Final Exam Flashcards
Contrast experimental research studies from descriptive (correlational) research studies
Correlational research is designed to discover relationships among variables. Experimental research is designed to assess cause and effect.
Explain why the null hypothesis is a core component of an experimental design
Null hypotheses in scientific research are essential because they provide a baseline for data, allows researchers to redirect experimentation, and makes the scientific method valid.
Explain what a p-value represents for the outcome of a study
The P value is defined as the probability under the assumption of no effect or no difference (null hypothesis), of obtaining a result equal to or more extreme than what was actually observed.
Describe the difference between a sample and a population
A population is the entire group that you want to draw conclusions about. A sample is a selection of a portion of the population to represent the entire population.
List and describe the four basic types of study validity
-Construct validity: Are we studying what we intend to study? Are the constructs
(conceptual variables like impulsiveness) being measured/ manipulated?
-Statistical validity: How thorough are the statistics that we used to back up our
findings?
-Internal validity: Confidence that a study demonstrated that one variable causes
another.
-External validity: Generalizability of findings beyond study across populations,
settings, species. Established with replication.
Classical conditioning
The process by which an organism learns a new association between two stimuli
Operant conditioning
Learning process in which the consequences of a
behavior determine the likelihood that it will be performed in the future
Reinforcement
Increases the probability of observing a behavior
Punishment
Decreases the probability of observing a behavior.
Acquisition
Process of establishing and strengthening a conditioned response.
Extinction
Process of weakening a conditioned response over time.
* Requires repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus without the
unconditioned stimulus.
* This leads to suppression, but not complete removal, of the conditioned
response.
Spontaneous Recovery
Temporary return of an extinguished response after
some time delay.
The three elements of learning
Acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery
Naïve practice
Doing the same thing repeatedly
Deliberate practice
Deliberate practice is structured to improve specific elements of a skill through defined techniques. Practitioners focus above all on what they can’t do. They seek out areas of weaknesses impacting their overall performance, then target those.
System 1
Quick, automatic
processes and for
questions we think are easy. -generally proceeds without much effort
System 2
Mathematical
calculations, evaluating evidence, and anything else that requires attention.
-relies heavily on working
memory
Describe the importance of heuristics in the decision-making process.
They’re shortcuts (rules of thumb or informal guidelines) used to reduce the amount of thinking that is needed to make decisions
-Heuristic thinking often occurs unconsciously and allows us to free up
cognitive resources
Representativeness heuristic
Placing a person or an object in a category if that
person or object is like one’s stereotype for that category
-
Availability heuristic
Deciding based on the answer that most easily comes to mind
-When we think about events or make decisions, we tend to rely on information that is easy to retrieve.
Framing effect
Cognitive bias where people decide between options based on whether the options are presented with positive or negative connotations
Describe the relationship between subjective value and actual value, according to prospect theory
Subjective value is how much something is worth to a person based on their feelings and preferences. Actual value is the real, objective value of something. According to prospect theory, people don’t always evaluate things based on their actual value. Instead, they compare them to a reference point and focus more on potential losses than gains.
List and describe the four stages of Piagetian development
- sensorimotor
- preoperational
- concrete operational
- formal operational
Describe the physiological and cognitive changes that accompany development through adulthood
Physiological: 30-50 decline in muscle mass, eyesight, hearing, reaction times, eye movements
Cognitive: Working memory capacity decreases, decline in fluid intelligence, loss of ability to gain new knowledge, dementia
Discuss delay discounting behavior and how it changes over the lifespan
It changes over the lifespan because the delayed reward and delayed gratification changes in value as a person matures
Describe the factors that influence formation of ingroups and outgroups
People can identify with ingroups and outgroups based on many factors, like ethnicity, gender, age, occupation, political affiliation, and even arbitrary criteria like being told they’re part of team A and someone else is a part of team B
Group polarization
The process by which initial attitudes of groups become more extreme over time
Groupthink
The practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.
Partisan polarization
Divergence of political attitudes away from the center, towards ideological extremes
Personal attributes
Explanations of people’s behavior that refer to their internal characteristics
Situational attribute
Explanations of people’s behavior that refer to external events
Stereotypes
Cognitive schemas in which group membership is used to organize information about people
Prejudice
Negative feelings, opinions, beliefs associated with a stereotype
Discrimination
The differential treatment of people as a result of prejudice against their group
Explain the difference between an inter-individual and group-average approaches to studying behavior
Inter-individual means studying behavior based on an individual alone whereas group-average studies the social norms
Trait approach
Focuses on how individuals differ in personality dispositions
Humanistic approach
Approaches to studying personality that emphasize how people seek to fulfill their potential through greater self-understanding
Relationship between temperaments and personality traits
The gene-environment correlation phenomenon:
-Genes and environment affect not only behavior but also each other
-Even if genes and environments are unrelated to start with, they become
complementary over time because of decisions people make
List and describe the Big Five traits used to assess personality
-openness to experience
-conscientiousness
-extraversion
-agreeableness
-neuroticism
Describe the relationship between age and trait stability
traits stay relatively stable throughout life, particularly 50+, lowest stability in childhood, life events affect traits
Dimensional
Considers psychological disorders along a
continuum on which people vary in degree rather than in kind.
-Recognizes that many psychological disorders are extreme versions of normal feelings
Categorical
A person either has a psychological disorder or does not
-Fails to capture differences in the severity of a disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder
State of constant anxiety not associated with any specific object or event
Social anxiety disorder
Fear of being negatively evaluated by others
Major depressive disorder
A disorder characterized by severe negative moods or a lack of interest in normally pleasurable activities
Persistent depressive disorder
Not severe enough to be diagnosed as major
depressive disorder (sometimes called dysthymia)
Describe the behavioral basis of autism spectrum disorder
Developmental disorder characterized by deficits in social interaction, impaired communication, and restricted interests
-Impairments in social interactions
-Restrictive or repetitive behaviors, interests, or activities
Describe cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and its use in treatment of psychological disorders
CBT: A therapy that incorporates techniques from cognitive therapy+behavior
therapy to correct faulty thinking and change maladaptive behaviors.
