Exam 1 Flashcards
What is psychology?
The study of mental processes & behaviours
What are mental processes?
Activities of our brain when engaged in thinking, observing the environment, using language
Thinking, imagining, remembering
Levels of psychological analysis
-brain: neuronal activity, brain structure, genes
-person: emotions, ideas, thoughts
-group: friends, family, population, culture
Wilhelm Wundt
-Father of experimental psychology
•Established the first psychology lab in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany
•Studied psychology through empirically-driven experiments.
•Focused on the study of consciousness
•Developed the psychological paradigm of voluntarism
Edward Titchener
developed structuralism as an attempt to try to identify all the elements of consciousness
introspection
careful, reflective and systematic observation of the details of mental processes
William James
-believed that mental processes were fluid (“stream of consciousness”) instead of fixed elements (structuralist’s viewpoint)
Gestalt psychologists
•Consciousness CANNOT be broken down into elements
•Said that we perceive things as whole perceptual units
•The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
•Learning is tied to what we perceive
Sigmund Freud
•The belief that peoples’ behaviours are based on their unconscious desires and conflicts
•Freud developed a form of therapy, psychoanalysis, that aimed to resolve unconscious conflicts
Behaviourism
Psychological research should only focus on behaviour you can observe
Edward Thorndike
Proposed research findings from the study of animals could help explain human behaviour
Ivan Pavlov
oDiscovered dogs could learn to associate a bell with an automatic behaviour (e.g., salivating for food)
oCalled classical conditioning
John B. Watson
oConducted the “Little Albert” experiment, demonstrating that children (people) could be classically conditioned
B.F. Skinner
Developed operant conditioning to shape behaviour
•Used reinforcement to change the frequency of the expression of a behaviour
•Positive reinforcement increases and negative reinforcement decreases the likelihood of a behaviour occurring
Albert Bandura
Described learning by social observation in children
•We now know that this type of learning can be observed in several species of primates
Carl Rogers
humanistic psychology
-• Developed “client-centred therapy”
• The client is an equal, and a client’s
thoughts and feelings should be
mirrored
• The atmosphere should have
unconditional support and positive
regard
Positive Psychology
•New psychological movement that studies human strengths, fulfillment, and creativity
Cognitive Psychology
Revitalization of Study of the Mind
Ulric Neisser
coined the term “cognitive psychology” as the study of information processing
•The role of mental processes in how people process information, develop language, solve problems, and think
•Cognitive psychologists compared the human mind to a computer
Psychobiology/Neuroscience
Exploring the Origins of the Mind
Donald Hebb
Canadian scientist that developed the concept of a cell assembly
•Neurons develop networks of connections based on experiences as we develop and interact with our environments
Pseudo-psychology (pseudoscience)
No use of the scientific method when commenting on human behaviour and mental processes
Deductive Reasoning
theory > predictions > observation/experiment
Inductive Reasoning
observation/experiment > predictions > theory
hypothetico-deductive reasoning
hypothesis > observation\experiment > hypothesis supported or not supported: theory built
Statistics
Describe and measure relationships between variables
Descriptive research
Descriptive research is defined as a research method that involves observing behavior to describe attributes, objectively and systematically.
Correlational Research
-correlations indicate if there is a
relationship between the variables. Bivariate data.
experimental research
Statistics indicate if the
hypothesis has been supported or if there is a meaningful
difference between the groups
Operational definitions
are used to clarify precisely what is meant by each variable
Reliability
Does the test give consistent outcomes each time?
Validity
Does the test really measure what it purports to measure?
Self-report methods
–Structured interviews: researcher asks set series of questions
–Structured questionnaires: questions/answers are written
–Clinical method: free-form interview
Limitations
–Not useful with very young children
–Honesty/accuracy?
–Interpretation of question
●Observational methods
–Naturalistic: observing children in natural surroundings (e.g., home, school)
–Time-sampling: frequency of behaviour recorded in brief observation intervals
–Structured observation: a laboratory situation designed to elicit specific behaviour
Limitations
–Observer influence
–May be difficult to determine cause of behaviour
●Case studies
–Detailed record of an individual/group’s development
•Interviews
•Observations
•Generally not standardized
limitations
Difficult to make comparisons
–Generalizability
●Ethnography
–Common method in anthropology
–Researcher lives in community for period of time
–Goal is to understand effect of culture on development
●Limitations
–Highly subjective
–Generalizability to other cultures
Psychophysiological methods
–Goal to understand biological processes involved in perception, cognition, emotion
–Measures used include
•heart rate;
•ERPs;
•fMRI;
•eye tracking.
