chapter 1

Question 1

definition of psychology (behaviors? mental processes?)

Answer 1

psychology: the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
• behavior: anything an organism does that is directly observable
• mental processes: the internal, private experiences an organism has that cannot be directly observed

Question 2

goals of psychology (what are they?)

Answer 2

describe, explain, predict, and

control behaviors and mental processes

Question 3

what psychologists do (pure research, applied research, practice, teaching…)

Answer 3

Research
• Pure research: research conducted without
concern for immediate applications
• Applied research: research conducted in an
effort to find solutions to particular problems
• Practice
• applying psychological knowledge to help
individuals change their behavior to accomplish
goals or deal with the world more effectively
• Teaching
• Sharing psychological knowledge in classrooms,
seminars, and workshops

Question 4

ancient Greeks (importance to history of psychology?)

Answer 4

Philosophers like Socrates, Aristotle, and
Democritus started making more investigations
into psychological questions (often with more
natural explanations for things!)

Question 5

empiricism (what is it? relationship to science?)

Answer 5

Empiricism - the view that knowledge
originates in experience and that science
should, therefore, rely on observation and
experimentation.

Question 6

Wilhelm Wundt (importance to history of scientific psychology? what year? first
experiment?)

Answer 6

1879: First psychology experiment
• measuring time lag between hearing a
sound and pressing a key
• First psychology laboratory:
University of Leipzig (Germany)
• Considered one of the founders of
the early branch of psychology
known as structuralism

Question 7

structuralism (what is it? main research technique of structuralists?)

Answer 7

Focuses on breaking conscious
experience down its basic
components (basic sensations,
feelings, perceptions, mental
processes, etc)

Question 8

Edward Titchener (importance to history of psychology?)

Answer 8

structuralism Founded by Edward Titchener

(student of Wundt) and Wundt

Question 9

introspection (what is it?)

Answer 9

Involves “looking inward” (inner
reflection) and examining one’s own
thoughts and emotions in order to break
them down into their basic components.

Primary research technique of the
structuralists

Question 10

functionalism (proposed by? main idea?)

Answer 10

Founded by William James
• American psychologist
• Interested in practical applications of
psychology
• Influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory of
natural selection – how our individual
qualities help us to survive in the world
• Focuses on practical applications of
psychology and how they come from
studying the function of behavior and
cognition – how are these things
helping us to survive and live our
lives?

Question 11

William James (importance to history of psychology?)

Answer 11

functionalism Founded by William James

Question 12

Mary Calkins (importance to history of psychology? connection to William
James? Harvard? Ph.D.?)

Answer 12

1890: William James admitted her to his
graduate seminar in psychology
• She was allowed to attend as a “guest” since
Harvard was all-male at the time
• Fulfilled all requirements for Ph.D. but denied
degree from Harvard since it was all-male.
• Still, she had a distinguished career!
• First psychology lab founded by a female (1891)
• Renowned memory researcher
• First female president of the American
Psychological Association (1905)

Question 13

Margaret Floy Washburn (historical significance?)

Answer 13

First female psychology Ph.D. (1894)
• Studied with Titchener (Cornell)
• 2
nd female president of APA (1921)

Question 14

scientific method (what is it? self-correcting process?)

Answer 14

– an orderly, systematic process for

investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge

Question 15

theory (what is it?)

Answer 15

an explanation of some phenomenon

Question 16

hypothesis (what is it?)

Answer 16

a specific, testable prediction based on a theory

Question 17

population (what is it?)

Answer 17

complete group of interest to researchers

Question 18

sample (what is it?)

Answer 18

the smaller group of actual subjects (chosen
from the population) from whom we actually collect
data

Question 19

representative sample (what is it? how do we select one?)

Answer 19

random sampling

• stratified sampling

Question 20

random sampling (what is it? why is it important?)

Answer 20

everyone in population has

an equal chance at being included in the study

Question 21

stratified sampling (what is it?)

Answer 21

sample drawn so that
identified subgroups in population are
represented proportionately in the sample

Question 22

volunteer bias (what is it? what is the danger to sampling?)

Answer 22

– people who volunteer to
participate in a certain study may systematically
differ from those who do not – they are likely not
representative of the overall population

Question 23

descriptive methods vs. experimental methods (difference? cause and effect?)

