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Brief Information
- Instructors:
- Susan Snycerski (Assistant Professor, San Jose State University)
- Greg Feist?(Professor, San Jose State University)
- Lauren Castellano (Udacity)
- Flatform: Udacity
- Course homepage:?https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-psychology–ps001
- Duration
- 2017-08-24~present: (blank)
- About this course
- Introduction to Psychology is a journey through all of the major psychological concepts and principles. The knowledge gained from this course will allow students to critically evaluate psychological research and have a more in-depth understanding of human thought and behavior.
Course Overview
- Lesson 1:?What is Psychology?
- Lesson 2: Research Methods
- Lesson 3: The Biology of Behavior
- Lesson 4: Sensation and Perception
- Lesson 5: Psychological Development
- Lesson 6: Consciousness
- Lesson 7: Depressants, Hallucinogens and Opioids
- Lesson 8: Memory
- Lesson 9: Language and Thought
- Lesson 10: Intelligence
- Lesson 11: Motivation and Emotion
- Lesson 12: Stress and Health
- Lesson 13: Personality
- Lesson 14: Social
- Lesson 15: Psychological Disorders
- Lesson 16: Treatments for Psychological Disorders
Lesson 1: What is Psychology?
Subfields of Psychology in This Course
- Cognitive psychology
- perception, memory, reasoning.
- Human thought
- the processes of knowing and thinking
- Behavioral?psychology: Behaviors caused by human thinking or feeling.
- Developmental?psychology: How thoughts and behaviors change across lifespan.
- Neurological/Biological?psychology: the functioning of the genes, brain, nervous system, and endocrine system.
- Personality?psychology: How different individuals’ thinking and feeling.
- Social?psychology: How people’s thinking and feeling change by interacting with others or their society.
- Clinical?psychology: How to diagnose and cure mental illness.
- Forensic psychology: How to examine the person who committed the crime.
Each subfield of psychology has its own goal.
What questions do Forensic Psychologists ask?
- Crime solving
- Custody disputes
- Insurance claims
- Witness evaluations
What questions do Forensic Psychologists ask?
- Can we really multitask?
- Why does my dog learn to salivate when I open the door to the cabinet where I keep I keep the dog food?
Problem Set
Define Psychology
- Psychology is the scientific study of thought and behavior.
Psychology As?…
- Clinical psychology: psychology as a practice.
- Biological psychology: psychology as a science.
Why Study Psychology?
- Psychology can help us make sense of our word.
- Psychology can help us explain why we behave the way we do.
- Because we can get a better understanding of how humans behave.
- Because the different perspectives of psychology allow us to examine different levels of analysis.
Lesson 2: Research Methods
Research
- Correlation studies
- Causal studies
Correlation Studies: Correlation Coefficients
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- Strength of the relationship = |correlation coefficient|
- a strong correlation:?The coefficient is nearly 1 or -1.
- a moderate correlation:?The coefficient is nearly 0.5 or -0.5.
- no correlation: The coefficient is nearly 0.
- Direction of the relationship = (the sign of correlation coefficient) = (negative) or (positive)
- If two variables have a strong or moderate correlation, we can just say ‘two variables are related‘ or ‘two variables have a relationship.’
Case Study: The Correlation Between the Number of Ice Cream Cones Consumed and the Number of Drowning Deaths
- A research showed that as the number of ice cream ones consumed, the number of drowning deaths increases.
- The two variables are a positive correlation.
- Confounding variables of a variable $latex X$ are variables that can be the factors of the variable $latex X$.
- A self report measure is the measure that we use by having people report their thoughts or feelings.
Experimental Study: A Way to Discover the Causality Between Two Variables
- An independent variable?$latex v_i$ is a variable that we change.
- A dependent variable $latex v_d$ is a variable that we measure as the effect of the independent variable.
- Example 1
- Purpose: To discover caffeine affects employees’ reaction time
- Independent variable: caffeine
- Dependent variable: reaction time
- Example 2
- Purpose
- To discover doing high fives in a group of workers?affects employees’?happiness
- Independent variable
- The number of high fives
- Dependent variable
- The number of smiles as a measure of happiness
- Happiness is a construct.
- A construct is a concept that has to be measure indirectly because we cannot measure the concept directly.
- We operationalize happiness with the number of smiles, an operational definition.
- Method
- She?gave a half group high fives.
- She gave the other group no high fives.
- Then, she counted the number of smiles.
- Purpose
Hypotheses and Theories
- A hypothesis is a testable question.
- A hypothesis is usually stated as the form of if-then.
- e.g.)
- A theory is a well substantiated and unifying explanation for a set of proven hypotheses.
- Theories can change with developing research.
- In general, a theory is our current view of a topic.