5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology, 2010-2011 Edition (13 page)

Personality psychologists
focus on aspects of the individual such as traits, attitudes, and goals.

Psychometricians
, sometimes called psychometric psychologists or measurement psychologists, focus on methods for acquiring and analyzing psychological data.

Rehabilitation psychologists
help clients with mental retardation, developmental disabilities, and disabilities resulting from stroke or accidents adapt to their situations.

School psychologists
assess and counsel students, consult with educators and parents, and perform behavioral intervention when necessary.

Social psychologists
focus on how a person’s mental life and behavior are shaped by interactions with other people.

Sports psychologists
help athletes refine their focus on competition goals, increase motivation, and deal with anxiety and fear of failure.

Directions
: For each item, choose the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

1
. Wilhelm Wundt and the structuralists studied questions still asked today primarily by

(A) behavioral psychologists

(B) cognitive psychologists

(C) psychodynamic psychologists

(D) humanistic psychologists

(E) sociocultural psychologists

2
. With which definition of psychology would John Watson and B. F. Skinner most agree?

(A) Psychology is the science of behavior.

(B) Psychology is the science of mental processes.

(C) Psychology is the science of behavior and mental processes.

(D) Psychology is the science of behavior and mental processes specific to contexts.

3
. The question “Is intelligence more influenced by heredity or experience?” deals with a big issue in psychology known as

(A) stability vs. change

(B) mind-body dualism

(C) rationality vs. irrationality

(D) structure vs. function

(E) nature vs. nurture

4
. If Aristotle and Locke, who both believed that what we know is acquired from experience, were alive today, they would best agree with the

(A) behavioral approach

(B) psychoanalytic approach

(C) humanistic approach

(D) biological approach

(E) psychodynamic approach

5
. Which psychological approach is most concerned with the importance of encoding, storing, and retrieving information?

(A) information technology

(B) behavioral approach

(C) psychodynamic approach

(D) biological approach

(E) cognitive approach

6
. Dr. Didden was hired by the TLC Company to help them retain their employees without lowering the firm’s profits. After TLC removed cubicles and permitted employees to decorate their workroom as recommended by Dr. Didden, the absentee rate declined and no employees left for jobs elsewhere. Dr. Didden is most likely to be

(A) a forensic psychologist

(B) an industrial/organizational psychologist

(C) a counseling psychologist

(D) a clinical psychologist

(E) an engineering psychologist

1. B—
Wilhelm Wundt, Hall, and Titchener studied the basic elements of consciousness. Consciousness is currently called cognition. Cognitive psychologists examine thinking, memory, etc. using different methods.

2. A—
John Watson and B. F. Skinner rejected the study of consciousness/mental processes because they are private events that cannot be verified scientifically. These behaviorists focused on the antecedents of a behavior, the behavior, and the consequences of the behavior.

3. E—
The nature-nurture issue deals with the relative contribution of genes and experience to the expressions of psychological traits and behaviors.

4. A—
Behaviorists think that what we know is gained through learning. The other approaches accept that some of our behavior is inborn.

5. E—
Cognitive psychologists focus on how we acquire, maintain, and use information.

6. B—
Industrial/organizational psychologists examine and assess the conditions, methods, and procedures in the workplace and apply psychological principles to help improve the working environment to increase productivity and job satisfaction.

•
Psychology
—the science of behavior and mental processes

•
Monism
—seeing mind and body as different aspects of the same thing

•
Dualism
—seeing mind and body as two different things that interact

•
Nature-Nurture Controversy
—the extent to which behavior results from heredity or experience

Plato and Descartes believed behavior is inborn (nature).

Aristotle, Locke, Watson, Skinner believed behavior results from experience (nurture).

•
School of Structuralism
—early psychological perspective that emphasized units of consciousness and identification of elements of thought using introspection Wilhelm Wundt—founder of scientific psychology in Leipzig, Germany; studied consciousness using introspection

G. Stanley Hall—brought introspection to his lab at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.; first president of the American Psychological Association.

