Midterm 1 Flashcards
Chapter 1, 2, 9.
1
Q
Psychology
A
- the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behaviour
2
Q
Level of analysis
A
- rungs on a ladder of analysis, with lower levels tied most closely to biological influences and higher levels tied most closely to social influences
3
Q
Multiply determined
A
- caused by many factors
4
Q
Individual differences
A
- variation among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behaviour
5
Q
Naive realism
A
- belief that we see the world precisely as it is
6
Q
Scientific theory
A
- explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world
7
Q
Hypothesis
A
- testable prediction derived from a scientific theory
8
Q
Confirmation bias
A
- tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them
9
Q
Belief perseverance
A
- tendency to stick to out initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them
10
Q
Metaphysical claim
A
- assertion about the world that is not testable
11
Q
Pseudoscience
A
- set of claims that seems scientific but isn’t
12
Q
Patternicity
A
- the tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli
13
Q
Terror management theory
A
- theory proposing that the awareness of our death leaves us with underlying sense of terror with which we cope by adopting reassuring cultural world views
14
Q
Bandwagon fallacy
A
- lots of people believe it so it must be true
15
Q
Not Me Fallacy
A
- other people may have those biases, but not me
16
Q
Scientific skepticism
A
- approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them
17
Q
Critical thinking
A
- set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open-minded and careful fashion
18
Q
Correlation-causation fallacy
A
- error of assuming that one thing is associated with another, it must cause the other
19
Q
Variable
A
- anything that can vary
20
Q
Falsifiable
A
- capable of being disproved
21
Q
Replicability
A
- when study’s findings are able to be duplicated, ideally by independent investigation
22
Q
Introspection
A
- method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental experiences
23
Q
Structuralism
A
- school of psychology that is aimed to identify the basic elements of psychological experience
24
Q
Functionalism
A
- school of psychology that is aimed to understand the adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics
25
Behaviourism
- school of psychology that focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning by looking at observable behaviours
26
Cognitivism
- school of psychology that focuses on understanding mental processes underlying thinking in a variety of contexts
27
Psychoanalysis
- school of psychology, founded by Sigmund Freud that focuses on internal psychological processes of which we're unaware
28
Types of psychologists
- clinical
- counselling
- school
- developmental
- experimental
- biopsychologists
- forensic
- industrial-organizational
29
Basic vs. applied research
- basic: research examining how the mind works
| - applied: research examining how we can use basic research to solve-real world problems
30
Prefrontal lobotomy
- surgical procedure that severs fibres connecting the frontal lobes of the brain from the underlying thalamus
31
Intuitive vs Analytical thinking
- intuitive thinking: fast, no effort, quick and reflexive, snap judgement
- analytical: slow, requires effort, problem solving
32
Heuristic
- mental shortcut or rule of thumb that helps us to streamline our thinking and make sense of our world
33
Naturalistic observation
- watching behaviour in real-world setting without trying to manipulate the situation
34
External vs Internal validity
- external validity: extend to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings
- internal validity: extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences from a study
35
Case study
- research design that examines one person or a small number of people in depth, often over an extended time period
36
Existence proof
- demonstration that a given psychological phenomenon can occur
37
Random selection
- process that ensures that every person in a population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate
38
Test-retest reliability
- similar scores over time
| - obtained by administering the same test twice over a period of time to a group of individuals
39
Interrater reliability
- two raters should produce similar scores
| - degree of agreement among raters
40
Response sets
- tendency of research participants to distort their responses to questionnaire items
41
Halo Effect
- the tendency of ratings of one positive characteristic to spill over to influence the ratings of other characteristics
42
Horns Effect
- the tendency of ratings of one negative characteristic to spill over to influence the ratings of other characteristics
43
Correlational design
- research design that examines the extent to which two variables are associates
44
Scatterplot
- grouping of points on a two dimensional graph in which each dot represents a single person's data
45
Illusory correlations
- perception of a statistical association between two variables where none exists
46
Features of an experiment
- random assignment of participants (experimental/control)
- independent variable in manipulated while the dependent variable in measures
- confounds - differences between participation groups
- cause and effect
47
Between-subjects design
- in an experiment, researchers assign different groups to the control or experimental condition
- experiment that has two or more groups of subjects each being tested by a different testing factor simultaneously.
