chapter 1 Flashcards
What does psychology study?
psychology students come to understand the complex factors that shape one’s behavior. They appreciate the interaction of our biology, our environment, and our experiences in determining who we are and how we will behave.
psychology
Scientific study of mind and behavior.
empirical scientific method
acquiring knowledge is one based on observation, including experimentation, rather than a method based only on forms of logical argument or previous authorities.
behaviorism
learned behavior and its interaction with inborn qualities of the organism. ivan pavlov studied conditioned reflex; John b. Watson saw study of consciousness as flawed bc it was not objective and wanted to move towards behaviorism; dominated experimental psychology for several decades; B.F. skinner spoke of reinforcement and punishment, skinner box or operant conditioning chamber
functionalism
focused on how mental activities helped an organism fit into its environment. Functionalism has a second, more subtle meaning in that functionalists were more interested in the operation of the whole mind rather than of its individual parts, which were the focus of structuralism.
humanism
perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans. Some psychologists (Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers) objected to the pessimism and determinism (all actions driven by the unconscious) of Freud. They also disliked the reductionism, or simplifying nature, of behaviorism. began to form their own ideas that emphasized personal control, intentionality, and a true predisposition for “good” as important for our self-concept and our behavior.
voluntarism
that people have free will and should know the intentions of a psychological experiment.
introspection
someone examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible, making the human mind like any other aspect of nature that a scientist observed.
personality trait
consistent pattern of thought and behavior
psychoanalytic theory
focuses on the role of a person’s unconscious, as well as early childhood experiences, and this particular perspective dominated clinical psychology for several decades
structuralism
established by edward titchener (wundt student); . Its focus was on the contents of mental processes rather than their function
Wilhelm Wundt
the first person considered a psychologist. believed that the goal of psychology was to identify components of consciousness and how those components combined to result in our conscious experience. Wundt used introspection. He believed in the notion of voluntarism
Edward Titchener
student of wundt; Developed structuralism
Voluntarism
people have free will and should know the intention of psych experiment if participation
William james
helped establish functional psychology. They accepted Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection which leads to organisms that are adapted to their environment, including their behavior. psychology’s purpose was to study the function of behavior in the world, and as such, his perspective was known as functionalism.
Sigmund freud
Austrian neurologist who was fascinated by patients suffering from “hysteria” and neurosis. Hysteria was an ancient diagnosis for disorders, primarily of women with a wide variety of symptoms, including physical symptoms and emotional disturbances, none of which had an apparent physical cause. Freud theorized that many of his patients’ problems arose from the unconscious mind. In Freud’s view, the unconscious mind was a repository of feelings and urges of which we have no awareness; created psychoanalytic theory
Unconscious mind
repository of feelings and urged of which we have no awareness; Accessed through dream analysis, first words that comes to mind
Psychoanalytic theory
role of unconscious; used in therapy
gestalt psychology
from psychologists who escaped nazi germany (Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Köhler). Emphasized the “whole”; sensory experience can be broken down into small parts but how they interact rates someones perception.
Ivan pavlov
studied learning behavior called conditioned reflex
Classical conditioning
animal/human produces an unconscious reflex to stimulus and was overtime conditioned to respond to different stimulus
John b watson
thought that the study of consciousness was flawed because it cannot be objective. Wanted to shift attention to behavior.
B.F. skinner
spoke of reinforcement and punishment, skinner box or operant conditioning chamber
Operant conditioning chamber
(skinner box) - Isolates subject from external environment, has a behavior indicator (lever/button) and when animal presses button positive reinforcement or punishment
Early 20th cent psych
mainly behaviorism and psychoanalysis
Humanism
emphasizes potential for good found in humans
hierarchy of human needs
so long as basic needs necessary for survival were met (e.g., food, water, shelter), higher-level needs (e.g., social needs) would begin to motivate behavior. According to Maslow, the highest-level needs relate to self-actualization, a process by which we achieve our full potential
Abraham maslow
proposing a hierarchy of human needs in motivating behavior;
Carl rogers
client centered therapy: believed that a therapist needed to display three features to maximize the effectiveness of this particular approach: unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and empathy. Unconditional positive regard refers to the fact that the therapist accepts their client for who they are, no matter what they might say. Provided these factors, Rogers believed that people were more than capable of dealing with and working through their own issues
Client-centered therapy
unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and empathy.
Why is psychological science important?
It is through systematic scientific research that we divest ourselves of our preconceived notions and superstitions and gain an objective understanding of ourselves and our world. Psychologists focus their attention on understanding behavior, as well as the cognitive (mental) and physiological (body) processes that underlie behavior.
Why can’t we use intuition? What is the goal of science?
In contrast to other methods that people use to understand the behavior of others, such as intuition and personal experience, the hallmark of scientific research is that there is evidence to support a claim. Scientific knowledge is empirical: It is grounded in objective, tangible evidence that can be observed time and time again, regardless of who is observing
empiricism’s relation to psychology
the idea that all learning comes from only experience and observations.
