound memory loss
following brain surgery
– Little Albert
• An 11-month-old who was
conditioned to fear rats
• OUTCOME
– Suggested the role that
frontal lobes play in
personality
– Showed how brain
damage can be linked to
memory loss
– Revealed the ability to
classically condition fear in
humans

33. CLASSIC CASE STUDIES IN
PSYCHOLOGY (part 2)
• DESCRIPTION
- The Genain Quadruplets
• Identical quadruplet sisters
who all developed
schizophrenia
- "Rat Man"
• A man with obsessive
thoughts, including a
punishment involving rats
- Lorenz's Geese
• Goslings that became
attached to Konrad Lorenz
• OUTCOME
- Demonstrated a genetic
factor is involved in
schizophrenia
- Exemplified a case study
on which Sigmund Freud
based his theories
- Documented the imprinting
phenomenon

34. Descriptive Research (part 3)
• SURVEY METHODS
– Challenges
• Wording and honesty
– Wording can lead to response bias.
– Participants are not always truthful.
– Inaccurate representation of attitudes and beliefs may occur.
• Skimming the surface and failing to tap into the complex
issues underlying responses
• Representative sample and survey may fail when the
response rate falls short

35. Descriptive Research (part 4)
• It Depends How You Ask
– In a classic study, researchers
asked two versions of the same
question:
• (A) Do you think the United
States should allow public
speeches against democracy?
• (B) Do you think the United
States should forbid public
speeches against democracy?
What were the results?

36. Descriptive Research (part 5)
• CORRELATIONAL METHOD
– Important features
• Examines relationships among variables
• Assists in making predictions
– Challenges
• Does not prove causation

37. Descriptive Research (part 6)
• CORRELATIONAL METHOD
– Correlation coefficient (r)
• Statistical measure (symbolized as r) indicates the strength
and direction of the relationship between two variables.
– The closer r is to +1.00 or to −1.00, the stronger the
relationship.
– The closer r is to 0.00, the weaker the relationship.

38. Descriptive Research (part 7)
• Third variable
– Unaccounted-for characteristic of participant or
environment that explains changes in the variable of
interest
• Direction of variable relationships
– Direction of relationship (directionality) matters.
– In some instances, causal direction can go both ways.

39. ACROSS THE WORLD
• THE HAPPIEST PLACES ON THE PLANET
– According to the World Happiness Report, published by the
United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network
(SDSN), Earth’s happiest people live in Switzerland. The United
States claims 15th place on the list of 158 countries.
– Why are some populations happier than others?
• According to the report, most variation in happiness can be attributed to
a handful of factors, and the three most critical are these:
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita
- Social support
- Healthy years of life expectancy (Helliwell et al., 2015, p. 6).
– Why do you think the United States was not first on the list?

40. Experimental Research: Experimental
Method (part 1)
• Experimental Method
– Type of research that
manipulates a variable of
interest (independent
variable) to uncover
cause-and-effect
relationships
• Random Assignment
– Process of appointing
participants in a research
study to the experimental
or control groups, ensuring
that every person has an
equal chance of being
assigned to either

41. Experimental Research: Experimental
Method (part 2)
• Experimental Group
– Members of an experiment
who are exposed to the
treatment variable or
manipulation by the
researcher; represents the
treatment group
• Control Group
– Participants in an
experiment who are not
exposed to the treatment
variable; this is the
comparison group

42. Experimental Research: Experimental
Method (part 3)
• Independent variable (IV)
– In an experimental design,
the variable manipulated
by the researcher to
determine its effect on the
dependent variable
• Dependent variable (DV)
– In an experimental design,
the characteristic or
response that is measured
to determine the effect of
the researcher’s
manipulation

43. Experimental Research: Experimental
Method (part 4)
• Extraneous variable
– Variable in the
environment or of the
participants that could
unintentionally influence
the outcome of the study
• Confounding variable
– Type of extraneous
variable that changes in
sync with the independent
variable, making it difficult
to discern which one is
causing changes in the
dependent variable

44. Experimental Research: Experimental
Method (part 5)
• Double blind study
– Type of study in which
neither the researchers
who are administering the
independent variable nor
the participants know what
type of treatment is being
given
• Experimenter bias
– Researchers’ expectations
that influence the outcome
of a study

45. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
• LOOKS REAL
– One of these pills contains an active ingredient; the other
is a placebo. In placebo-controlled drug trials, researchers
give some participants drugs and others placebos.
– People taking the placebos often experience effects that
are similar to those reported by the participants taking the
actual drug.
• What is a placebo?
– Inert substance given to members of the control group; a
fake treatment that has no benefit but is administered as if
it does

46. PSYCHOLOGY IN THE MEDIA
• In 2012, researchers published a study showing
a correlation between pacifier use in boys and
lower levels of emotional intelligence later in life.
The findings of this study could easily be
interpreted as “pacifier use stunts emotional
development,” but this is a reckless conclusion.
Do you know why?

47. Research Ethics (part 1)
• RESEARCH ETHICS
– Conducting psychological research carries an enormous
ethical responsibility.
– Ethical guidelines
• Written guidelines for ethical treatment of research participants
by professional organizations
– APA; APS; BPS
– Research psychologists must:
• Do no harm
• Safeguard welfare of research humans and animals
• Know responsibilities to society and community
• Maintain accuracy in research, teaching, and practice
• Respect human dignity

48. FALSE BALANCE IN THE MEDIA
• If 97% of climate scientists agree that humans
are causing global warming and only 3%
disagree, why do news outlets often present this
issue as a “debate” between two individuals?
• By giving equal attention to the two viewpoints,
the media promote the misconception that
scientists are split 50-50 on the issue.
• This is called a “false balance.”

49. Didn’t See That Coming
• SPONGEBOB ON THE BRAIN
– No one expects cartoons to make
kids smarter, but can cartoons
hurt them?
– One study suggests that
preschool children watching just
9 minutes of the high-energy,
ultra-stimulating kids’ show
SpongeBob Square Pants
experience a temporary dip in
cognitive function.
Were you surprised at these results?

50. Research Ethics (part 2)
• MORE ABOUT ETHICAL PRACTICE
– All experiments on humans and animals must be
approved by an institutional review board (IRB) to
ensure the highest degree of ethical standards.
– Supporting fair use of work of others
– Maintaining confidentially
– Obtaining informed consent
– Debriefing

51. Research Ethics (part 3)
• ETHICAL USE OF ANIMALS IN RESEARCH
– Guiding principles in five areas (APA)
• Approving the use of animals
• Housing animals
• Obtaining animals
• Experimenting on animals
• Animals in the classroom

52. Research Ethics (part 4)
• POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
– Focus
• Positive aspects of human nature
• Human strengths and virtues
– The story of the twins, Sharon and Debbie,
demonstrates two people who opt to see the brighter
side of life. It also underscores the importance of
nature and nurture, culture, gender, and what is best
about human nature.