Chapter 2 (final) Flashcards
what is rationalism
the view that reason and logical argument, but not experience, is most important for how we acquire knowledge
what did Hermann Ebbinghaus’ textbook signify
signified a revolution in psychology as a science— questions from philosophers had been asked for a long time, but how they answered relied on the process of rationalism
who thought concluded that thoughts/perceptions/emotions were from the heart
Aristotle
how did aristotle conclude that thoughts/perceptions/emotions were from the heart
used rationalism to
according to aristotle, why was the hear the primary organ
the heart is in the middle of our body, connected by blood to all other organs, the beating of the heart is affected by emotional state… so it made sense
what was the brain classified as according to aristotle
brain as classified as a secondary organ and was thought to cool down the body, whereas the heart would warm it
define theories
rational explanations to describe and predict future behaviour
what is the scientific method
common approach in which researchers methodologically answer questions;
what are the steps to the scientific method
identify the problem gather information generate a hypothesis design and conduct experiments analyze data and formulate conclusions restart process (at hypothesis)
what is the best definition of a hypothesis
The predicted outcome of an experiment
Which of the following is not a part of the scientific method? identify problem theory hypothesis data analysis and conclusion
theory
Using the scientific method, in what stage does a scientist ‘test’ their hypothesis? Identify the problem hypothesis Design and conduct experiments Data analysis and conclusions
Design and conduct experiments
what does Naturalistic observation allows us to do
better understand behaviour exactly as it happens in the real world
what is ecologically valid
type of description of behaviour is called ecologically valid— the observations are a product of genuine reactions
what is important to do in naturalistic observation
important to stay as unobtrusive as possible (aka people don’t know they are being watched; in relation to the “dropped my wallet” prank)
what is the hawthorn effect
animals tend to react differently when they are being watched
this “reactivity” is called the Hawthorne effect
What does the word ‘Hawthorne’ refer to?
A factory called Hawthorne Works Electric Company
In the Hawthorne study, what was one change that was mentioned?
The amount of lighting in the work environment
Damon Brown’s work found that the change in the working environment was not the important factor. Rather, it was simply that they were being observed. Which step in the scientific method does this address?
Data analysis
In some instances, naturalistic observation might also be the only way to observe behaviour, give an example of this
like in the case of natural disasters— or any other condition that would be deemed unethical to conduct in a controlled setting
what are some disadvantages of naturalistic observation
some disadvantages; researchers lack control of the environment and many different factor that can affect behaviour
like; in the wallet-dropping prank, we saw some people take the wallet, but we are unsure of why. What were the circumstances leading up to that? How are we sure they even saw the person drop it?
what is interrater reliability
ensuring the validity of the data they collect (e.g. comparing with other researchers)
what is participant observation—
research method in which a group researcher becomes part of the group under investigation
what is participant observation used
sometimes it’s the only way to gain access to a group (e.g. the only way to understand doomsday cults is to pose as new cult members)
what are the benefits of participant observation
being part of the group can provide a more enriching experience and afford greater access to the daily life and activities of group members
what are limits to participant observation
Having the observer immersed in the experience can increase reactivity, as their mere presence may inherently change behaviour (remember the Hawthorne Effect?). As the observer spends time with and interacts with group members, he or she could become biased and “see” only those things that fit the initial hypothesis
what experiment did David Rosenhan run
professor at Stanford University, skeptical of the diagnostic abilities of clinicians and questioned the accuracy of diagnostic techniques, doubted whether clinicians could reliably distinguish the sane from the insane; this led to a three-year investigation
he had healthy researchers did intake interviews with many hospital’s psychiatrists and used the words such as “empty” “hollow” and “thud” (which on their own are meaningless, but when used in the interview they were all admitted to the psychiatric ward), once inside, they would take notes and observe the doings inside the ward they would act normally once inside the ward
staff of hospitals did not see that they were actually sane, but the patients often suspected they were and accused them of “faking” it
From the David Rosenhan video, under what diagnosis were his pseudopatients discharged from the hospital?
