Chapter 1 Flashcards
LO: Define psychological science
The study, through research, of mind, brain, and behaviour
Mind
Mental activity
- memories, thoughts, feelings, perceptual experiences, etc.
Brain
Mental activity is a result of chemical processes within the BRAIN
Behaviour
Observable actions
LO: Define critical thinking and describe what it means to be a critical thinker
Systematically questioning and evaluating information using well-supported evidence
Q: How do the mind and brain relate?
The mind (mental activity) is the result of chemical processes in the brain
Q: What is amiable skepticism?
Being open to new ideas but carefully considering the evidence
LO: Identify major biases in thinking, and explain why these biases result in faulty thinking
(4 biases)
1) ignoring evidence (confirmation bias)
2) seeing causal relationships that don’t exist
3) Accepting after-the-fact explanations (hindsight bias)
4) Taking mental shortcuts (heuristics, availability heuristics)
Confirmation Bias
Only paying attention to evidence that directly supports an argument and ignoring evidence that opposes that view (ex. selective sampling, selective memory)
Seeing causal relationships that don’t exist
- desire to find predictability in the world around us
- always looking for trends and patterns even when they don’t actually exist
- giving us a false sense of understanding
Accepting after-the-fact explanations (hindsight bias)
Once people know an outcome, they interpret and reinterpret old evidence to make sense of that outcome, giving a false sense of predictability
Taking mental shortcuts (heuristics)
- availability heuristic: (ex. always ordering the same thing at a restaurant because it is familiar and easy)
- heuristics: mental shortcuts that allow us to make decisions quickly and easily
Q: Why should you be suspicious of after-the-fact explanations?
People think that knowing the outcome to one event can help them predict other events which gives them a false sense of security (ex. criminal profiling). This can be problematic: fail to notice the real signs when trying to identify expected trends
Q: Why should you be skeptical of people’s descriptions of their personal strengths?
People often aren’t able to accurately evaluate and compare their abilities
Mind/Body Problem
Fundamental psychological issue: are mind and body separate and distinct or is the mind the subjective experience of physical brain activity?
Dualism
(Rene Descartes)
Rene Descartes promoted the theory of dualism that suggests the mind and body are in fact separate yet intertwined
- psychologists reject this theory because the mind is the result of brain activity
Culture
Shared beliefs, values, rules, norms, customs, language, environment etc. within a group of people
Nature/Nurture Debate
Are psychological characteristics the result of biological factors or are they gained through experience, education, and culture?
Q: Why is it important for psychologists to pay attention to both nature and nurture?
They both contribute to psychological characteristics
- can’t be separated
Who coined the term stream of consciousness and what does it mean?
- William James suggests that the mind is far to complex to be broken down
- Stream of consciousness: a persons continuous, ever-changing, thoughts
Functionalism
- Also William James - thought psychologists should study the “functions” of the mind and how it operates
- An approach to psychology concerned with the adaptive purpose, or function, of mind and behaviour
Natural Selection
- evolutionary psychology
- idea that those who inherit characteristics that help them adapt to their environment have a selective advantage over those who don’t
Q: According to William James’ functionalism, why should psychologists focus on the operations of the mind?
The mind is too complex to be able to examine it as a whole without understanding the separate parts
Diversity and Inclusion
The value and practice of ensuring that psychological science represents the experiences of all humans
Clinical Psychology
Seeks to understand, characterize, and treat mental illness
Cognitive Psychology
- lab research aims to understand basic skills and processes that are the foundations of mental life and behaviour (ex. attention, memory, sensation, perception, etc.)
Cultural Psychology
Studies how cultural factors effect mental life and behaviour
Developmental Psychology
Studies how humans grow and develop
Health Psychology
How psychological processes influence physical health and vice versa (ex. does experiencing discrimination increase the likelihood of heart disease?)
Industrial/Organization Psychology
Explores how psychological processes play out in the workplace
Relationship Psychology
Research on close relationships
- why do they succeed/fail?
- how they effect/play a role in our lives
Social-Personality Psychology
Study of everyday thoughts, feelings, and behaviours and what factors impact them
SQ: Describe the two scientific revolutions that occurred in psychology in the 20th century
1) Behaviourism
2) The Cognitive Revolution
The First Revolution: Behaviourism
Popularized by John Watson
- a psychological approach that emphasizes environmental influences on observable behaviours
What is The Cognitive Revolution and who launched it?
George A. Miller launched it at Harvard
- suggests that psychologists need to study mental functions as opposed to only looking at observable actions to understand behaviour
Cognitive Revolution: What did B.F. Skinner do?
- idea of radical behaviourism
- suggests that unobservable mental events are simply a part of behaviour and not the cause of it
Cognitive Revolution: What did Ulric Neisser think and what did he do about it?
Information processing approach
- idea that humans are information processors (stimulus -> response ex. observing how WW2 pilots respond to environmental changes when flying planes)
- wrote the textbook “Cognitive Psychology”
Big Data
Science using very large data sets and advanced computational methods to discover patterns that would be difficult to see with smaller data sets
Data Ethics
Branch of philosophy that examines the ethics around data collection, use, and sharing of human data
(ex. privacy)
Replicability
The likelihood that the results of a study would be similar if it was run again
Open Science Movement
Social movement among scientists to:
- improve methods
- increase research transparency
- promote data sharing
SQ: Describe each of the four levels of analysis used by psychological science
1) biological
2) cultural
3) social
4) individual
Biological Analysis
How the physical body contributes to mind and behaviour
- brain systems
- neurochemistry
- genetics
Cultural Analysis
How people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions are similar or different across cultures
Social Analysis
How group contexts affect the ways people interact and influence each other
- social cognition
- interpersonal behaviour
Individual Analysis
Individual differences in personality and mental processes that affect how people perceive the world
(ex. researchers study the effects that music has on mood, memory, and decision making)
- perception and cognition
- emotion, behaviour
Biopsychosocial model
Combining the three (biological, individual, and social) levels of analysis
- how they all shape mental life and behaviour together
Q: Suppose a research study explores people’s memory for song lyrics. What level of analysis are the researchers using?
Individual
Distributed Practice
- learning in several bursts over a longer timeframe
- taking breaks
Retrieval-based Learning
- learning new info by repeatedly recalling it from long-term memory
(ex. bell curve)
Elaborative Interrogation
Learning by asking yourself “why”
Self-Explanation
- reflecting on what you’ve learned
- putting it in your own words
Interleaved practice
Switching between topics
Q: What learning technique would explain why teachers give quizzes that are not worth many points?
Retrieval-based learning
