Chapter 1: Introducing Psychological Science

Question 1

what are the steps of the scientific method?

Answer 1

1. theory
2. hypothesis
3. test hypothesis
   EITHER
4. confirm hypothesis (generate another new hypothesis, confirm and strengthen original theory) or
5. reject hypothesis (discard/modify original hypothesis, revise og theory)

Question 2

what are the qualities of good scientific hypotheses?

Answer 2

• must be testable
• must be falsifiable (needs to be able to be proven false)
• Must be stated in precise and relevant terms

Question 3

what are qualities of good scientific theories?

Answer 3

• built from hypotheses
• must be falsifiable
• can be updated w/ new info

Question 4

what is the difference btwn hypothesis and theories?

Answer 4

• hypothesis is a testable prediction about processes that can be observed and measured
• theory is an explanation for a broad range of observations, generates new hypotheses, integrate findings into a whole
• Not the same as opinions - has been Repeatedly tested and supported by data
• Not all theories are equally plausible

Question 5

what is critical thinking?

Answer 5

• exercising curiosity and skepticism when evaluating the claims of others + w/ our own assumptions and beliefs
• Important w/ digital age where info can be skewed/manipulated

Question 6

what does scientific literacy involve?

Answer 6

• Applying the scientific method
• Examining assumptions and biases (of others and our own)
• Considering alternative viewpoints
• Tolerating ambiguity when evidence is inconclusive

Question 7

what are examples and violations of the principle of parsimony?

Answer 7

• ex. you drop something, someoe says the reason why it dropped is bc of gravity (causal factor). someone else says that the reason is bc there’s invisible entities that push the item to the ground. which of these explanations should we resort to? one explanation has 2 causal factors, and the other only has 1.
• violation: when psychologists attribute complex behaviour to complex brain processes

Question 8

what is the principle of parsimony?

Answer 8

idea that the simplest of all competing explanations of a phenomenon should be the one we accept

Question 9

what is empiricism?

Answer 9

idea that you can gain knowledge through experience (ex. Religious based schools of thought)

Question 10

what is determinism?

Answer 10

all events can be explained through lawful cause-and-effect relationships (ex. If we have enough info about a behaviour, we should be able to make predictions), free will

Question 11

what is zeitgeist? give example.

Answer 11

• general set of beliefs of a particular culture at a specific time in history, delaying science of psychology
• ex. ppl believed that earth is centre of the solar system and everything rotated around the earth

Question 12

what is materialism? give example.

Answer 12

• belief that humans and other living beings are composed exclusively of physical matter
• ex. idea of a soul that isn’t physically based

Question 13

what are the 4 early ideas that contributed to psychology becoming a science?

Answer 13

1. ancient influence
2. philosophical influences
3. physic influences
4. influences from evolutionary theory

Question 14

what were the ancient influences to psychology becoming a science?

Answer 14

• hippocrates and the 4 humors (black bile, yellow bile, blood, phlegm)
• artistotle’s tabula rasa (when people are born, they’re not born bad/good but are born neutral and whether they turn out bad/good is based on their experiences (early form of empiricism)
• idea of psyche (“the mind”) being the source of all human behaviour

Question 15

what were the philosophical influences to psychology becoming a science?

Answer 15

• Descartes proposed “cartesian dualism”, solution to mind-body problem (Is our mind apart of our body or diff from it?)
• believe mind and body are diff - body is material and physical, mind is nonmaterial/spiritual but both drive behaviour
• Problem is that his theory couldn’t explain how a nonphysical mind could interact and influence a physical material body (problem of the interactionism)
• Said that the pineal gland in the brain was the seat of the soul - allows our spirit to interact w/ the rest of our body

Question 16

what were the physic influences to psychology becoming a science?

Answer 16

• Gustav fechner

- Developed psychophysics: study of the relationship btwn physical world and mental representation of that world

Question 17

what is the difference btwn response expansion and response compression?

