Survey of Modern Psychology Introduction. What is this class about? Refer to syllabus We will cover:...

Survey of Modern Psychology

Introduction

What is this class about?Refer to syllabus

We will cover:• What psychology is• The history of psychology• An overview of the major fields of psychology• The focus of the course will be on mental

illness and clinical psychology

What is (and is not!) psychology

Psychology is defined as the study of the mind

Psychology is not

• Mind reading • Mind control• All about therapy – therapy is only one part of

psychology

Ancient Greece Hippocrates

Took an advanced view of mental illness by attributing it to physical causes

HOWEVERHe believed that physical cause to be an

imbalance of four fluids in the body

Ancient Greece Humors

A greater amount of a particular humor resulted in the following personality types:

• Sanguine – strong, warm blood – cheerful• Choleric – yellow bile in the liver – anger• Melancholic - black bile in the liver –

depressive • Phlegmatic – mucus in the brain – cool, aloof,

slow, unemotional

Religious Views

• Middle ages through today• Disagreed with physiological explanations,

believed that mental illness was caused by demonic possession

Religious Views

• “Cures” could be burning witches or exorcisms– Exorcism is still used as a treatment for

Tourrette’s SyndromeHowever

Scientists today believe that some prophets may have been schizophrenic, and hallucinations were interpreted as divine communication

Trepanation

Prehistoric times through today

Based on the ideas that mental illness was caused by demons that were stuck inside the head, or by a buildup of pressure in the brain

Trepanation

This was advanced for its time because it correctly focused on the brain.

HoweverTrepanation is the practice of drilling a hole in

the skull.

Trepanation

Interestingly, trepanation does have practical use in modern medicine, but in the realm of brain injury or surgery.

Phrenology

• Initiated by Franz Joseph Gall in the 1800s in Austria

• Used the shape of a person’s head/bumps on the head to predict their personality, traits, and flaws

• Was used in employment decisions and to determine marital partners

“Bedlam”

• Starting in the middle ages, people began to view mental illness as a form of real illness

However• The mentally ill were put in “hospitals” in

inhumane conditions (including cages and chains)

“Bedlam”

While conditions in psychiatric hospitals have been notoriously bad, some changes in the treatment approach began in 1793, when Philippe Pinel (who was put in charge of hospitals in Paris) ordered that patients be unchained.

When they were treated like people, patients did respond positively!

“The Talking Cure”

• Term popularized in America by Sigmund Freud in the early 1900s

• Believed that symptoms were genuinely felt and real to the person

• Acknowledged to some degree the influence of biology and environment

Social Psychology

• In the 1940s – 1950s (after WWII), there was increased interest in people’s behavior in groups

• This contrasted with the previous focus on pathology

Psychology Today

• “Medical model” of mental illness– Mental illness is real and treatable

• The study of behavior and mental processes– This includes behaviors that are observed, and a

person’s inner experience

Major Perspectives(Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber; Psychology Core Concepts Fifth Edition)

• Biological/Physiological– We are essentially complex biological systems that

respond to both hereditary and environmental influences

Major Perspectives: Biological(Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber; Psychology Core Concepts Fifth Edition)

• Behavior is determined by brain structure and chemicals and by inborn responses to external cues for survival and reproduction

Major Perspectives: Biological(Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber; Psychology Core Concepts Fifth Edition)

• Questions for study– How do the nervous system, endocrine system

produce behavior and mental processes?– Evolutionary psychologists seek to learn how

behaviors may be linked to evolutionary changes that conferred a survival or reproductive advantage on our ancestors


• Developmental– People undergo predictable patterns of change

throughout their lives– Behavior is determined by the interaction of

nature and nurture (heredity and environment)

Major Perspectives: Developmental(Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber; Psychology Core Concepts Fifth Edition)

• Questions for study– What are the patterns that characterize

developmental change?– What are the genetic and environmental

influences underlying these patterns


• Cognitive • Often paired with behavioral psychology

– People are information processing systems– Behavior is the result of our mental

interpretations of our experience

Major Perspectives: Cognitive(Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber; Psychology Core Concepts Fifth Edition)

• Questions for study– What factors influence our mental processes,

including sensation, perception, learning, memory, and language?


