Exam 1 Flashcards
What is Psychology?
The scientific study of the mind and behavior
Psychology vs Philosophy
Psychology uses a scientific method: Hypotheses > Research Design > Data Collection > Data Analyses > Conclusions
Discuss the early Psychology attempts > Philosophy
1) Where does knowledge come from?
Plato - Nativism: You are born with knowledge
Aristotle - Tabula rasa/Philosophical empiricism: You are born with clean slate. Knowledge through experience.
Discuss the early Psychology attempts > Philosophy
2) How are the brain and mind connected?
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.
Discuss the early Psychology attempts > Physiology
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.
Explain Psychoanalysis
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.
Explain Natural Selection
Darwin theory. Organisms that have the best traits will survive. There are adaptive physical traits, e.g. eyes, height, etc. and the strongest survive.
William James
Wrote the first textbook in Psychology. Followed Darwin, but looked at mental traits for survival - intelligence, emotions.
Functionalism and Evolutionary Psychology are the application of which philosophical movement?
Nativism
What is behaviorism?
Focus on the behavior and not the mind
What did Pavlov study?
Physiology of digestion and classical conditioning. Amount of food and salivation. Dogs associate sound of bell with food.
Who was John B. Watson
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.
Who were Thorndike and Skinner?
They studied Behaviorism and invented operant conditioning. Reinforcement and punishment.
Behaviorism is the application of which philosophical movement?
Tabula rasa
What is Classical Conditioning
When a neutral stimulus evokes a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally evokes a response.
US > UR > CS > CR
Unconditioned stimulus > Unconditioned response > Conditioned stimulus > Conditioned response
What is Operant Conditioning
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.
What is Humanism?
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.
Explain Neuroscience
It tries to link parts of the brain with mental processes.
Who studied visual-spatial memory in rats?
Karl Lashley
What is the scientific word for an educated guess about how variables interrelate?
Hypotheses
What is it called when the researchers and the participants don’t know the critical aspects of the study?
Double-blind procedure
What are the three types of study procedures?
Observational: Researcher just measures how things are
Experiments: Researcher manipulates “causal” variables
Mixed design: Researcher measures a few variables and manipulates others
What are the three ways we choose participants for a hypothesis?
Populations, sample, random sampling/selection
What are the the key measure characteristics of the variables in the hypothesis?
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.
What are observational studies often called?
Correlational studies
What is a correlation?
Covariation or co-relationship between variables (a predictor and a criterion)
Explain what an observational study is
Study in which participants are observed or certain outcomes are measured without any attempt to influence the outcome
What are the three possible explanations of a correlation?
- ) Changes in the predictor may cause changes in the criterion
- ) Changes in the criterion may cause changes in the predictor
- ) Changes in a 3rd variable may simultaneously and independently cause changes in both the predictor and the criterion
What is a Research Design Experiment?
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.
