Summary literature GIP
H1 The science of Psychology
1.1 What is psychological science?
Psychology: the study of thoughts, feelings and behavior.
Psychologist: someone whose career involves understanding people’s minds or
predicting their behavior.
Humans could not function well in the world without natural ways to understand
and predict others’ behavior.
We cannot use common sense/gut feeling to guide whether claims related to
psychology are true or not
Psychological science: the study, through research, of mind brain and
behavior:
Mind: mental activity
o Memories, thoughts, feeling, perceptions we have while interacting
with the world
Results from biochemical processes in the brain
Behavior: totality of observable human actions range from sublte to
complex
o Focus of pyschology
We have few objectives techniques for assessing the mind helps to understand
human behavior, treating disorders and understand mental activity.
1.2 Psychological science teaches critical thinking
Media reports can be distorted or wrong be skeptical of overblown media.
Sort through and evaluate information.
Amiable skepticism: combination of openness and wariness
Open to new ideas, but wary of new ‘scientific findings’ weighing facts and
deciding what to believe.
Critical thinking: systematically questioning and evaluating information using
well-supported evidence.
People’s intuitions are often wrong. Lots of situations where common sense fails
and biases influence people’s judgements.
Being a critical thinker involves looking for holes in evidence, using logic and
reasoning to see if information makes sense and considering alternative
explanations.
Bias by personal of political agendas.
You may be less motivated to think critically about information that verifies your
preconceptions.
,1.3 Psychology help us understand biased or inaccurate
thinking
Most biases occur because we are motivated to use our Intelligence.
Human brain is efficient in finding patterns and connections sometimes they
don’t exist.
We see what we expect and fail to notice things that do not fit our expectations.
False beliefs can sometimes lead to dangerous actions.
Sometime people reject information that is not consistent with their political
beliefs or that threatens their self-image.
Common biases:
Ignoring evidence (confirmation bias): overweigh evidence that
supports their beliefs and tend to downplay evidence that does not match
what they believe.
o Selective sampling of information
o E.g. visiting only websites that are consistent with our beliefs or
selective memory
Seeing casual relationships that does not exist: misperception that 2
events that happen at the same time must somehow be related.
Accepting after-the-fact explanations (hindsight bias): explaining why
things happen in the past. Not successful at predicting future events.
o People saw signs but failed to predict the tragic outcome. Once we
know the outcome we interpret and reinterpret old evidence to
make sense of that outcome.
o False sense of certainty about our ability to make predictions about
future behavior.
Taking mental shortcuts (heuristics): people follow simple rules to make
decisions
o Can lead to inaccurate judgements and bias outcomes.
o Availability heuristic: things that come easily to mind guide our
thinking.
o E.g: child abductions are more likely to be reported parents
overestimate their frequency underestimate other dangers facing
their children.
1.4 Why are people unaware of their weaknesses?
People are motivated to feel good about themselves and this effects how they
interpret information.
Various strategies to support their positive views choosing definition of what it
means to be good at something in a self-serving way, resistant to recognizing
their own weaknesses.
Hypotheses generation: people are unaware of their weakness because they
cannot judge those weaknesses at all.
Dunning-Kruger effect: people lack the ability to evaluate their own
performance in areas where they have little expertise.
,1.5 What is the scientific scope of psychology?
Psychology originated with ancient philosophers who explored questions about
human nature.
Chinese philosopher Confucius emphasized human, development, education and
interpersonal relations.
1800 - psychologists began to use scientific methods.
Mind/body problem: are the mind and body separate and distinct or is the mind
simply the subjective experience of ongoing brain activity?
Mind has been viewed as residing in many organs of the body.
Scholars used to think that the mind was separate from the body.
1500 – Leonardo da Vinci dissected human bodies and drew conclusions about
the brain’s workings. Not everything was accurate, but it was an early and
important attempt to link the brain’s anatomy to psychological functions.
1600 – Descartes invented dualism: the idea that the mind and body are
separate yet intertwined.
Early views mental functions had been considered the mind’s sovereign
domain, separate from body functions. The body was nothing more than an
organic machine governed by reflex.
Nowadays – rejection of dualism mind arises from brain activity and the
activities of the mind change the brain. The mind and brain do not exist
separately.
Aristotle and Plato nature/nurture debate: are psychological characteristics
biologically innate (nature) or acquired through education, experience and culture
(nurture)?
Culture: beliefs, values, rules, norms and customs existing in a group of people
who share common language and environment.
Nature and nurture dynamically interact in human development so enmeshed
that they cannot be separated.
1.6 Mental processes and behaviors serve functions for
individuals and groups
Mid-1800 – psychology built on the experimental method
John Sutart Mill: psychology should leave the realms of philosophy and become a
science of observation and experiment only through methods of science would
the processes of the mind be understood.
James was first professor at Harverd to openly welcome questions from students.