-CBT is about as equal as antidepressants. Can be effective on its own, but
combining it with antidepressants might be more effective than each separate treatment option.
Unconditioned reflex
Automatic connection between a stimulus (such as food) and a response
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
Event that automatically elicits an unconditioned
response
Unconditioned response (UCR)
The action that the unconditioned stimulus elicits
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
Paired with the UCS, elicits conditioned response after
learning
Conditioned response (CR)
Response elicited by the CS
Stimulus generalization
Extension of a conditioned response from the training
stimulus to similar stimuli.
Comparing classical conditioning and operant conditioning
Classical conditioning: noticing patterns between stimuli
Learned association: association between CS and US
Operant conditioning: requires an action that has a consequence
Learned association: association between action and consequence
Positive reinforcement:
The administration of a positive stimulus to increase
the probability of a behavior being repeated
Negative reinforcement:
The removal of a negative stimulus to increase the
probability of a behavior being repeated
Reinforcer:
Any stimulus that follows a response and
increases the likelihood that the response will be repeated
Negative punishment
Administering a negative experience
Positive punishment
Removing a positive experience
Three aspects of motor skills
Action execution – Produce precise, coordinated movements
Action selection – Choose the appropriate behavior for a given situation
Speed of selection – Quickly make the appropriate choice
Types of learning
Non-associative: learning to adjust responses to a repeated stimulus
Associative: learning about the link between two stimuli or events that go together
Social: learning by instruction or observing how others behave
Skill: earning complex
behaviors or abilities
through deliberate practice
Memory
the ability to store and retrieve information
Episodic memory:
memory for one’s past
experiences that are identified by a time and place
Semantic memory:
memory for knowledge of facts independent of personal experience
Implicit vs explicit memories
information we store or remember unconsciously is called implicit memory, while the information we memorize consciously is known as explicit memory
Three primary stages of memory processing
Encoding: Acquisition of new memories
Storage: Consolidation
Retrieval: Accessing stored memories
Anchoring:
The tendency to rely on the first piece of information encountered or information that comes most quickly to mind
Loss Aversion:
The tendency for people to be more concerned about losses than gains
Sensorimotor stage
Birth-2 years
-Infants acquire information
about the world through their senses and motor
skills
-Reflexive responses develop into more
deliberate actions through the development and
refinement of schemes
Object permanence:
The understanding that an
object continues to exist even when it cannot be
seen
Sensorimotor learning
During the sensorimotor stage, infants begin learning about the relationship between sensation (e.g., vision or audition) and movement generation
Preoperational stage
2-7 years
Children think symbolically about objects, but they reason based on intuition and superficial appearance rather than logic.
Egocentrism:
The tendency for preoperational thinkers to view the world through their own experiences
Concrete operational stage
7-12 years
-During this stage, children begin to think about and
understand logical operations, and they are no
longer fooled by appearances.
-Children begin to understand that some actions are reversible
-Still cannot reason abstractly, or hypothetically, about what might be possible.
Formal operational stage
12+ years
-Adolescents can think
abstractly, and they can formulate and test
hypotheses through deductive logic.
-Adolescents can consider abstract notions
and think about many viewpoints at once.
Temperaments:
Biologically based tendencies to feel or act in certain ways
Define personality trait:
A person’s pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior, that’s relatively consistent over time and across situations
Threats to internal validity
History, maturation, instrumentation, testing, regression to the mean, attrition, selection
Comorbidity
Many psychological disorders occur together
What criteria do psychologists use to identify behavior as pathological?
If the behavior is maladaptive, harmful, disruptive
Compare and contrast explicit and implicit measures of personality
Explicit: self-report surveys–include a large inventory of traits. Participants might distort the truth to appear more positive
Implicit: behavioral measures–using an environment to make assumptions about someone’s personality. Other examples of implicit measures include projective measures
Idiographic approaches:
Person-centered approaches to studying personality; focus is on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons
Nomothetic approaches:
Approaches to assessing personality that focus on
how common characteristics vary from person to person
Situationism:
The theory that human behavior is determined by surrounding circumstances rather than by personal qualities.
Biological trait theory
-Personality traits had two major dimensions: introversion/extraversion and emotional stability
-Proposed that personality traits are based on biological processes
that produce behaviors, thoughts, and emotions
Three personality characteristics considered temperaments
Activity level, emotionality, sociability
Conformity:
Altering one’s behaviors and opinions to match those of other people or to match other people’s expectations
Normative influence:
People conform in order to fit in with the group, even when they believe the group is doing the wrong thing
Informational influence
People conform when they think that the behavior of others is correct or appropriate
Social norms
-Set expectations about behavior and the consequences of deviating
from those expectations.
-People who go against the group risk criticism, embarrassment, and ostracism
Reciprocity
If Person A helps (or harms) Person B, then Person B will help (or harm) Person A
Social identity theory
Ingroups perceive themselves to be members of the same social category and experience pride through their group membership
Correspondence bias
The tendency to expect that people’s actions correspond with their beliefs and personalities
Fundamental attribution error
In explaining other people’s behavior, the tendency to overemphasize personality traits and underestimate situational factors
Actor/observer discrepancy
People focus on situations to explain their own behaviors, and focus on dispositions to explain other people’s behavior
