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(Partial) Summary of the course Introduction to Psychological Theories
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  • Course
  • Introduction to Psychological Theories (PSBE101)
  • Institution
  • Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG)
  • Book
  • Psychological Science

This is a partial summary of the (minor) course Introduction to Psychological Theories (PSMIN11). The summary is based on the 7th edition of the book: Psychological Science.

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  • Hoofdstuk 1, 6, 10 & 11
  • October 10, 2023
  • 20
  • 2023/2024
  • Summary

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Introduction to psychological theories

H1
- Psychology involves the study of thoughts, feelings and behavior
- The term psychologist is used to describe someone whose career involves
understanding people’s minds or predicting their behavior

1.1 Psychological Science is the study of Mind, Brain and Behavior
Psychological science is the study, through research, of mind, braind an behavior. Mind
refers to mental activity. The mind included the memories, thoughts, feelings and
perceptual experiences (sights, smells, tastes, sounds, touches). Mental activity results from
biochemical processes within the Brain. Behavior describes the totality of observable human
(or animal) actions. At first psychologists focused on behavior then on mental states,
because they had view objective techniques for assessing the mind. Technology changed
this. Psychological science seeks to understand mental activity (typical + atypical), the
biological basis of that activity, how people change through life, how people acquire healthy
and unhealthy behaviors (And more).

1.2 Psychological Science teaches critical thinking
Findings from psychological research are often provocative. Media reports can be distorted
or even just wrong. Amiable skepticism (carefully weighing the facts when deciding what to
believe): this trait combines openness and wariness. An amiable skeptic remains open to
new ideas but is wary of new ‘scientific findings’ when good evidence and sound reasoning
do not seem to support them. Critical thinking: Systematically questioning and evaluating
information using well-supported evidence.
Psychological science sheds light on the way people typically think when they encounter
information. Research shows that people intuition is mostly wrong, this makes critical
thinking difficult. Many times common sense fails and biases influence our judgments. ! be
aware of your biases! People are quick to question information that does not fit with their
beliefs. Keep trying to think critically.

1.3 Psychological science helps us understand biased or inaccurate thinking
Some ways that intuitive thinking can lead to errors. These errors and biased do not occur
because we lack intelligence/motivation, it is the opposite. Our minds are constantly
analyzing all the information we receive and trying to make sense of that information.
Often, we see what we expect to see and fail to notice things that do not fit with our
expectations. Our stereotypes about people shape our expectations about them, and we
interpret their behavior in ways that confirm these stereotypes. People reject information
that is not consistent with their political beliefs or that threatens their self-image.
- Ignoring evidence (confirmation bias): People overweigh evidence that supports
their beliefs and tend to downplay evidence that doesn’t match what they believe.
Selective sampling of information contributes to this (for example only visiting
political websites that support your thoughts/ideas). People also show selective
memory, tending to better remember information that supports their beliefs.
- Seeing causal relationships that do not exist: Misperception that two events that
happen at the same time must be related: this is wrong! We want to find
predictability.

, - Accepting after-the-fact explanations: Hindsight bias: people see signs but fail to
predict something. More generally. Once we know the outcome, we interpret and
reinterpret old evidence to make sense of that outcome. After-the-fact explanations
give a false sense of certainty about our ability to make predictions about future
behavior.
- Taking mental shortcuts: People follow simple rules (heuristics) to make decisions.
These shortcuts are valuable because they produce reasonably good decisions
without to much effort. It can also lead to inaccurate judgments and biased
outcomes. Availability heuristic: things that come most easily to mind guide our
thinking.

