Psychology

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Chapter 1 What Is Psychology?

Learning Objectives

  1. LO 1.1.A Define psychology, and describe how it addresses topics from a scientific perspective.

  2. LO 1.1.B Provide examples of pseudoscience, psychobabble, popular opinion, and “plain old common sense” related to psychological topics, and describe how scientific psychology would address such claims.

  3. LO 1.2.A Explain why critical thinking applies to all scientific pursuits, and also why it should guide everyday judgments and decision making.

  4. LO 1.2.B List eight important critical-thinking guidelines and give an example of how each applies to the science of psychology.

  5. LO 1.3.A Discuss some of the pre-psychological approaches to explaining psychological topics, from ancient times through the early 1800s.

  6. LO 1.3.B Explain Wilhelm Wundt's contributions to the birth of modern psychology.

  7. LO 1.3.C Compare the three early psychologies of structuralism, functionalism, and psychoanalysis, and identify the major thinkers who promoted each of these schools of thought.

  8. LO 1.4.A List and describe the four major perspectives in psychology.

  9. LO 1.4.B Describe how feminism influenced psychology.

  10. LO 1.5.A Distinguish basic psychology and applied psychology, and summarize the kinds of research that various psychologists might conduct.

  11. LO 1.5.B Compare the training and work settings of different psychological practitioners, such as counselors, clinical psychologists, psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, and psychiatrists.

  12. LO 1.5.C Give examples of three ways in which psychologists contribute to their communities.

Ask questions . . . be willing to wonder

  • How does “pop psych” on the Internet and TV differ from the psychology in this book?

  • If you want to think critically, must you always be critical?

  • If you call yourself a psychotherapist, will you be breaking the law?

  • What's the difference between a psychologist, a clinical psychologist, and a psychiatrist?

Every April Fools' Day, the James Randi Educational Foundation announces its “Pigasus” Awards for the year's worst “charlatans, swindlers, psychics, pseudo-scientists, and faith healers.” James Randi is a professional magician who, years ago, became outraged to see charlatans and scammers use plain old magic tricks as evidence of their “psychic powers” and to prey on unsuspecting victims to make money. Randi made it his cause to educate the public by exposing their fraudulent methods. (The awards are named for the mythical flying horse Pegasus and for Randi's habit of saying, “such and such a belief will come true when pigs fly.”) The awards and some recent “winners” include:

  • The Funder Pigasus Award: The Pumpkin Hollow Retreat Center, for offering workshops and training on therapeutic touch (TT) as a method of healing. Practitioners of TT (which involves no touching and has shown no evidence of therapeutic powers) move their hands over a patient's body to realign the “human energy field” and redirect “healing energy” to afflicted areas. Interestingly, 9-year-old Emily Rosa executed a simple but elegant experiment for her fourth-grade science fair project demonstrating that TT therapists could not detect energy fields at levels better than chance, which suggests they'd have a hard time using that energy for any kind of healing. Her publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association was by the youngest contributor ever (L. Rosa et al., 1998). By the way, Emily Rosa graduated from college with a degree in psychology.

  • The Refusal to Face Reality Award: Mehmet Oz, a cardiac surgeon who has also promoted over the years faith healing, psychic communication with the dead, homeopathic medicines, and questionable weight loss schemes. “Dr. Oz,” as he is known to fans of Oprah Winfrey (and from his own television and radio shows), holds an appointment at Columbia University and received his undergraduate degree from Harvard, yet he was recognized by the Randi Foundation for “his continued promotion of quack medical practices, paranormal belief, and pseudoscience.” Dr. Oz also has the dubious distinction of winning the Pigasus Award more times than anyone else over the years.

How can you protect yourself from false claims and scammers? How can you tell the difference between treatments that work and save lives (such as vaccines) and those that are useless (such as therapeutic touch)? How are you supposed to distinguish useful information on the Internet from worthless opinions, marketing ploys, and downright rubbish?