Midterm 1 Flashcards
understand mind-body problem and how psychology as a field came to be
- Aristsotle (psyche) → Plato (dualism) → Rene Descartes (modified dualism and pineal gland) → Thomas Hobbes (materialism) → John Locke (empiricism & realism)→ Immanual Kant (idealism)→ Wilhelm Wundt (structuralism: atoms of mind)→ Edward Titchener (objective introspection)→ Margaret Washburn (structuralism and behaviourism)
- structuralism lead to psychology being a valid field that could use the scientific method
- mind-body problem: people trying to figure out how the mind and body were connected. Like, how come we flinch when stepping on a nail?
be able to identify and link each philosopher to their perspective/way of thinking about the nature of the mind
- Psyche: Aristotle describing a connection between the body and the soul (soul in this case would be how you think)
- Dualism: Plato describing how the body and soul are separate but interrelated as well (as in they feed off one another)
- Modified dualism: Rene Descartes describing the mind and body having a connection via the pineal gland (he was wrong but good on him for trying)
- mind: spiritual essence
- body: physical essence
- Materialism: Thomas Hobbes describing how everything can be deduced to a material cause (ex. tree falling in the middle of a forest with no one around would indeed still make a sound)
- Empiricism: John Locke describing how knowledge comes from observations and experience (have to do the things you want to learn)
- Realism: John Locke describing how what we sense and perceive reflect the reality of the world, an objective truth to the world
- Idealism: Immanuel Kant describing how what we perceive and sense is our interpretation of the world (ex. what the colour red is to someone may be different than us but we’d never know)
- Nativism: knowledge not always from observation or experience (ex. one can probably tell that a fall from a cliff onto a pointy rock would kill them despite never observing or experiencing that)
- Structuralism: three people who contributed
- Wilhem Wundt: asked why do we even have mental processes (ex. vision) and described the mind is built from mental unit “atoms of the mind”
- Edward Titchener: described introspection being broken down into sensations, images, affections when reacting to stimuli
- Margaret Washburn: animal studies and connected structuralism to behaviourism
be able to explain the differences and similarities between dualism, monism, materialism, mentalism, realism, idealism, empiricism, and nativism
- Dualism: body and soul separate but interrelated
- Monism: one kind of thing
- Materialism: everything is a material
- Mentalism: every mental process is just an idea (ex. you being angry after losing game is not real)
- realism: perceptions and sensations = truth of world
- idealism: our perceptions are our interpretation of the world
- empiricism: knowledge comes from observation and experience
- nativism: knowledge doesn’t always come from observation and experience
explain the evolution of psychology as a science and key historical figures linked to structuralism, functionalism, behaviourism, psychoanalysis, Gestalt psych, developmental psych, social psych, humanism
Structuralism (Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener, Margaret Washburn)
→ functionalism (William James, Mary Calkins, helped us understand mind is more than it’s parts and the evolutionary function of our thoughts and feelings to better understand them)
→ Behaviourism (John B. Watson, Rosalie
Rayner, B.F. Skinner, changed definition of psychology to scientific study of observable behaviour, made it so mental processes can be objectively measured by how they translate to measurable behaviour)
→ Psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud, insight therapy for fear and anxiety or our subconscious mind, deterministic theory where all lives are set up by childhood and the subconscious tendencies we pick up)
→ Gestalt Psychology (Max Wertheimer, mind creates perceptual experiences and focuses on wholes rather than parts)
→ developmental psychology (Jean Piaget, psychological phenomena changes over lifespan, focus on children cognition changing)
→ Social Psychology (behaviour a bi-product of our subjective experience/interpretation of our environment)
→ Humanism (Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, reject pure behaviourism and psychoanalysis, focus on growth and how environment changes human development, hierarchy of needs)
→ contemporary psychology
explain what the nature vs nurture debate is and outline the contributions of evolutionary psychology to our understanding of this debate
- nature: development of humans (ex. behaviours, personality) determined by nature like genetics, plato
- nurture: development of humans determined by environment (ex. psychopath who wants to kill people wasn’t born that way and could’ve been normal had they been born into a better situation, Aristotle
- both sides led to epigenetics: the study of how environment and genetics interact
- Charles Darwin talked about natural selection
elucidate the biological, psychological, and socio-cultural influences that contribute to behaviour and our understanding of contemporary psychology
- Contemporary Psychology: every psychological event is simultaneously a biological event
- what this means?
