Exercise 3.  Complete the following sentences:

Psychoanalysisis a set of …..

The Neo-Freudians included….

Psychoanalysis focuses on….

The human personality results from ...

Psychoanalytic theory has a major impact on ...

Psychoanalytic theory emphasized the use of ...

As a therapy, psychoanalysis is based on…

The basic ob­jective of psychoanalysis is….

Exercise 4.   Explain what is understood by:

unconscious aspects of personality

human makeup;

physiological drives;

limitation of satisfactions;

self-esteem;          

slips of the tongue.

Exercise 5.  Translate the following sentences.

Sigmund Freud was the first psychologist who recognized the importance of the unconscious mind. Sigmund Freud developed the main principles, objectives and methodology of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis focuses on the unconscious level of the mind. According to Sigmund Freud, there are three parts of the human psychic: the id, the ego, and the superego. The conflict between these parts produces unhappiness and mental illnesses. Psychoanalysis helps to remove neuroses. There are several steps of psychoanalysis. First, a psychoanalyst gathers material from patient's free associations, dreams and slips. Then he forms hypotheses about what hap­pened to the patients in the past. Finally, the psychoanalyst and the patient make conclusions about the problems.

Unit 5. THE SCIENTIFIC METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY

Table of Definitions

Oral topic

THE SCIENTIFIC METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY

General scientific methods.

In the days of psychology's long philosophical past, the method used to investigate the behavior of human beings was rationalism. This is the point of view that great discoveries can be made just by doing a lot of hard thinking. This is still a workable approach in some fields of philosophy, and it has certainly been a workable method in mathematics.

In psychology, however, rationalism alone can lead to contradictory conclusions. Using only writing and thinking, the British philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) decided that there are no inborn ideas. Using the same approach as Locke, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) concluded that the human mind does have some a priori information, meaning that there are inborn ideas of a certain kind. So you can see that rationalism alone is an unsatisfactory method for psychology if it claims to be a science.Contemporary psychology combines rationalism with empiricism. Naturally, thinking is used. However, facts are gathered. Empiricism is the point of view that knowledge is acquired by using the senses—by seeing, hearing, touching, and so forth. Empiricism represents what William James called a tough-minded attitude.

Today's researchers do their best to gather data, information relevant to questions they ask about human behavior. But there is the general approach, which is called the scientific method. It is a systematic approach to thinking about an interesting possibility, gathering data, and reaching a conclusion. There are three main steps in the scientific method. The first step is to form a hypothes is, a proposition about a state of affairs in the world. Informally, a hypothesis is an educated guess about the way things are. The second step is gathering data. The third step in the scientific method is to accept or reject the hypothesis

2. Psychological Methods.

Naturalistic Observation: Looking at behavior without interference requires a researcher to study behavior as it is happening in its own setting. The researcher should have a "no interference" policy. When people or animals know they are being observed, they may not behave in the same way as when they're not being observed. Sometimes it is necessary for the researcher to allow for a period of adaptation to his or her presence.

The Clinical Method is a research technique associated primarily with the treatment of individuals with mental or behavioral disorders. It arose within the associated frameworks of psychiatry and clinical psychology. For example, a therapist may treat a troubled person for a span of time. Initially, research may not be the goal. However, at the conclusion of the case, the therapist may decide that the case has many interesting features that make a contribution to our understanding of either the therapy process, behavior, or both. Consequently, the therapist writes up the case, and it is published in a professional journal.

The Survey Method: large samples from larger populations. A survey attempts to take a large, general look at an aspect of behavior. Examples of topics include sexual behavior, eating behavior, how people raise children, spending habits, and so forth. A researcher may be interested in studying a population. Consequently, it is common to conduct the survey taken on a sample of the population. The sample should be taken at random from the population. A random sample allows the laws of chance to operate and provides an equal opportunity for any member of the population to be included in the sample. Members of the population fill out questionnaires, are interviewed, or are otherwise evaluated. This constitutes the survey.

The Testing Method explores human behavior by using psychological tests of attributes such as intelligence, personality, and creativity. These tests are often of the paper-and-pencil variety, and the subject completes the test following a set of instructions. In some cases the test is given in interview form on a one-to-one basis by an examiner. Individual intelligence tests are often administered in this manner.

Two problems associated with psychological testing are validity and reliability. In order for a psychological test to be useful it needs to be both valid and reliable. A valid test measures what it is supposed to measure. If a test that is given to measure the intelligence of subjects instead actually measures the individual's motivation to take the test, the test is invalid.

A reliable test gives stable, repeatable results. If a subject is tested twice with the same instrument within a few days, the two scores obtained should be very close to each other. One of the functions of the next method to be identified, the correlational method, is to establish both the validity and reliability of psychological tests.

The Correlational Method: When X is associated with Y. The word correlation refers to the relationship between two variables. These are usually designated as X and Y on a graph. If scores on one variable can be used to predict scores on the second variable, the variables are said to covary. In some cases there is no relationship. Then a zero correlation is said to exist.

The Experimental Method is a research tool characterized by a control over variables, the identification of a cause (or causes), and a well-defined measure of behavior. These aspects of the experimental method give it great power. Four key concepts will help you understand the experimental method: (1) the control group, (2) the experimental group, (3) the independent variable, and (4) the dependent variable.

The control group receives no treatment; it is dealt with in a more or less conventional manner. It provides a standard of comparison, a set of observations that can be contrasted with the behavior of the experimental group. The experimental group receives a novel treatment, a condition (or set of conditions) that is presumed to affect behavior. It is the target group, the one that will perhaps provide original or particularly interesting data.

The independent variable is one that is assigned to the subjects by the experimenter. There will be at least two values, or measures, of this variable. It is the variable that is thought of as a cause of behavior. The dependent variable is a measure of the behavior of the subjects. In most experiments, this variable can be expressed as a set of scores. The dependent variable is associated with the effect of a cause. Scores make it possible to compute statistical measures and make evaluations based on the data. It is important to note that the process by which subjects are assigned to groups is a random process, meaning all subjects have an equal chance of being included in either group. The aim of this procedure is to cancel out the effects of individual differences in the subjects that may have an effect on the experiment. An experiment can, of course, be much more interesting than the one described, and there can be two or more independent variables.

Exercise1. Answer the following questions.

1. What is the principal statement of rationalism?

2. What is the main difference between rationalism and empiricism?

3. How many levels does scientific method have?

4. What sciences is naturalistic observation commonly used in?

5. What is the basic idea of the clinical method?

6. What does a survey aim at?

7. How is a survey conducted?

8. What are the disadvantages of the survey method?

9. What is the primary goal of a psychological test?

10. What are the most problematic components of the testing method?

11. What is correlation?

12. How can a zero correlation be described?

13. What are four key concepts of the experimental method?

14. What is the main difference between independent variable and dependent variable?

Exercise 2. Do the following tasks on this text:

1. divide the text into logical parts

2. give a title to each part

3. give the contents of each part in 1 or 2 sentences

4. give a summary of the whole text.

Exercise 3. Give Russian equivalents to the following words and expressions from the text.

Research method; workable approach; contradictory conclusion; inborn ideas; unsatisfactory method; research tool; contemporary psychology; gathering data; educated guess; decision error; initially; various versions; general look; valuable information; telephone poll; research tool; intelligence quotient; repeatable results; target group; original data; multiple choice test; test performance.