Edward Titchener—studied elements of consciousness at his Cornell University lab. Margaret Floy Washburn—first woman to complete her Ph.D. in psychology.

•
School of Functionalism
—early psychological perspective concerned with how an organism uses its perceptual abilities to adapt to its environment.

William James—wrote
Principles of Psychology
.

Mary Whiton Calkins—first woman president of the American Psychological Association.

•
Behavioral approach
—psychological perspective concerned with behavioral reactions to stimuli; learning as a result of experience.

Ivan Pavlov—known for classical conditioning of dogs.

John Watson—known for experiments in classical aversive conditioning.

B. F. Skinner—known for experiments in operant conditioning.

•
Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic approach
—psychological perspective concerned with how unconscious instincts, conflicts, motives, and defenses influence behavior.

Sigmund Freud—“Father of psychoanalysis.”

Jung, Adler, Horney, Kohut—psychodynamic psychologists.

•
Humanistic approach
—psychological perspective concerned with individual potential for growth and the role of unique perceptions in growth toward one’s potential.

Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow—humanistic psychologists.

•
Biological approach
—psychological perspective concerned with physiological and biochemical factors that determine behavior and mental processes.

•
Cognitive approach
—psychological perspective concerned with how we receive, store, and process information; think/reason; and use language.

Jean Piaget—studied cognitive development in children.

•
Evolutionary approach
—psychological perspective concerned with how natural selection favored behaviors that contributed to survival and spread of our ancestors’ genes; evolutionary psychologists look at universal behaviors shared by all people.

•
Sociocultural approach
—psychological perspective concerned with how cultural differences affect behavior.

•
Eclectic
—use of techniques and ideas from a variety of approaches.

Psychologists specialize in different domains:

•
Clinical psychologists
evaluate and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders.

•
Counseling psychologists
help people adapt to change or make changes in their lifestyle.

•
Developmental psychologists
study psychological development throughout the lifespan.

•
Educational psychologists
focus on how effective teaching and learning take place.

•
Engineering psychologists and human factors psychologists
do research on how people function best with machines.

•
Experimental psychologists
do research to add new knowledge to the field.

•
Forensic psychologists
apply psychological principles to legal issues.

•
Health psychologists
concentrate on biological, psychological, and social factors involved in health and illness.

•
Industrial/Organizational psychologists
aim to improve productivity and the quality of work life by applying psychological principles and methods to the workplace.

•
Neuropsychologists
explore the relationships between brain/nervous systems and behavior. Neuropsychologists are also called biological psychologists or biopsychologists, behavioral geneticists, physiological psychologists, and behavioral neuroscientists.

•
Personality psychologists
focus on traits, attitudes, and goals of the individual.

•
Psychometricians
(a.k.a. psychometric or measurement psychologists) focus on methods for acquiring and analyzing psychological data.

•
Rehabilitation psychologists
help clients with mental retardation, developmental disabilities, and disabilities resulting from stroke or accidents adapt to their situations.

•
School psychologists
assess and counsel students, consult with educators and parents, and perform behavioral intervention when necessary.

•
Social psychologists
focus on how a person’s mental life and behavior are shaped by interactions with other people.

•
Sports psychologists
help athletes refine their focus on competition goals, increase motivation, and deal with anxiety and fear of failure.

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary
: In their scientific study of behavior and mental processes, psychologists aim to describe, understand, predict, and explain psychological phenomena.
Theories
are organized sets of concepts that explain phenomena. Psychologists conduct research to answer behavioral questions. They systematically collect accurate data through a variety of carefully made observations and measurements. Scientific experiments, naturalistic observations, interviews, questionnaires, case studies, and psychological tests are some methods psychologists use to explore our personalities, values, intelligence, talents, and the effects of heredity and environment on our development. The scientific method is a set of general procedures psychologists use for gathering and interpreting data. Other researchers working independently must be able to obtain similar results using the same methods; this is called
replication
.

This chapter examines research methods and statistics used to make sense of research data.

Key Ideas

Experimental Method

The Controlled Experiment