- biological: influences could be health, genetics, traits from parents, how our brains evolved over time due to our environment
- psychological: environments that made us develop bad habits (think psychoanalysis with childhood), stress, how we handle negative and positive emotions
- socio-cultural: discrimination, negative talking, media pushing big ideas that people eventually pick up, panicking over what internet says
differentiate between the theoretical perspectives of psychology and how each tackle/approach the science of modern psychology
- neuroscience: analyzes body and brain working together for emotions and sensory experiences, modern as in acknowledging the brain and the body working hand in hand
- evolutionary: looking at natural selection and how it promoted certain genes and traits, helps us understand why negative things we experience now may have been useful before (ex. fight or flight response)
- behaviour genetics: how our genes and environment influenced our individual differences, looks at how deeply rooted differences lead to how people are so different despite the many similarities we have
- psychodynamic: how behaviour comes from unconscious drives or conflicts (ex. panicking over CV exam or suddenly being motivated at 3:00 AM) looks at how we act unconsciously many times and seemingly shut off thinking from time to time
- behavioural: how we learn observable responses, contributes by checking how people can fit in better than others for example or some people being better when doing the thing they’re trying to learn
- cognitive: how we take in and process information, simply put, help us understand learning
- socio-cultural: how behaviours and thinking differentiate through situations and cultures, help describe the different ways of thinking from environment to environment, big or small (ex. BMSS to BCSS, Canada to US)
understand the need for the scientific method and psychological science in a “post truth” world”
- psychological science: we can’t just rely on intuition and common sense. Otherwise, we’d make crazy conclusions like an octopus being a psychic.
- post truth: emotions and personal beliefs override acceptance of facts (ex. echo chambers from groups like flat earthers)
- availability of powerful examples: media stuff like mexico having hazy lighting in shows and movies
-scientific method: testing ideas about world by setting up situations to test. Have to make careful organized observations too and determine whether the data we collect fits with what we idealized
apply the scientific method toward answering your own scientific inquiries
- observation: I got a 22/35 on the CV exam when I thought I ate
- question: how did I do so low when I studied so well?
- hypothesis: because I did so low, I must’ve gotten the wrong mark
- test/acquire data: observe my notes, reflect on my methods, talk with people about the test
- analyze data: I didn’t do that many pages, I merely reread my notes a lot, I only used active recall the night before the test
- conclusions: I did not study well enough for the CV exam and the mark I got back is likely accurate
- communicate results: share my thinking with my friends to improve for next time
describe and provide examples of the different types of research that psychologists can engage in: descriptive (case studies, observational, surveys), correlative, experimental. Identify what types of research questions can be addressed with each strategy, and what strengths and limitations of each are
- descriptive: observation of people for thoughts, behaviours, and attributes
- case study: one individual (ex. Phineas Gage)
- naturalistic observational: behaviour in natural environment (ex. observing apes from afar)
- survey and interview: self-explanatory
- experimenter bias: person interviewing introducing bias toward participant (ex. how happy were you after this? rather than how did you feel after this?)
- sampling bias: limit representation of sample you are studying
- WEIRD
- western
- educated
- industrialized
- rich
- democratic
- WEIRD
elucidate the differences between correlation and causation
- correlation: how closely two factors vary together
- r: correlation coefficient, between -1 and 1
- positive: 0-1
- negative: -1-0
- r: correlation coefficient, between -1 and 1
- correlation does not equal causation no matter how strong the r coefficient is
- due to fact that factors may not relate at all (ex. people dying in bedsheets and mozzarella eaten)
- this is called illusionary correlation when there’s a relationship between two variables that’s perceived when they really have no effect on one another
identify common human/research biases and describe solutions to combat them in experimental design
- wording effect → experimenter bias
- tendency for experimenter to introduce bias towards a participants responses/behaviours
- solutions would include neutral wording, not seeing person you’re interviewing
- sampling bias
- limit representation of sample you’re studying
- WEIRD
- western
- educated
- industrialized
- rich
- democratic
Define and describe power, reliability, and validity
- power: sensitivity to change and differences
- reliability: how consistent results are
- validity: how much a test measures or predicts what it’s supposed to
- concurrent: current outcomes/values?
- validity: measure behaviour/construct well?
- predictive: predicting behaviour test is designed to predict?