Answer 23

Observational (Descriptive) Methods
• Case studies
• Surveys
• Naturalistic observation
• Correlational studies
• Data is gathered, but no variables are manipulated by
the researcher
• Experimental Methods
• Variables are manipulated and controlled by the
experimenter
• Allows researcher to probe cause and effect
relationships between variables

Question 24

case study (what is it? advantages? limitations?)

Answer 24

• Interviews (with subject, family, friends, etc)
• Psychological tests (intelligence, personality, etc)
• Observation of behaviors (at home, at work, etc)
• The hope is that this person’s information can reveal things about the overall
population
• Advantages
• More detailed data gathered than with other methods
• Suggests areas for further (more general) study
• Disadvantages/Limitations
• Only studies one person – there’s no guarantee data will relate to the general
population
• Subject’s memory of their lives/experiences may be faulty
• Doesn’t tell us why anything is occurring

Question 25

survey (what is it? what kinds of things do we need to watch out for?)

Answer 25

Ask large numbers of people about their
attitudes, behaviors, opinions

Socially-desirable responding and Wording effects

Question 26

socially-desirable responding (what is it?)

Answer 26

People are sometimes hesitant to reveal honest personal information
that might make them look bad

Question 27

wording effects (what are they? dangers?)

Answer 27

– wordings of questions can affect results

Question 28

naturalistic observation (what is it? advantages? limitations?)

Answer 28

Advantages
• Behavior of subjects likely to reflect their true behavior, as it
takes place in a natural setting where subjects don’t realize they
are being observed.
• Good source of ideas for future research
• It’s the only way certain behavior can be studied
• Disadvantages/Limitations
• Researcher has no control over the setting, so they may not be
able to observe the behavior of interest (i.e. the behavior might
not occur while observation is occurring)
• Can only look at observable behavior, not attitudes, thoughts, or
feelings of subjects

Question 29

correlational study (what is it? causation?)

Answer 29

• the extent to which two variables vary together
• Correlations occur when two variables vary
together in some systematic way

Question 30

positive correlation (what is it?)

Answer 30

variables tend to move in same direction (when
one variable increases, so does the other; when one decreases, so
does the other

Question 31

negative correlation (what is it?)

Answer 31

variables tend to move in opposite directions

when one variable increases, the other decreases

Question 32

scatterplots (identifying negative/positive correlation?)

Answer 32

no correlation

Question 33

correlation coefficient (what is it? range of values? strength of correlation?
predictability of one variable from another?)

Answer 33

Describes strength and direction of
correlation
• positive correlations have positive
correlation coefficients
• negative correlations have negative
correlation coefficients
• Variables that are completely
uncorrelated have a correlation
coefficient of 0

Question 34

directionality problem (what is it?)

Answer 34

If two variables are varying together, we can’t say with certainty
whether the first variable is causing the change in the second or
the second is causing the change in the first

Question 35

third variable problem (what is it?)

Answer 35

Even though we find that two variables are correlated, it’s
possible that neither is affecting the other
• It could be that a third variable (that we didn’t even measure) is
actually causing changes in BOTH correlated variables

Question 36

experimentation (what is it? goal?)

Answer 36

• Manipulate the variable(s) of interest while
holding other factors constant
• Goal: see how manipulating one variable
affects some other variable (i.e. look for
cause and effect)

Question 37

experimental group vs. control group (what are they? what is the difference?)

Answer 37

• experimental group – the group that
receives the treatment (i.e. has the
variable manipulation of interest
applied)
• control group – the group that does
not receive the treatment (i.e. our
baseline group for comparison)

Question 38

random assignment (what is it? why is it important?)

Answer 38

• each subject has an equal chance at being assigned to the
experimental/control group
• The statistics of randomness make it very likely that neither
group will start out systematically different from the other

Question 39

independent variable (what is it?)

Answer 39

– the variable that is
manipulated in an experiment (i.e. the difference
between experimental and control groups)

Question 40

dependent variable (what is it?)

Answer 40

the variable being measured
in an experiment (to check whether the
independent variable caused an effect)

Question 41

confounds (what are they? why are they bad?)

Answer 41

factors other than the independent
variable that may affect our results (i.e. an
unintended difference between our experimental
and control groups)

Question 42

placebo effect (what is it? how do we guard against it?)

Answer 42

experimental results are caused by

subject’s expectations or beliefs alone.

Question 43

blind vs. double-blind studies (what are they? why use them?)

Answer 43

neither the subject nor the
researcher knows whether the subject has
received the treatment