• Behavioral– Our behavior is primarily shaped by learning– Based on laws of behavioral learning, we respond

to stimulus cues and to our history of rewards and punishments

Major Perspectives: Behavioral(Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber; Psychology Core Concepts Fifth Edition)

• Questions for study– What are the “laws” that associate our responses

with stimulus conditions?– How can they be applied to improve the human

condition?


• Trait or Personality– Individual differences result from differences in

our underlying patterns of stable characteristics (traits)

– Behavior results from each person’s unique combination of traits

Major Perspectives: Personality(Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber; Psychology Core Concepts Fifth Edition)

• Questions for study– How many fundamental traits are there?– How can we use trait patterns to predict

behavior?


• Sociocultural or Social Psychology– People are social animals, so human behavior

must be interpreted in its social context– Behavior is heavily influenced by culture, social

norms and expectations, and social learning

Note: Social Psychology focuses on the individual, as opposed to Sociology which studies the group

Major Perspectives: Social Psychology(Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber; Psychology Core Concepts Fifth Edition)

• Questions for study– Under what conditions is the social and cultural

situation predictive of behavior?– How are social influences different across

cultures?


• Clinical – Psychodynamic view– Humanistic view

Clinical psychology encompasses what is commonly referred to as “abnormal psychology”

Major Perspectives: Clinical(Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber; Psychology Core Concepts Fifth Edition)

• Psychodynamic– Emphasizes negative forces in the unconscious– Sees behavior arising from unconscious needs,

conflicts, repressed memories, and childhood experiences

Major Perspectives: Clinical Psychology - Psychodynamic

(Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber; Psychology Core Concepts Fifth Edition)

• Questions for study– How can our understanding of the unconscious

help us understand and treat mental disorders?

Major Perspectives: Clinical(Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber; Psychology Core Concepts Fifth Edition)

• Humanistic– Emphasizes human growth and potential– Focuses on the influence of self-concept,

perceptions, interpersonal relationships, and need for personal growth

Major Perspectives: Clinical Psychology - Humanistic

(Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber; Psychology Core Concepts Fifth Edition)

• Questions for study– What factors encourage high self esteem and

mental health?– How can this knowledge be used in counseling

and therapy?

Summary of Class Demonstration

• The first students who came in were instructed to sit on the floor.– Students who came in later often sat on the floor

too even without explicit instructions to do so

• Students followed the order to sit on the floor because of a fear of getting in trouble and “it wasn’t a big deal”

Obedience

The most notable research on obedience comes from Stanley Milgrim.

This research began in 1963, and lead to his book Obedience to Authority in 1974.

The research began during the time of Nazi war crime trials.

Milgrim

• A participant went to the laboratory and met another “participant” (actually a confederate*) and the experimenter.

• The experiment was supposedly about the effects of punishment on learning.

• The participant was assigned to the role of teacher, the confederate was assigned to the role of learner.*A confederate is a person who is working with the experimenter and poses as a participant. The actual participants are not aware of this until the study is over

Milgrim• The participant and the confederate were put in separate rooms• The participant was instructed to test the leaner’s memory and

give increasingly strong electric shocks each time the learner made a mistake.

• The participant was given a sample shock to show that the shocks were real and let the participant know the intensity of the shocks.– The confederate was not actually receiving shocks and was in

no real danger• The learner told the experimenter (in front of the participant)

about having heart problems, but the experimenter assured both that it was safe.

Milgrim

• As the experiment went on, the learner began making more mistakes, and the participant was instructed to give higher and higher voltage shocks.– The mechanism for administering the shocks

claimed to start at 15 volts and increased by increments of 15 volts up to 450

Milgrim

• Beginning at 75 volts, the learner complained about the shocks being painful.