Be able to set up a simple experiment, including identifying/naming independent, dependent, and confounding variables, setting up control and experimental groups, and how to measure them
- independent: manipulate how much sleep people get every night for a week before an exam
- control group: people sleeping as they usually do
- experimental group: people sleeping at least 2 hours less than they usually do
- dependent: marks the students get
- confounding variables: IQ, studying times, screen time
Define demand characteristics and the placebo effect, and understand how to mitigate these effects using good experimental design practices
- demand characteristics: aspects of experiment’s setting that make people behave the way they think they should (ex. keeping track of eating habits for experiment so people make healthier choices when being observed)
- placebo effect: expectations alone cause physiological and psychological effects
- mitigate these effects
- naturalistic observation
- privacy and control
- unawareness
- double blind procedure: eliminate bias from both sides by not telling either group who is getting the effects or not
Describe how you would limit the effects of confounding variables in an experimental design
- do not tell participants purpose of study, only what they should do
- if using something like a drug, introduce empty pills
- do not tell researchers or interviewers what purpose of experiment is
- match groups randomly or make demographic very specific
Differentiate between descriptive and inferential statistics**
Descriptive describes the data but has no inferences or observations while inferential determines the significance of the data.
Define the measures of central tendency and measures of variation, and explain their usage in Psychological science
Measures of Central Tendency
- mean: arithmetic average, can be distorted by outlier scores so best to use when there’s a limited scoring range or when all scores are close to one another or when there’s no room for outliers (ex. mean score for one round of archery)
- mode: most frequent scores, best for determining majority of sample
- median: middle score in middle number of scores (ex. 69 scores, score 35 is the median), help find middle number without the worry of outliers (they can balance each other out)
- positively (right) skewed: mean on the right and lower than left
- negatively (left) skewed: opposite
- normal distribution: bell curve
Measures of Variation
- range: difference between highest and lowest
- standard deviation: how much scores varied around mean score (there can be multiple standard deviations on a bell curve)
- normal curve: this is the bell curve where there is a clear, even bump where most scores are around the mean
Describe how you know if results are statistical significant or not, using correct terminology (p- values, representative samples, sample sizes, meta-analyses)
- bigger samples are better (n value being higher)
- representative samples that have appropriate samples rather than biased (ex. having people who are taking KIN 132 for the first time is more accurate for the exam’s difficulty than people retaking the course)
- meta-analysis: comparing multiple data sets leads to better statistical significance
- p-values: higher the p-value, higher the odds that the experiment’s results are due to chance (p < 0.05 or 5% optimal for results to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt)
- null hypothesis if p value high (luck)
- alternative is p value low (reason)
Define and differentiate between Type I and II errors
Type 1 error means alternative hypothesis is accepted and the null hypothesis is also true. Type 2 error means the null hypothesis is accepted but the alternative hypothesis is true
- ex. I have a smoke alarm
- alternative hypothesis: there is a fire
- null hypothesis: there is no fire
- type 1 error: fire alarm detects smoke and beeps, but it was from the boiling water and not an actual fire
- type 2 error: smoke alarm fails to detect smoke or is out of battery and can’t detect smoke even when there is a fire
Identify the main components of the universal ethical code for human research
- obtain participant informed consent before experiment
- protect from harm and discomfort
- keep information confidential about participants
- debrief afterwards
Understand how neuroscience emerged from phrenology, including how it improved the ideas of the outdated/psuedoscientific perspective
- Franz Gall introduced phrenology that described how bumps on the skull mapped out personality traits. He was wrong but sparked understanding for different areas of brain leading to different functions
- then Camillo Golgi (reticular theory) and Ramon y Cajal (neuron doctrine) faced off
- reticular theory: neurons form continuous networks with no gaps
- neuron doctrine: neurons distant units that communicate between gaps in giant network
- Ramon y Cajal ended up being right and stated the general structure of neurons
Know the difference between Golgi’s reticular theory and Cajal’s neuron doctrine, and which model neuroscience has adopted
- reticular theory: no gaps in a continuous network
- neuron doctrine: distant neurons communicating via gaps
- neuroscience has adapted the neuron doctrine
Identify and name the key structures of a typical human neuron and synapse, including their main functions
- neurons: AP, neurotransmitters, responsible for primary communication in brain
- glial: support and facilitate neuron communication
- dendrites: projections from cell body to receive messages from other cells
- cell body: life support centre of cell
- axon: pass messages from cell body to other neurons, muscles, or glands
- terminal branches of axon: junctions with other cells
- neural impulse: action potential
- myelin sheath: help speed up neural impulses, formed by glial cells (schwann for PNS, oligodendrocytes for CNS)
