Chapters 1 & 2 Flashcards
Psychology
The scientific study of behaior and mental processes
Scientific Method
The orderly systematic procedures that reserachers follow as they identify a research problem, design a study to investigate the procem, collect and analzye data, draw conclusions, and communicate their findings.
The most objective method for acquiring knowledge.
The Steps of the Scientific Method
- Observe and Theorize
- Formulate a Hypothesis
- Design a Study
- Collect Data
- Apply the Results to the Hypothesis
Observe and Theorize
The first step in the scientific method.
The reseracher observes some phenomenon and theorizes (develops a hunch) about what may have led to the phenomenon.
Theory
A general principle or set of principles proposed to explain how a number of separate facts are related.
Hypothesis
A prediction about a relationship between two or more variables.
Formulate a Hypothesis
The second step of the Scientific Method.
A researcher comes up with a hypothesis that can be tested empiracally with data.
Hypothesis
A prediction about a relationship between two or more variables.
Design a Study
The third step in the Scientific Method.
A resercher designs a study in which he/she uses the same procedures to test her hypothesis.
Collect Data
The fourth step in the Scientific Method.
Once the researcher conducts his/her study, they collect the data that could be relevant to the hypothesis.
Apply the Results to the Hypothesis
The researcher must assess if the data collected from the study supports the hypothesis. If the results do not support the hypothesis, the researcher must modify the hypothesis.
The researcher typically replicates the study to further support the data collected from the study which supports/does not support the hypothesis.
Replication
The process of repeating a study with different participatnts and preferably a different investigator to verify the research findings.
What are the goals of psychology?
- Describe
- Explain
- Predict
- influence
The behavior and mental processes.
Description
One of the goals of psychology.
Describe the behavior or mental processes as accurately as possible.
A description tells WHAT occured.
Explanation
One of the goals of psychology
Requires an understanding of the conditions under which a given behavior or mental process occurs.
Suggest causes for behavior mental processes of interest.
Tells WHY a given event or behavior occurred.
Prediction
One of the goals of psychology
Researchers can specify the condictions under which a behavior or an event is likely to occur.
Influence
One of the goals of psychology
When researchers know how to apply a principle or change a condition in order to prevent unwanted occurerences or bring about desired outcomes.
What are the two types of research that can help psychologist accomplisht the four goals of Psychology?
- Basic research
- Applied research
Basic Research
Seek new knowledge and expore and advance general scientific understanding.
Explores topics such as nature of memory, brain function, motivation, and emotional expression.
Applied Research
Conducted specifically for the puropose of solving practical problems and improving the quality of life.
Focuses on finding methods to improve memory or increase motivtation, therapies to treat psychological disorders, ways to decrease stress, etc.
Primarily concerned with “influence” because it specifies ways and means of changing behavior.
Who were the founders of Psychology?
Ernst Weber
Gustav Fechner
Hermann von Helmholtz
Who is the Father of Psychology?
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
Established a psychological labratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany (1879).
Established a method called “introspection,” he studied the perception of a variety of visual, tactile, and auditory stimuli, including the rhythm patterns produced by metronomes set a different speeds. Introspection as research involves looking inward to examine one’s own conscious experience and then reporting that experience.
Structuralism
The first formal school of thought in psychology, which endeavored to analyze the basic elements or structure, of conscious mental experience.
Criticized because introspection is not objective.
Functionalism
An early school of pscyhology that was concerned with how humans and animals use mental processes in adapting to their environment.
It also allowed the sudy of children, animals, and individuals with mental health issuess. These groups could not be studied by the structuralists becasue they could not be trained to use introspection.
Focused on applied, more practical use of psychology by encouraging the study of educational practices, individual differences, and adaptation in the workplace (industrial psychology).
Behaviorism
Proposed by John B. Watson (1913)
Views observable, measurable behavoior as the appropriate subject matter for psychology and emphasizes the key role of environment as a determinant of behavior.
Most influential school of thought in American psychology until the 1960’s.
