Guest speaker: Dr. Vinson

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Guest speaker Dr. Vinson

• Take an index card and write at least 1 question
  you would like to ask of our guest speaker today.
  Something interesting about her profession as a
  school psychologist! What do you want to know?!

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Distinguishing Between TermsBeginning with the
Letters,
P
S
Y
C
H

• Psychology the scientific study of behavior and
  mental processes. Scientific means...
• beliefs are based on empirical
  evidencecareful, systematic observations.
• Psychiatry the branch of medicine concerned
  with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of
  mental disorders. Most similar to clinical
  psychology.
• Psychotherapy the treatment of psychological
  disorders using psychological rather than
  biological methods.
• Psychoanalysis a field introduced by Sigmund
  Freud consisting of a theory of personality and a
  method of psychotherapy emphasizes the
  unconscious mind.

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Some Specialty Areas Within Psychology

• Clinical Psychology concerned with the diagnosis
  and treatment of relatively severe mental and
  behavioral disorders.
• Counseling Psychology deals with problems of
  adjustment in everyday life (marital, social,
  occupational).
• Developmental Psychology focuses on how people
  change and grow over the lifespaninfancy,
  childhood (child psychology), adolescence,
  adulthood, and old age.
• Social Psychology studies how an individuals
  thoughts, feelings, and behavior are affected by
  other people.

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Scientific Versus NonscientificApproaches to
Psychology
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Nonscientific Approachto Psychology

• Makes broad, sweeping statements about human
  nature, like Nobody ever blames himself for
  anything. or People are afraid of change.
• Relies on historical events and personal
  experiences to support our views.

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Nonscientific Approachto Psychology

• Problems with the nonscientific approachwhy we
  need scientific research
• Hindsight Bias I knew it all along
  phenomenon.
• Bias we see what we want to see
• Overconfidence its just common sense
• Example How long do you think it would take you
  to figure out a simple anagram like this?
• WREAT? WATER

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ScientificApproach to Psychology

• Scientific Method
• Theory
• Hypotheses
• Research and Observation

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Research and Observation Methods

• The Case Study
• Studying one to find what is true in all
• The Survey
• Looks at many cases and asks for reports on
  behavior or opinions
• Naturalistic Observation
• Recording things in their natural environment

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Some research terms
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Variable
Its like a ruler...
Not this kind of ruler
This kind
A variable is anything in the experiment that can
change, or vary. Example Increasing the amount
of violence teens watch to see what will happen
to grades.
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Correlation

• A correlation is a relationship between two
  variables where changes in one variable go along
  with changes in the other variable.

Example As heights increases, weights also tend
to increase.
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Two Basic Kinds of Correlations

• Positive Correlation as one variable goes up, so
  does the other.
• Example as teens see more sexual images, there
  is an increase in teen sex
• Negative Correlation as one variable goes down,
  so does the other.
• Example as tooth brushing goes up, tooth decay
  goes down

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• Correlation is not causation.
• Teens who report not feeling loved by their
  parents often drink more, skip school more
  frequently, and exhibit disruptive behaviors in
  class.