Answer 17

• we seem less sensitive (double the stimulus but we don’t double it in our own perceptions)
• Orange line: shows that w/ small changes in the actual objective intensity of a pain stimulus, we’re over exaggerating the pain experience

Question 18

what does the stimulus intensity an magnitude estimate study find?

Answer 18

• found that our objective sense =/= objective reality
• Magnitude estimate: how bright a participant thinks a light is
• Stimulus intensity: how bright the light actually is
• Doubling the intensity of light doesn’t double the person’s subjective experience of how bright the light is
• At first, there’s a subjective impression that the stimulus is changing rapidly but it starts to level out (Red line)
• Orange line: shows that w/ small changes in the actual objective intensity of a pain stimulus, we’re over exaggerating the pain experience

Question 19

what were the Influences from evolutionary theory that contributed to psychology becoming a science?

Answer 19

• Charles darwin
• Theory of evolution by natural selection
• Noticed that certain traits were advantageous for certain organisms and were more likely to survive and produce offspring
• Over time, surviving traits become more common
• The Descent of Man book explained how evolution can also select for behaviours
• Ex. Emotional expressions - seeing someone who is very angry you may not approach them, but if you do they might kill u lol

Question 20

what are the different historical approaches to brain localization (when certain parts of the brain responsible for certain functions)?

Answer 20

1. phrenology:
   - Gall & spurzheim
   - If you had a lot of a certain trait there’d be a lot of a specific personality trait and show a bump on the head
   - Believed brain consisted of 27 organs w/ an associated personality trait
2. brain injury
   - broca: Identified brain region assoc. w/ speech production (broca’s area), If someone has damage to a part of a brain and loses a behaviour, safe to say that that part of brain was responsible for that behaviour
   - Wernicke: Found that damage to left hemisphere of brain = couldn’t understand speech, couldn’t speak properly in sentences but could speak words

Question 21

what are the medical ideas that contributed to psychology becoming a science?

Answer 21

• mesmer’s theory: believed that metallic fluids were in our blood and could use magnets to redirect fluids to correct various medical ailments
• Would put patients in a trancelike state w/ hand movements (lead to hypnosis)
• freud’s theory of psychoanalysis
• Used hypnosis and dream analysis as a tool to access people’s unconscious mind
• Believed that we have conscious experiences but thought most of our mind was made up of the unconscious mind
• Also believed that early childhood experienced were influential to development of the unconscious mind

Question 22

what is psychoanalysis?

Answer 22

psychological approach attempting to explain how behaviour and personality are influenced by unconscious processes

Question 23

what are freud’s 3 unconscious components?

Answer 23

1. Id: instincts, tells you to act on every impulse esp sexual and aggressive urges
2. Superego: morality and critical thinking, tells you to do the right thing and follow rules
3. Ego: organized part that mediates btwn desires of the id and superego

Question 24

what are some criticisms of freud’s approach?

Answer 24

• Ideas aren’t testable - Used subjective rather than scientific method
• Dismissed claims of sexual abuse as constructions of the unconscious mind
• Theory suggested lack of free will

Question 25

what are some contributions of freud’s approach?

Answer 25

• Introduced potential for unconscious mental processes
• Medical model: use of medical ideas to treat psychological disorders
• Incorporated evolutionary thinking; acknowledge that we’re influenced by physiological needs and urges
• Emphasized that early childhood experienced during development influence adult behaviour

Question 26

what is the diff btwn nature and nurture?

Answer 26

• Nature: our genetics

- Nurture: our environment

Question 27

what are the limitations of Galton’s views on eminence?

Answer 27

it Didn’t consider alternative explanations to his thinking, ignored arguments that people that come from rich families bc their offspring have a leg up in life

Question 28

what is eminence?

Answer 28

combination of ability, morality, and achievement resulting from good genes

Question 29

what is eugenics?

Answer 29

true genes, idea that some people just have better genetics so they should be able to breed and others shouldn’t and be restricted

Question 30

what are the defining features of each historical school of psychology?

