Exam 1 Flashcards
Define Psychology.
the study of thoughts, feelings, behavior, and mental processes
What are the goals of science?
Description, explanation, prediction, control, application
What are the levels of analysis in psychology? Use examples.
The Brain/Biological level
- how the physical body contributes to mind and behavior
- musical training can change the brain functions and structures.
The individual level
- the individual differences in personality and in the mental processes that affect how people perceive and know the world
- music can affect mood, memory, decision making, etc
The group/social level
- group contexts affect the ways in which people interact and influence each other
- how music can influence context, music reduces stress especially when enjoyed with others
Community/Culture level
- explores how peoples thoughts, feelings and actions are similar or different across cultures
- Native Hawaiian culture vs Filipino culture-
- US and UK are subtly prejudice against black people bc of social attitudes towards rap and hiphop
Define Critical Thinking
the ability to think clearly and rationally, being wary of something but also being open
Define Introspection
analyzing one’s own thoughts, feelings, behaviors and mental processu
Who came up with structuralism?
Wundht and Titchener
What is structuralism?
theory that seems to analyze the elements of mental experiences like sensations, mental images etc
- What is the structure of the mind and body?
- everything together makes up the entire experience
Give an example of structuralism.
Describing an apple, or describing your experience in the ocean.
Who is the founder of scientific psychology?
William wundt
Who is the founder of Functionalism?
William james
Define functionalism.
theory about the nature of mental states, and they are identified by what they do not by what they are made of
Provide an example of functionalism.
Parents provide for children, in return children take care of elderly parents
Who is the founder of gestalt theory?
Werlheimer, Kohler
What is the Gestalt Theory?
Looks at the human mind and behavior as a whole
how does the mind help us function in the world?
Functionalism
What are the building blocks of the conscious? What is the structure of the mind and behavior?
Structuralism
What is an example of Gestalt theory?
Seeing little circles that outline or make up a bigger circle
How do patterns and context affect consciousness and experience?
Gestalt Theory
Who founded Psychodynamic theory?
freud
How do unconscious forces influence our behavior?
Psychodynamic theory
What are some problems of psychodynamic theory?
theory is too simple
freud is sexist
no way to epirically research the unconscious mind
Who founded behaviorism?
Watson, Skinner
What is Behaviorism?
the theory that all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment
What does observable behavior tell us about how we learn?
Behaviorism
Who founded cognitive revolution
Neisser, newell, simon
How do mental process work?
cognitive revolution
What was the cognitive revolution?
movement that began in the 1950s when attention turned from behavior to a persons cognitive process and structures
What was the role of computers in the cognitive revolution?
Computers were used as an analogy to which they could compare human mental processing
Who founded social psychology?
Lewin, Allport, asch
How does behavior arise from both a persons traits and the social context?
Social Psychology
What is social psychology?
how social influence, perception, and interaction influence individual and group behavior
Who founded evolutionary psychology?
Cosmides, tooby, pinker
What cognitive strategies and goals are adaptive?
Evolutionary psychology
What is evolutionary psychology?
study of behavior, thought, and feeling as viewed through the lens of evolutionary biology
What are the different types of todays psychologists?
Biological/neuroscience
Cognitive
Developmental
Personality/Clinical
Social
What are the steps of the scientific method?
- research a question
- literature review
- form a hypothesis
- design a study
- conduct the study
- analyze the data
- report the results
What is operational definition?
Specify how the variables are measured or manipulated
What are the three basic types of research?
- descriptive
- correlational
- experimental
What does descriptive research aim to do?
observe and describe naturally occurring behaviors to provide a systematic and objective analysis
What are the different types of descriptive research?
- naturalistic observation
- participant observation
- case studies
- surveys
What does correlational studies aim to do?
examine the relationships between two or more variables that are measured but not manipulated
What are the different components of experimental research?
- independent variable
- dependent variable
- effect
- confound
What is the independent variable in experimental research?
any variable the researcher manipulates
What is the dependent variable in experimental research?
measured while the independent variable is changed. depends on the independent variable
What is the effect in experimental research?
the difference in the DV that is due to changes in the IV
What is the confound in experimental research?
anything other than the IV that effects the DV
What is naturalistic observation?
the observer is passive and remains separated from the situation, makes no attempt to change or alter ongoing behavior
What is participant observation?
researcher is involved in the study and can change or alter behavior
What is a case study?
an intensive observation, recording, and description of an atypical person or organization
What is a survey/self report method?
method of data collection used in which people are asked to provide information
What is a positive correlation?
when higher values on one variable predicts higher values on a second variable
What is a negative correlation?
an increase in one variable predicts a decrease in the other variable
population vs sample
population:
the group the experimenters are interested in
sample:
the subset of the group experimenters want to study
random assignment vs random sampling
assignment:
assign participants to the experimental and control groups
sampling:
represents the population fairly and equally
What is convenience sampling?
taken from a subgroup of the full population that happens to be available
What is quasi-experiments? What are the strengths and weakness of quasi-experiments?
experiments w/o random assignment
strength:
real world phenomena that cannot be studied in experiments
weakness
lack of control means limited casual inferences
When would you use quasi-experimental? What is an example of a variable you can’t control?
Use when it is unethical or impractical to run a true experiment
variable you cant control is differences between quasi vs true experiments
Reliability vs validity vs accuracy
reliability:
the stability and consistency of a measure over time
validity:
variables measure what they are supposed to measure
accuracy:
the degree to which the measure is error fee
What is the expectancy effects?
experimenters expectations leads them to treat participants in a way that produces expected results
What is selection/sampling bias?
choosing non random individuals, groups or data
What is Experimenter Bias?
When experimenters introduce bias into an experiment
ex: manipulating results, choosing certain participants
What is Observer bias?
When a researchers expectations, opinions, or prejudices influence what they percieve or record in a study
What is Response bias?
providing inaccurate, or false answers to self-report questions
What is Self-report bias?
deviation between the self-reported and true values of the same measure
asking people to describe their thoughts, feelings, or behaviors rather than measuring for them
What is systematic bias?
sampling error that results in the way in which research is conducted
How do we detect confounds?
- pointing out third variables