48
Within-subjects design
- in an experiment, each participant acts as his or her own control
- all participants are exposed to every treatment or condition.
49
Operational definition
- a working definition of what a researcher is measuring
50
Placebo effect
- improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement
51
Nocebo effect
- said to occur when negative expectations of the patient regarding a treatment cause the treatment to have a more negative effect than it otherwise would have
- opposite of placebo
52
Experimenter expectancy effect
- phenomenon in which researchers' hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome of the study
53
Demand characteristics
- cues that participants pick up from a study that allow them to generate guesses regarding the researchers hypothesis
54
Informed consent
- informing research participants of what is involved in a study before asking them to participate
55
Debriefing
- the procedure that is conducted in psychological research with human subjects after an experiment or study has been concluded
- it involves an interview between the researcher and the subjects whereby all elements of the study are discussed in detail
56
Descriptive statistics
- numerical characterizations that describe data
57
Inferential statistics
- mathematical methods that allow us to determine whether we can generalize findings from our sample to the full population
58
Base rate
- how common a characteristic of behaviour is in the general population
59
Replicability
- when a studies findings are able to be duplicated, ideally by independent investigators
60
Intelligence test
- diagnostic tool designed to measure overall thinking ability
61
Abstract thinking
- capacity to understand hypothetical concepts
62
General intelligence (g)
- hypothetical factors that accounts for overall difference in intellect among people
63
Fluid intelligence
- capacity of learning new ways to solve problems
64
Crystallized intelligence
- accumulated knowledge of the world acquired over time
65
Multiple intelligences
- idea that people vary their ability levels across different domains of intellectual skill
66
Triarchic model (Sternberg)
- model of intelligence proposed by Sternberg positing three distinct types of intelligence: analytical, practical, and creative
67
Stanford-Binet IQ test
- intelligence test based on the measure developed by Binet and Simon, adapted by Lewis Terman of Stanford University
- measure five factors of cognitive ability: fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing and working memory
- the ability to learn
68
Intelligence quotient (IQ)
- systematic means of quantifying differences among people in their intelligence
69
Mental age
- age corresponding to the average individual's performance on an intelligence test
70
Deviation IQ
- expression of a persons IQ relative to his or her same-aged peers
71
Eugenics
- the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics
- early twentieth century
- discouraging those with bad genes from reproducing
72
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
- most widely used intelligence test for adult today, consisting of 15 subjects to assess different types of mental abilities
73
Culture-fair IQ test
- abstract reasoning measure that doesn't depend on language and is often believed to be less influenced by cultural factors than other IQ tests
74
Bell curve
- distribution in scores in which the bulk of the score fall towards the middle, with progressively fewer scores towards the "tails" or extremes
75
Intellectual disability
- condition characterized by an onset prior to adulthood, an IQ below about 70, and an inability to engage in adequate daily functioning
76
Flynn effect
- finding that average IQ scores have been rising at a rate of approximately three points per decade
77
Within-group heritability
- extent to which the variability of a trait within a group is genetically influenced
78
Between-group heritability
- extent to which the difference in a trait between groups is genetically influenced
79
Test bias
- tendency of a test to predict outcomes better in one group than another
80
Stereotype threat
- fear that we may confirm a negative group stereotype
81
Divergent thinking
- capacity to generate many different solutions to a problem
82
Convergent thinking
- capacity to generate the single best solution to a problem
83
Emotional intelligence
- ability to understand our own emotions and those of others, and to apply this information to our daily lives
84
Anecdotal
- not necessarily true or reliable
| - based on personal accounts rather than facts or research.
85
Standard deviation
- measures of dispersion accounting for how far each data point us from the mean
86
Dispersions
- how loosely or tightly bunched the scores are
