Exam 1 Flashcards
basic research
attempt to understand the fundamental principles that govern behavior and mind
- academic
- usually with healthy people
- understand how/why
- NOT solve anything
applied psych
solving practical problems by changing behavior or altering environment, trying to solve something
- reseach
- practice
Applied reseach
- done to discover more effective way to solve specific problem
Applied practice
actual application of the techniques to problems
transitional research
effort to translate basic findings into practical solutions, basic research –> applied solutions
Applied psych
broken down according to problem trying to solve, could be research/practice/both
clinical psych
identify, prevent, and relieve distress/dysfunction that has psych origin, type of applied
- psychiatrist
- counseling psychologist
daulism
- philosophical position that the mind and body are separate
- Rene Descartes
tabula rasa
blank slate, everything you are you learned, you are born with no knowledge
- aristotle and plato
empiricism
knowledge arises directly from what we observe and experience
- john locke
structuralism
breaking down immediate conscious experience into sensations and feelings (introspection), how things work
- wilhelm wundt and titchener
functionalism
must first understand function of behavior/mental process to understand how it works together, physical traits include psych processes, inspired by darwin
- william james
gestalt
whole is greater than some of its parts, need to see the big picture
- wolfgang kohler
- kurt koffka
psychoanalysis
form of psychotherapy, seeks to help clients learn unconscious thought/behavior/motives
- sigmund freud
behaviorism
observable behavior should be the only topic of study, ignore conscious
- John B Watson
- Skinner
cognitive revolution
increase interest in mind, shift from behaviorism, skepticism in behaviorism
- Noam Chomsky
abnormal psych
explain how/why unusual patterns develop by examining thoughts/emotions/bio
- depression after trauma
behavioral genetics psych
explain individual differences in behavior patterns through genetics
- gene markers of autism
cognitive psych
broad, how people process info, attention/perception/memory/problem solving/language/thought
- eye –> image
comparative psych
study of behavior of non-human animals to compare to humans ( test on mice)
developmental psych
way people develop across lifespan
behavioral neuroscience
understand how specific areas of brain/activities produce behavior, processing face linked to brain area
Personality psych
individual differences, how/why people act different based on character/traits (extroversion)
social psych
how thoughts/actions influenced by social environment (how/why ads work)
consumer behavior
understand decisions
- r = investigate ad effectiveness
- p= design labels to increase interest
educational psych
learning outcomes, increase learning outcomes
- r = test online to increase understanding
- p = design textbook to increase learning
forensic and legal
in legal system
- r = investigate accuracy of witness
- p = testify that defendant is good to stand trial
human factors
design products that increase usefulness
- r = study what burner used more
- p = design product with audience in mind
health psych
increase health with psych application
- r = understand effects of stress
- p = develop campaign to decrease stress at work
industrial/organizational psych
help increase performance
- r = determine what stress causes leave
- p = help increase management training
political psych
understanding psych role in policy
- r = how demographics vote
- p = use r to decide where to campaign
school psych
students’ experience, use psych to increase academics
- r= how to prevent absences
- p = meet with parents to manage angry children
boulder model
scientist and practitioner, bother researcher in clinician/practice, usually PhD
veil model
scholar and practitioner, emphasis on clinical training/practice, PSYD
Steps of theory/data cycle
- revision, scientific method, as you gain more data you object the theory
- theory –> research Q –> research design –> hypothesis –> support or revision
Good theory
- supported by data
- consistent with itself and other theories
- falsifiable
Publication/peer review process
- very rigorous
- rarely accepted first try
- journal –> editor –> 2-5 expert of field
- takes 2 months - 2 years
- make sure information if quality and correct
How science journalism can get story wrong
- research -> research institution of university/university PR-> PR gets in touch with news-> internet -> cable news-> local new -> public
- lots of steps
why research is better than other sources
- based on research rather than experience
- experience in confounded
- research is probabilistic
- experience has no comparison group
How intuition is biased
- being swayed by a good story
- persuaded by what easily comes to mind
- failure to think about what we cannot see
- focusing on evidence we like (confirmation bias)
- being biased about being biased
Research article parts
- abstract
- intro
- methods
- results
- discussion
- references
Types of peer reviewed articles
- empirical
- review
Empirical PR
report the method and results for NEW research studies
- have research article parts
Review PR
summarizes all of the studies done in field to form a conclusion, qualitative
- meta analysis = effects size/magnitude quantitative, takes round numbers and looks at effects, combines all data from studies again
Why scientists not objective in designing experiments
because each person has there own individual values and beliefs about how the world should be
- these determine what we do and how we do it
descriptive experimental design
nonexperimental, describe and predict behavior and mental processes
quasi-experimental
use already created group/sometimes can’t randomly sign/groups are not randomly assigned
experimental designs
only study that can determine causal relationship between variables
variables
any event/behavior that varies, must have at least two possible values
independent variable
what are manipulated, aka factors
dependent variable
what is measured
levels of IV
all values of independent variable being tested (treatments/conditions)
operational definitions
how exactly we measure dependent variables, decide beforehand what count as trait
Key aspects of experiment
- manipulation
- randomization
- control
Manipulation
- treatment groups
- simplest experiment has two group
1. experimental
2. control
-
Randomization
how we decide groups, population -> random selection -> sample -> random assign -> either experimental or control group
control
want to control confounding variables so they don’t affect dependent variable
- specific for each experiment
control group
not manipulated
experimental/treatment group
independent variable is manipulated
Placebos
substance/treatment given to control group that should have no effect
- help see real effect of treatment
extraneous/confounding variables
other variables not IV that could affect results
random selection
taken from population, creates sample group
random assignment
taken from sample, try to create roughly equal groups, distribute variable evenly, done using chance procedures, everyone has an equal chance to participate
types of descriptive studies
- naturalistic observation
- case study
- survey
- correlation study
naturalistic observation
look at environment to observe behaviors
- strength: realistic setting
- W =only describe, not private/rare events, absorb observer bias, poor control
case study
intensive examination of a specific person/situation
- S = very detailed, rare/private for normal
- W = may not be representative, can’t determine causation
Survey
questionnaires or interviews given to many people
- S = lots of data, fast, inexpensive
- W = question wording, response bias/social desirability bias, sampling errors/biased, convenience
correlation study
relationship between 2+ variables and determine strength of relationship
- S = contest predictions, evaluate theories, and suggest new hypothesis, useful and cannot manipulate variables
- W = correlation is not causation
Correlations
- positive (increase one increase the other)
- negative (increase one decrease other)
- 0 (no predicted value)
R values
correlation coefficient
- sign = direction of relationship
- number = strength of relationship
- between negative one and positive one
third variables in correlations
other variable that influences
reverse causation
can go either way, both effect each other