Schizophrenia in remission
what is a case study
an in-depth analysis of a unique circumstance or individual
who is henry molaison
perfect example of how case study can be used to gain insight
as young boy, Henry started to experience mild seizures after falling off his bike and hitting his head (bicycle helmets were rarely used in the 1930s). While manageable at first, his seizures became progressively worse as he aged and could not be treated by conventional means. By the time Henry reached his late 20s, he could no longer live a normal life because of the frequency and severity of his seizure attacks. On the advice of his neurosurgeon, his last resort was bilateral ablation (surgical damage) to his ventral medial temporal lobes (which includes the hippocampus, and the entorhinal cortex), as this brain tissue was believed to be the point of origin of Henry’s seizures
what are the limitations of a case study
hard to generalize the findings from a unique case into a broader conclusion
what are surveys
efficient way to quickly collect information and gather an understanding of the current state of people’s opinions or attitudes
what is a population
every single member of a group
what is a sample
smaller subset of the population (because you cant survey the entire population)
sure has to have wide demographics
what is sampling error bias
any pooled selection of students that differs from the entire population in meaningful ways. For example, this might include a sample of only females, if we have reason to believe that female-identified students outperform male-identified students in the subject.
what is wording effects
— if the wording in the question has bias (either positive or negative)
what is response bias
— the tendency for people to answer the question the way they feel they are expected to answer or in systematic ways that are otherwise inaccurate
In the simplest instance, the validity of surveys can be influenced by what
the acquiescent response bias (otherwise called “yea-saying”)
what is Acquiescence
refers to a tendency for participants to indiscriminately “agree” with most, if not all items on a survey regardless of their actual opinion.
what is The socially desirable bias
another systematic approach to answering questions. In this case, the bias is not indiscriminate, but participants responses in specific ways that would be seen as acceptable by others. For example, many people would be hesitant to admit to illegal or immoral behaviour, especially if the survey results are not kept confidential
how did Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) revolutionize our understanding of people’s sexual attitudes and behaviors
collecting surveys from more than 18,000 people. Kinsey compiled the surveys into two publications known as the Kinsey reports
but the data could be wrong; what about the people who weren’t okay with talking about their sexuality? is the data he collected an accurate representation of the entire population?
The assumption was that people that do volunteer to be interviewed about taboo subjects like sex may not be representative of the rest of the population. This is known as “volunteer bias”; that is, the small few who were willing and ready to talk about their sex lives were likely overrepresented in the survey
When is a case study the most useful?
When a participant has a rare condition
The term “Hawthorne effect” refers to the effect the presence of an observer can have on the behaviour on the subjects or a temporary change in behaviour due to the novelty of the situation
true
false
true
The primary strength of survey research is the ability to determine cause-effect explanations
true
false
false
Observation of behavior in real world settings is best described as ______________ observation
naturalistic observation
what is the goal with any study
goal with any study is to identify relationships between 2+ variables
as one variable changes, so does another
what kinds of directionality do correlations have
Correlations can have positive, negative, or zero directionality
does positive equal good and negative equal bad?
It is important to understand that positive does not imply inherent goodness and negative does not denote badness
what is positive correlation
When two variables are positively correlated, the variables change in the same direction; as one variable increases, the other variable increases and as one variable decreases, the other variable decreases. Height and weight are positively correlated. In general, as height increases, so does weight
what is negative correlation
when variables are negatively correlated, an increase in one variable leads to a decrease in the other
what is zero correlation
indicates that there is no apparent relationship between variables
what is scatterplot
is a graphical depiction of a correlation to help
what is the line of best fit
If you drew a line through the points, also called the line of best fit, that best represented the scores around them, it is even easier to see the direction even when the data points are not as fully aligned
Positive and negative values convey the direction of a correlation, but do they indicate how closely the 2 variable are related
these descriptions do not indicate how closely the two variables are related
how is The strength of a correlation determined
determined by a second metric
what is confounding variable;
that is, other variables that may influence one or both variables that we are measuring, thereby influencing the correlation coefficient
may be more relevant to consider a type of confounding variable in which a third variable,
“When ice cream sales rise, so do homicides” they are not directly related, but rather the third variable (temperature) is
What is one major purpose of correlational research?
To identify relationships between two variables
A study found a Correlation coefficient of .85 between spatial navigation skills and scores on a driving test. What would this suggest?
As spatial navigation scores increase, so do scores on a driving test
what is A hypothesis
a prediction about what will happen in research
The experiment is used to directly link ideas in within a what
cause and effect relationship
its simplest form, predicting cause and effect relationship can be framed in the following way:
It should be consistent with prior observations or an existing theory It should be kept as simple as possible It should be specific It should be testable The hypothesis should be falsifiable
what does it mean by It should be consistent with prior observations or an existing theory.