1.4 Why are people unaware of their weaknesses?
People are often unaware of their weaknesses because they cannot judge those weaknesses
at all. This kind of thinking is known as hypothesis generation. You get to explore the idea
space of explanations. People lack the ability to evaluate their own performance in areas
where they have little expertise: Dunning-Kruger effect. People believe they are better than
average in many things

1.5 Many psychological questions have a long history
The mind body problem was an issue: are the mind and body separate and distinct or is the
mind simply the subjective experience of ongoing brain activity? See the book for a bit of
context throughout history that scientists thought of the brain as non-important. Leanordo
da vinci contradicted this viewing and his work represents an early and important attempt
to link the brain’s anatomy to psychological functions. Descartes promoted dualism: the
mind and the body are separate yet intertwined. The body was nothing more than an
organic machine governed by reflex. Many mental functions, such as memory and
imagination resulted from body functions. Deliberate action was controlled by the rational
mind (divine and not the body). Now: mind arises from brain activity, and the activities of
the mind change the brain (mind/brain do not exist separately). Nature/nurture: most
accepted view: nature and nurture dynamically interact in human psychological
development. They both contribute to our mental activity and behavior, individually and in
interactions with each other.

1.6 Mental processes and behaviors serve functions for individuals and groups
The stream of consciousness is the product of interacting and dynamic stimuli coming from
both inside our heads, such as the decision of what to have for lunch, and outside in the
worlds, such as the smell of pie. Functionalism: psychologists ought to examine the
functions served by the mind, how the mind operates: an approach to psychology
concerned with the adaptive purpose, or function, of mind and behavior. The mind helps
humans adapt to environmental demands. Natural selection: in evolutionary theory, the
idea that those who inherit characteristics that help them adapt to their particular
environments have a selective advantage over those who do not. According to James’s
functionalism psychologists should focus on the operations of the mind because the mind is
too complex to understand as a sum of separate parts.

1.7 The field of psychology spans the range of human experience

, More diversity and inclusion. Also, diversity in terms of age, ability, gender identity, sexual
orientation etc. Culture and many other forms of diversity are becoming integral to all areas.
Zie in het boek een tabel (1x kort doorkijken) waar veel specialisatie plaatsvindt bij
psychologie.
- Clinical psychology: Seeks to understand, characyerize and treat mental illness
- Cognitive psychology: aims to understand the basic skills and processes that re the
foundation of mental life and behavior
- Cultural psychology: studies how cultural factors such as geographical regions,
national beliefs, and religious values can have profound effects on mental life and
behavior
- Developmental psychology: studies how humans grow and develop from the
prenatal period through infancy and early childhood, through adolescence and early
adulthood and into old age.
- Industrial/organizational psychology explores ow psychological processes play out in
the workplace
- Close relationship psychologists: research our intimate relationships, properties that
make them succeed or fail, and the two-way effects between intimate relationships
and other aspects of our lives
- Social-personality psychology: study of everyday thoughts, feelings and behaviors,
and the factors that give rise to them

1.8 Biology is increasingly emphasized in explaining psychological phenomena
Tremendous advances in neuroscience have revealed the working brain. New insights into
the immune, stress, and metabolic systems have revealed the complex ways that the rest of
the body influences the brain and vice versa. These advances are increasing our knowledge
of mind, brain, and behavior. The human genome is the basic genetic code for the human
body. This represents the foundational knowledge for studying how specific genes, affect
thoughts, actions, feelings and disorders. Epigenetics is the study of the ways these
environmental or biological mechanisms can get under the skin, to influence our mind and
behavior (the study of biological or environmental influences on gene expressions that are
not part of inherited genes). Brain imaging helps psychologists study the localization of
mental activity.

1.9 psychology is a computational and data science
Behaviorism (eerst belangrijk): studying observable behavior to the exclusion of mental
events such as thoughts and feelings. Turned not to be sufficient to explain other situations.
The cognitive revolution accelerated by computer age. Big data (science that uses very large
data sets and advanced computational methods to discover patterns that would be difficult
to detect with smaller data sets) also plays a big role. With the big data comes the data
ethics, a lot of issues arise with the use of big data. One of the features of a good study is
replicability: results would be more or less the same if someone ran the study again. Data
ethics is the branch of philosophy examining ethical questions around the collection, use
and sharing of human data (it addresses the ethical issues in data sciences, including data
accessibility, identifiability and autonomy). The open science movement is a social
movement among scientists to improve methods, increase research transparency and
promote data sharing.

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