Chapter 1: Introduction to Psychology
Psychology: the scientific study of the mind, brain and behaviour. It has multiple levels of analysis:
exists on a ladder of different levels of analysis. Low is biological, high is social.
1. Social level
2. Behavioural level
3. Mental level
4. Neurological level
5. Neurochemical level
6. Molecular level
Studying psychology is difficult and less exact than other scientific fields. To fully understand it you
must investigate all levels.
Why is it hard?
1. Humans are multiply determined: their actions are caused by many factors
2. Psychological influences are rarely independent of each other
3. People have individual differences: variations among people in their thinking, emotion,
personality and behaviour
4. People often influence each other -> what causes what?
5. People’s behaviour is shaped by culture
Psychology doesn’t rely on common sense, because we’re prone to naïve realism: a belief that we
see the world precisely as it is.
Science is a systematic approach to evidence. A scientific theory: an explanation for a large number
of findings in the natural world. A hypothesis: a testable prediction derived from a scientific theory.
Theories can’t be ‘proved’, because better explanations can always come forward, but they’re
consistent enough to be called evidence.
Scientists have biases too.
Confirmation bias: tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis and deny, dismiss or
distort evidence that contradicts them.
Believe perseverance: tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them.
Metaphysical claims: assertion about the world that is not testable (God, soul, afterlife).
Scientists are aware that they can be mistaken. 1/3 of medical studies don’t hold up to later findings.
Pseudo science
Pseudo science: set of claims that seems scientific, but isn’t.
Warning signs:
1. Overuse of ad hoc immunizing hypothesis: loophole that defenders of a theory use to
protect their theory from falsification. (laboratory inhibits psychic powers, fairies are
invisible).
2. Exaggerated claims
3. Overreliance on anecdotes
4. Lack of self-correction
, 5. Lack of review by others
6. Absence of connectivity to other research
7. Meaningless ‘psychobabble’
8. ‘Proof’ instead of ‘evidence’. (Proof is conclusive, evidence is suggestive).
Why do we believe in pseudoscience?
o Patternicity: the tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli
o Finding comfort in our beliefs. Terror management theory: theory proposing that our
awareness of our death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror with which we cope by
adopting reassuring cultural worldviews.
Antidote to pseudoscience
Logical fallacies are traps in thinking that can lead to mistaken conclusions.
o Emotional reasoning fallacy: when you use your emotions to determine if something is true.
o Bandwagon fallacy: a lot of people believe something so it must be true
o Not me fallacy: feeling that we’re immune from the errors that afflict other people
o More on page 49. (either-or fallacy, appeal to authority fallacy, argument from antiquity
fallacy, argument from adverse consequences fallacy, appeal to ignorance fallacy,
naturalistic fallacy, hasty generalization fallacy, circular reasoning fallacy)
Bias blind spot: people are unaware of their biases.
Why should we care?
1. Opportunity cost: you give up an opportunity whit real scientific backgrounds
2. Direct harm
3. An inability to think scientifically as citizens -> everyday life (global warming).
Scientific thinking
Scientific scepticism: approach to evaluating all claims with an open mind, but insisting on
persuasive evidence before accepting them. Also, being sceptical of authority.
Critical thinking: set of skills for evaluating all claims in an openminded and careful fashion (also
scientific thinking).
1. Rule out rival hypotheses: think about other things that could be an explanation for the
phenomenon
2. Correlation-causation fallacy: error of assuming that because one thing is associated with
another, it must cause the other
3. Falsifiability: capability of being disproved. If a theory can be disproved it can be measured:
your theory has to be falsifiable.
4. Replicability: when a study’s findings are able to be duplicated ideally by independent
investigations. Decline effect: the fact that the size of certain psychological findings appear
to be shrinking over time.
5. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
, 6. Occam’s razor (principle of parsimony/logical simplicity): if there are two explanations for a
phenomenon, you should select the logically simpler one. It’s a guideline not a rule. -> the
more complicated one often is paranormal
Psychology history
Psychology has only been around for 130 years. In the beginning psychology resembled philosophy.
Introspection: method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental
experiences. Psychology was also strongly associated with spiritualism.
(read through page 58).
There were 5 theoretical frameworks
1. Structuralism: school of psychology that aimed to identify the basic elements of
psychological experience. They wanted to create a map of the unconscious. (too subjective,
people often experience imageless thoughts, they only used systematic observation).
2. Functionalism: school of psychology that aimed to understand the adaptive purposes of
psychological characteristics. They asked ‘why’ questions. They were influenced by natural
selection: principle that organisms that possess adaptations survive and reproduce at a
higher rate than other organisms.
3. Behaviourism: school of psychology that focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning
by looking at observable behaviour. All behaviours are part of basic learning principles. IT
was brought to life against structuralism that only looked on the inside. Black box
psychology: they study what goes into the mind and what comes out of it, not what happens
inside.
4. Cognitivism: school of psychology that proposes that thinking is central to understanding
behaviour (reaction to behaviourism). We do not only learn by reward and punishment, but
by insight. Cognitive neuroscience: relatively new field of psychology that examines the
relation between brain functioning and thinking.