Operant Conditioning
B.F. Skinner’s (1904-1990) research which emphasized the importance of reinforcement in learning as well as in shaping and maintaining behavior. He mantained that any behavior that is reinforced (followed by pleasant or rewarding consequences) is more likely to be performed again.
Psychoanalysis
Developed by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).
The term that Freud used for both his theory of personality and his therapy for the treatment of psychological disorders.
The unconscious is the primary focus of this theory- individuals do not consicously control their thoughts, feelings, and behavior; this is determined by unconscious forces.
Humanistic Psychology
The school of psychology that focuses on the uniqueness of human beings and their capacity for choice, growth, and psychological health.
- Rejects the behaviorist view that behavior is determined by factors in the environment
- Rejects the pessimsitic view of the psychoanalytic approach that human behavior is determined primarily by the unconscious forces
Self-actualization
Developed by Maslow.
This hiearchial need to develop to one’s fullest potential.
Person-centered Therapy
Developed by Carl Rodgers.
An approch in which the client directsa discussion focused on his or her own view of the problem rather than on the therapist’s analysis.
Cognitive Psychology
The school of psychology that views humans as active participants in their environment; studies mental processes such as memory, problem solving, reasoning, decision making, perception, language, and other forms of cognition.
Gestalt Psychology
Developed by Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler
School of psychology that emphasizes that individuals perceive objects and patterns as whole units and that the perceived whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Central to cognitive pschologists’ ideas about learning, memory, problem solving, and psychotherapy
Information-Processing Theory
An approach to the study of mental structures and processes that uses the computer as a model for human thinking.
The brain processes information in sequential setps, in much the same way as a computer does serial and parallel processing.
The brain interprets information rather than responding to it (similar to Gestalt Psychology).
Biological Psychology
The school of psychology that looks for links between specific behaviors and equally specific biological processes that often help explain individual differences.
Focuses on universals, traits that exists in every member of the species.
Researchers study the structures of the brain and CNS, the functioning of neurons, the delicate balance of neurotransmitters and hormones, and the effects of heredity to look for links between biological factors and behaviors.
Neuroscience
An interdisciplinary field that combines the work of psychologists, biologists, biochemists, medical researchers, and tohers in the study of the structure and function of the nervous system.
Sociocultural Approach
Emphasizes social and cultural influences on human behavior and stresses the importance of understanding those influences when interpreting the behavior of others.
Systems Perspective
Social and cultural influences on behavior are often studied within this broader context.
Multiple factors work together holistically. Their combined, interactive influences on behavior are greater than the sum of the individual factors that make up the system.
Psychological Perspectives
General points of view used for explaining people’s behavior and thinking, whether normal or abnormal.
Evolutionary Psychology
The school psychology that studies how humans have adapted the behaviors required for survival in the face of environmental pressures over the long course of evolution.
Eclectic (or Integrative) Position
Many psychologists choose a combination of approaches to explain a particular behavior.
Heuristic Value
Makes people think and spurs their curiosity and creativity. Stimulates debate among psychologists and encourages both proponets and opponents of the theory to pursue additional research.
Aids for learning, discovery, and problem solving.
Critical Thinking
The foundation of the scientific method.
The process of objectively evaluating claims, propositions, and conclusions to determine whether they follow logically from the evidence presented.
Characteristics of Critical Thinking
- Independent Thinking
- Suspension of judgment
- Willingness to modify or abandon prior judgments
Anecdotal Evidence
Reponse to research on the basis of own perosnal experiences.
Pseudosience
The distortion of theories and/or research for the purpose of suporting some kind of claim.
Descriptive Research Methods
Research methods that yield descriptions of behavior and include naturalistic and laboratory observation, the case study, the survey, and the correlational method.
Involves direct observation and often provides the clearest results.
Naturalistic Observation
A descriptive research method in which researchers observe and record behavior in its natural setting, without attempting to influence or control it.
May be the only feasible way to study behavior (e.g. how people react during earthquakes, etc.)
Observer Bias
A distortion in the researcher’s observations.