• At 150 volts, the learner complained of heart related chest pains and asked to be let out

• At 300 volts the learner refused to continue• At 300 volts the learner begged to be let out,

screamed in pain, and then went silent

Milgrim

• When the participant questioned whether he should continue to give shocks, the experimenter told him that he must go on for the experiment

• 65% of participants reached the maximum of 450 volts before stopping

• Many seemed to be in distress about continuing, but still did

Milgrim - Variations

• When the experimenter did not encourage the participant to continue, the participant stopped giving shocks early on

• Three factors that influenced obedience were:1. The authority figure2. The proximity of the victim3. The experimental procedure

The Authority Figure

• While the experimenter was not actually a powerful authority figure, he was seen as someone to be respected

• When the experiment was done in a rundown office building (as opposed to laboratories at Yale) only 48% of participants were completely obedient

The Authority Figure

• When the experimenter was presented as another participant (as opposed to a researcher) only 20% were obedient

• When the experimenter gave orders by telephone or was otherwise unable to watch the participant, only 21% were fully obedient– Some participants feigned obedience by only

pressing the button for 15 volt shocks

The Victim

• In the original study, participants were in a separate room from the learner

• When they were in the same room, 40% obeyed

• When the participant had to physically place the learner’s hand on a shock plate, 30% obeyed

The Experimental Procedure

• The structure of the experiment allowed to participant to avoid feeling personally responsible for his actions – he could blame the authority figure

• When participants were led to believe that they were responsible for their own actions, they became less obedient

The Experimental Procedure

• Kilham and Mann (1974) did a similar study in which the participant was either:– The transmitter – took orders from the

experimenter and passed them onOr

– The executant – had to follow out the ordersTransmitters were more compliant than executants (54% vs. 28%)

Final Thoughts on Milgrim

Part of what made the experiment so successful was the gradual escalation/foot in the door approach.

By the time participants began to question their actions, they had fully committed themselves to the task and each subsequent step seemed smaller.

Final Thoughts on Milgrim

Similarly to the Asch experiments, when other “participants” (confederates) refused to obey the participant was also less likely to obey.

Conformity

The tendency to change our perceptions, opinions, or behaviors in ways that are consistent with group norms

Conformity

Even though we may feel that we are individuals and can think for ourselves, we follow certain social customs and find it hard to break these rules.

Conformity

In an attempted study on breaching social norms, psychology research assistants were assigned to ask subway passengers to give up their seats.

Even though they knew what the purpose of the study was, many could not perform the task and feigned illness so their request would seem acceptable.

Solomon Asch

Conducted a study were participants were put in a room with a group of other people and told that the experimenter was studying the ability to make visual discriminations.

The experimenter then showed the participants a sample line and set of three other lines and asked them which line was of the same length as the sample.

The participant was seated so he or she would answer second to last.

Asch

In each example, the correct answer was obvious.

On the first two trials, everyone agreed on the same answer.

Starting on the third trial, the other people gave a clearly wrong answer.

The other people were confederates, who were affiliated with the experimenter and instructed to give wrong answers.

Asch

• The participants went along with the majority 37% of the time

Of the remaining 63%:• Only 25% refused to agree on any incorrect

answer• 50% went along on at least half of the

incorrect answers• The remaining 25% conformed on some trials

Asch

Standard line Comparison linesA B

C

Asch

In later interviews, participants said that they went along with the majority even though they were not always convinced that the majority was right.

Those who refused to conform reported feeling “conspicuous,” “crazy,” and “like a misfit”

Others actually did come to believe the rest of the group

Why People Conform

• Informational influence– People want to be correct, and assume that if so

many others agree the others must be right

• Normative influence– People fear the consequences of not conforming

because we want to be accepted and liked– Disagreement can be stressful– Sometimes it’s more useful to reach a consensus

quickly

Types of Conformity

• Private conforming– “True acceptance” – Outside influences actually cause the person to

change their mind, not just their behavior

• Public conformity– “Compliance” – Pretending to agree, even when one does not

Conformity

• Having even one ally makes dissent more likely

• In a later version of the Asch study, a confederate disagreed with the majority and the participant– The participant was still more likely to disagree

with the majority, even though no one agreed with him or her

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