Daniel Hamablet
PSY 203
Objective 1 Summary
9/16/14
Past, Present, and Promise * Psychology- The scientific study of the behavior of individuals and of their mental processes. * Psychologists- Try to use their research to predict and in some cases control behavior. * For many, to study behavior is the assumption that it's an outer sign of an inner reality * However psychological researchers study activities of a wide variety of living creatures, not just humans. * Even minor insignificant behavior can hold important information about general psychological functions, such as cues about how we process information * Psychologists preformed an experiment of how adolescent female students react to a new handsome male teacher and compared their reactions to how adolescent boys would react to an attractive female teacher * The boys and girls shared the same reaction. * Psychologists try to make sense of specific behaviors by relating observed behavior to certain aspects of the individual involved and the situation in which the behavior occurred. * Dispositional factors- Personality traits, attitudes, and mental state- internal characteristics and potentials * Situational factors- Sensory stimulation, rewards or the actions of other people. -External factors, objects and things. -come from the environment in which behavior takes place * Electroencephalograms (EEG's)- Recordings of the brain's electrical activity * An even related potential- The response to a series of events which repeat themselves, over and over, where the brain filters out a specific response to the events in which we're interested. * Micro level analysis - The study of the smallest and most detailed processes of behavior -the micro level is used by psychologists who study things such as the role of the brain in memory or of hormones in sexual behavior -Ex. P300 brain waves * Molecular level of analysis- The study of somewhat larger units of observable behavior -such as the speed of reacting to a simple stimulus. Ex. body language. -It is also the level on which most psychologists operate on * Nonverbal communication- Communication between people, omitting all the words. -Such as facial expression, body movement, tone of voice * Molar level of analysis- The study of large units of behavior of the whole person in complex situations. -in this analysis the individuals cultural background and social experiences must also be factored in. -Ex. Violent behavior, sexual attraction, worker moral and productivity, patient/therapist interactions and prejudice. * IAT- Measures the strength of association between two concepts. -Such as the white American swiftness to associate white with good and black with bad. * In-group preference- Ex. White Americans tend to associate white people with good and black people with bad.