A hypothesis is not simply a ‘shot in the dark’ (guess). Rather a hypothesis should be an educated prediction based on what you have already learned from descriptive methods (such as observations, case studies, or surveys) that provide an understanding of “what is.” A hypothesis builds upon those observations to address “why it is.”
what does it mean by It should be kept as simple as possible.
The goal in an experiment is to identify a cause and effect relationship between two variables. Adding more than two variables complicates the relationship between any two variables. As such, answering complex research questions may require multiple experiments, each with its own simple hypothesis.
what does it mean by It should be specific.
A good hypothesis provides all the details about who we are measuring, what changes will be made during the experiment, and what effect we predict those changes will have on the outcome of the experiment.
what does it mean by It should be testable.
A specific hypothesis states what evidence will be measured and used as a point of comparison.
what does it mean by The hypothesis should be falsifiable.
Are there clear conditions or outcomes that could provide your hypothesis false? At first glance, you may be wondering why falsifiability is a necessary component of a hypothesis. After all, if we have a theory, why would we create an experiment that might not work? If you’re scratching your head, consider what would happen if all predictions were only found to be true; inevitably, two theories will contradict one another (for example, “the world is flat” vs. “the world is round”). If we can’t falsify either of these theories in experiments, we would never be able to distinguish fact from fiction
what is experimental hypothesis.
It is what we expect to find if this idea is correct
what is independent variable (IV)
is the variable that the experimenter will manipulate, and it must contain at least two levels
what is Extraneous variables (also known as confounding variables)
are any variables that are not the focus of study, but that may influence the outcome of research if not controlled
By controlling as many extraneous variables as possible, what can be almost certain
By controlling as many extraneous variables as possible, we can be confident that changes we observe in the dependent variable (aggressive behaviour) are due to the effects of our independent variable (e.g. the gender or age of the experiment-ees)
Imagine that we are interested in how maternal separation affects stress early in life. To explore this relationship, we separate young rat pups from their mothers for 15 minutes per day and measure corticosterone levels (a hormonal marker of stress) just before returning the pups back to their mother
What is the independent variable Corticosterone levels The amount of maternal care Separating rat pups from their mother Young rat pups
Separating rat pups from their mother
Imagine that we are interested in how maternal separation affects stress early in life. To explore this relationship, we separate young rat pups from their mothers for 15 minutes per day and measure corticosterone levels (a hormonal marker of stress) just before returning the pups back to their mother
What is the dependent variable Corticosterone levels The amount of maternal care Separating rat pups from their mother Young rat pups
Corticosterone levels
what is simple random sample
is a type of sampling where every individual in the population has an equal chance of participating.
what are the advantages of simple random sample
The advantage of a simple random sample is that if large enough, it should approximate the larger population that you wish to study
what is stratified random sample
is a more careful approach to random sampling and is particularly useful when there are two or more identifiable subgroups in the population. A stratification divides the population first by subgroups, and then random samples are taken in proportion to the population of interest. In a sample class of 100 students with equal numbers of male and female students, our stratification would be to first separate students by gender and then select an equal number of each. This process ensures that equal numbers of males and females are represented in our sample
According to this “The Magic of the Placebo” Ted Talk, which type of placebo is best?
A needle is more effective than a capsule
According to this “The Magic of the Placebo” Ted Talk, what is the main connection between magic and the placebo?
The placebo is felt even when you know it’s fake
how to dress international validity
By controlling for factors that might bias the outcome of an experiment, we are addressing Internal validity, the degree to which results may be attributable to the independent variable rather than some other effect of our experiment
Basically, was the experiment done “right”? If we control for internal threats to validity, we should be able to repeat the experiment again and again, and come to the same conclusion
How well the experimenter can generalize to the population of interest is called _________
external validity
Complete this sentence. Ideally, if a study concluded that eating ice cream caused violence, it would have to:
Randomly assign participants to groups eating more and less ice cream and compare rates of violence
What is a measure of central tendency?
A single point to describe the center of data
Which measure represents the most frequently observed score in a data set?
mode
what is the most commonly used measure of variability
the most commonly used measure of variability is the standard deviation (SD)
What is variability
difference in the measure of the spread of data
What is variance
The average sum of squared deviations
