Chapter 1: History and Research Methods Flashcards
What is Psychology?
The scientific study of behavioral and mental processes.
Values Empirical Evidence
Focuses on critical thinking and is scientific
Who is Wilhelm Wundt?
“Father of psychology”
First to declare himself a psychologist
Founded Structuralism
1832-1929
What is Structuralism?
-Devoted to uncovering the basic structures that make up mind and thought.
-Looks for elements of the conscious experience
-Relies on Introspection
-Sensations, feelings, the experience of being there
What is Introspection?
The process of reporting one’s own conscious mental experiences
Who is William James?
-First U.S. psychologist
-Founded Functionalism
-Believed that psychology should look at function and not just structure
-Thought that psychology should explain how people adapted (or failed to adapt) to everyday life outside the laboratory (wanted to see how people functioned in everyday life, not just in controlled situations)
-Describes mental processes as a stream of consciousness”
What is Functionalism?
Functionalism is a theory that emphasizes the functions of consciousness and the ways consciousness helps people adapt to their environment
Explain Psychoanalytic/Psycho-dynamic
Mental disorders that result from conflicts of the unconscious mind
-Freud: Psycho-dynamic psychology suggests we are motivated by the energy of irrational desires generated in our unconscious minds
Sigmund Freud’s Thoughts on Behavior
Thought that behavior came from unconscious drives, conflicts, and experiences that we may not even have a memory of.
Who were the 3 leaders of Behavioral Psychology & what did they do?
John B. Watson: Founded Classical Behaviorism
-Believed that all behavior is learned through a process of conditioning
Ivan Pavlov: Discovered Classical Conditioning
- Conditioned dogs to drool at the sound of bells of a certain pitch
B.F. Skinner: Responsible for the theory of Operant Conditioning
What is Classical Conditioning?
Involves respondent behavior, reflexive, automatic reactions such as fear or craving
What is Operant Conditioning?
-Behavior is repeated when rewarded
-Repetition and reinforcement leads to changes in behavior
Who is Albert Bandura?
-Responsible for Social Learning Theory
-Created the Bobo Doll Experiment in 1961
What is the Social Learning Theory?
Suggests that observation and modeling play a primary role in how and why people learn
What is the Bobo Doll Experiment?
-Kids saw adults punching an inflated doll while narrating their aggressive behaviors such as “kick him”
- Kids were then put in a toy-deprived situation, and acted out the same behaviors they had seen
What is the Cognitive Perspective?
The approach that focuses on how people think, understand, and know about the world
What is the Biopsychology/neuroscience perspective?
-The study of the role of biological factors in behavior including structures of the brain, neurotransmitters, and genetics
-Views behavior from the perspective of the brain, the nervous system, and other biological functions
Define Observation
Objective, directly experienced with the senses
-EX: He didn’t look in her eyes
Define Inference
Subject to interpretation, private internal mental activities
-EX: He was shy
2 Types of Psychological Research
Basic: Conducted to advance scientific knowledge
Applied: Conducted to solve practical problems
The Scientific Method
- Identify Questions of interest and review the literature
- Develop a testable hypothesis (must be operationally defined)
- Select a research method and collect the data
4, Analyze the Data and accept/reject hypothesis - Publish, replicate, and seek scientific review
- Build a theory
- Is a standardized way of making observations, gathering data, forming theories, testing predictions, and interpreting results
What is Experimental Research?
-Involves the manipulation of variables
-Seeks to identify cause and effect
What is an advantage of Experimental Research?
Allows researchers precise control over variables and to identify cause and effect
What is a disadvantage of Experimental Research?
-Ethical concerns
-practical limitations
-artificiality of lab conditions
-uncontrolled variables may confound results
-researcher and participant bias
What are the key features of an experiment?
-Independent Variable
-Dependent Variable
-Experimental Group
-Control Group
What is an Independent Variable?
Factor that is manipulated by the experimenter
What is a dependent Variable?
Factor that is being measured
What is an Experimental Group?
A group participating in an experiment that receives treatment (i.e. the manipulation implemented by the experimenter)
What is a Control Group?
A group participating in an experiment that receives no treatment
What is necessary to do experimental research?
Experimental research requires the response of at least two groups to be compared
What are some ethical guidelines for human participants in research?
-Informed consent
-Voluntary participation
-Restricted use of deception
-Debriefing
-Confidentiality
-Alternate activities
What is Experimental Bias?
Factors that distort how the independent variable effects the dependent variable in an experiment
What are potential Research Problems?
-Experimenter Bias
-Ethnocentrism
What are potential Participant Problems?
-Sample Bias
-Participant Bias
What is Experimenter Bias?
Researcher influences the research results in the expected direction
What is Ethnocentrism?
Believing that one’s culture is typical of all cultures
What is Sample Bias?
Participants are not representative of the larger population
What is Participant Bias?
Participants are influenced by the researcher or experimental conditions
What is Random Assignment to Condition?
Participants are assigned to different experimental groups, or “conditions” on the basis of chance and chance alone
What is a Placebo and what is its purpose?
-A false treatment, such as a pill, “drug” or other substance without any significant chemical properties or active ingredient
-The use of Placebos guards against Participant Expectations
What is the Double Blind Procedure?
-Neither the experimenter nor the participant know if they administered a true drug or a placebo
-Guards against experimenter expectations
-The person who administers the drug shouldn’t know whether it is actually the true drug or the placebo.
What is the purpose of Descriptive Research?
Observe, collect, and record data
What are the advantages of Descriptive Research?
-Minimizes artificiality
-Easier to collect data
-allows description of behavior and mental processes as they occur
What are the disadvantages of Descriptive Research?
-Little or no control over variables
-Researcher and participant biases
-Cannot explain cause and effect
What are the 3 types of Descriptive Research?
1) Naturalistic Observation
2) Surveys
3) Case Study
What are some disadvantages of Naturalistic Observation?
-People change their behavior if they know they’re being observed
-You don’t know the people
-Can’t observe thoughts
-For ethical (and legal) reasons, limited to public behavior
What is a disadvantage to Surveys?
Data is only as good as your answers
What are some advantages to Case Studies?
-Can study people in unusual circumstances
-Richer data
What are some disadvantages to Case Studies?
-People may lie, forget, misremember
-Interview Bias
-Hard to generalize to a larger population
What is Correlational Research?
Statistical analyses or relationships between variables
What is the purpose of Correlational Research?
Identify relationships and how well one variable predicts another
What are some advantages of Correlational Research?
Helps clarify relationships between variables that cannot be examined by other methods and allows prediction
What are some disadvantages of Correlational Research?
Researchers cannot identify cause and effect
What is Biological Research?
Studies the brain and other parts of the nervous system
What is the purpose of Biological Research?
Identify causation, as well as description, and prediction
What is the advantage of Biological Research?
Shares many or all of the advantages of experimental, descriptive and correlational research
What is the disadvantage of Biological Research?
Shares many or all of the disadvantages of experimental, descriptive, and correlational research
