Midterm Flashcards
what two Greek words does Psychology come from and what do they mean
Psyche, meaning soul and logos, meaning thought
What was the study of Psychology Originally
The study of the body and soul and how they connect
When did Psychology acquire the meaning it has today
in the mid 18th century
development in what related field lead to development in Psychology
Philosophy
who is the founder of Psychology or the father
Wilhelm wunt
What is the content of Psychology
consciousness, demanded methods of research to be scientific
What are the major schools of discipline in Psychology
Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviorism, Humanism, clinical Psychology, evolutionary psychology, cognition, positive psychology
Explain Structuralism
-Structuralism came from Edward Titchener, who wanted to explore fundamental components of conscious experience, such as sensations, feelings, and images.
-Structuralism was based on the notion that the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements and investigate how these elements are related
-Most of their work concerned sensation and perception in vision, hearing, and touch.
-Introspection required training to make the subject—the person being studied—more objective and more aware.
Explain Functionalism
-Functionalists were influenced by william james, -Functionalism was based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness, rather than its structure.
-Functionalism took over and gave way to 2 more schools of thought, Behaviourism and applied psychology
-Consciousness, he argued, consists of a continuous flow of thoughts.
-James wanted to understand the flow itself, which he called the stream of consciousness.
-The functionalists began to investigate mental testing, patterns of development in children,the effectiveness of educational practices, and behavioural differences between the sexes.
Explain Behaviourism
-behaviourism is a theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behaviour. Founded by —-John b watson, science focuses, psych had to give up consciousness and focus on behaviour, argued that it is nurture rather than nature
-John B. Watson (1878–1958), Watson (1913, 1919) was proposing that psychologists abandon the study of consciousness altogether and focus exclusively on behaviors that they could observe directly.
-The power of the scientific method rested on the idea of verifiability.
-Behaviour refers to any overt (observable) response or activity by an organism.
downplayed the importance of heredity, maintaining that behaviour is governed primarily by the environment.
Explain Humanism
-Humanism is a theoretical orientation that emphasises the unique qualities of humans,especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth. (1950s) carl rogers
-Optimistic view of human nature
-Furthermore, they say, because humans are fundamentally different from other animals, research on animals has little relevance to the understanding of human behaviour.
-Carl Rogers (1902–1987) and Abraham Maslow
Explain Clinical Psychology
-Clinical psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders.
the early days, however, the emphasis was almost exclusively on psychological testing and adjustment problems in schoolchildren, and clinicians were a small minority in a field devoted primarily to research
-found the clinical work to be challenging and rewarding, and a substantial portion continued to do clinical work after the war.
-with the demand for clinicians far greater than the supply, the government stepped in to finance many new training programs in clinical psychology
Explain Cognition
Cognition refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge. Jean Piaget (1954)
Explain evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary psychology examines behavioral processes in terms of their adaptive value for members of a species over the course of many generations.
Explain Positive Psychology
Positive psychology uses theory and research to better understand the positive, adaptive, creative, and fulfilling aspects of human existence
What is Psychology
Psychology is the science that studies behaviour and the physiological and cognitive processes that underlie it, and it is the profession that applies the accumulated knowledge of this science to practical problems.
Whos is Freud and how did he contribute to Psychology
-Brings the unconsciousness into the picture and treats patients using psychoanalysis
-The unconscious contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behaviour.
-Psychoanalytic theory attempts to explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behaviour.
Who is B.F. Skinner and how did he contribute to Psychology
-Argued that psychology doesn’t need to be studied scientifically
-Emphasised that behaviour is largely based on circumstance.
-Organisms Tend to repeat responses that lead to positive outcomes, and they tend not to repeat responses that lead to neutral or negative outcomes.
-remarkable control over the behaviour of animals by manipulating the outcomes of their responses.
What is Psychiatry
a branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders.
Why is Psychology empirical
-Ask questions that can be proved or disproved by an experiment
-Research can be studied in a set up experiment in a lab or just by observation
What are the 3 interrelated goals shared by psychologists and psychiatrists
measurement and description, understanding and prediction, and application and control.