Can result when researchers’ expectations about a situation cause them to see what they expect to see or to make incorrect inferences about what they observe.
Laboratory Observation
A descriptive research method in which behavior is studied in a laboratory setting, where researchers can exert more control and use more precise equipment to measure responses.
Disadvantages: may not observe real-world behavior, building, staffing, equipping, and maintaing a research laboratory can be expensive.
Case Study
A descriptive research method in which a single person or a small number of individuals are studied in great depth, usually over an extended period of time.
Involves the use of observations, interviews, and sometimes psychological testing.
Survey
A descriptive research method in which researchers use interviews and/or questionnaires to gather information about the attitudes, beliefs, experiences, or behaviors of a group of people.
Population
The entire group of interest to researchers, to which they whish to generalize their findings.
The group from which a sample is selected.
Sample
A part of a population that is studied in order to reach conclusions about the entire population.
A representative sample
A sample that mirrors the population of interest.
It includes important subgroups in the same proportions as they are found in that population.
A Biased Sample
A sample that does not adequately reflect the larger population.
A Random Sample
The best method for obtaining a representative sample from a list of all members of the population of interest.
individuals are selected in such a way that every member of the larger population has an equal chance of being included in the sample.
What are some of the advantages of interviews and questionnaires?
They can be completed more quickly and less expensively.
Can be completed by the internet.
What are some disadvantages of interviews and questionnaires?
Truthfulness of the responses can be affected by characteristics of the interviewers, such as their gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, and accent.
People are most inhibited when they give personal responses to interviewers who are the same age but of the opposite sex.
Questionnaires are subject to technical glitches and problems which can affect the results.
Data from questionnaires may be skewed as people choose to participate rather than being randomly selected.
Social Desirability Response
Respondents to a survey who may try to present themselves in a good light or delibrately mislead the interviewer.
Correlational Method
A method used to establish the degree of relationship between two characteristics, events, or behaviors.
Cannot be used to determine a cause-effect relationship.
ex. a research may examine the relationship of a person obtaining a college degree and subsequent income.
Correlation Coefficient
A numerical value that indicates the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables.
Ranges from +1.00 (a perfect positive correlation) to a -1.00 (a perfect negative correlation).
The higher the number, the stronger the relationship.
Experimental Method
The only research method that can be used to identify cause-effect relationships between two or more conditions or variables.
Casual Hypothesis
A prediction about a cause-effect relationship between two or more variables.
Variable
Any condition or factor that can be manipulated, controlled, or measured.
Independent Variable
In an experiement, a factor or condition that is delibreately mainpulated in order to determine whether it casuses any change in another behavior or condition.
Sometimes referred to as the treatment.
Dependent Variable
The factor or condition that is measured at the end of an experiement and is presumed to vary as a result of the manipulations of the independent variable(s).
Experimental Group
In an experiment, the group that isexposed to an independent variable.
Control Group
In an expeirment, a group similar to the experimental group that is exposed to the same experiemental environment but is not given the treatment.
Used for the purposes of comparision.
Confounding Variables
Factors or conditions other than the independent variable(s) that are not equivalent across groups and could cause differences among the groups with respenct to the dependent variable.
Selection Bias
The assignments of participants to experimental or control groups in such a way that systematic differences among the groups are present at the beginning of teh experiement.
Random Assignment
The process of selecting participants for experimental and control groups by using a chance procedure to guarantee that each participant has an equal probability of being assigned to any of the groups.
A control for selection bias.
Placebo Effect
The phenomenon that occurs in an experirment when a participant’s response to a treatment is due to his or her expectations about the treatment rather than the treatment itself.
Placebo
An inert or harmless substance given to the control group in an experiment as a control for the placebo effect.
Experimenter bias
A phenonmenon that occurs when a researcher’s preconceived notions or expectations in some way influence participants’ behavior and/or the researcher’s interpretation of experimental results.
Double Blind Technique
A procedure in which neither the participants nor the experimenter knows who is in the experimental and ctonrol groups until after the data have been gathered; a control for experimenter bias.
