foundations of psychology Flashcards
Psychology
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes in both humans and animals
behavior
any observable action
mental processes
individual thoughts and feelings cannot be directly observed
Nature versus nurture
are we a product of our biology or our environment
stability versus change
are we born with traits to persist through life or do our personalities change
what makes psychology of science
empirical evidence
Scientific method
Scientific attitude
question everything: skepticism curiosity humility
Overconfidence
people tend to be more confident than correct
Hindsight bias
I knew it all along phenomenon
perspectives
variety of approaches to explain why people act how they do
Structuralism
wihelm wundt (father of psych) introspection
Functionalism
william james
function over structure
first american school of psychology
Evolutionary perspective
Darwin
The basic principles of evolution including natural selection are applied to physical phenomenon

mental processes except exist because they serve an evolutionary purpose survival and reproduction
psychodynamic perspective
sigmund frued
emphasizes that behavior is determined by your past experiences that are in our unconscious mind and childhood experiences are crucial and shaping adult personality
Behavioral perspective
john watson, ivan pavlov, b.f skinner
Focus on observable behavior, controlled by environment
more likely to do things with positive outcomes and less likely to do things with negative outcomes
Cognitive perspective
jean piaget, albert ellis, aaron beck
memory, intelligence, perception, problem-solving, language and learning are internal processes of the mind influencing behavior
humanistic perspective
abraham maslow, carl rogers
human capacity for choice and growth peoples motivations to fulfill potential positive outlook, future rather than past
Socio-cultural perspective
stanley milgram, philip zimbardo
Society and culture and behavior shaping
social customs, beliefs, values and language are part of what shapes a person
biological perspective
roger sperry, mike gazzanigo
genetics and brain chemistry I’m thinking and behavior. Physical and biological processes. Grown with advances in technology
Bio psychosocial approach
Electric approach, multiple perspectives included, links between genetic and environment. The approach encompasses biological psychological and social cultural influences
Basic research
increasing the scientific knowledge base
Applied research
research to find solutions to specific problems
quantitive data
numerical type of data, information about quantities
qualitative data
non-numerical, descriptive
Descriptive research
qualitative data, describe general or specific behaviors that are observed in measured, not testing specific relationships, develop questions for further study
case study
an observation technique looking at one or a few individuals throughout in-depth study most are complex or rare phenomenon
strength of case study
provide enormous amounts of information unusual cases can shed light on situations or problems that are unethical or in practical to study other ways
weakness of case study
unrepresentative, the potential to apply whats learned to the average person may be limited, time consuming
Survey method
self report data, relies on the individuals on report of their symptoms behaviors beliefs or attitudes
wording affect equals possible factor on participants caused by the order of presented words or even word choice
strength of survey method
ability to get private information and lots of data about people
Weakness of survey method
people don’t always give accurate responses. They may lie miss remember or answer questions in a way that makes them look good
naturalistic observation
Careful observation of animals or people and natural environment, No attempts to intervene by researcher
Laboratory observation
involves observing behavior and more contrived and controlled situation usually lab
Strength of naturalistic observation
allow the investigators to directly observe the subject in a natural setting often useful in first stages of research program
Weakness of naturalistic observation
allow researcher little to no control of situation, observations may be biased, does not allow for firm conclusions about cause-and-effect
Observer affect
when people know they’re being watched they’re less likely to behave naturally
Hawthorne affect
individuals may change their behavior due to the attention they’re receiving from researchers rather than the cause of any manipulation of independent variables
observer by us
people who act as observers are closely involved in the research project and may unconsciously scew those of the observations to fit research goals or experience
Correlation studies
quantitive data
research use to see if two variables are related and make predictions based on relationship, nonexperimental
strength of correlation studies
correlation allows researcher to clearly see relationship between variables
Weakness of correlation studies
cannot imply causation
correlation coefficient
The statistical measure of the relationship of variables, number represents the strength of relationship, closer to zero weaker the relationship
scatterplot
The type of data display that shows the relationship between two numerical variables
Positive
as one variable increases the other also increases
negative
decrease in one variable as the other increases
illusory correlation
perceived perceived but nonexistent correlation
third variable problem
researchers cannot rule out the possibility that a third variable causes both of the other variables to increase or decrease
Experimental method
The only way to establish that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables is to conduct an experiment
Strength of experimental method
allows researcher to control situation, permits researcher to identify cause-and-effect
Weakness of experimental method
experimental research can create artificial situations that do not always represent real life situations
Variable
variables anything that can vary or change, help to test hypothesis
operational definitions
The definition of the variable in terms of precisely how it is to be measured
-I have an operational definitions other psychologists are able to replicate the experiment 
independent variable
The factor that the experiment controls and manipulates
dependent variable
The variable that is being measured
confounding variable
differences between the experimental group in the control group other than those resulting from the independent variable
population
includes all the individuals in the group to which the study applies
to save time and money most researchers use a sub group as a sample of the population
Confederate
individuals who seem to be participants in but in reality they’re part of the research team
representative sample
A group that closely matches the characteristics of the whole population
Random sample
select people to participate in research in a way that everyone in the population has an equal chance
Control group
no treatment or treatment with no effect, used to find other factors to be examined
Experimental group
Group that is exposed to the independent variable, receives experimental manipulation
Random assignment
process that ensures all members have an equal chance of being placed in either control or experimental groups
placebo condition
allows researchers to separate the effect of the variable itself from the expectations of the participants
Single blind studies
research research design in which the participants don’t know which treatment group they are in
double blind studies
neither the experimental or the participants knew which group anyone is in
Reliability
whether or not an experiment can be repeated
The degree to which an experiment produces similar scores each time it is used
Validity
the experiment is testing what is supposed to test
Statistics
set of tools to turn data and information, organize and describe in a meaningful way, used to make predictions about a population of interest
Descriptive statistics
organize or describe the characteristics of a data set, descriptive statistics do not allow us to make conclusions beyond the data or reach conclusions regarding any hypothesis we might have made
Frequency distribution table
An orderly arrangement of scores indicating the frequency of each score
Histogram
Shows the underlying frequency distribution of a set of continuous data
Mean
Average number of in a data set
median
Middle
Mode
most
Range
Represents the span of the scores and a data set, subtract Hashimoto’s to get range, dispersion
Standard deviation
how much is score difference from the mean
Z scores
The number of standard deviations from the main data point -3 to +3 68% 95% 99%
normal distribution‘s
shape of distribution when graft, mean, median, mode turn out to do the same
Negative skew
SKU to the left
and outliers disproportionately affecting the mean
positive skew
skewed right
Inferential statistics
used to interpret data and dry conclusions, is the data from the chosen sample generalized to the whole population being studied
Statistical significance
is a measure of the likelihood that the difference between group results are from real difference between the two groups rather than chance
P value
less than 5%
null hypothesis
predict there will not be a significant relationship
meta-analysis
provide a way of statistically combining the results of many studies to reach a conclusion
Ethics
rules of conduct and moral principles when doing research, developed by the American psychological Association
Institutional review board
review proposals for research that involve human participants
Informed consent
and inform consent form provides a written description of what to expect and potential risks
Discontinuing participation
participants are capable of discontinuing participation at any time
Confidentiality
any data collected should remain completely confidential
Deception
miss leading experiment participants in order to maintain the integrity of the experiment, but not to the point where the deception could be considered harmful
debriefing
giving participants in a completed research project a full exclamation of the study that was possible before or during the research
animal testing
animals are acceptable substitutes for research that would be unethical on humans