Cross-sectional design
disadvantages
–People of different ages studied at the same point in time
–One task; multiple age groups participate
•Is there a difference between age groups? Cohort effects?
Longitudinal design
disadvantages
–Same participants observed repeatedly over time
–Time period may be brief (6 months–1 year)
•Some have lasted decades
Practice effects? Selective attrition? Nonrepresentative sample? Cohort effect?
Sequential design
Combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal
•Participants of different ages selected at outset
(like cross-sectional)
•All participants observed repeatedly for a period of time (like longitudinal)
●Measures of central tendency
typical or average score in a distribution
mean
median
mode
arithmetic average of scores
score falling in the exact center
most frequently occurring score
Experimental Analyses
Cause and Effect
Descriptive statistics
describe the data
Standard deviation
how much the participants’ scores vary from one another
Variability
how much scores vary from each other and from the mean
Standard deviation
statistical index of how much scores vary within a group.
Correlational design
Goal: to determine whether two things are related
Gather data: interview about TV habits, make observations of aggressive behaviours to peers.
•Calculate correlation coefficient, r
Descriptive Statistics: Correlation
●When two variables are related to each other, they are correlated
●Correlation = numerical index of degree of relationship
–Correlation expressed as a number between 0 and 1
–Can be positive or negative
–Numbers closer to 1 (+ or –) indicate stronger relationship
●What is r?
–Index of strength and direction of relation
–Varies from −1.00 → +1.00
•Strength indicated by absolute value
–+0.70 and −0.70 are equally strong, and both are stronger than +0.35 and −0.35
•Which is stronger: +0.25 or −0.64?
–Direction indicated by sign
•+ means that, as one variable’s value ↑, the other variable also ↑.
•− means that, as one variable’s value ↑, the other variable ↓ (an inverse relationship).
–r = 0.0 means no relationship exists.
Correlation coefficient
– the strength and nature of the relationship (-1.00 to +1.00)
Positive correlation
when one variable increases, the other increases. When one variable decreases the other variable decreases.
Negative correlation
when one variable increases, the other decreases
Interpreting Scatterplots: Strength
Another important component to a scatterplot is the streneth of the
relationship between the two variables.
The slope provides information on the strength of the relationship.
Correlation is NOT Causation
Research has found a strong correlation between stress and clinical depression. However, this correlation does not tell us whether stress causes depression, depression causes stressful events, or other factors such as poverty produce both stress and depression.
Experimental Research
Examines how one variable (IV) CAUSES another variable to change (DV).
•Advantages:
oCan establish cause and effect
oCan eliminate outside influences
•Disadvantages:
oMight not be generalizable
sometimes unethical
Experimental group
the group that is exposed to the IV (manipulation or treatment)
Control group
the group that isn’t exposed to the IV; this group is used to compare how the IV changes the DV
Random assignment
oThe researcher should randomly assign who goes in which group
oHelps groups be balanced in terms of any other factor that could influence the results
Experimental control
–Confounding variable: extraneous factor influencing outcome of experimental design
–Random assignment: unbiased procedure for assigning participants to groups
–Ecological validity: assesses whether conclusions drawn from laboratory studies apply to the real world
Experimental Research:
Looking for Causes
●Experiment = manipulation of one variable under controlled conditions so that resulting changes in another variable can be observed
–Detection of cause-and-effect relationships
●Independent variable (IV) = variable manipulated
●Dependent variable (DV) = variable affected by manipulation
–How does X affect Y?
–X = independent variable, Y = dependent variable
Variations in Designing Experiments
●Expose a single group to two different conditions
– Reduces extraneous variables
●Manipulate more than one independent variable
– Allows for study of interactions between variables
●Use more than one dependent variable
–Obtains a more complete picture of effect of the independent variable
The natural (or quasi-) experiment
disadvantages
Measures impact of a naturally occurring event
Cannot draw conclusions regarding causation
Inferential statistics
– help to draw conclusions about the data
Problems That Can Occur with Experimental Research
●Sampling bias
●Placebo effects
●Distortions in self-reported data:
–Social desirability bias (Hawthorne Effect)
–Response set
●Experimenter bias
–The double-blind solution
Advantages and Disadvantages of Experimental Research
●Advantages:
–Conclusions about cause-and-effect can be drawn
●Disadvantages:
–Artificial nature of experiments
–Ethical and practical issues
●Field experiments
–Research studies that use settings that are very much like real life
