chapters 1-3 test Flashcards
What is the difference between a theory and a hypothesis?
A hypothesis is an educated guess based on research for an experience that as not been done yet. A theory is a principle formed to show things already explained in the data.
How are theories different from opinions?
Theories look at more research whereas opinion are based off of one ideas and isn’t based on any evidence or given research.
What is the biopsychosocial model of behaviour?
The biopsychosoical is a means of explaining as a product of biological, physiological and sociological factors.
What are the four components of scientific literacy?
Knowledge gathering (what do we know about this?), scientific explanation (how can science explain it), critical thinking (can we critically evaluate the evidence?), application (why is this relevant?).
Which is better: studying in one long session (massed learning) or studying in several shorter sessions (distributed or spaces learning)?
Studying in several shorter sections because you are not as stressed about what you are trying to study and because you have more time you don’t need to cram in all the info at ones.
What are six characteristics of critical thinking?
The 6 characteristics is to: Be curious (simple answers are sometimes too simple, and common sense is not always correct), examine the nature and source of the evidence; not all research is of equal quality, examine assumptions and biases (ex, research examine the impact of human behaviour on climate change maybe biased if it is funded by oil companies), avoid overly emotional thinking (ex. Having strong responses about a gender you need to keep those differences aside when doing studies), tolerate ambiguity (most complex issues do not have clear-out examples), consider alternative viewpoints and alternative interpretations of the evidence (we need sleep to function but there are theories that explain the functions that sleep serves).
What is the principle of parsimony?
The simplest of all competing explanations of a phenomena should be the one we accept.
If someone said that knowledge about the world was based on careful observation, you would say that she believes in the idea of…
empiricism . (The idea that knowledge is based on careful observation and not on common sense or speculation)
If someone believed that all events are governed by lawful, cause-and-effect relationships, you’d assume that she agreed with the idea of…
determinism (linking one thing with something else, one thing cause another thing) .
What were the four humors proposed by Hippocrates? How were they related to personality?
The four humours are: blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile.
What was Alcmaeon’s main contribution to science?
He was the first bran theorist, he though the eyes contained the light of fire, he pioneered the use of dissection as a tool of inquiry (first person to dissect), never connected the eyes to the brain.
What was Galen’s main contribution to science?
Studies clinical cases from gladiatorial schools in pergamim, he was the first person to ever state that the solid portion of the brain (not the fluid-filled ventricles) was responsible for sensation and movement.
What is the Edwin Smith papyrus?
It is the first written case descriptions linking brain functions to behaviour. The surgeon notes that the brain and spinal cord damage led to impairments in other body parts.
What is the ventricular theory?
In 390, church leaders decreed that the psyche was located in the ventricles, NOT in the solid brain tissue.
What did Thomas Willis figure out?
Father of neurology, he examined Brian -damaged humans and animals. He demonstrated that the cortex had important cognitive and sensory functions.
What is the difference between materialism and dualism?
Materialism is belief that humans and other living beings are composed exclusively of physical matter. Dualism is the belief that there are not material ( a mind or soul operate from the body).
What is a zeitgeist?
A zeitgeist refers to a general list of beliefs of a particular culture at a specify time in history.
What is psychophysics? Which researcher is most related to the emergence of this idea?
Phychophycis is the study of the relationship between the physical world and the mental representation of that world. Gustav fechner is most related to the emergence of this idea. He showed that the weights were not received as being equal. The mental interpretation of a stimulus differed from the physical reality of the stimulus.
What was Darwin’s main intellectual contribution to the world?
He wrote the organ of speeches and the descent of man. He discovered natural selection.
What is brain localization? How did it end up becoming related to phrenology?
Brain localization is the early lesion studies. Phrenology was developed by Franz gall and Johannes spurzheim. It is a technique to biologically asses a persons character. It was quantifies personality and traits based on the shape and size of bumps on the skull. (LOOK AT NOTES ON THIS AND PROBLEMS WITH THIS)
What is clinical psychology?
Clinical psychology is the filed of psychology that deals concentrates on the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders.
Who developed the theory of psychoanalysis?
The theory of psychoanalysis is a psychological approach that attempts to explain how behaviour and personality are influenced by unconscious processes. It was developed by Sigmund freud. Who was a neurologist with medical training. He worked with patients whose symptoms did not seem to be physical.
What was the main contribution of Sir Francis Galton?
He pioneered the use of statistics to the study of perception and behaviour. He introduced the idea that heredity explained psychological differences between people. He came up with nature vs nurture relationships.
Why is Wilhelm Wundt important to the field of psychology?
He established the first psychological laboratory. He presented his subjects with a wide variety of stimuli, and asked them to look within themselves to introspect. He tried to measure the changes in their experiences as the stimuli changes.
What is behaviourism?
Behaviourism is a subfield of psychology that focused on studying only observable behaviour with little or no reference to mental events or instincts as possible influences on behaviour.
What was the main contribution of Pavlov?
