Unit 1 Page 1

Kiersten Densmore
August 16, 2017

Research in Psychology
Essential Question: What is psychology and how do psychologists do their job?
There is no single definition of psychology that is universally acknowledged.
A common definition is: Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and
behavior. As you can see, this is a very broad definition.
o Scientific- a systematic and controlled study of human behavior, with
the hope of establishing either correlational or cause-and-effect
relationships to describe behavior. This is done through a range of
research methods- such as experiments and observations.
o Mind- the part of us that reasons, thinks, feels, wills, perceives and
judges.
o Behavior- the coordinated responses of whole living organisms to
internal and/or external stimuli- that is, what an organism does as a
result of both internal factors or environmental factors.
Psychologists study the interaction of many internal factors
cognitive processes, physiology, attitudes and emotions- that
influence our behaviors.
Cognitive processes- aka thought processes- explain
how the mind works. Including memory, perception,
attention, decision-making and thinking/reasoning. It is
the process by which existing knowledge is used to create
new knowledge.
Physiology- biological systems. Psychologists are
interested in the role of our brain and nervous system,
hormones and genetics in behavior.
Attitudes- feelings of liking or disliking toward an
object, person or idea. They can affect behavior in both a
positive or negative way.
Emotions- combo of physiological and cognitive
processes; there are 7 basic emotions: happiness, sadness,
anger, fear, surprise, disgust and contempt.
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Behavior is the result of the interaction of BOTH biological

factors (nature) AND environmental factors (nurture).
Human behavior is studied by looking at psychological issues
through 3 approaches.
1. Biological approach- focuses on physiology, including
genetics.
2. Cognitive approach- focuses on mental processes like
memory, thinking, perception and attention.
3. Sociocultural approach- focuses on how environmental
and culture affect behavior.
Is psychology a science?
o Psychologists do use the scientific method; however, psychology has
failed to produce a cumulative body of knowledge that has a clear
conceptual core that is consensually agreed upon by mainstream
psychologist experts. This lack of a core, accepted body of
knowledge, makes it problematic in labeling it as a science.
Research: Theories and Empirical Studies
o When psychologists discuss their work, they refer to theories and
make reference to empirical studies.
Theory- an explanation for a psychological phenomenon; used
to summarize, organize and explain observations. Most are built
on concepts.
Concepts- hypothetical constructs that must be carefully
defined so that they can be tested. To test them,
psychologists need to develop tools to measure it.
o An example of a concept is Banduras self-
efficacy. It is defined as ones own belief as to
whether one will succeed in something, based on
previous experiences. His theory predicts that
ones self efficacy will determine if and how hard
one will try to do a certain thing.
Theories are not like laws in the natural sciences. They
are probable rather than certain, so they are always open
to some degree of doubt. Since this doubt is part of
scientific psychology, it is necessary to evaluate theories,
examining their strengths and limitations.
o What makes a good theory?
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It is testable. If it is not possible to test a theorys validity

then it is irrefutable.
Psychologists make use of anecdotal data, but to test
theories, they use empirical evidence.
o Anecdotal data- a personal experience that we can
share that challenges or supports a theory.
o Empirical evidence- information acquired by
observation or experimentation.
A good theory has empirical support. It can be in the form of an
experiment, observation, interviews or case studies, BUT it
must be replicated for it to be well supported.
A third is that it can be applied in many practical ways.
Some theories have a lot of applications or what we call
high heuristic validity. For example, you will see that a
theory called Social Identity Theory can be applied to
explain inter-group conflict, the origins of sexuality,
ones likelihood of supporting a charity and conformity
to a group as well as improve evacuation procedures in
a disaster, reduce football hooliganism or changing ones
buying behavior.
It can be measured. Some problems can happen such as stress,
anxiety, love, level of trust, self-efficacy or intelligence.
A theory should not be biased.
It should consider other factors. If it ignores environmental
variables, then it has a bias towards reductionism.
Reductionism- complex phenomenon in terms of simple
explanations or singular variables.
It should predict behavior. Even if its not an individual, it
should predict trends in a population.
o TEACUP= testable, evidence, application, concepts, unbiased,
predictive
o Some theories are accepted as an act of belief rather than science.