Introduction to psychological science
- summary of the book Psychological Science
Chapter 1 - week 1
People too often rely on apparent common sense or their gut feelings. They cannot intuitively
know if many of the claims related to psychology are fact or fiction. Psychological science
studies through the mind, brain and behavior.
mind refers to mental activity. mental activity results from biological processes within the
brain. Behavior describes the totality of observable human actions.
The advent of technology to observe the working brain in action has enabled psychologists to
study mental states and has led to fuller understanding of human behavior.
One of the characteristics of a savvy consumer or a good scientist is amiable skepticism. this
trait combines openness and wariness. the habit of carefully weighing facts when
deciding what to believe. → critical thinking.
reasoning: using evidence to draw conclusions. psychological reasoning: using psychological
research to examine how people typically think.
The human brain is highly efficient at finding patterns and making connections between things.
By using these abilities, people can make errors but also new discoveries and advance society.
Major biases
• ignoring evidence
(strong tendency to give great importance on evidence that supports their
beliefs) → selective sampling
• failing to accurately judge source credibility
(appeals to authority; sources that refer to their expertise rather than to evidence)
• misunderstanding or not using strategies
(people fail to understand/use statistics in their efforts to interpret events)
• seeing relationships that do not exist
(misperception that two events that happen at the same time must somehow be related)
• using relative comparisons
• accepting after-the-fact explanations
(people expect the world to make sense so they come up with explanations
for why events happen) → hindsight bias; wonderful at explaining why things
happened, but less successful at predicting future events.
• taking mental shortcuts
(these often produce reasonable good decisions without too much effort)
• failing to see our own inadequacies, self-serving bias
(many people believe they are better than average)
The mind/body problem
are the mind and body separate and distinct or is the mind the subjective experience of ongoing
brain activity?
• ancient egyptians; mind residing in many organs of the body (liver and heart). Heart was
, embalmed, brain thrown away.
• greeks and romans; brain was essential for normal mental functioning.
• descartes; body is an organic machine governed by reflex. rational mind was
divine and separate from body → dualism
Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology laboratory (1879). introspection: systematic
examination of subjective mental experiences that requires people to inspect and report on the
content of their thoughts.
Edward Titchener used methods as introspection to pioneer structuralism. Structuralism is
based on the idea that conscious experience can be broken down into basic underlying
components.
William James said that the mind is more complex than its elements and therefore can’t be
broken down. He created functionalism, concerned with the adaptive purpose or function of
mind and behavior.
Freud pioneered the psychoanalytic theory that attempts to bring the contents of the
unconscious into conscious awareness so that conflicts can be revealed.
Watson believed that if psychology was a science it shouldn’t try to study mental events that
could not be observed directly. He developed behaviorism; emphasizing environmental effects
on observable behavior. Need to study the stimuli or triggers in particular situations.
Gestalt theory: the whole is different from the sum of its parts. the perception of objects is
subjective and dependent on context.
Cognitive psychology: concerned with mental functions such as intelligence, thinking, language,
memory and decision making. Cognitive neuroscience: study the neural mechanisms that
underlie thought, learning, perception, language and memory.
Social psychology focuses on the power of the situation and on the way people are shaped
through their interaction with others. people differ in how much they are influenced by social
situations. the related field; personality psychology involves the study of people’s characteristic
thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
Psychological treatments
Some psychological disorders are more likely to occur in certain environments, so disorders can
be affected by context. People’s experiences change their brain structures. Some people inherit
genetic predispositions to developing certain psychological disorders in some situations; their
environment (nurture) activates their genes (nature). The social environment plays an important
role in whether treatment for diseases is successful (negative comments).
Neuroscience
There is some localization of function; some areas of the brain are important for specific
feelings, thoughts and actions. When consistent patterns of brain activation are associated with
the specific mental tasks, the activation appears to be connected with the tasks.