Explain Measurement and description
Science’s commitment to observation requires that an investigator figure out a way to measure the phenomenon under study. For example, if you were interested in the effects of different situations on emotion, you would first have to develop some means of measuring emotions. Thus, the first goal of psychology is to develop measurement techniques that make it possible to describe behavior clearly and precisely.
explain understanding and prediction
A higher-level goal of science is understanding. Scientists believe that they understand events when they can explain the reasons for the occurrence of the events. To evaluate their understanding, scientists make and test predictions called hypotheses.
what is a Hypothesis
a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables. Variables are any measurable conditions, events, characteristics, or behaviors that are controlled or observed in a study.
Explain Application and control
Ultimately, many scientists hope that the information they gather will be of some practical value in helping to solve everyday problems. Once people understand a phenomenon, they often can exert more control over it. Today, the profession of psychology attempts to apply research findings to practical problems in schools, businesses, factories, and mental hospitals. For example, a clinical psychologist might use what we know about typical, everyday emotions to assist individuals suffering from emotional disorders.
what is a theory
a system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations.
How are theories used
-Thus, by integrating apparently unrelated facts and principles into a coherent whole, theories permit psychologists to make the leap from the description of behavior to the understanding of behavior.
-Must be testable through empirical research
How many steps are there in scientific research and what are they
There are 5 steps that are
1. Formulate testable Hypotheses
2. Select the research method and design the study
3. collect data
4. Analyze data and draw conclusions
5. Report findings
In the process of scientific research, Which step is Formulate a testable hypothesis and how does it work
step 1
To be testable - formulated precisely, and the variables under study must be clearly defined.
An operational definition describes the actions or operations that will be used to measure or control a variable.
Establish what is meant by each variable in the context of the study
In the process of scientific research, Which step is Select research method and design study and how does it work
step 2
Participants are the persons or animals whose behavior is systematically observed in a study.
In the process of scientific research, Which step is Collect data and how does it work
Step 3
-Data collection techniques are procedures for making empirical observations and measurements.
-Example - questionnaires, interviews, psychological tests, physiological recordings, and examination of archival records
-The data collection techniques used in a study depend largely on what is being investigated.
In the process of scientific research, Which step is Analyse data and draw conclusions and how does it work
Researchers use statistics to analyze their data and to decide whether their hypotheses have been supported.
In the process of scientific research, Which step is Report findings and how does it work
A journal is a periodical that publishes technical and scholarly material, usually in a narrowly defined area of inquiry.
What is experimental research
The experiment is a research method in which the investigator manipulates a variable under carefully controlled conditions and observes whether any changes occur in a second variable as a result.
What is an independent variable
a condition or event that an experimenter varies in order to see its impact on another variable.
The thing being manipulated by the researcher
What is the dependent variable
the variable that is thought to be affected by manipulation of the independant variable
In psychology studies, the dependent variable is usually a measurement of some aspect of the participants’ behaviour.
What is an experimental Group
a group consists of the participants who receive some special treatment in regard to the independent variable
What is a control Group
The control group consists of similar participants who do not receive the special treatment given to the experimental group.
What are extraneous variables
any variables other than the independent variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variable in a specific study.
what is a confounding of variables
variables occurs when two variables are linked in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their specific effects.
What is an example of a safegaurd to reduce the effects of outside variables
Random assignment of participants occurs when all participants have an equal chance of being assigned to any group or condition in the study.
What is an advantage of experiential research
isolate the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable,
What is an issue with experiential research
the problem is that experiments are often artificial.
When experiments are highly artificial, doubts arise about the applicability of findings to everyday behavior outside the experimental laboratory.
One way to address this limitation is to conduct a field experiment. Field experiments are research studies that use settings that are very much like real life; in fact, the research may occur in the context of everyday life and events.
What is naturalistic observation
a researcher engages in careful observation of behaviour without intervening directly with the participants.
Reactivity occurs when a participant’s behaviour is altered by the presence of the observer.
What is a case study
an in-depth investigation of an individual participant or group of participants.
Case studies are particularly well suited for investigating certain phenomena, such as psychological disorders and neuropsychological issues.
What is a survey
researchers use questionnaires or interviews to gather information about specific aspects of participants’ behaviour.
What are the 3 types of descriptive/correlational research
Naturalistic observation, case study, survey
What is an advantage of descriptive/correlational research
the foremost advantage of correlational methods is that they give researchers a way to explore questions they could not examine with experimental procedures.
