Survey of Modern Psychology

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Survey of Modern Psychology

• Introduction

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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

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What is (and is not!) psychology

• Psychology is defined as the study of the mind

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Psychology is not

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

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Ancient Greece Hippocrates

• Took an advanced view of mental illness by
  attributing it to physical causes
• HOWEVER
• He believed that physical cause to be an
  imbalance of four fluids in the body

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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

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Religious Views

• Middle ages through today
• Disagreed with physiological explanations,
  believed that mental illness was caused by
  demonic possession

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Religious Views

• Cures could be burning witches or exorcisms
• Exorcism is still used as a treatment for
  Tourrettes Syndrome
• However
• Scientists today believe that some prophets may
  have been schizophrenic, and hallucinations were
  interpreted as divine communication

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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

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Trepanation

• This was advanced for its time because it
  correctly focused on the brain.
• However
• Trepanation is the practice of drilling a hole in
  the skull.

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Trepanation

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

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Phrenology

• Initiated by Franz Joseph Gall in the 1800s in
  Austria
• Used the shape of a persons head/bumps on the
  head to predict their personality, traits, and
  flaws
• Was used in employment decisions and to determine
  marital partners

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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)

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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!

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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

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Social Psychology

• In the 1940s 1950s (after WWII), there was
  increased interest in peoples behavior in groups
• This contrasted with the previous focus on
  pathology

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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
  persons inner experience

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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

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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

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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

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

• Developmental
• People undergo predictable patterns of change
  throughout their lives
• Behavior is determined by the interaction of
  nature and nurture (heredity and environment)

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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

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

• Cognitive
• Often paired with behavioral psychology
• People are information processing systems
• Behavior is the result of our mental
  interpretations of our experience

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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?

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

• 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

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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?

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

• Trait or Personality
• Individual differences result from differences in
  our underlying patterns of stable characteristics
  (traits)
• Behavior results from each persons unique
  combination of traits

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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?

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

• 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

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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?

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

• Clinical
• Psychodynamic view
• Humanistic view
• Clinical psychology encompasses what is commonly
  referred to as abnormal psychology

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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

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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?

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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

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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?

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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
  wasnt a big deal

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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.

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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

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Milgrim

• The participant and the confederate were put in
  separate rooms
• The participant was instructed to test the
  leaners 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.

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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

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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

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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

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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
• The authority figure
• The proximity of the victim
• The experimental procedure

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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

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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

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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
  learners hand on a shock plate, 30 obeyed

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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

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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 on
• Or
• The executant had to follow out the orders
• Transmitters were more compliant than executants
• (54 vs. 28)

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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.

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Final Thoughts on Milgrim

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

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Conformity

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Asch

• Standard line

Comparison lines A B C
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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

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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 its more useful to reach a consensus
  quickly

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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

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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