5. Psychoanalysis: school of psychology (founded by Freud) that focuses on internal
psychological processes of which we’re unaware. The effect psychoanalysis has on
psychology is debatable.
Psychology is a discipline consisting of many other disciplines. There is a huge diversity in the field.
Both in work and in psychologists.
Debates in psychology
Nature-nurture debate
We have now agreed that both genes and environment play a part in development.
Evolutionary psychology: discipline that applies Darwin’s theory to human and animal behaviour.
Fitness: the extent to which a trait increases the chances that organisms that possess this trait will
survive and reproduce at a higher rate than those who lack it. -> difficult field because behaviour
doesn’t leave fossils.
Free will-determinism debate
To what extent are our behaviours freely selected rather than caused by factors out of our control?
How psychology affects our lives
Basic research: research examining how the mind works
Applied research: how we can use basic research to solve real-world problems.
, Chapter 2: Research Methods in Psychology
For psychology, you need a good research design otherwise you can be fooled by self-fulfilling
prophesies and biases.
Prefrontal lobotomy: a surgeon severs the fibres connecting the brains frontal lobes from the
underlying thalamus. -> “cure” to schizophrenia
Two modes of thinking
1. System 1/intuitive thinking: Our brain on autopilot, making quick decisions
2. System 2/analytical thinking: when you’re taking the time and effort to think about or
reason through something
Heuristic: a mental shortcut or rule of thumb that helps us streamline our thinking and make sense
of our world (often relies on 1).
Heuristics help us make logical sense of the world, but they could still go wrong. You’d need
analytical thinking to make the right decision.
The scientific method
Through a scientific method you can test hypotheses.
Advantages Disadvantages
Naturalistic Observation High in external validity Low in internal validity
Doesn’t allow us to infer
causation
Case studies Can provide existence proofs Are typically anecdotal
Allow us to study rare or Don’t allow us to infer
unusual phenomena causation
Can offer insights for later
systematic testing
Correlational Designs Can help us to predict Don’t allow us to infer
behaviour causation
Experimental designs Allow us to infer causation Can sometimes be low in
High in internal validity external validity
External validity: extent to which we can generalize findings to real word settings
Internal validity: extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect interferences from a study
1. Naturalistic observation
Naturalistic observation: Watching participants’ behaviour in real world settings without trying to
manipulate their actions. You can use camera’s/notebook.
Is low in internal validity, because you cannot manipulate key variables to see which results those
will produce.
2. Case study
Psychology: the scientific study of the mind, brain and behaviour. It has multiple levels of analysis:
exists on a ladder of different levels of analysis. Low is biological, high is social.
1. Social level
2. Behavioural level
3. Mental level
4. Neurological level
5. Neurochemical level
6. Molecular level
Studying psychology is difficult and less exact than other scientific fields. To fully understand it you
must investigate all levels.
Why is it hard?
1. Humans are multiply determined: their actions are caused by many factors
2. Psychological influences are rarely independent of each other
3. People have individual differences: variations among people in their thinking, emotion,
personality and behaviour
4. People often influence each other -> what causes what?
5. People’s behaviour is shaped by culture
Psychology doesn’t rely on common sense, because we’re prone to naïve realism: a belief that we
see the world precisely as it is.
Science is a systematic approach to evidence. A scientific theory: an explanation for a large number
of findings in the natural world. A hypothesis: a testable prediction derived from a scientific theory.
Theories can’t be ‘proved’, because better explanations can always come forward, but they’re
consistent enough to be called evidence.
Scientists have biases too.
Confirmation bias: tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis and deny, dismiss or
distort evidence that contradicts them.
Believe perseverance: tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them.
Metaphysical claims: assertion about the world that is not testable (God, soul, afterlife).
Scientists are aware that they can be mistaken. 1/3 of medical studies don’t hold up to later findings.
Pseudo science
Pseudo science: set of claims that seems scientific, but isn’t.
Warning signs:
1. Overuse of ad hoc immunizing hypothesis: loophole that defenders of a theory use to
protect their theory from falsification. (laboratory inhibits psychic powers, fairies are
invisible).
2. Exaggerated claims
3. Overreliance on anecdotes
4. Lack of self-correction
, 5. Lack of review by others
6. Absence of connectivity to other research
7. Meaningless ‘psychobabble’
8. ‘Proof’ instead of ‘evidence’. (Proof is conclusive, evidence is suggestive).
Why do we believe in pseudoscience?
o Patternicity: the tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli
o Finding comfort in our beliefs. Terror management theory: theory proposing that our
awareness of our death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror with which we cope by
adopting reassuring cultural worldviews.
Antidote to pseudoscience
Logical fallacies are traps in thinking that can lead to mistaken conclusions.
o Emotional reasoning fallacy: when you use your emotions to determine if something is true.
o Bandwagon fallacy: a lot of people believe something so it must be true
o Not me fallacy: feeling that we’re immune from the errors that afflict other people
o More on page 49. (either-or fallacy, appeal to authority fallacy, argument from antiquity
fallacy, argument from adverse consequences fallacy, appeal to ignorance fallacy,
naturalistic fallacy, hasty generalization fallacy, circular reasoning fallacy)
Bias blind spot: people are unaware of their biases.
