MIDTERM 1 REVIEW (CHAPTERS 1-4) Flashcards
What is psychology?
“Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and the mind” (Textbook page 3)
Behaviour refers to?
the responses and actions that we can actually see
The mind refers to?
internal state and processes that cannot be seen directly.
How can we make inferences about the mind?
We can make inferences about the mind from observable measurable responses..
Psychology is…
Empircial.
Observations are driven by…
Theories.
Psychologists learn about the natural world.
Through a process called the scientific method.
The scientific method…
uses direct observations to learn about behaviour.
What are the goals of psychology?
- To describe how people and animals behave.
- To explain and understand the causes of behaviours.
- To predict how people and animals behave under certain conditions.
- To influence or control behaviour through knowledge and control of its causes to enhance human welfare.
The goals of psychology are…
interconnected.
What is the applied research?
Research conducted to look at a practical problem that occurs in a specific context.
What is basic research?
Research conducted to enhance general body of knowledge.
Learning about the way emotions and how the auditory system works are examples of…
Basic Research.
What are three levels of behavioural analysis?
Biological, psychological, and environmental level.
brain processes, and genetic influences are examples of the….
Biological level of behavioural analysis.
thoughts, feelings, and motivation are examples of the…
Psychological level of behavioural analysis.
social and physical environments we have been exposed to are examples of the…
environment level of behaviour analysis.
What is structualism?
Analysis of the mind in terms of its basic elements” to understand conscious experience (textbook p. 12)
Edward Titchener…
Used introspection to create map of human consciousness (Was also a student of Wundt)
Who was responsible for making psychology an independent field?
Wilhelm Wundt
Who was the founder of experimental psychology?
Wilhelm Wundt
What does introspection mean?
To look within.
What is an example of introspection?
Holding a steel ball with one hand, and describing the feeling as cold, smooth, heavy and hard.
Functionalism
Examines the purpose and function of conscious experience rather than its structure.
William James
- Ideas stemmed from Darwin’s evolutionary theories.
- Studied human mind with focus on behaviour in specific context.
- Tried to explain how human thoughts and behaviours can help them adapt to their enviornments.
What is Darwin’s evolutionary theory (influence of William James’ ideas)
- Darwin’s evolutionary theory suggested that traits would be passed down according to how beneficial they would be for survival and reproduction.
Example: Animals have traits that better equipped for survival and reproduction in their environment.
Who used the “free association” technique with his patients?
Sigmund Freud.
psychoanalytic approach
Examines how behaviour and personality can be influenced by unconscious forces.
What is the “free association” technique?
This involved asking patients any thoughts that came into their mind.
What he noticed is that eventually his patients who were in pain would talk about painful almost “forgotten” childhood experiences that tended to be sexual in nature.
After his patients remembered and relived the experiences, their symptoms tended to improve.
In the early 20th century psychology started to see a rise in….
Behaviorism.
What is Behaviourism?
An approach that studies only behaviour that is observable.
Foundation of Behaviourism was based off the works of…
Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Pavlov….
A Russian psychologists who conducted experiments that showed learning can occur when events are paired with each other.
What’s is an example Ivan Pavlov’s theory of Classical Conditioning?
In an example of learning when events that are paired with each other is a bell with food.
Pavlov showed that dogs when food was brought every time a bell rang, dogs would start to salivate when they hear the bell even before they get the food.
This suggests that dogs learned to associate the sound of a bell with getting food had this automatic response.
John B. Watson
Was known to lead the movement of behaviourism.
John B. Watson believed…
psychology should be based on observable behaviour rather than unobservable inner consciouness.
B.F Skinner…
examined how behaviour is influenced by rewards and punishments.
He changed the environment to see how it affects behaviour.
B.F Skinner believed
the environment can be a powerful way to change to behaviour in beneficial ways, enhancing human welfare.
Skinner’s approach was known as…
Radical Behaviorism.
One problem with skinner’s approach…
is that it could limit what could be studied in psychology.
In 1960’s and 70’s
psychologists were able to show that cognitive behaviourist, processes like attention and memory can actually be studied
Albert Bandura
Was a cognitive behaviourist, believed that the environment influences people’s behaviour by influencing their thoughts.
Cognitive Behaviourism suggests
Learning experiences and the environment influence people’s behaviours by giving them information to behave effectively.
Cognitive Behaviourists tend to focus on…
the way people respond to a certain stimulus.
What is missing from behaviourist and cognitives approaches.
The influence other people have on behaviours (behaviour does not occur in isolation)
What inspired development in social and personality psychology?
Observations from WWII.
Social psychology is the study of what?
how the presence of other people influences our behaviours.
Personality psychology is the study what?
How different personality traits and characteristics can influence the way people think and behave.
Our behaviour is a function of what
The individual and their environment.
Sigmund Freud believed what?
that humans not only have conscious experiences, but also have an unconscious part of the mind that could influence behaviour.
In early 20th century…
psychologists in Europe focused on studying mental processes.
Cognitive approach emerged with the work on memory by which two psychologists?
Hermann Ebbinghaus and Frederick Bartlett.
Gestalt psychology was…
- emphasized perception and experience as a whole, instead of in parts
- was a precursor to cognitive psychology.