The human genome; basic genetic code or blueprint for the human body. The evolutionary
- summary of the book Psychological Science
Chapter 1 - week 1
People too often rely on apparent common sense or their gut feelings. They cannot intuitively
know if many of the claims related to psychology are fact or fiction. Psychological science
studies through the mind, brain and behavior.
mind refers to mental activity. mental activity results from biological processes within the
brain. Behavior describes the totality of observable human actions.
The advent of technology to observe the working brain in action has enabled psychologists to
study mental states and has led to fuller understanding of human behavior.
One of the characteristics of a savvy consumer or a good scientist is amiable skepticism. this
trait combines openness and wariness. the habit of carefully weighing facts when
deciding what to believe. → critical thinking.
reasoning: using evidence to draw conclusions. psychological reasoning: using psychological
research to examine how people typically think.
The human brain is highly efficient at finding patterns and making connections between things.
By using these abilities, people can make errors but also new discoveries and advance society.
Major biases
• ignoring evidence
(strong tendency to give great importance on evidence that supports their
beliefs) → selective sampling
• failing to accurately judge source credibility
(appeals to authority; sources that refer to their expertise rather than to evidence)
• misunderstanding or not using strategies
(people fail to understand/use statistics in their efforts to interpret events)
• seeing relationships that do not exist
(misperception that two events that happen at the same time must somehow be related)
• using relative comparisons
• accepting after-the-fact explanations
(people expect the world to make sense so they come up with explanations
for why events happen) → hindsight bias; wonderful at explaining why things
happened, but less successful at predicting future events.
• taking mental shortcuts
(these often produce reasonable good decisions without too much effort)
• failing to see our own inadequacies, self-serving bias
(many people believe they are better than average)
The mind/body problem
are the mind and body separate and distinct or is the mind the subjective experience of ongoing
brain activity?
• ancient egyptians; mind residing in many organs of the body (liver and heart). Heart was
, embalmed, brain thrown away.
• greeks and romans; brain was essential for normal mental functioning.
• descartes; body is an organic machine governed by reflex. rational mind was
divine and separate from body → dualism
Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology laboratory (1879). introspection: systematic
examination of subjective mental experiences that requires people to inspect and report on the
content of their thoughts.
Edward Titchener used methods as introspection to pioneer structuralism. Structuralism is
based on the idea that conscious experience can be broken down into basic underlying
components.
William James said that the mind is more complex than its elements and therefore can’t be
broken down. He created functionalism, concerned with the adaptive purpose or function of
mind and behavior.
Freud pioneered the psychoanalytic theory that attempts to bring the contents of the
unconscious into conscious awareness so that conflicts can be revealed.
Watson believed that if psychology was a science it shouldn’t try to study mental events that
could not be observed directly. He developed behaviorism; emphasizing environmental effects
on observable behavior. Need to study the stimuli or triggers in particular situations.
Gestalt theory: the whole is different from the sum of its parts. the perception of objects is
subjective and dependent on context.
Cognitive psychology: concerned with mental functions such as intelligence, thinking, language,
memory and decision making. Cognitive neuroscience: study the neural mechanisms that
underlie thought, learning, perception, language and memory.
Social psychology focuses on the power of the situation and on the way people are shaped
through their interaction with others. people differ in how much they are influenced by social
situations. the related field; personality psychology involves the study of people’s characteristic
thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
Psychological treatments
Some psychological disorders are more likely to occur in certain environments, so disorders can
be affected by context. People’s experiences change their brain structures. Some people inherit
genetic predispositions to developing certain psychological disorders in some situations; their
environment (nurture) activates their genes (nature). The social environment plays an important
role in whether treatment for diseases is successful (negative comments).
Neuroscience
There is some localization of function; some areas of the brain are important for specific
feelings, thoughts and actions. When consistent patterns of brain activation are associated with
the specific mental tasks, the activation appears to be connected with the tasks.
The human genome; basic genetic code or blueprint for the human body. The evolutionary
