FOP - Foundations of Psychology Module Overview

Foundations of Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. This unit provides an overview of psychology, beginning with a description of the reasons psychologists study human behavior. Psychology can help you understand how you think and why you behave the way you do. It can also help you understand the behavior and thought processes of the people around you.

This unit also includes an overview of the history of psychology. Knowing how the field began and how it has transformed will give you a better understanding of the current approaches to psychology.

Are you interested in a career in psychology? Many students picture psychologists sitting in an office, speaking with patients. Many psychologists do this, but that's not the only way to use a psychology degree! This unit covers the work of psychologists, detailing the differences between psychiatrists and psychologists, and examines the many specialty fields in psychology, including clinical, developmental, educational, community, industrial/organizational, and experimental psychology.

Research is an important part of psychology! Psychologists learn what they do not know by carefully and systematically collecting information. You will learn how psychologists approach, plan, and carry out their research, and how they interpret the results of that research. Understanding psychological research will help you analyze the studies you may read about on the news, making you a more critical and informed citizen.

Essential Questions

What is psychology?
Who are the founders of psychology?
What are the major occupations and subfields of psychology?
How do psychologists conduct research to describe, explain, predict, and control human behavior?
What are the differences between an experiment and a correlational study?
What ethical issues should be considered in psychological research?
What types of statistics are used in psychological research?
How should data be graphically represented and interpreted in psychological research?

Key Terms

Psychology - the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Clinical Psychology - a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders
Psychiatry - a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical treatments as well as psychological therapy
Industrial Organizational Psychology - the scientific study of human behavior in the workplace, including recruiting, selecting and evaluating personnel and finding the best ways to design products for satisfying use by humans
Forensic Psychology - applying psychology to legal issues, including studying criminal behavior, evaluating witnesses, and providing expert testimony
Developmental Psychology - the study of the ways humans develop over the course of a lifetime
Counseling Psychologists - help individuals identify their strengths and resources as they work with them on their ability to deal with life's problems
Health Psychologists - study the effects of biology, psychology and society on health, seeking to identify the best methods to promote emotional and physical well being
Hindsight Bias - the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it (the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon)
Confirmation Bias - the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions, leading to statistical errors
False Consensus Effect - the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors
Hypothesis - a testable prediction, often implied by a theory
Experiment - a research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the eﬀect on some behavior or mental process (dependent variable). By random assignment of participants, the experimenter aims to control other relevant factors
Random Assignment - assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups
Independent Variable - the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied
Dependent Variable - the outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable
Control Group - condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental condition and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment
Experimental Group - the group in an experiment that exposes participants to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable
Double-Blind Procedure - an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo. Commonly used in drug evaluation studies
Placebo Effect - experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which is assumed to be an active agent
Population - all the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study
Random Sample - a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion
Survey - a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of them
Social Desirability Bias - the tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others.
Case Study - an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles
Naturalistic Observation - observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation
Correlation - a measure of the extent to which two variables are related
Descriptive Statistics - a way to summarize a set of data, typically using mean, median, and mode, range, and standard deviation
Inferential Statistics - a way to apply the information from a sample to an entire population
Scatterplot - a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the two variables. The amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation.

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