Noam Chomsky as linguist argued that…
grammar and vocabulary were too complex to be explained the behaviourist perspective.
Cognitive psychology is the modern psychological perspective that focuses on what?
processes such as memory, thinking and language
The humanistic perspective?
Focuses on the positive aspects of humanity and examined conditions that would allow humans to live a productive and fulfilling life.
Who are the prominent psychologists of humanistic perspective?
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.
The biological perspective?
Examines how brain processes and other bodily functions influence behaviour.
Donald Hebb and Wilder Penfield are?
Prominent neurosceientists.
Who generated interest in the field of child psychology?
Anna Freud.
Who examined healthy childhood attachments and different attachment styles?
Mary Ainsworth
Mamie Phipps Clark
examined self identity in Black children, negative outcomes of segregation for Black Children?
Overall, what did all these approaches throughout history do?
they all contributed to to the study of psychology and provided insights into the facts that shape behaviour?
What are the steps in the scientific process
- Identify; Identify a question of interest.
- Gather; gather information and form hypothesis.
- Test; test hypothesis by conducting research.
- Analyze; analyze data from research, make tentative conclusions, and report findings.
- Build; try to build body of knowledge about the topic.
What is a Hypothesis?
a specific prediction about some phenomenon that often takes the form of an “if-then” statement.
What is a theory?
a set of formal statements that explains how and why certain events are related to one another (broader than hypotheses, and in psychology theories typically specify lawful relations between certain behaviours and their causes)
What are the two approaches to understanding behaviour
- Hindsight (after-the-fact understanding) - “learning the hard way”.
- Understanding (through prediction and theory building) - “learning the easy way”
What is the law of parsimony?
if two theories can explain and predict the sam phenomena equally well, the simpler theory is the preferred one.
What is a variable?
any characteristic or factor that can vary. (ex. People’s sex, height, hair colour, age, income, and grade point average)
What is the operational definition of a variable?
defines a variable in terms of specific procedures used to produce or measure it (example - testing academic performance and stress, and using GPA as the operational variable for academic performance and using biological level of level of analysis for stress, such as heart rate, muscle tension, and sweating)
What is social desirability bias?
the tendency to respond in a socially acceptable manner rather than how one truly feels or behaves.
What are unobtrusive measures?
recording behaviour in a way that keeps participants unaware that certain responses are being measured. (for example, testing reaction time while intoxicated, by playing a party game)
What does the term reliable refer to?
consistent observations.
What are archival measures
records or documents that already exist.
Psychological tests measure?
to measure many different variables, by assessing how people typically feel and behave.
Physiological measure record?
physiological response to asses what people are experiencing (ex. heart rate, blood pressure, VO2 max etc.)
What is descriptive research?
identifying how humans and other animals behave, particularly in natural settings
What is a case study?
an in depth analysis of an individual, a group, or event.
What is a naturalistic observation?
research observing behaviour as it occurs in a natural setting and attempts to avoid inflicting the behaviour (ex. chimpanzees in the wild)
What is survey research?
Obtaining information about a topic by administering questions or interviewing many people.
What is population (in research) ?
all individuals who are interested about drawing a conclusion.
What is a sample?
the subset of individuals drawn from the largest population of interest.
What is the representative sample?
the sample that reflects the important characteristics of population.
What is random sampling?
Sampling where every member of the population has an equal probability of being chose.
What is stratified random sampling?
random sampling after dividing population into different sub groups. (ex. boys and girls)
What is an unrepresentative sample?
A sample that produces distorted results.
What are the 3 components of correlation research?
- The researcher *measures one variable (X), such as a person birth order.
- The research *measures a second variable (Y), ex. personality trait.
- The researcher statistically determines whether X and Y are related.
Why are two reasons why correlation does not establish causation?
- Bidirectionally problem.
2. Spurious
What is the bidirectional problem?
The possibility that X may have caused Y, Y may have caused X, or that both variables influenced each other.
What does spurious refer to?
The possibility there was no genuine correlation between two events.
(a third unaccounted variable may really be the cause of why X and Y appear correlated)
Z causes X and Y.
What is the correlation coefficient?
a statistic that indicates the direction and the strength of the relation between two variables.
What is positive correlation?
indicates that higher score on one variable are associated with higher scores on another variable.
What is negative correlation?
indicates that higher scores on one variable are associated lower scores on another variable?
What are scatterplots?
graphs that show the correlation between two variables.
What does correlation allow us to do?
Make predictions.
What does correlation establish?
whether there is a real-world association between two variables.
What are the three essential characteristics of an experiment?
- The researcher manipulates (i.e, controls) one or more variables.
- The researcher measures whether this manipulation influences other variables.
- The researcher attempts to control extraneous factors that might influence the outcome of the experiment.*
What is an independent variable?
the factor (variable) that is manipulated by the experimenter.
What is the dependant variable?
The factor that is measured by the experimenter and that may be influenced by the independent variable.
What is an experimental group?
A group that receives treatment or an active level of the independent variable.
What is a control group?
A group that is not exposed to the treatment or receives zero level of independent variable,
In an experiment what is the minimum amount of levels an independent variable must have?
Two levels.