Course 1: What Is Psychology?

Question 1

Psyche

Answer 1

Soul

Question 2

Covert behaviour

Answer 2

Behaviour that is not observable by others

Question 3

Overt behaviour

Answer 3

Behaviour that you can see

Question 4

Eclectic psychotherapy

Answer 4

A form of psychotherapy where the clinician combines multiple theories and techniques

Question 5

Behaviourism

Answer 5

Focus on observing and controlling behaviour

Used in behavioural and cognitive therapy

Question 6

Functionalism

Answer 6

How mental activities help an organism adapt to its environment

Question 7

Humanism

Answer 7

Perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans. Humanists believe that rational thinking and human experience is most important.

Question 8

Introspection

Answer 8

Process in which one examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible, making the human mind like any other aspect of nature that a scientist observes (usually involving the patient describing what they experience)

Question 9

Psychoanalytic theory

Answer 9

A focus on how the unconsciousness affects conscious behaviour

Question 10

Structuralism

Answer 10

Understanding the conscious experience through introspection, breaking the human mind into parts. A structuralist would first examine individual parts, then explain how they all fit together.

Question 11

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 11

First person to be referred to as a psychologist (German scientist)

Used introspection to examine the structure of the mind (structuralist); specific conditions were put in place, where a stimulus would produce a repeatable, observable reaction

Eg. Subject receives stimulus in form of light, image, sound, and their reaction time is tested

Question 12

William James

Answer 12

First American psychologist, believing that the purpose of psychology was to determine the purpose of behaviour (functionalist); used introspection

Believing in Darwin’s theory of evolution caused him to think that natural selection produces suitable characteristics AND behaviour

Wrote first psychology textbook, “The Principles of Psychology,” in 1890

Question 13

Sigmund Freud

Answer 13

Austrian neurologist intrigued by hysteria and mental issues, theorizing that they rise from the unconscious mind

Freud believed the unconscious could be examined through dream analysis, the first words that came to people’s minds, and slips of the tongue

Freud popularized psychoanalysis, which includes a patient talking about their experiences and selves

Introduced the importance of childhood experience affecting adult behaviour, motivation driving conflicts, unconscious vs conscious motivations, and the development of personality over time

Question 14

Gestalt psychology

Answer 14

Created by Fritz Peris

Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Köhler were three German psychologists who immigrated to the US in the early 20th century to evade the Nazis, and were credited for introducing Gestalt principles to Americans

Gestalt means whole, and the principle of the psychology is how although a sensory experience can be broken down, it is how they fit together as a whole that causes an individual to perceive it

Question 15

Ivan Pavlov

Answer 15

Russian psychologist who studied conditioned reflex

Salivation in response to the presence of food was able to be produced by providing two stimuli and removing the food one in the future

Question 16

John B. Watson

Answer 16

American psychologist who thought the study of consciousness was flawed

Shifted psychology from mind to behaviour, introducing behaviourism

Commonly used animals in experiments as it was believed that animal behaviour was similar to human behaviour (comparative psychology)

Question 17

Skinner box

Answer 17

American psychologist/behaviourist B.F Skinner created this, examining how behaviour is affected by consequences

Skinner box is a chamber that isolated the subject from its environment, with a lever inside that would either give a reward or punishment when pulled at the right time

Invaluable towards modern behavioural modification

Question 18

Carl Rogers

Answer 18

Like Maslow, was an American psychologist who believed in humanism

Used client-centered therapy

Believed therapists needed to display unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and empathy

Question 19

Noam Chomsky

Answer 19

American linguist who helped start the cognitive revolution

European psychology was not as focused on behaviour as American psychology, so the cognitive revolution helped reestablish communication between them

Nativist perspective on language

Question 20

Institutional Review Board

Answer 20

Any research conducted on humans must first be reviewed by an IRB made up of administration, scientists, and community members. It guarantees that signed consent must be given and confidentiality be kept. In certain cases participants are allowed to be deceived if it affects the results of the experiment.