He discovered that animal can learn associations. He was known for his discovery of classical conditioning.
What was the main contribution of B. F. Skinner?
He showed that many behaviours are a result of reinforcement or punishment. Behaviourists thought the mind was a “black box” that simply organized reinforcement seeking and punishment avoidance.
What is humanistic psychology? Name two key figures in this movement.
Humanistic psychology is a field focusing on the unique aspects of each individual. It examines peoples freedoms to act and rational thought. It includes a belief that humans are fundamentally different from other animals.
Two key figures are carl rogers and Abraham Maslow. Both focused on the positive aspects of humanity and the factors that lead to a productive and fulfilling life. They believed that people could attain mental well-being and satisfaction through going a greater understanding of themselves, rather than by being diagnosed with a disorder or having their problems labelled.
Who was Donald Hebb?
Was a Canadian neuroscientist. He conducted many studies examine how cells in the brain change over the course of learning. He observed that when a brain cell consistently stimulates another cell, metabolic and physical changes occur to strengthen this relationship.
Hebbs law demonstrated that memory a behaviour that we can measure and that affects so many parts of our lives is actually related to activity occurring at the cellular level.
What is Gestalt psychology?
Gestalt psychology is an approach to perception that emphasizes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
What is the difference between personality and social psychology?
Social psychology is the study of the influence of other people on our behaviour. Personality psychology is the study of how different personality characteristics can influence how we think and act.
What is the difference between objective and subjective research?
Objective research issues that certain facts about the world can be observed and tested independently from the individual who describes them. Subjective research is when knowledge of an event or behaviour is shaped by prior beliefs, expectations, experiences and even their mood.
What are the five important characteristics of good scientific research?
It is based on measurements that are objective, valid and reliable
It can be generalized
It uses techniques that reduce bias
It is made public
It can be replicated.
What is an objective measurement?
It is the measurement of an entity or behaviour that, within an allowed margin of error, is consistent across instruments and observers.
Why are operational definitions important?
Operational definitions are statements that describe the procedures (or operations) and specific measures that are used to record observations. They are important so everyone has the same idea\knows what is being referred
What is the difference between validity and reliability?
Validity is the degree to which an instrument or procedure actually measures what it claims to measure. Reliability is when a measurement toll provides consistent and stable answers across multiple observations and points in time.
What is the difference between test-retest reliability and alternate-forms reliability?
Test-retest reliability examines whether scores on a given measure of behaviour are consistent across test sessions. Alternate forms reliability is a form of reliability that examines whether different forms of the same test produce the same results.
What is inter-rater reliability?
Inter-rater reliability is that the raters arrive at very similar conclusions.
What is generalizability?
The degree to which one set of results can be applied to other situations, individuals or events.
What is the difference between a population and a sample?
A population is the group that researchers want to generalize about. A sample is a select group of population members.
What is the difference between a random sample and a convenience sample?
A random sample is a sampling technique in which every individual of population has an equal chance of being included. A convenience sample is a sample of individuals who are the most readily available.
What is ecological validity?
Ecological validity is the results of a laboratory study can be applied too or repeated in the natural environment.
A behaviour change that occurs as a result of being observed is known as the …
hawthorn effect
What are demand characteristics? How would they affect a psychological study?
Demand characteristics are inadvertent cues given off by the experimenter or experimental context that provide information about how participants are expected to behave. They can bias research findings.
What is the social desirability effect?
The social desirability effect is when participants respond in ways that increase the chances th
Describe two studies by Rosenthal and colleagues that illustrated the power of demand characteristics (these are in the notes and in the Working the Scientific Literacy Model section of Module 2.1 of the textbook).
One study was: researchers told teachers in 18 different classrooms that a group of children has an unusual potential for learning when in reality they were just a random selection of students. After 8 months of schooling the children singled out as especially promising showed significant gains not just in grades but in intelligence test scores, which are believed to be relatively stable. The observation for this concluded that the students changed their behaviour patterns in order to match up with the expectations of the teachers.
In a another study research assistants were told they were handling “bright” rats it appeared that the animals learned significantly faster than when the assistants were told they were handling “dull” rats. This study concluded that the assistant made subtle changes in how they treated the animals and in how they observed and recorded behaviour.
Who was Clever Hans?
Clever Hans was a horse, that “could” do math. He picked up on subtle cues that his excited owner was accidentally giving him. (Leaned towards Hans as he approached the correct answer; leaned back once the corrects sum was reached.)
What is a placebo effect?
The placebo effect is a measurable and experienced improvement in health or behaviour that cannot be attributable to a medication or treatment.
-What is the difference between a single-blind and a double-blind study?
A single-blind study is in which participants do not know the true purpose of the study or else do not know which type of treatment they are receiving (ex. Placebo or drug). A double-blind study is in which neither the participant nor the experimenter knows the exact treatment for any individual.
What is peer review?
Peer review is a process in which papers submitted for publication in scholarly journals are read and critiqued by experts in specific filed of study.