Answer 30

1. structuralism
   - analyzing conscious experience by breaking it down to basic elements and to understand how these elements work together
   - wanted to be lab based
2. functionalistm
   - study of the purpose and function of behaviour and conscious experience
   - want to study behaviour in natural environments
3. behaviourism
   - study of observable behaviour, w/ little-no reference to mental events or instincts as possible influences on behaviour
4. cognitive psychology
   - modern perspective focusing on mental processes (ex. Memory, thinking, and language)
5. social and personal psychology

Question 31

what are the Primary contributions of galton?

Answer 31

• Initiated debate about nature and nurture

- Promoted use of statistical methods to quantify psychological traits

Question 32

what is introspection?

Answer 32

process of looking within to describe subjective inner mental experiences/self-report/psychological sensations

Question 33

what did twitmyer discover?

Answer 33

• Accidentally discovered conditioned reflexes
• Put participants in a chair w/ a mechanism that when activated, would cause a bolt to hit someone’s knee
• Didn’t want subjects to be biased bc they were scared of the device so they’d give them a warning before activating the mechanism (a bell)
• One day the mechanism broke and still rang the bell and the person’s knee still kicked

Question 34

what did pavlov discover and how?

Answer 34

• Discovered Classical conditioning, won nobel prize for it
• Learning process that occurs when 2 stimuli are repeatedly paired
• Trained dogs to salivate in response to a metronome before given food (salivation reflex)
• Dogs were able to anticipate and learn association btwn technicians’ putting on lab coats with them getting food
• Used screens so dogs couldn’t see what was going on and used a metronome as a stimulus
• At first, dog dripped saliva into cheek tube when food appeared but then the sound alone of the metronome made the dog drip as much saliva as it would when eating food (aka conditioned reflex)
• Whatever stimulus he chose, the dog could be conditioned to produce saliva

Question 35

what are the core beliefs of behaviourism?

Answer 35

• thought that only observable behavior was worthy of being studied scientifically
• Thought all behaviour could be described by principle of conditioning
• Thinks that nurture is all important - doesn’t matter what their genetics are

Question 36

what was john b watson’s contribution to behaviourism?

Answer 36

• Revolutionized principles of marketing
• Developed ads that formed associations btwn a product and a desired feeling to make people buy the product - the methods are still used today by advertisers

Question 37

what is operant conditioning?

Answer 37

• strengthening or weakening a behaviour by reward and punishment
• How do our behaviours change based on the feedback we get about those behaviours? Reward - behaviour more likely in future, punishment - less likely in future (Aka positive and negative reinforcement)

Question 38

what was bf skinner’s contribution to behaviourism?

Answer 38

• Believed and helped develop fundamental rules of learning shared across all animals
• wanted to know How do our behaviours change based on the feedback we get about those behaviours? Reward - behaviour more likely in future, punishment - less likely in future

Question 39

what was ebbinghaus’ interested in during the cognitive revolution?

Answer 39

• Interested in how we forget information
• Developed “forgetting curves” - tested himself trying to memorize long list of words and would test himself being able to recall the list at varying delay periods
• Noticed a pattern of forgetting - in the short term within the first hour, even though he thought he knew all the words he was losing ½ of the info, after an hour it leveled out and were retained in his memory

Question 40

what was bartlett interested in during the cognitive revolution?

Answer 40

• Studied how memory is an interpretive process and can be influenced by our culture
• Would give his participants a story and get them to remember details of the story
• People were bad @ remembering specific details but remembered general story arc, would also change details of the story to fit their experiences

Question 41

what is gestalt psychology?

Answer 41

• Believe that in order to understand our experiences, you can’t add up individual parts - “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”
• Emphasis on focusing on the whole of perception and experience rather than its parts

Question 42

what is cognitive psychology?

Answer 42

• modern perspective focusing on mental processes (ex. Memory, thinking, and language)
• Popularized when computer was invented and gave scientists an analogy for our mind (a computer has “invisible” software to run similar to “invisible” process in our brain

Question 43

who was kurt lewin?

Answer 43

• Founder of modern social psychology

- Believed behaviour is a function of the individual and environment