intro to psychology Flashcards
what is psychological science?
the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
what are the three main levels of analysis?
- Biological
- Psychological
- Sociological
What are different ways of knowing things and how do they suggest the need for
psychological science?
hindsight bias, common sense, perception of order, post-truth. none of these things are scientific, they are merely perceptions, psychological science is needed to take the things we perceive and make them something that can be researched
What does the Clever Hans story tell us about the scientific method and the stages of asking
a question?
don’t leave your questions unanswered, look for correlation and then test it
what is the scientific method?
a method of procedure that consists of systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.
What is the relationship between theory, hypothesis, and data? Why is this important?
a theory is a well-educated and researched guess on something. a hypothesis is taking the theory and giving it a statement that you want to prove to be right or wrong. the data is the results you get from the experiment.
What does it mean for a question to be testable?
a testable question needs to be something concrete. for example you cant ask who the best singers are, but you could ask what singer has gotten the most awards. the first is subjective while the second is objective.
What are the 3 stages of asking a question?
description
correlation
experimental
Why do you start with descriptive research? What are examples of descriptive research?
descriptive research is observing something. you can’t go anywhere with an experiment if you havent observed and begun to understand your subjects. examples are a case study, a survey, and naturalistic observation.
Why is a random sample important for descriptive, correlational, and experimental
research?
with a random sample, you can know your research is more likely to be accurate
What is the purpose of a correlational design? How do you interpret a correlation?
it is the ability to see a relationship between two variables. to interpret you to see if you have a positive or negative. easily done by plotting in a graph and seeing if the data goes in the same direction.
How do you interpret a scatter plot? How do you interpret the strength and direction of a correlation?
the more the data goes in the same direction the closer the date is to 1/-1. no correlation would make the date 0. closer to the ones with the more correlation
Why can’t you establish causation with a correlational design?
correlation doesn’t explain why, it merely shows there is a relationship between two things. causation shows that one thing is causing another thing.
what is an experiment?
an experimental design is where you control an environment with different variables to test and see if your hypothesis is true.
Why does an experiment allow you to establish causation?
there is control. you can look at the data and understand the other playing roles, or take them all away and look between the variables to see how one affects another.