Also early supporter of women trying to break into male-dominated sciences.
Captivated by the nature of conscious experience he wrote the most influential
book in early history of psychology core idea: the mind is much more complex
than its elements and therefore cannot be broken down.
Calkins first woman to set up psychological laboratory and first woman president
of APA.
Stream of consciousness: the mind consists of everchanging, continuous
series of thoughts. It is the product of interacting and dynamic stimuli coming
from inside our heads and outside in the world.
Mind is too complex to understand merely as a sum of separate parts.
, Functionalism: psychologists ought to examine the functions served by the
mind how it operates.
It helps humans adapt to environmental demands.
Natural selection: features that are adaptive are passed along and those that
are not adaptive are not passed along.
Particularly those that are specific to a culture/individual might still be functional.
Traditions, religious rules or personal quirks are functional they arose to solve a
problem.
1.7 The field of psychology spans the range of human
experience
Psychologists are interested in mental phenomena.
Tops are universal to human, but they way we experience them can vary within
and individual person and across people.
Diversity and inclusion: the value and practice of ensuring that psychological
science represents the experiences of all humans.
Not only racial/ethnic but also diverse in terms of age, ability, gender, SES, sexual
orientation etc.
Culture and diversity are becoming integral to all areas of psychology.
Phenomena can very as a function of culture and personal experiences.
The internet allows researchers to gather data from across the globe.
Specialization in psychology:
Clinical psychology: understand, characterize and treat mental illness
Cognitve psychology: understand basis skills and processes that are the
foundation of mental life and behavior
Cultural psychology: how cultural factors (regions, beliefs, religion) can
have a profound effect on mental life and behavior. Way that samples scan
influence their results and their implications
Developmental psychology: how humans grow and develop from the
parental period through infancy, early childhood, adolescence, early
adulthood and old age. How experiences change across the life span and
particularly important periods in life.
Health psychology: how psychological processes influence physical
health and vice versa, health disorders and even mortality.
Industrial/organizational: how psychological processes play out in the
workplace, real world problems. Blend social-personality psychology
approaches with principles from management, communication and
marketing.
Close relationships psychologists: quality of close relationships most
consistent predictor of overall happiness and well-being.
Social-personality psychology: everyday thoughts, feelings and
behaviors and factors that give rise to them. Situational and dispositional
causes of behavior and the interactions between them.
1.8 Biology is increasingly emphasized in explaining
psychological phenomena
Psychologists ask more questions about what is already known new knowledge
springs forth.
H1 The science of Psychology
1.1 What is psychological science?
Psychology: the study of thoughts, feelings and behavior.
Psychologist: someone whose career involves understanding people’s minds or
predicting their behavior.
Humans could not function well in the world without natural ways to understand
and predict others’ behavior.
We cannot use common sense/gut feeling to guide whether claims related to
psychology are true or not
Psychological science: the study, through research, of mind brain and
behavior:
Mind: mental activity
o Memories, thoughts, feeling, perceptions we have while interacting
with the world
Results from biochemical processes in the brain
Behavior: totality of observable human actions range from sublte to
complex
o Focus of pyschology
We have few objectives techniques for assessing the mind helps to understand
human behavior, treating disorders and understand mental activity.
1.2 Psychological science teaches critical thinking
Media reports can be distorted or wrong be skeptical of overblown media.
Sort through and evaluate information.
Amiable skepticism: combination of openness and wariness
Open to new ideas, but wary of new ‘scientific findings’ weighing facts and
deciding what to believe.
Critical thinking: systematically questioning and evaluating information using
well-supported evidence.
People’s intuitions are often wrong. Lots of situations where common sense fails
and biases influence people’s judgements.
Being a critical thinker involves looking for holes in evidence, using logic and
reasoning to see if information makes sense and considering alternative
explanations.
Bias by personal of political agendas.
You may be less motivated to think critically about information that verifies your
preconceptions.
,1.3 Psychology help us understand biased or inaccurate
thinking
Most biases occur because we are motivated to use our Intelligence.
Human brain is efficient in finding patterns and connections sometimes they
don’t exist.
We see what we expect and fail to notice things that do not fit our expectations.
False beliefs can sometimes lead to dangerous actions.
Sometime people reject information that is not consistent with their political
beliefs or that threatens their self-image.
Common biases:
Ignoring evidence (confirmation bias): overweigh evidence that
supports their beliefs and tend to downplay evidence that does not match
what they believe.
o Selective sampling of information
o E.g. visiting only websites that are consistent with our beliefs or
selective memory
Seeing casual relationships that does not exist: misperception that 2
events that happen at the same time must somehow be related.
Accepting after-the-fact explanations (hindsight bias): explaining why
things happen in the past. Not successful at predicting future events.
o People saw signs but failed to predict the tragic outcome. Once we
know the outcome we interpret and reinterpret old evidence to
make sense of that outcome.
o False sense of certainty about our ability to make predictions about
future behavior.
