Exam 1

Question 1

What is Psychology?

Answer 1

The scientific study of the mind and behavior

Question 2

Psychology vs Philosophy

Answer 2

Psychology uses a scientific method: Hypotheses > Research Design > Data Collection > Data Analyses > Conclusions

Question 3

Discuss the early Psychology attempts > Philosophy

1) Where does knowledge come from?

Answer 3

Plato - Nativism: You are born with knowledge

Aristotle - Tabula rasa/Philosophical empiricism: You are born with clean slate. Knowledge through experience.

Question 4

Discuss the early Psychology attempts > Philosophy

2) How are the brain and mind connected?

Answer 4

Descartes - Dualism: Mind and body are separate. Believed brain and mind met at pineal gland.
Hobbes: The mind is what the body does. They are closely linked.

Question 5

Discuss the early Psychology attempts > Physiology

Answer 5

Gall - Phrenology: Different mental processes happen in different parts of the brain (correct). Bumps on head can tell us about the person (wrong).
Broca - Broca’s Area: First person to scientifically link mental processes in brain to certain parts of the brain. eg. Tam, the patient with brain injury and syntax messed up.

Question 6

Explain Psychoanalysis

Answer 6

Felida X: Subject studies by Freud who had multiple personality disorder.
Charcot and Janet: Hypnotized patients that revealed conscious self. Hysteria: temporary loss of motor functions of the result of emotionally upsetting experiences.
Freud - Unconscious: Id - constantly pushing you to eat, have sex. Ego - As we grow up it. Decides which way to go. Superego - Be the best person we can be with morals.
Can’t be proven scientifically.

Question 7

Explain Natural Selection

Answer 7

Darwin theory. Organisms that have the best traits will survive. There are adaptive physical traits, e.g. eyes, height, etc. and the strongest survive.

Question 8

William James

Answer 8

Wrote the first textbook in Psychology. Followed Darwin, but looked at mental traits for survival - intelligence, emotions.

Question 9

Functionalism and Evolutionary Psychology are the application of which philosophical movement?

Answer 9

Nativism

Question 10

What is behaviorism?

Answer 10

Focus on the behavior and not the mind

Question 11

What did Pavlov study?

Answer 11

Physiology of digestion and classical conditioning. Amount of food and salivation. Dogs associate sound of bell with food.

Question 12

Who was John B. Watson

Answer 12

Studied Behaviorism and how to condition humans. Studied the baby, Albert and how when a rat was paired with a loud noise, the baby cried.

Question 13

Who were Thorndike and Skinner?

Answer 13

They studied Behaviorism and invented operant conditioning. Reinforcement and punishment.

Question 14

Behaviorism is the application of which philosophical movement?

Answer 14

Tabula rasa

Question 15

What is Classical Conditioning

Answer 15

When a neutral stimulus evokes a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally evokes a response.

Question 16

US > UR > CS > CR

Answer 16

Unconditioned stimulus > Unconditioned response > Conditioned stimulus > Conditioned response

Question 17

What is Operant Conditioning

Answer 17

Called “operant” because the organism has to operate on the environment in order to get something it wants or avoid something it does not want. Eg. Thorndike - puzzle box: Cat would push lever to get out of box (The Law of Effect). Skinner had the same theory as Thorndike.

Question 18

What is Humanism?

Answer 18

Positive view of human nature. Self-actualization and self-transcendence. Maslow’s Need Hierarchy: It was problematic because the needs in the pyramid can be moved around, people want multiple things, and starving artist.

Question 19

Explain Neuroscience

Answer 19

It tries to link parts of the brain with mental processes.

Question 20

Who studied visual-spatial memory in rats?

Answer 20

Karl Lashley

Question 21

What is the scientific word for an educated guess about how variables interrelate?

Answer 21

Hypotheses

Question 22

What is it called when the researchers and the participants don’t know the critical aspects of the study?

Answer 22

Double-blind procedure

Question 23

What are the three types of study procedures?

Answer 23

Observational: Researcher just measures how things are
Experiments: Researcher manipulates “causal” variables
Mixed design: Researcher measures a few variables and manipulates others

Question 24

What are the three ways we choose participants for a hypothesis?

Answer 24

Populations, sample, random sampling/selection

Question 25

What are the the key measure characteristics of the variables in the hypothesis?

Answer 25

Reliability: The tendency for a measure to produce the same result whenever it is measuring the same thing.
Power: The tendency for a measure to produce different results when it is used to measure different things.
Construct Validity: The ability of the measure to measure what is supposed to be measuring.

Question 26

What are observational studies often called?

Answer 26

Correlational studies

Question 27

What is a correlation?

Answer 27

Covariation or co-relationship between variables (a predictor and a criterion)

Question 28

Explain what an observational study is

Answer 28

Study in which participants are observed or certain outcomes are measured without any attempt to influence the outcome

Question 29

What are the three possible explanations of a correlation?

Answer 29

1. ) Changes in the predictor may cause changes in the criterion
2. ) Changes in the criterion may cause changes in the predictor
3. ) Changes in a 3rd variable may simultaneously and independently cause changes in both the predictor and the criterion

Question 30

What is a Research Design Experiment?

Answer 30

An experiment is a study in which the researcher manipulates the independent variable and then measures the effect of the manipulation on the dependent variable.