Midterm Review Flashcards
What is philosophical dualism
View that king and body are fundamentally different things
Philosophical materialism
View that all mental phenomena are reducible to physical phenomena; mind is what the brain does
Philosophical realism
Perceptions of the physical world are produced entirely by information form the sensory organs
Philosophical idealism
Perceptions of the physical world are the brains interpretation of information from sensory organs
What is the view that all knowledge is acquired through experience
Philosophical empiricism
What is philosophical nativism
View that certain knowledge is innate or rather than acquired
What is structuralism
Approach that attempts to isolate and analyze the minds basic elements. Helps to measure consciousness.
What is the term that corresponds to , “a persons subjective experience of world and mind”
Consciousness
How was structuralism measured and what were some of its criticisms
Introspection- analysis of subjective experiences by trained observers…report on raw experience
Problems:
Science requires replicable observations
Hard to agree on basic elements of consciousness and if experience is the same for everyone
What is the approach that emphasized the adaptive significance of mental processes
Functionalism
The mind does not know itself
Psychoanalysis
What is psychoanalytic theory
Emphasizes the influence of the unconscious mind on feelings, thoughts, and behaviours
What is the therapy technique called that aims to give people insight into the contents of their unconscious minds
Psychoanalysis
What is the basis of behaviourism
Scientific study of objectively observable behaviour. What people do rather than what the think or feel. ( stimulus response theory)
What is the principal of reinforcement and what theory helped its creation
Consequences of behaviour determine likelihood or reoccurrence. Discovered using behaviourism and experiment
Criticism of behaviourism
Ignored mental processes and evolutionary histories
What were some of the discoveries that resisted behaviourism
Gestalt psychology- we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts; ex. See elements as a unified whole; explains the way in which the mind creates perceptional experience
Memory- we often remember what we should/expect to happen rather that what actually happened
Social psychology
What type of phycology examines the causes and consequences for sociality… ex how people form stereotypes, how people persuade one another
Social phycology
What is humanism
Understanding human nature by emphasizing the positive potential of humans (clients vs patients)
What caused the start of cognitive psychology and what is it
The introduction of computers caused the rise of cognitive psychology and it is the study of human information processing(brain = hardware, mind= software)
What type of psychology explains the mind and behaviour in terms of adaptive value of abilities that are shaped overtime by natural selection.
Evolutionary psychology
What was different about neuroscience
Allowed us to study healthy brains with new technology. In the past we could only study damaged brains
What are the two types of neuroscience
Behavioural neuroscience-study if relationship between brain and behaviour(mostly non human)
Cognitive neuroscience- study of the relationship between the brain and the mind (mostly humans)
What is cultural psychology
Study of how culture influences mental life
What are absolutism and relativism
Absolutism is the view that culture has no role in influencing mental life
Relativism is the view that mental life has variability across culture
What is the biggest difference between psychologists and psychiatrists
Psychologists can diagnose but not prescribe whereas psychiatrists can do both as they have been to med school
What is dogmatikos
It’s is belief…the tendency to cling to assumptions
What is empeirikos
It’s is experience…acquiring knowledge through observation (empiricism)
What is scientific method and what are the steps
The scientific method is a procedure using empirical evidence to establish facts Steps: 1)develop theories 2)derive hypotheses 3)test hypotheses 4)use evidence to modify theories
What is a hypothetical explanation of natural phenomena
Theory
What is a hypothesis
Falsifiable prediction made by a theory
What does the rule of parsimony suggest
Simplest theory that explains all evidence is best
Can we prove a theory
No, consistent evidence increases our confidence but we can never prove it due to the third variable problem
What is the empirical method and what are the empirical challenges with people
The empirical method is a set of rules and techniques for observations
The challenges with observing people are that they are very complex (100 billion interconnected neurons contribute to thoughts, feelings, and actions), variability(no two people are the same), and reactivity(people respond differently when they know they are being observed.
Definition of observe
Use senses to learn about the properties of and event or object
What are some of the problems with observation
1) they are unstable and differ from person to person
2) can’t tell us about the properties (ex crunchiness, pectin content)
What are the two steps of measurement
1) defining the thing to be measured (operational definition)
2) finding a way to detect it (instrument)
What is and operational definition
Description of a property in measurable terms (ex number of time a person Ike’s in an hour determines happiness)
What is an instrument
Anything that can detect the property as we defined it (smile detected with electromyograph)
What does it mean to have good construct validity (for operational definitions)
To have good contract validity would mean that the the thing being measured adequately characterizes the property (ex numbers on a scale are good indicators of weight).
What does it mean to have good power (good for instruments)
To have good power would mean that your detector has the ability to detect the presence of differences or changes in the magnitude of a property
What does it mean to have good reliability ( good for instruments)
To have good reliability would mean that the detector has the ability to detect the absence of differences or changes in a the magnitude property
What are demand characteristics?