While behavior is observable, the mind is not. psychologists must be creative in finding ways to better understand behavior. This chapter explores how scientific knowledge is generated, and how important that knowledge is in forming decisions in our personal lives and in the public domain.
deductive reasoning
starts with a generalization that is tested against real-world observations
inductive reasoning
uses empirical observations to construct broad generalizations
scientific method
theory, generate hypothesis, collect data, analyze data, summarize data and report findings, then either modify theory or confirm theory.
theory
well developed set of ideas that propose an explanation for observed phenomena. Theories are repeatedly checked against the world, but they tend to be too complex to be tested all at once; instead, researchers create hypotheses to test specific aspects of a theory.
hypothesis
testable prediction about how the world will behave if our idea is correct, and it is often worded as an if-then statement; bridges the gap between the realm of ideas and the real world.
falsifiable
capable of being shown to be incorrect. Some theories such as sigmund freuds ideas cannot be falsifiable.
descriptive research
studies that rely mainly on observation; produce incredible amounts of information but cannot necessarily apply to the larger population
correlational research
can find a relationship between two variables; the only way to claim that the relationship is cause and effect is through an experiment. While correlational research is invaluable in identifying relationships among variables, a major limitation is the inability to establish causality.
experimental
a lot of control over variables of interest; often produced in artificial settings which calls into question the validity of experimental findings.
clinical case studies
focus on one person or just a few individuals;
clinical case studies pros and cons
The richness of information that is collected in clinical or case studies is unmatched by any other single research method. This allows the researcher to have a very deep understanding of the individuals and the particular phenomenon being studied. often used when studying individuals who are interesting to researchers because they have a rare characteristic. Difficult to generalize
generalize
ability to apply the findings of a particular research project to larger segments of society
naturalistic observation
observing behavior in its natural setting. It is critical that the observer be as unobtrusive and as inconspicuous as possible: when people know they are being watched, they are less likely to behave naturally;
naturalistic observation pros and cons
The greatest benefit of naturalistic observation is the validity, or accuracy, of information collected unobtrusively in a natural setting. Therefore, our ability to generalize the findings of the research to real-world situations is enhanced. The major downside of naturalistic observation is that they are often difficult to set up and control. Also observer bias
observer bias
people who act as observers are closely involved in the research project and may unconsciously skew their observations to fit their research goals or expectations. To protect against this type of bias, researchers should have clear criteria established for the types of behaviors recorded and how those behaviors should be classified. In addition, researchers often compare observations of the same event by multiple observers, in order to test inter-rater reliability
inter-rater reliability
a measure of reliability that assesses the consistency of observations by different observers.
surveys
lists of questions to be answered by research participants, and can be delivered as paper-and-pencil questionnaires, administered electronically, or conducted verbally.
surveys pros and cons
By using surveys, we can collect information from a larger sample of people. A larger sample is better able to reflect the actual diversity of the population, thus allowing better generalizability. However, given the greater number of people involved, we are not able to collect the same depth of information on each person that would be collected in a case study. Also, people may lie, misremember, or answer questions in a way that they think makes them look good.
sample
subset of individuals selected from a population, which is the overall group of individuals that the researchers are interested in.
archival research
relies on looking at past records or data sets to look for interesting patterns or relationships.
archival research pros and cons
For one, the researcher employing archival research never directly interacts with research participants. Therefore, the investment of time and money to collect data is considerably less with archival research. Additionally, researchers have no control over what information was originally collected. Therefore, research questions have to be tailored so they can be answered within the structure of the existing data sets. There is also no guarantee of consistency between the records from one source to another, which might make comparing and contrasting different data sets problematic
longitudinal research
research design in which data-gathering is administered repeatedly over an extended period of time. Often longitudinal studies are employed when researching various diseases in an effort to understand particular risk factors.
longitudinal research pros and cons
Given the enormous number of people involved in these studies, researchers can feel confident that their findings can be generalized to the larger population. Attrition rates are quite high.
attrition rates
reduction in the number of research participants due to dropouts
correlation coefficient
a number from -1 to +1 that indicates the strength and direction of the relationship between variables. The correlation coefficient is usually represented by the letter r.
Does correlation = causation?
Correlation does not equal causation. While variables are sometimes correlated because one does cause the other, it could also be that some other factor, a confounding variable, is actually causing the systematic movement in our variables of interest.
confounding variable
variable that may be the true cause of the effect. Can only find cause and effect through an experiment.
illusory correlation
false correlations
confirmation bias
we have a hunch about how something works and then look for evidence to support that hunch, ignoring evidence that would tell us our hunch is false
random assignment
all participants have an equal chance of being assigned to either group; makes it unlikely that there are systematic differences between the groups.
random sample
subset of a larger population in which every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected.
experimental group
gets the experimental manipulation
control group
does not get the experimental manipulation
single blind study
being blind to which child is in which group, to protect against experimenter biases
double blind study
both the researchers and the participants are blind to group assignments
placebo effect
occurs when people’s expectations or beliefs influence or determine their experience in a given situation.
experimenter bias
refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study
operational definition
precise description of our variables, and it is important in allowing others to understand exactly how and what a researcher measures in a particular experiment.
independent variable
is controlled by experimentors
dependent variables
changes based on the independent variable
Institutional Review Board
a committee of individuals often made up of members of the institution’s administration, scientists, and community members to review proposals for research that involves human participants.
informed consent
provides a written description of what participants can expect during the experiment, including potential risks and implications of the research. It also lets participants know that their involvement is completely voluntary and can be discontinued without penalty at any time.
deception
purposely misleading experiment participants in order to maintain the integrity of the experiment, but not to the point where the deception could be considered harmful.
Because of the placebo affect, we may not want participants knowing what we are trying to figure out
debriefing
complete, honest information about the purpose of the experiment, how the data collected will be used, the reasons why deception was necessary, and information about how to obtain additional information about the study; it is used when deception has been used
WEIRD
western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic
certain populations have been over-studied and the results of these studies have been applied to other populations
replicate
they can repeat the experiment using different samples to determine reliability. provide more evidence to support the original research findings. Successful replications of published research make scientists more apt to adopt those findings, while repeated failures tend to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the original article and lead scientists to look elsewhere.
reliability
the ability to consistently produce a given result
