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CHAPTER 1 Psychology’s Roots, Big Ideas, and Critical Thinking Tools

Psychology’s Roots

1-1 What are the three key elements of the scientific attitude, and how do they support scientific inquiry?

These three basic attitudes helped make modern science possible:
- Curiosity triggers new ideas. When put to the test, can an idea’s predictions be confirmed?
- Skepticism encourages attention to the facts. Skeptical testing can reveal which claim best matches the facts.
- Humility helps us discard predictions that can’t be verified by research. Researchers must be willing to be surprised and follow new ideas.

1-2 How has psychology’s focus changed over time?

Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological laboratory in Germany in 1879, and studied the basic elements of mental experience.
Early researchers defined psychology as “the science of mental life.” This definition was revised under the influence of the behaviorists in the 1920s to the “scientific study of observable behavior.”
Behaviorism was one of psychology’s two major forces well into the 1960s. However, the second major force of Freudian psychology, along with the influences of humanistic psychology and cognitive psychology, revived interest in the study of mental processes.
Psychology is now defined as “the science of behavior and mental processes.”

1-3 What are psychology’s current perspectives, and what are some of its subfields?

Psychology’s current perspectives include neuroscience, evolutionary, behavior genetics, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and social-cultural.
Psychology’s subfields include biological, developmental, cognitive, personality, social, counseling, health, clinical, industrial-organizational, and community.
Psychologists may conduct basic research to increase the field’s knowledge base or applied research to solve practical problems.

Four Big Ideas in Psychology

1-4 What four big ideas run throughout this book?

Critical thinking is smart thinking. It challenges our beliefs and triggers new ways of thinking. The scientific attitude prepares us to examine assumptions, consider the source, uncover hidden values, weigh evidence, and test conclusions.
Behavior is a biopsychosocial event. The biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis each offer valuable insight into behavior and mental processes.
We operate with a two-track mind (dual processing). Our brains process a surprising amount without our awareness, which affects our thinking, memory, perception, language, and attitudes.
Psychology explores human strengths (positive psychology) as well as challenges (clinical psychology).

Why Do Psychology?

1-5 How does our everyday thinking sometimes lead us to the wrong conclusion?

Hindsight bias (the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon) is believing, after learning the outcome, that we would have foreseen it.

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Overconfidence is the human tendency to be more confident than correct.
We perceive order in random events due to our natural eagerness to make sense of our world.
These tendencies lead us to overestimate our intuition and common sense, and then come to the wrong conclusion.

How Do Psychologists Ask and Answer Questions?

1-6 How do theories advance psychological science?

Psychological theories are explanations using principles that organize observations and predict behaviors or events.
Theories generate hypotheses—predictions that can be tested using descriptive, correlational, or experimental methods.
Research results may validate the theory, or lead to its rejection or revision.
The precise language used in operational definitions allows replication by others. If others achieve similar results, confidence in the conclusion will be greater.

1-7 How do psychologists use case studies, naturalistic observations, and surveys to observe and describe behavior, and why is random sampling important?

Case studies study one person or group in depth, in the hope of revealing things true of us all.
Naturalistic observation studies examine behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to change or control the situation.
Surveys study many people in less depth, using random sampling to fairly represent the population being studied.

1-8 What are positive and negative correlations, and how can they lead to prediction but not cause-effect explanation?

In a positive correlation, both items increase or decrease together.
In a negative correlation, one item increases as the other decreases.
Correlations tell us how well one event predicts another (using a measure called a correlation coefficient), but not whether one event caused the other, or whether some third factor influenced both events.

1-9 How do experiments clarify or reveal cause-effect relationships?

Experiments create a controlled, simplified version of reality to discover cause-effect relationships.
Psychologists manipulate one or more factors (independent variables) while controlling others. The researchers can then measure changes in other factors (dependent variables). Experiments minimize confounding variables (preexisting differences between groups) through random assignment.
Experiments allow researchers to compare experimental group results with control group results. Experiments may use a double-blind procedure to control for the placebo effect.
Psychological scientists must design studies and choose research methods that will best provide meaningful results. (The Immersive Learning “How Would You Know?” activities in LaunchPad allow you to play the role of the researcher, making choices about the best ways to test interesting questions.)

1-10 How can simplified laboratory experiments help us understand general principles of behavior?

Studying specific examples in controlled environments can reveal important general principles. These general principles, not the specific findings, help may explain many everyday behaviors.

Psychology’s Research Ethics

1-11 Why do psychologists study animals, and what ethical guidelines safeguard human and animal research participants? How do personal values influence psychologists’ research and applications?

Research on animals advances our understanding of other species and sometimes benefits them directly. Animal experimentation also advances our understanding of ourselves and may help solve human problems.
Professional ethical standards and other legal guidelines, enforced by ethics committees, protect participants. The APA ethics code outlines standards for safeguarding human participants’ well-being, including obtaining their informed consent and debriefing them later.
Psychologists’ values influence their choice of research topics, their theories and observations, their labels for behavior, and their professional advice. Psychology’s principles could be used for good or evil, but have been used mainly to enlighten and to achieve positive ends.

Use Psychology to Become a Stronger Person—and a Better Student

1-12 How can psychological principles help you learn, remember, and thrive?

The testing effect shows that learning and memory are enhanced by actively retrieving, rather than simply rereading, previously studied material. The SQ3R study method—survey, question, read, retrieve, and review—applies principles derived from memory research and can help you learn and remember material.

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Four additional study tips are (1) distribute your study time; (2) learn to think critically; (3) process class information actively; and (4) overlearn.
Psychological research has shown that people who live happy, thriving lives (1) manage their time to get a full night’s sleep; (2) make space for exercise; (3) have a growth mind-set; and (4) prioritize relationships.