Chapter 1 and 2

Question 1

what is psychology?

Answer 1

the study of behaviour and mental processes

Question 2

what are mental processes?

Answer 2

how the brain functions when engaged

Question 3

what is behaviour?

Answer 3

how you react in response to stimuli

Question 4

what are the 4 main purposes of studies?

Answer 4

description, explanation, control, prediction

Question 5

what is description?

Answer 5

describes WHAT is occurring

Question 6

what is explanation?

Answer 6

WHY something is happening

Question 7

what is prediction?

Answer 7

WHEN something will happen

Question 8

what is control?

Answer 8

limiting/increasing behaviours or mental processes

Question 9

what influences the goals in a study?

Answer 9

the person- mental processes
the brain- structure + activity
the group- society/environment

Question 10

how did psychology get its start?

Answer 10

people started wondering about human nature and experiences

Question 11

who was Hippocrates and what was his main idea?

Answer 11

4 humours - define personality, character and health
yellow bile
black bile
blood 
phlegm

Question 12

Socrates, Pluto and Aristotle ideas

Answer 12

how the mind works and how it relates to the body
promoted testable investigations
sensations, dreams, sleep, learning

Question 13

What was Bacon’s main idea?

Answer 13

Empiricism- all knowledge is from experience,

the scientific method, building theories

Question 14

Descartes’ main idea?

Answer 14

the mind is distinct from the body, everything is a science

Question 15

Helmholtz main idea?

Answer 15

thoughts and movement are linked,

measured speed of nerves

Question 16

Why is Wundt important?

Answer 16

He is considered the founder of psychology

• started making observations and used the experimental method
• Believes everything can be reduced to basic elements

Question 17

What are the 2 schools of thought?

Answer 17

structuralism

functionalism

Question 18

what is structuralism? focus? downfalls?

Answer 18

experience can be reduced to basic elements, look at the parts that make up a whole, focused on introspection - simple thoughts expand to more complex ideas
downfalls- not objective, stimuli is constant, experience changes among and within people

Question 19

what is functionalism?

Answer 19

examine the purpose of mental processes and how they function
influenced by Darwin and Galton, natural selection and inheritance of mental abilities
ever-changing stream of thoughts, how we adapt and survive

Question 20

what is the Gestalt theory?

Answer 20

against structuralism
we have inborn tendencies, impose structure on what we see
Looked at the whole picture, not just parts of it

Question 21

what are the 2 types of research? describe each

Answer 21

basic research- explore general scientific understanding

applied research- used to solve practical problems

Question 22

What was Wundt’s main goal?

Answer 22

he wanted to define/explain the structure of conscious experience

Question 23

2 methods of study

Answer 23

descriptive and experimental

Question 24

what are the types of descriptive methods, what are their pros and cons

Answer 24

naturalistic- observe from afar, watch people in their natural environment,
con- wait for it to happen
laboratory, a little bit of control, still watch natural functions
con- observer bias
case study- watch one person, provides unique observations, can’t generalize findings

Question 25

what are pros and cons of the experimental method?

Answer 25

pro-can establish cause and effect limitation- selection bias con- placebo effect, experimenter bias

Question 26

what is a theory?

Answer 26

provides an explanation for a study

Question 27

define hypothesis

Answer 27

a prediction of the results

Question 28

independent vs dependent

Answer 28

in- experimenter manipulates | dependent- one you measure

Question 29

experimental vs. control groups

Answer 29

experimental- gets treatment, control does not

Question 30

extraneous variable

Answer 30

third variable that effects outcome of experiment

Question 31

cures for selection bias

Answer 31

random selection and random assignment

Question 32

what is random selection?

Answer 32

everyone in the population has the same chance of being picked

Question 33

random assignment

Answer 33

take a sample of the population then randomly assign to groups

Question 34

what is the double-blind technique?

Answer 34

researcher and test groups do not know who receives treatment

Question 35

hawthorne effect?

Answer 35

when you are studied you perform better

Question 36

2 types of data analysis

Answer 36

descriptive -basic summary of findings | and inferential- what you can conclude from experiment, tests hypothesis

Question 37

what is a correlation?

Answer 37

determining relationship between 2 variables

Question 38

positive vs negative correlation

Answer 38

positive- as one increases so does the other | negative- move in opposite directions

Question 39

what makes a correlation better? (Number) what does it represent?

Answer 39

anything close to 1 is the best represents the slope of the line

Question 40

how do you read correlation points?

Answer 40

data points, scatter plot, line of best fit, the angle of line refects correlation

Question 41

what are the two main concerns of psychological studies?

Answer 41

ethics- participants rights, well being, informed consent | ethical questions -is the search for knowledge worth the risk?

Question 42

what are the 2 scientific principles?

Answer 42

- 8the universe operates according to natural laws | - the laws are discoverable and testable

Question 43

deductive vs. inductive methods

Answer 43

deductive uses broad theories and applies to specific situations inductive takes small situations and generalizes them

Question 44

what is hypothetico-deductive reasoning?

Answer 44

take an educated guess and set about disproving the theory

Question 45

what are the steps to conduct research?

Answer 45

1. identify question of interest 2. develop a hypothesis 3. select research method, select group, collect data 4. analyze data, and relation to hypothesis 5. publish results 6. build a theory

Question 46

perfect correlation

Answer 46

a score of +-1

Question 47

what is replication?

Answer 47

repeated testing of the same hypothesis to ensure results are good

Question 48

positively vs negatively skewed graph

Answer 48

positive- skewed to the bottom end of results | opposite for negative

Question 49

grouped vs ungrouped frequency distribution

Answer 49

frequency each occurs grouped- a range of scores, ungrouped- individual scores