Question 21

Institutional Animal Care and Committee

Answer 21

Administrators, scientists, and community members charged with enforcing the humane treatment of animal subjects in research

Question 22

Apophenia

Answer 22

The tendency to see connections among unrelated phenomena

Question 23

Pareidolia

Answer 23

Seeing meaningful image in meaningless visual stimuli

Question 24

Hindsight bias

Answer 24

The tendency to believe that after learning an outcome, we could have foreseen that outcome

Question 25

Occam’s Razor

Answer 25

No more assumptions should be made than necessary - does a simpler explanation fit the data?

Morgan’s Canon states that animal behaviour should be explanined as simply as possible

Question 26

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 26

The inability to remember events or information prior to an accident or disease; temporally graded means an increasing lack of memory the closer the time to the incident

Question 27

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 27

Inability to form memories after the event in which brain damage occurred

Question 28

Regression

Answer 28

The use of correlation, using one variable to predict the value of another

Question 29

Confounding variable

Answer 29

A variable C that affects both A and B, making it seem as if the two are related

Question 30

Between-subjects experiment

Answer 30

A different group of subjects is tested under each condition.
For example, one group is given antidepressant pills and the other group is given a sugar pill (placebo)

Question 31

Within-subjects experiment

Answer 31

The same group of subjects are tested under each condition. Counterbalancing can be required, where half of the group would undergo the first condition first, and the second half would do the second condition first.

Question 32

Quasi-experiment

Answer 32

An experiment where participants are not randomly assigned to experimental groups and control groups.

Question 33

Multimodal distribution

Answer 33

A set of data with two or more modes; a single mode is called unimodal distribution, two is called bimodal

Question 34

Variance

Answer 34

The sum of squared deviations of random variables in a data set from its mean, divided by the number of scores

Sum of squared deviations/number of scores

Question 35

Standard deviation

Answer 35

Square root of the variance, it is used to quantify the amount of variance within a set of values.

Question 36

Correlation coefficient

Answer 36

Represented by the variable r, this shows the correlation between two variables. R cannot be 0, and the closer it is to 1 or -1 means the stronger the correlation. Negative regression line means negative slope.

Question 37

Coefficient of determination

Answer 37

Squaring the correlation coefficient gives the coefficient of determination. This is essentially the percentage of variance that is accounted by the line.

Question 38

Null and alternative hypothesis

Answer 38

The null hypothesis states that the population parameter (a claimed statistic about a population) is equal to the claimed value. The alternative hypothesis states that it is different.

Question 39

Significance level

Answer 39

The significance level, also denoted as alpha or α, is the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true. For example, a significance level of 0.05 indicates a 5% risk of concluding that a difference exists when there is no actual difference.

Question 40

P-value

Answer 40

A probability value used to weigh the strength of your evidence in a hypothesis test. A small p-value (typically ≤ 0.05, or less than your significance level) indicates strong evidence against the null hypothesis, so you reject the null hypothesis. A large p-value (> 0.05, or greater than your significance level) indicates weak evidence against the null hypothesis, so you fail to reject the null hypothesis.

Question 41

Hypothesis test

Answer 41

Used to determine the validity of a claim on a population. For example, you would run a hypothesis test to determine whether a claim that 80% of people are unhappy is true or not.

Question 42

Inferential statistics

Answer 42

Inferential statistics use a random sample of data taken from a population to describe and make inferences about the population.

Question 43

WEIRD

Answer 43

Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic

Question 44

Biological psychology

Answer 44

The study of the physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms behind our thoughts and behaviour

Question 45

T-test

Answer 45

A t-test allows us to compare the average values of the two data sets and determine if they came from the same population. It takes a sample from each of the two sets and establishes the problem statement by assuming a null hypothesis that the two means are equal. If the null hypothesis qualifies to be rejected, it indicates that data readings are strong and are not by chance.

Question 46

Repression

Answer 46

Pushing of feelings/events that cause too much anxiety and tension into the unconsciousness

Question 47

Reinforcement

Answer 47

Environmental stimuli that either encourage or discourage certain responses