What is a disadvantage of descriptive/correlational research
Investigators cannot control events to isolate cause and effect.
Consequently, descriptive/correlational research cannot demonstrate conclusively that correlated variables are causally related.
What is Statistics
the use of mathematics to organize, summarize, and interpret numerical data.
What are descriptive statistics
used to organize and summarize data.
Key descriptive statistics include measures of central tendency, measures of variability, and the coefficient of correlation.
What are the 3 measures of central tendency
mean, median and mode
What is the median
the score that falls exactly in the center of a distribution of scores.
what is mode
The most frequent answer
What is mean
The average
What is variablitiy
refers to how much the scores in a data set vary from each other and from the mean.
what is the standard deviation
an index of the amount of variability in a set of data.
What is normal distribution
a symmetrical, bell shaped curve that represents the pattern in which many human characteristics are dispersed in the population.
When does a correlation exsist
when two variables are related to each other.
What is a correlation coefficant
a numerical index of the degree of relationship between two variables.
correlation coefficient indicates (1) the direction (positive or negative) of the relationship and (2) how strongly the two variables are related.
what indicates that two variables covary in the same direction.
a positive correlation
what indicates that two variables covary in the opposite direction.
a negative correlation
What determines the strength of correlation
Whereas the positive or negative sign indicates the direction of an association, the size of the coefficient indicates the strength of an association between two variables.
As a correlation increases in strength (gets closer to either –1.00 or +1.00), the ability to predict one variable based on knowledge of the other variable increases.
explain correlation and causation
Although a high correlation allows us to predict one variable from another, it does not tell us whether a cause-and-effect relationship exists between the two variables.
Third variable can explain the correlation between the original 2 variables
how are inferential statistics used
used to interpret data and draw conclusions
what is sampling bias
A sample is the collection of participants selected for observation in an empirical study. In contrast, the population is the much larger collection of animals or people (from which the sample is drawn) that researchers want to generalize about
Sampling bias exists when a sample is not representative of the population from which it was drawn.
what is the placebo effect
placebo effects occur when participants’ expectations lead them to experience some change even though they receive empty, fake, or ineffectual treatment.
Placebo effects are primarily attributable to people’s expectations
What are some distortions in self reported data
social desirability bias, which is a tendency to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself.
A response set is a tendency to respond to questions in a particular way that is unrelated to the content of the questions.
What is replication and why is it important
Replication is the repetition of a study to see whether the earlier results are duplicated.
Replication can sometimes lead to contradictory results than the first study
What is experimenter bias and how can it be solved
Experimenter bias occurs when a researcher’s expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained.
The double-blind procedure is a research strategy in which neither participants nor experimenters know which participants are in the experimental or control groups.
Why might some studies be unethical
First, they assert that deception is only a nice word for lying, which they see as inherently immoral.
Second, they argue that by deceiving unsuspecting participants, psychologists may undermine many individuals’ trust in others.
Third, they point out that many deceptive studies produce distress for participants who were not forewarned about that possibility.
Where does Psychology stand in animal experimentation ethics
Every effort must be made to minimize the discomfort felt by animals and to ensure that they will not be used unless there is a strong expectation that the results will benefit both humans and animals.
Psychologists use animals as research subjects for several reasons. Sometimes they simply want to know more about the behavior of a specific type of animal
What does the CPA (canadian Psychology association) do
The CPA ethical principles deal with how people with whom the psychologist comes into contact should be treated.
what involves learning connections between events that occur in an organism’s environment
Conditioning
involves learning connections between events that occur in an organism’s environment
what is a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.
Ivan Pavlov
Classical Conditioning
what was Pavlov Studying
Pavlov was studying the role of saliva in the digestive processes of dogs when he stumbled onto what he called “psychic reflexes
What is the conditioning process
unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is a stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning.
The unconditioned response (UCR) is an unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning.
The conditioned stimulus (CS) is a previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response.
The conditioned response (CR) is a learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning.
Explain fear and anxiety in classical conditioning
conditioning can be cause phobias which can affect you years later
Responses to fear can be conditioning
That is not to say that traumatic experiences associated with stimuli automatically lead to conditioned fears or phobias.