Taking mental shortcuts (heuristics): people follow simple rules to make
decisions
o Can lead to inaccurate judgements and bias outcomes.
o Availability heuristic: things that come easily to mind guide our
thinking.
o E.g: child abductions are more likely to be reported parents
overestimate their frequency underestimate other dangers facing
their children.
1.4 Why are people unaware of their weaknesses?
People are motivated to feel good about themselves and this effects how they
interpret information.
Various strategies to support their positive views choosing definition of what it
means to be good at something in a self-serving way, resistant to recognizing
their own weaknesses.
Hypotheses generation: people are unaware of their weakness because they
cannot judge those weaknesses at all.
Dunning-Kruger effect: people lack the ability to evaluate their own
performance in areas where they have little expertise.
,1.5 What is the scientific scope of psychology?
Psychology originated with ancient philosophers who explored questions about
human nature.
Chinese philosopher Confucius emphasized human, development, education and
interpersonal relations.
1800 - psychologists began to use scientific methods.
Mind/body problem: are the mind and body separate and distinct or is the mind
simply the subjective experience of ongoing brain activity?
Mind has been viewed as residing in many organs of the body.
Scholars used to think that the mind was separate from the body.
1500 – Leonardo da Vinci dissected human bodies and drew conclusions about
the brain’s workings. Not everything was accurate, but it was an early and
important attempt to link the brain’s anatomy to psychological functions.
1600 – Descartes invented dualism: the idea that the mind and body are
separate yet intertwined.
Early views mental functions had been considered the mind’s sovereign
domain, separate from body functions. The body was nothing more than an
organic machine governed by reflex.
Nowadays – rejection of dualism mind arises from brain activity and the
activities of the mind change the brain. The mind and brain do not exist
separately.
Aristotle and Plato nature/nurture debate: are psychological characteristics
biologically innate (nature) or acquired through education, experience and culture
(nurture)?
Culture: beliefs, values, rules, norms and customs existing in a group of people
who share common language and environment.
Nature and nurture dynamically interact in human development so enmeshed
that they cannot be separated.
1.6 Mental processes and behaviors serve functions for
individuals and groups
Mid-1800 – psychology built on the experimental method
John Sutart Mill: psychology should leave the realms of philosophy and become a
science of observation and experiment only through methods of science would
the processes of the mind be understood.
James was first professor at Harverd to openly welcome questions from students.
Also early supporter of women trying to break into male-dominated sciences.
Captivated by the nature of conscious experience he wrote the most influential
book in early history of psychology core idea: the mind is much more complex
than its elements and therefore cannot be broken down.
Calkins first woman to set up psychological laboratory and first woman president
of APA.
Stream of consciousness: the mind consists of everchanging, continuous
series of thoughts. It is the product of interacting and dynamic stimuli coming
from inside our heads and outside in the world.
Mind is too complex to understand merely as a sum of separate parts.
, Functionalism: psychologists ought to examine the functions served by the
mind how it operates.
It helps humans adapt to environmental demands.
Natural selection: features that are adaptive are passed along and those that
are not adaptive are not passed along.
Particularly those that are specific to a culture/individual might still be functional.
Traditions, religious rules or personal quirks are functional they arose to solve a
problem.
1.7 The field of psychology spans the range of human
experience
Psychologists are interested in mental phenomena.
Tops are universal to human, but they way we experience them can vary within
and individual person and across people.
Diversity and inclusion: the value and practice of ensuring that psychological
science represents the experiences of all humans.
Not only racial/ethnic but also diverse in terms of age, ability, gender, SES, sexual
orientation etc.
Culture and diversity are becoming integral to all areas of psychology.
Phenomena can very as a function of culture and personal experiences.
The internet allows researchers to gather data from across the globe.
Specialization in psychology:
Clinical psychology: understand, characterize and treat mental illness
Cognitve psychology: understand basis skills and processes that are the
foundation of mental life and behavior
Cultural psychology: how cultural factors (regions, beliefs, religion) can
have a profound effect on mental life and behavior. Way that samples scan
influence their results and their implications
Developmental psychology: how humans grow and develop from the
parental period through infancy, early childhood, adolescence, early
adulthood and old age. How experiences change across the life span and
particularly important periods in life.
Health psychology: how psychological processes influence physical
health and vice versa, health disorders and even mortality.
Industrial/organizational: how psychological processes play out in the
workplace, real world problems. Blend social-personality psychology
approaches with principles from management, communication and
marketing.
Close relationships psychologists: quality of close relationships most
consistent predictor of overall happiness and well-being.
Social-personality psychology: everyday thoughts, feelings and
behaviors and factors that give rise to them. Situational and dispositional
causes of behavior and the interactions between them.
1.8 Biology is increasingly emphasized in explaining
psychological phenomena
Psychologists ask more questions about what is already known new knowledge
springs forth.
