Exam 1 Flashcards
W Wundt
Study the mind using experimental methods.
-Consciousness(awareness of mental processes, behaviours, and environmental events.)
-Voluntarism(agency/motivation to make a decision/ the way we behave)
Structuralism
-Wundt and Titchner
-to understand the structure of the conscious mind, and to understand how the parts of the structure were related.
-How sensations influenced the mind and body
-Introspection”looking inward”: single research method - evaluation of mental processes and how simple thought -> complex ideas
-Goal was to use introspection to describe observable metal processes.
-asked participants To use introspection to describe their experience of the sound
Functionalism
-James
-how mental processes function to adapt to changing environments
-to examine the function of consciousness
-used empirical method that focused on causes/consequences of behaviour
-how accurate participants could locate sound
Gestalt
Inborn tendencies structure of perceptions and preventing people from seeing reality
-large picture made up of pixels
Freud/Psychoanalytic
F boy believed the tension between our unconscious and conscious mind is what shapes personality and governs all behaviour.
Behaviourism
-study only directly observable behaviours rather than abstract mental processes
-Stimuli: elements of the environment that triggers changes in our internal and external states.
-Response: the way we react to stimuli.
-Reinforcement: a learning process that increases the likelihood a given response will be repeated. (Pos:a behav is pos reinforced when it brings about a desired out come(food or money). And neg reinforced when it helps an organism avoid undesirable outcomes(an electric shock or loud noise).
-Punishment: an experience that produces a decease in a particular behaviour. They render behaviours less likely to be repeated.(denying a child their dessert if they don’t eat their broccoli)
Humanism
Special and unique features of human functioning
-Client centred therapy
Cognitive
Bartlett/Piaget
–Cognitive: the ways in which information is stored and operated in our minds. All the processes by which sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used.
Cognition: is defined as the mental process involved in knowing, perceiving, and remembering and includes research in areas such as decision making, problem solving, and understanding languages.
-focus on functioning of cognitive mechanisms rather than on their content. Inputs and outputs through research.
-Cultural Psych: the study if how cultural practices shape psychological and behavioural tendencies and influence human behaviour.
-Cross-cultural: what is generally or universally true about human beings regardless of culture.
Neuroscience
the study of psychological functions by looking at biological foundations of those functions. It was discovered “Reward centre” in the brain by demonstrating that electrical stimulation in the brain could evoke emotional responses in animals.
-behavioural genetics: a sub field of psych looking at the influence of genes on human behaviour.
-sociobiologists: theorists who believe humans have a genetically innate concept of how social behaviour should be organized.
-epigenetics: is the study of how environmental influences affect gene expression and change behaviour.
-evolutionary Psyc: a study that believes that the body and brain are products of evolution and that genetic inheritance plays an important role in shaping the complete range of thoughts and behaviours.
-Cultural Universality: behaviours and practices that occur across all cultures.
3 Branches of Psych today
-Academic: research and instruction(teaching)
-Applied: psych applied to eg. Educ, marketing, sports, or industry
-Clinic/Counselling: the study of abnormal psychological behaviour and interventions designed to change that behaviour.
-clinical: psychotherapy + clinical evaluation testing
-counselling/psychiatric social workers also use psychotherapy
-Shared Values: Psych is theory driven, empirical, multi-level(brain, person, group), and contextual.
Advances in Technology
-Cog neuroscience: the study of mental processes and how they relate to the biological functions of the brain.
-Social Neuroscience: the study of social functioning and how it is tied to brain activity.
Disorders
Are location specific, and culturally prescribed
eg: clinical/counselling. Clinical = diagnose and counselling applied and talking.
Basic v Applied
-B: knowledge and info. Through that be able todo something with it. How does the brain and body work and how do they interact together.
-Based on purpose or utility, a research approach can either be basic or applied. While basic research aims at expanding knowledge by creating new theories and modifying existing ones, applied research is focused on providing practical solutions to specific problems by analyzing empirical evidence.
-Take basic and apply it to life: bio psychology to health. Cognitive to forensic. Social to industrial. Developmental to educational. Personality to sports.
Anecdotal
process of deriving information: Anecdotal = describe(what happened) and measure = catalogue.
-Anecdotal -> basic = empirical and theoretical = understand and predict. Understanding behaviour and disorders, and to predict(it’s about likelihood and outcomes)
Scientific’s 2 Principles
- The universe operates according to certain natural laws, and 2. such laws are discoverable and testable.
Scientific Method
-Deductive reasoning: reasoning proceeding from broad basic principles applied to specific situations. (Theory -> predictions -> observation/experiment)
-Biases: distorted beliefs based on a person’s subjective sense of reality.
-Inductive Reasoning: reasoning process proceeding from small specific situations to more general truths.(Observation/experiment -> predictions -> theory)
-Empirical: able to be tested in objective ways.
-Theories: ideas about laws that govern phenomena.
-Hypothetic Deductive reasoning: process modern science where scientists begin with an educated guess, perhaps based on research, about how the world works, and then set about designing small controlled observations to support or invalidate that hypothesis. (Hypothesis -> observation/experiment -> hypothesis supported or not supported: theory built)
-Make observation, develop hypotheses, test hypotheses, and build a theory.
-4 Goals: describing, explaining, predicting, and controlling the phenomena they study.
State a Hypothesis
-one thing results in another thing.
-people(viable) play video games(independent) causes aggressiveness(dependent)
-Variable: condition, event, or situation that is studied in an experiment.
-Independent variable: condition or event that is thought to be a factor in changing another condition or event.
-Dependent variable: condition or event that you expect to change as a result of variations in the independent variable.
Operational
to develop a working definition of a variable that allows you to test it.
Step 1: identify questions of interest and review the literature. Step 2: develop a testable hypothesis(must be operationally defined). Step 3: select research method, choose participants, and collect the data. Step 4: analyze the data and accept or reject the hypothesis. Step 5: seek scientific review, publish and replicate. Step 6: build a theory. And the circle begins.
Sample/Random Selection
Sample: the group of people studied in an experiment, used to stand in for an entire group of people.
-Random Selection: identifying a sample in such a way that everyone in the population of interest has an equal chance of being involved in the study.
Descriptive Research Method
studies that allow researchers to demonstrate a relationship between the variables of interest, without specifying a casual relationship. (Case studies(one person), naturalistic observation(Jane Goodall), surveys(questionnaires)
-Purpose: observe, collect, and the record data(meets the descriptive goal of psychology)
-Pros: good for developing early ideas, more reflective of actual behaviour than methods, easier to collect data. -Cons: little to no control over variables, researcher and participant biases, cannot explain cause and effect.)
Case Study
Study focusing on one single person
Naturalistic observation
study in which researchers directly observe people in a study behaving as they normally do. Pros: more reflective of actual human behaviour. Cons: Researcher biases, as well as watches participants might change behaviour if being watched.
Hawthorn Effect
what happens when people who are being observed in studies or at their workplace improve or change some of their behaviour simply because they are being watched or studied, not in response to an experimental manipulation.