The process of repeating a study and finding a similar outcome each time is known as…
replication
What are five characteristics of poor research? Hint: You should be able to read an example of bad research and identify which of these five errors are being made.
Untestable hypothesis (the hypothesis mist be precise enough that it could be proven false), falsifiability (non-falsifiable- drunk people will drive faster than non-drink people except then they’re not thirsty or the fellow players get on three nerves, falsifiable- drunk people will show faster driving speeds in a driving simulator game than non-drunk people.), anecdotes (when an individuals story or testimony about an observation or event is used in place of scientific evidence.), biased selection of data (some individuals present only. The data that support their views. [cherry picking dats] ), appeals of authority (the belief in an experts claim even when no supporting data or scientific evidence is present), appeals to “common sense”(a claim that appears to be sound but lacks supporting scientific evidence).
When would you use a case study as your research design?
Used for rate psychological conditions or situations. It is an in-depth report about the details of a specific case.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of case studies?
The advantages of case studies are: can provide dats that would be unethical to produce in the lab, unique cases can help test existing theories, can stimulate new lines of research
The disadvantages of case studies are: it is possible to “over-generalize” based on one individual. Potential biases associated with becoming a “professional research participants”, and case studies lack the control of expeirmental studies.
Who is Phineas Gage?
Gage was a foreman working for the rutland and Burlington railroad company. He was helping his crew blast through a rocky outcrop, and was involved in an accident that caused an iron rod to be propelled upwards underneaths his eye and through his head. However he survived the accident. His injuries were not limited to physical damage and his mental state had also been affected. His friends claimed that the changes were so pronounced that he was no longer himself. The doctors concluded that these sudden changes were due to the brain damage that he had suffered. To examine gage, the doctor stuck his finger into the hole in gage’s head. Which suggested that his damage was located in the frontal lobes of the brain, a region now known to be involved in a number of complex behaviours including decision making and emotional regulation. Gage continued to have difficulties painting social relationships. If the doctors paid more attention to his injuries this would have been the first reported cases of the brains ability to compensate and repair itself after injury.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of naturalistic observation studies?
The disadvantages are: naturalistic observation studies lack the control of experimental studies, the experimenter can’t manipulate any variable.
Some advantages are: The tester should not know they are being observed (less bias), researchers use this to improve the reliability of their work,
What are self-report studies?
Self reporting is a method in which responses are provided directly by the people who are being studied, typically through face-to-face interviews, phone surveys, paper and pencil tests, and web based questionnaires.
How could the volunteer bias affect the results of self-report studies (e.g., surveys)?
The people who volunteer to complete surveys may be biases, or not representative of the general population.
what is correlational research?
It is measuring the degree of association between two or more variable. And it is depicted with a scatterplot.
What is the difference between a positive and a negative correlation?
A correlation coefficient is a statistical measure of the degree to which changes in to the value of one variable predict chang e to the value of another.
What is the third variable problem?
The possibility that a third, unmeasured variable is actually responsible for a well-established correlation between two variables.
-What is an illusory correlation? Can you think of an example of an illusory correlation?
An illusory correlation is an apparent relationship that exist only in the mind rather than in reality.
An example is an hospital nurse or a police officer who swears that the full moon nights are the busiest and craziest of all.
Why is random assignment important for experimental designs?
Random assignment is a technique for dividing samples into two or more groups in which participants are equally likely to be placed in any condition of the experiment.
Random assignment of the participants and the researchers experimental control over the variables being studied.
What is a confounding variable?
Confounding variable is a variable outside of the researchers control that might affect or provide an alternative explanation of the results.
What is the difference between an independent variable and a dependent variable?
An independent variable is the variable that the experimenter manipulates to distinguish between two or more groups. The dependent variable is the observation or measurement that is recorded during the experiment and subsequently compared across all groups.
What is the difference between within-subjects designs and between-subjects designs?
Between subject designs is an experimental design in which we compare the performance of participants who are in different groups. Within subject designs is an experiment design in which. The same participants respond to all types of stimuli or experience all experimental conditions.
What is the difference between a control group and an experimental group?
A control group is the group that does not receive the treatment or stimuli targeting a specific behaviour; this group therefore serves as a baseline to which the experimental group is compared. Am experimental group is the group in the experiment that receives a treatment or the stimuli targeting a specific behaviour.
In a drug study, would a group that received a placebo rather than the treatment drug be in the experimental group or the control group?
It is the control group because they are the baseline experimental group.
What are quasi-experimental research designs?
A research technique in which the two or more groups that are compared are selected based on pre determined characteristics, rather than random assignment.
What are research ethics boards?
A committee of researchers and officials at an institution charged with the protection of human research participants.
Why is informed consent important for research?
A potential volunteer must be informed and give consent without pressure, they need to know what they are getting themselves into.
When is deception allowable in psychological research?
Deception is misleading or only partially informing participants of theatre topic or hypothesis under investigation. Deception is allowed in a study of medical drugs where a patient is given a placebo, this helps to know the true nature of the drug.