Aspects of and observational setting that causes people to behave as they think someone else wants or expects
What are the ways in which we can avoid demand characteristics
1) naturalistic observation-technique for gathering scientific info by unobtrusively observing people in their natural environment
2) measuring behaviours that can be easily controlled
3) people can’t be identified
4) people don’t know how they should behave or purpose of study
5) cover stories-misleading explanations
6) filler items-pointless measures that mislead
What is observer bias
It’s the tendency for the observers expectations to influence both what they believed they observed and what they actually observed
What is a way that psychologists ovoid demand characteristics and observer bias at the same time
Double blind study-neither the researcher nor the participant knows how the participants are expected to behave
What is frequency distribution
Number of times in which the measurement of a property takes on each of its possible values
What is normal (Gaussian distribution)
Distribution where the frequency of measurements is the highest in the middle and decreases symmetrically in both directions
What are the measurements of central tendency
Mode: the value of most frequently observed measurement
Mean: the average value of all measurements
Median: the value that is in the ordered middle
What are the two types of skew ness
Positively skewed: mode, median mean; leans to right
What are the measures of variability?
Range: value of the largest measurement in a frequency distribution minus the value of the
smallest measurement
Standard deviation: describes how each of the measurements in a frequency distribution differ from the mean
The definition of a variable
A property that that can take different values
What is correlation and what is the main thing we must take into consideration when observing it
Correlation is a situation when the variations in the value are of one variable are synchronized with the variations in the value of another
It is really important to note that correlation does not equal causation due to the third variable problem
How to we measure correlation
Direction is denoted by a positive or negative
Strength of correlation is denoted by the correlation coefficient r=1 is perfect correlation r=0 is no correlation r=0.9 is strong correlation r=0.7 is moderate correlation r=0.3 is weak correlation
What are natural correlations
Correlations we observe in the world… but doesn’t tell us why the relationship exists
Describe the third variable problem
natural correlation between two variable cannot be taken as evidence of a causal relationship between them because a third variable might be causing them both
Define experiment
Technique for determining the causal relationship between variable, the goal is to eliminate differences between groups
Define manipulation
Technique for determining the causal power of a variable by actively changing its value
What are the steps you should take when conducting an experiment
1) manipulate the independent variable
(Two groups experimental group exposed to manipulation and control group not exposed to manipulation)
2) measure dependent variable (variable that is measured… value depends on manipulated variable)
3) compare (compare values from both conditions, if values differ on average then the changes in IV caused the changes in DV)
What is random assignment and why is it used
Random assignment is a procedure that assigned participants to a condition by chance
It’s purpose is to reduce the bias of self selection
What is inferential statistics and what is an example of it
Tells scientists what kinds of conclusions can be drawn from observations, and an example would be assessing the odds that a random assignment failed(statistical significance)
What is statistical significance
Statistical significance is assessing the odds that random assignment failed where p=odds it failed. Psychologists general use the rule that a experiment can be regarded is p<0.05 (the likelihood of random assignment failing is less than 5 %)
What is internal validity
The confidence we have that the experiment is measuring what it should and how it should, this allows us to be confident in establishing causal relationships
What is external validity
Represents the generalizability and representativeness of our study, and is an issue for most psychology studies. (Ex does my study accurately represent the entire population or just my sample???)
What are case studies and when do they happen
Case studies involve gathering data by studying a single individual and happen most commonly when an individual has something very unique about themselves that requires study
What is random sampling
Technique for selecting participants that ensures that every member of a population has an equal chance of being included in the sample (allows generalization from sample to population)
What is replication
Using the same procedures as a previous experiment but with a sample from the same population (increases our confidence in relationships between variables)
Type 1 error
Occurs when researchers conclude that there is a relationship between two variables when infact there is not
Type 2 error
Occurs when researchers conclude that there is not a relationship between two variables when infact there is
What are some human tendencies that negatively impact critical thinking
- the tendency to see what we expect or what we want to see
- when evidence confirms we ask can I believe it
- when evidence disconfirms we ask must I believe it
- tendency to ignore what we can’t see
What are the two biggest rules when it come to critical thinking
- doubt your own conclusions
- consider what you don’t see
What does the tri-council policy statement entail
- respect for persons: the right to make decisions for and about themselves w/0 undue influence or coercion
- show concern for welfare: maximum benefits; reduce risks to participants
- Research should be just: distribute risks/benefits equally to participants w/o prejudice to individuals or groups
What are the APA guidelines
- informed consent
- freedom of from coercion
- protect from harm
- risk benefit analysis
- deception (justification of why to use it)
- debriefing
- confidentiality
What are the 3 Rs tenet that we follow when it comes to respecting animals
- replacement: no alternative to using animals in research
- reduction: smallest number of animals used as possible
- refinement: modify procedures to minimize discomfort, infection, illness, and pain for animals; treated humanely /given appropriate administration of pain killers
What are the rules psychologists must use when respecting truth?
- report truthfully in what was done and what was found
- can’t fabricate results or fudge results
- can’t mislead omission
- share credit fairly and acknowledge researchers and collaborators
- obligated to share data
