Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
What are the four goals of psychology?
To describe, explain, predict, and change behavior and mental processes.
What are the main perspectives of psychology?
Biological, psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, evolutionary, sociocultural, and biopsychosocial.
What are the steps of the scientific method?
Forming a research question, forming a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, analyzing the data, and reporting the results.
What are the types of descriptive research methods?
Naturalistic observation, case studies, surveys, and correlational studies.
What are the types of experimental research methods?
Laboratory experiments, field experiments, and quasi-experiments.
What are the ethical principles of psychological research?
Respect for persons, beneficence, justice, fidelity, and responsibility.
What are the different types of neurons?
Sensory neurons, motor neurons, and interneurons.
What are the parts of a neuron?
Dendrites, cell body, axon, and terminal buttons.
What are the different types of neurotransmitters?
Acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and GABA.
What are the different types of brain imaging techniques?
CT scan, MRI, PET scan, and fMRI.
What are the different types of consciousness?
Waking consciousness, altered states of consciousness, and unconsciousness.
What are the different types of sleep?
REM sleep and non-REM sleep.
What are the different types of memory?
Sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
What are the different types of learning?
Classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning.
Why do we overuse intuition and make errors?
Hindsight bias, overconfidence, and our tendency to
perceive patterns in random events often lead us to
overestimate our intuition.
What is Post-Truth?
Post-truth—describing a modern culture where
people’s emotions and personal beliefs often
override their acceptance of objective facts
What is descriptive research?
Descriptive research is a systematic, objective
observation of people.
Its goal is to provide a clear, accurate picture of
people’s behaviors, thoughts, and attributes.
What is Correlation Research
Correlation
Scientific definition: A measure of how closely
two factors vary together, or how well you can
predict a change in one from observing a
change in the other
Positive correlation (between 0 and +1.00)
Indicates a direct relationship: Two things increase together or decrease together.
Negative correlation (between 0 and −1.00)
Indicates an inverse relationship: As one thing increases,
the other decreases
Correlation Coefficient
Provides a statistical measure of how closely two things
vary together and how well one predicts the other
Variable
Includes anything that can vary and is feasible and
ethical to measure.
Scatterplot
A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents
the values of two variables
Slope of the points
Amount of scatter
True or false:
Correlation proves causation.
False, No matter how strong the relationship is,
correlation does not prove causation
Regression toward the mean
The tendency for extreme or unusual scores or
events to fall back (regress) toward the average
Experimentation Research
Done to explain cause and effect.
With experiments, researchers can focus on the
possible effects of one or more factors in several
ways.
They can manipulate the factors of interest to
determine their effects.
They can hold constant (“controlling”) other factors.
Experimental group
Control group
Double-blind procedure: Eliminating bias
Neither those in the study nor those collecting the
data know which group is receiving the treatment
Independent Variable
Factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied
Confounding variable in an experiment
Factor other than the independent variable that might
produce an effect
Dependent variable in an experiment
Factor that is measured; the variable that may change when
the independent variable is manipulated
What are the names of the British & American Psychological groups that help maintain ethical conditions for humans & social animals?
BPS - British Psychological Society
APA - American Psychological Association
Normal curve (normal distribution):
Symmetrical,
bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of
many types of data; most scores fall near the mean
(about 68 percent fall within one standard deviation of
it), and fewer and fewer occur near the extremes
When is an observed difference significant?
When sample averages are reliable and the
difference between them is relatively large, the
difference has statistical significance
True or false:
Statistical significance indicates the likelihood
that a result could have happened by chance
true
Senator Scott always held his political rallies at large stadiums because of the large, enthusiastic crowds that attended. As a result, he became overconfident about his chances of re-election. In this instance, the senator needs to be alerted to the value of
Random Sampling
After sports magazines give cover-story attention to the recent outstanding performances of an athlete, the individual often suffers a real decline in performance. This may be at least partially explained in terms of
Regression toward the mean.
If the correlation between the physical weight and reading ability of children is +.85, this would indicate that
better reading ability is associated with greater physical weight among children.
In a study of the effects of drinking coffee, some participants drank a decaf coffee that actually smelled and tasted like regular coffee. This decaf coffee was a
Placebo
The symmetrical bell-shaped figure used to represent the distribution of many physical and psychological characteristics is called a
Normal Curve
o assess the influence of self-esteem on interpersonal attraction, researchers either insulted or complimented students about their physical appearance just before they went on a blind date. In this research, the dependent variable was
Interpersonal Attraction
Psychologists’ personal values and goals
can bias their observations and interpretations.
If participants in the experimental group of a study of athletic ability are much younger than participants in the control group, the age of the research participants is a
Confounding Variable
Dr. Wertheim is studying the effect of studying at night or during the day on high school students’ test performance and has defined time of day as before 5 P.M. or after 5 P.M. This definition is an example of a(n)
operational definition
being randomly assigned to the experimental group in a research project involves being assigned
to that group by chance
