M1: Brief History & Science of Experimental Psychology

Question 1

He is generally credited with being the first experimental psychologist

Answer 1

Wilhelm Wundt

Question 2

The birth of psychological science is usually dated in 1879 from the opening of his laboratory in ___________ ?

Answer 2

Leizpig, Germany

Question 3

Characterizes any field of study that gives the appearance of being scientific but has no true scientific basis and has not been confirmed using the scientific method.

Answer 3

pseudoscience

Question 3

What are the tools that Wundt employed to study human sensory experience?

Answer 3

• Observation
• Measurement
• Experimentation

Question 3

One of Wundt’s first laboratory student was the American psychologist ____________ .

Answer 3

G. Stanley Hall

Question 4

Hall went on to open the first psychology laboratory in the United States in 1883 at ___________

Answer 4

Johns Hopkins University

Question 5

TRUE OR FALSE

Mental philosophers were primarily engaged in the study of the five senses through introspection and observation of their own mental processes and observing those of others.

Answer 5

TRUE

Question 5

The type of cause-and-effect relationship we establish through experiments that have a time difference occurs in the relationship.

Answer 5

Temporal Relationship

Question 6

Scottish philosopher ________ argued that we can never establish causality from temporal relationships.

Answer 6

David Hume

Question 7

compelling but not always correct.

Answer 7

Spatial

Question 8

**TRUE OR FALSE: **

Hume’s argues’ that just because one event precedes another, it does not necessarily mean that the first causes the second.

Answer 8

TRUE

Question 9

If the XYZ set of antecedents always leads to a particular behavior, whereas other treatments do not, we can infer that XYZ causes the behavior.

Answer 9

Infer Cause and Effect

Question 10

**TRUE OR FALSE: **

Inferences about cause-and-effect relationships are stated in the form of probabilities—never certainties.

Answer 10

TRUE

Question 11

TRUE OR FALSE:

The treatment conditions come after the behavior

Answer 11

FALSE; it comes before

Question 11

TRUE OR FALSE:

Temporal relationships are built into our experiments.

Answer 11

TRUE

Question 12

The scientific techniques used to collect and evaluate psychological data

Answer 12

Methodology

Question 13

The kind of everyday, nonscientific data gathering that shapes our expectations and beliefs and directs our behavior toward others

Answer 13

Commonsense Psychology

Question 13

The science of behavior and mental processes

Answer 13

Psychology

Question 14

Sources that seem credible and trustworthy—friends and relatives, people in authority, people we admire, reports from the media, books we have read, and so forth

Answer 14

Commonsense Psychologists

Question 14

Our predictions, guesses, and explanations tend to feel much more correct than they are, and the more data we have available (accurate or not), the more confidence we have in our judgments about behavior

Answer 14

Overconfidence Bias

Question 15

When we believe we know something, we tend to overlook instances that might disconfirm our beliefs, and we seek, instead, confirmatory instances of behavior.

Answer 15

Confirmation Bias

Question 16

A controlled procedure in which at least two different treatment conditions are applied to subjects.

Answer 16

Psychology Experiment

Question 17

Perceiving others by their traits can be useful for predicting their behavior, but it can also lead to overestimations of the likelihood that they will act in trait-consistent ways across a wide variety of different situations.

Answer 17

Nonscientific Inferences

Question 17

An experimental design in which subjects receive only one kind of treatment

Answer 17

Between-Subject Design

Question 18

Present all treatments to each subject and measure the effect of each treatment after it is presented.

Answer 18

Within Subject Design

Question 19

TRUE OR FALSE:

For experimentation to produce valid conclusions, all explanations except the one(s) being tested should be clearly ruled out.

Answer 19

TRUE

Question 20

Give 1 way to achieve control

Answer 20

1. Random assignment of subjects to different treatment conditions (or sometimes by using a within-subjects design)
2. Presenting a treatment condition in an identical manner to all subjects
3. Keeping the environment, the procedures, and the measuring instruments constant for all subjects in the experiment so that the treatment conditions are the only things that are allowed to change. In this way can we be reasonably certain that changes in the treatments are the cause of observed differences in behavior.

Question 21

TRUE OR FALSE:

The sources of our commonsense beliefs about behavior can be reliable, and the explanations and predictions that we derive from them are likely to be perfect.

Answer 21

FALSE; it can be unreliable and imperfect

Question 22

TRUE OR FALSE:

Perceivers can be remarkably inaccurate about the personality of strangers when they are able to observe even thin slices of nonverbal behavior.

Answer 22

FALSE; can be remarkably accurate

Question 23

TRUE OR FALSE:

The procedures in the psychology experiment are carefully controlled so that we can be sure we are measuring what we intend to measure.

Answer 23

True