Introduction to Psychology in PDF

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
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1INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
Task 1
Cognitivism and Behaviorism the two various movements of psychology domain and
both have their individual significance. Behaviorism considers behavior as an important
factor for identifying the determinants and works as per the assumption that a person’s
behavior is controlled by some specific list of physical laws. Cognitivism on the other hand is
a response of Behaviorism. It is considered as analysis of different mental methods via the
medium of technical methods and associated concepts from a persons’ conduct. It applies
mechanism along with information treating as the primary descriptions for the purpose of
interpretation of significant findings (Clark 2018). These two approaches differ on their
views related to behavior. The research subject of Behaviorism is animals and thus it views
behavior to be an irreducible consequence of the environmental stimuli. Contrary to this,
Cognitivism considers humans as its research objects and according to it behavior helps in
abstracting the various mental processes. There are certain similar aspects in both these
approaches as well. Behaviorism and Cognitivism both make use of mechanism and consider
it as their primary assumption. Cognitivism goes a step ahead by extending mechanical
expectations to attention and not limiting it to performance. Both of these approaches
consider human actions as is determined by the various physical laws. Behaviorism and
Cognitivism make use of subjective metaphors which is taken as the base of the objective
science. Behaviorism makes use of stimulus along with response metaphor for the
interpretation of exhibited behavior in the world. It sets various inquiries as per the
affordances of metaphors. Cognitivism makes use of information processing for explaining
the human perceptions, their remembrance and understanding of the situations happening
around them. The inquiry of cognitive science is based on the information processing
metaphor (Harasim 2017). The conclusions drawn about the mental processes are objective to
the level till the metaphor is subjective in nature. Cognitive science overcomes some of the

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major faults in Behaviorism. These faults are that the reflexes and reinforcements cannot be
attributed for all human behavior and behavior of animals is not perfect parameter to predict
human behavior.
Cognitivism is considered to be at a step ahead of Behaviorism as it attempts to
explain the way humans reason out, take important decisions, commit errors and remember or
forget things (Patterson 2017). This means it considers all those aspects that are a vital and
important portion of social knowledge and cannot be certainly explained by Behaviorism.
Cognitivism has its roots in mechanism and thus is subjected to reductionism which provides
no option for meaningful actions. Thus it can be said that in case of behaviorism, learning is
defined as the changes that is seen in an individual’s behavior while on the other hand, in
case of Cognitivism, learning is inferred from behavior (Lee 2016). In Behaviorism, memory
is not given that much of importance while in case of Cognitivism memory is considered as a
important parameter for the learning process.
Task 2
In psychology, many different methods are made use of to conduct researches and
some of these are case study, survey, experiment, content analysis and observational study.
These methods are categorized under two areas that are quantitative and qualitative research
methodology. In quantitative research, the conclusions drawn depend on mathematical and
statistical data while qualitative research depends on analyzing existing sources and surveys.
The type of research made use of depends on the goals of the research that is to be conducted.
1. Case Study- This falls under the purview of qualitative research and is about the
observations of either one individual or a specific group of individuals over a span of time. In
this, the researcher takes the interview of an individual and observes his behavior thus
recording informations. This type of psychological research is made use of to show how the

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psychological principles and associated theories are utilized in real life scenarios (Howitt
2016). This method is mainly used in case of professional training. Case study falls under the
category of descriptive research. Case studies are led on persons having uncommon and
irregular skills and features. A popular case study is that of Phineas Gage. His thoughts along
with emotions were calculated by the cognitive staffs after a railroad spike was darned
through his skull in an accident.
2. Experimental Research- It is a broader kind of research and serves as a component of
different methods. Experiments can have control groups which can be an individual or may
be a group of different individuals that is not subjected to any sort of manipulation. Another
principle related to this is control of different variables. The experiment needs to be free of
extraneous data and this is the factor that enables the psychologists to perform the same
experiment again and thus fulfils the requirement of reliable research. Experiments can
include studies on sleeping habits that are generally laboratory controlled. This permits the
psychologists to manipulate the subjects but not the environment.
3. Observational study- This falls under the purview of qualitative research and can be
defined as naturalistic as well as controlled. It involves systematic and careful recording and
the main aim of observer is describing and identifying a single variable or set of variables.
This type of research is used as a precursor to different types of researches that work on a
specific issue (Nestor and Schutt 2018). The observational study deals in observing different
traits and characteristics of an individual or a group when subjected to different conditions.
4. Surveys- Surveys are considered as “shotgun” approach to a research. These rely on self-
reported data and thus are subjective in nature. They can have different subjects and the only
method in psychological research that makes use of random sampling of different subjects. In
psychological research, surveys are made use of to analyze the characteristics, opinions and

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behaviors of individuals or group of people (Price, Jhangiani and Chiang 2015). These are
made use of to ask questions on demographic information about sex, ethnicity, income and
religion. These are used in psychology for collection of self-report data from the study
participants.
Task 3
Ethics can be considered as an essential pillar in research work. It is the duty of a
researcher to ensure that the participants in the research are not harmed. In this scenario the
school has taken a good step to check on bullying but the parents of the children must be
taken consent from so that their children can be observed by hidden cameras and
microphones. The parents of the children must be informed about the whole process.
Debriefing involves removing misconceptions as well as anxieties that participants have
about the research work (Zimbardo 2017). The children in this case are being involved in the
research without their consent or prior information so after the results are obtained it is the
duty of the school to let the parents and the children know about the results and take
necessary actions to stop any bullying activity if taking place. The staffs involved in the
activity should be given strict guidelines to handle the informations carefully, the voice
recordings should not be misused and the students should not be harassed. The participants in
this case are the students and they are unaware of the fact as well that they are being observed
thus it is the first and foremost duty of the school authorities to ensure that no physical or
mental harm is done to the students (Forrester and Sullivan 2018). The results of the research
must be explained to the parents and students if found bullying or involved in any other such
activities should be approached in a proper manner.

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References
Clark, K.R., 2018. Learning theories: Cognitivism.
Forrester, M.A. and Sullivan, C. eds., 2018. Doing qualitative research in psychology: A
practical guide. SAGE Publications Limited.
Harasim, L., 2017. Learning theory and online technologies. Routledge.
Howitt, D., 2016. Introduction to qualitative research methods in psychology. Pearson UK.
Lee, V.L., 2016. Beyond behaviorism. Routledge.
Nestor, P.G. and Schutt, R.K., 2018. Research methods in psychology: Investigating human
behavior. Sage Publications.
Patterson, T., 2017. Cognitive behavioral couple therapy. In Behavioral, Humanistic-
Existential, and Psychodynamic Approaches to Couples Counseling (pp. 99-124). Routledge.
Price, P.C., Jhangiani, R. and Chiang, I.C.A., 2015. Research methods in psychology.
BCCampus.
Zimbardo, P.G., 2017. On the ethics of intervention in human psychological research: With
special reference to the Stanford prison experiment. Cognition, 2.