Why should we care?
1. Opportunity cost: you give up an opportunity whit real scientific backgrounds
2. Direct harm
3. An inability to think scientifically as citizens -> everyday life (global warming).
Scientific thinking
Scientific scepticism: approach to evaluating all claims with an open mind, but insisting on
persuasive evidence before accepting them. Also, being sceptical of authority.
Critical thinking: set of skills for evaluating all claims in an openminded and careful fashion (also
scientific thinking).
1. Rule out rival hypotheses: think about other things that could be an explanation for the
phenomenon
2. Correlation-causation fallacy: error of assuming that because one thing is associated with
another, it must cause the other
3. Falsifiability: capability of being disproved. If a theory can be disproved it can be measured:
your theory has to be falsifiable.
4. Replicability: when a study’s findings are able to be duplicated ideally by independent
investigations. Decline effect: the fact that the size of certain psychological findings appear
to be shrinking over time.
5. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
, 6. Occam’s razor (principle of parsimony/logical simplicity): if there are two explanations for a
phenomenon, you should select the logically simpler one. It’s a guideline not a rule. -> the
more complicated one often is paranormal
Psychology history
Psychology has only been around for 130 years. In the beginning psychology resembled philosophy.
Introspection: method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental
experiences. Psychology was also strongly associated with spiritualism.
(read through page 58).
There were 5 theoretical frameworks
1. Structuralism: school of psychology that aimed to identify the basic elements of
psychological experience. They wanted to create a map of the unconscious. (too subjective,
people often experience imageless thoughts, they only used systematic observation).
2. Functionalism: school of psychology that aimed to understand the adaptive purposes of
psychological characteristics. They asked ‘why’ questions. They were influenced by natural
selection: principle that organisms that possess adaptations survive and reproduce at a
higher rate than other organisms.
3. Behaviourism: school of psychology that focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning
by looking at observable behaviour. All behaviours are part of basic learning principles. IT
was brought to life against structuralism that only looked on the inside. Black box
psychology: they study what goes into the mind and what comes out of it, not what happens
inside.
4. Cognitivism: school of psychology that proposes that thinking is central to understanding
behaviour (reaction to behaviourism). We do not only learn by reward and punishment, but
by insight. Cognitive neuroscience: relatively new field of psychology that examines the
relation between brain functioning and thinking.
5. Psychoanalysis: school of psychology (founded by Freud) that focuses on internal
psychological processes of which we’re unaware. The effect psychoanalysis has on
psychology is debatable.
Psychology is a discipline consisting of many other disciplines. There is a huge diversity in the field.
Both in work and in psychologists.
Debates in psychology
Nature-nurture debate
We have now agreed that both genes and environment play a part in development.
Evolutionary psychology: discipline that applies Darwin’s theory to human and animal behaviour.
Fitness: the extent to which a trait increases the chances that organisms that possess this trait will
survive and reproduce at a higher rate than those who lack it. -> difficult field because behaviour
doesn’t leave fossils.
Free will-determinism debate
To what extent are our behaviours freely selected rather than caused by factors out of our control?
How psychology affects our lives
Basic research: research examining how the mind works
Applied research: how we can use basic research to solve real-world problems.
, Chapter 2: Research Methods in Psychology
For psychology, you need a good research design otherwise you can be fooled by self-fulfilling
prophesies and biases.
Prefrontal lobotomy: a surgeon severs the fibres connecting the brains frontal lobes from the
underlying thalamus. -> “cure” to schizophrenia
Two modes of thinking
1. System 1/intuitive thinking: Our brain on autopilot, making quick decisions
2. System 2/analytical thinking: when you’re taking the time and effort to think about or
reason through something
Heuristic: a mental shortcut or rule of thumb that helps us streamline our thinking and make sense
of our world (often relies on 1).
Heuristics help us make logical sense of the world, but they could still go wrong. You’d need
analytical thinking to make the right decision.
The scientific method
Through a scientific method you can test hypotheses.
Advantages Disadvantages
Naturalistic Observation High in external validity Low in internal validity
Doesn’t allow us to infer
causation
Case studies Can provide existence proofs Are typically anecdotal
Allow us to study rare or Don’t allow us to infer
unusual phenomena causation
Can offer insights for later
systematic testing
Correlational Designs Can help us to predict Don’t allow us to infer
behaviour causation
Experimental designs Allow us to infer causation Can sometimes be low in
High in internal validity external validity
External validity: extent to which we can generalize findings to real word settings
Internal validity: extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect interferences from a study
1. Naturalistic observation
Naturalistic observation: Watching participants’ behaviour in real world settings without trying to
manipulate their actions. You can use camera’s/notebook.
Is low in internal validity, because you cannot manipulate key variables to see which results those
will produce.
2. Case study
