ITPT - lecture 1

Only the chapters we discuss during the lectures are exam material.  

How to pass this course?

• Exam like it used to be: MC + short essay questions. Monday 1/11 8:30-11:30
• Plan B: online tasks

What is Psychology?

The study of the Soul. “Psychological science is the study, through research, of mind, brain, and behaviour.” (Gazzaniga, et al., 2018). Aimed at understanding and predicting behaviour (actions; observable tip of the iceberg) and mind (mental activity; not directly observable).

There are many levels at which you can study psychology

§ Groups vs. individuals

§ Behaviour vs. brain activity

§ Nature vs. nurture: scientists agree nowadays it’s both, no need to look at it as two different aspects.

› These are complementary, resulting in fascinating insights

› We will consider different levels in this course!

History of psychology

From philosophy. Dualism: soul and mind is not something that humans can research through study, only to limited sense.  

Structuralism

Complex mental processes can be reduced to simpler processes: e.g., perception of an orange reduced to the colour and shape

Methods used: Reaction times and introspection: trying to describe your own mental experiments.

The problem with introspection is that it is limited and biased; the same description can explain different outcomes.

Stroop task: name the colour of the word.

The first column

The incongruent condition: our brain wants to read the word instead of looking at the colour.

We start thinking about it, our working memory starts works.

Functionalism

Concerned with the adaptive purpose/function of mind and behaviour

Mind is more complex than its elements. You cant describe a house by looking at 1 brick.

Our consciousness is like an stream, they change all the time and its no need to describe only a little part of it.

The first psychology labs date from 1875 in Leipzig, Germany.

Evolution

Focus on function of behaviour, the way our behaviour helps us to survive and reproduce. Darwin, On the origin of Species (1859).

Psychoanalytical approach / Freudian approach

 Unconscious drives our actions: childhood experience (traumas). These ideas has influence outside of psychology (e.g. popular culture, literature). The Freudian approach is not falsifible; we cant prove it is not the case, but we know that we cant build everything we do on his ideas.

Behaviorism

Inspired by work of Pavlov : conditioning behaviour.

Only observable behavior can be subject of scientific investigation

Psychology’s focus should be on how environment affects observable behavior

Watson Skinner

Gestalt

We see the flow in it, the continuing. We don’t see just a line, and another line. Understanding of the visual experiences.

Humanistic psychology

• An approach focusing on basic goodness in people, achieving goals and finding fulfilment, try to maximalise their potential.

Cognitivism

The cognitive revolution

Crack the black box: we can infer how the mind works by looking in behaviour.

Don’t need the FMRI, they use cognitive task: such as time tasks.

The Scientific Method

Based on the experience, observation, existing theories, etc. come up with a question and a prediction à  

Test that prediction against real measurement from the physical world à

 Make conclusions with regard to your questions, show support or lack of if for your predictionà

And than?? We go back, look for further insights and try to prove our theories wrong.

Demonstration 2

80/90% of the people think they’re above average of their driving skills.

Optimism bias

We tend to think we are better than others

– Vast majority of drivers rated themselves as better than the median (“average”) driver (Svenson, 1981). We’re not that good at underestimating our own skills.

Picture of three woman:

Were not used to seeing people up side down, therefore the picture seems normal when its upside down. When the picture is normal we can see they is something wrong with the faces.

What is deadlier sharks or horses?

Availability heuristic (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974)

§ If something is easier to bring to mind/imagine (shark attack get more attention and are more impressive)

§ If we hear about something more often

We judge it as more probable

Demonstration 5

On average it only takes 23 people to be in the same room for there to be a 50% chance that 2 of them will share the same birthday.

› The Birthday Paradox

§ Difficulty intuition understanding with exponential growth

§ “Rare” events given importance

§ Self -identity

The importance of the scientific method

› Common sense is often “not common”, nor does it “make sense” › Our intuitions and even perceptions are biased The Scientific Method overcomes these problems

Critical thinking and psychology

How to “consume” psychological science?

With amiable scepticism: openness and scepticism (what is this information coming from)

Contemporary psychology

What’s new in psychology?

› Biology (Evolution): some misconceptions but cant drew back

› Culture: different patterns in different cultures

› Interdisciplinary influences: cross analysis and cross fields

(crossing levels of analysis)

(essential for surviving wicked problems): problems that don’t have a solution from one field, you have to use interdisciplinary influences.

Evolution

› Genetic diversity Mutation = Variation through different mutations.

The benefits of sexual reproduction

› Environmental pressures

- Evolution has no foresight: the eye of the humans can be way improved.

Sexual Selection

Traits that aid in the reproduction of the individual, e.g., bird songs and “dance”, peacock’s tail, facial features in humans (de Bruine, et al., 2010).

Psychology and Evolution?

› Psychology is about behaviour and the brain

› How does evolution come into play?

§ Evolution can provide answers to the “why” questions

Functionalism

› What is a certain behavioural/physiological feature good for ?

› What is the function of:

§ An elephants ears?

§ A wolf’s haul?

§ Disgust? Not open wounds, not good for us.

§ Laughter? Helps the group to share experience and bring them closer together.

Evolutionary Misconceptions

› Deterministic fallacy: just because something is there and we can explain it, doesn’t mean it is good/justified: rape

› Naturalistic fallacy: evolution has no foresight, we cant be optimal in anyway.  

› Fallacy of Optimal Design

Remember: Evolution has no foresight

Quiz:

1: A, structuralism; look at the brick (of the house)

2: D, shouldn’t look in the black box of the mind but at the behaviour

3: B, look at reproductive success (A neuroscience, C behaviourism)

4: A

Summary

ØPsychological science is an area of the study of mind, brain and behaviour

ØOur common sense is often wrong/biased

ØScientific Method and evidence are required!

ØPsychological sciences teaches critical thinking

ØPsychology’s schools of thought reflect different perspectives on mind, brain and behaviour with roots in structuralism and functionalism

ØPsychological science increasingly incorporates insights from biology, evolution and culture. And try to learn more about interdisciplinary thinking.