modules 1-2 - history, scope, and research strategies

Question 1

What is involved in critical thinking?

Answer 1

Examining personal assumptions; appraising the source; discerning hidden biases; and assessing conclusion.

Question 2

What event defined the start of scientific psychology?

Answer 2

Scientific psychology began in Germany in 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory.

Question 3

Why did introspection fail as a method for understanding how the mind works?

Answer 3

People’s self-reports varied, depending on the experience and the person’s intelligence and verbal ability.

Question 4

The school of __________ used introspection to define the mind’s makeup; __________ focused on how mental processes enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish.

Answer 4

structuralism; functionalism

Question 5

From the 1920s until the 1960s, the two major forces in psychology were __________ and __________ psychology.

Answer 5

behaviourism; Freudian

Question 6

How did the cognitive revolution affect the field of psychology?

Answer 6

It recaptured the field’s early interest in mental processes and made them legitimate topics for scientific study.

Question 7

What is natural selection?

Answer 7

Natural selection is the process by which nature selects from chance variations the traits that best enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.

Question 8

What is contemporary psychology’s position on the nature-nurture issue?

Answer 8

Psychological events often stem from the interaction of nature and nurture, rather than from either of them acting alone.

Question 9

What perspective has for focus how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences?

Answer 9

Neuroscience

Question 10

What perspective has for focus how the natural selection of traits has promoted the survival of genes?

Answer 10

Evolutionary

Question 11

What perspective has for focus how our genes and our environment influence our individual differences?

Answer 11

Behaviour genetics

Question 12

What perspective has for focus how behaviour springs from unconscious drives and conflicts?

Answer 12

Psychodynamic

Question 13

What perspective has for focus how we learn observable responses?

Answer 13

Behavioural

Question 14

What perspective has for focus how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information?

Answer 14

Cognitive

Question 15

What perspective has for focus how behaviour and thinking may vary across situations and cultures?

Answer 15

Social-cultural

Question 16

What advantage do we gain by using the biopsychosocial approach in studying psychological events?

Answer 16

By incorporating three different levels of analysis, the biopsychosocial approach can provide a more complete view than any one perspective could offer.

Question 17

__________ works to create social and physical environments that are healthy for all.

Answer 17

Community psychology

Question 18

__________ studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorder but usually does not provide medical therapy.

Answer 18

Clinical psychology

Question 19

__________ is a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders.

Answer 19

Psychiatry

Question 20

How is psychology a science?

Answer 20

Psychology’s findings, based on an empirical approach, are the result of careful observation and testing. Sifting reality from fantasy requires a scientific attitude.

Question 21

What are three key elements of the scientific attitude, and how do they support scientific inquiry?

Answer 21

The scientific attitude equips us to be curious, skeptical, and humble in scrutinizing competing ideas or our own observations. Curiosity triggers new ideas, skepticism encourages attention to the facts, and humility helps us both discard predictions that can’t be verified by research and be open to surprises.

Question 22

How does critical thinking feed a scientific attitude, and smarter thinking for everyday life?

Answer 22

Critical thinking puts ideas to the test by examining assumptions, appraising the source, discerning hidden biases, evaluating evidence, and assessing conclusions.

Question 23

What were some important milestones in psychology’s early history?

Answer 23

Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological laboratory in 1879 in Germany. Two early schools of though in psychology were structuralism and functionalism. Mary Whiton Calkins and Margaret Floy Washburn were two of the first women in the field.

Question 24

How did behaviourism, Freudian psychology, and humanistic psychology further the development of psychological science?

Answer 24

Early researchers defined psychology as “the science of mental life.” In the 1920s, under the influence of John B. Watson and the behaviourists, the field’s focus changed to the “scientific study of observable behaviour.” Behaviourism became one of psychology’s two major forces well into the 1960s. However, the second major force of Freudian (psychoanalytic) psychology, along with the influence of humanistic psychology, revived interest in the study of mental processes.

Question 25

How do psychologists use the biopsychosocial approach, and how can it help us understand our diverse world?

Answer 25

It integrates information from tree differing but complementary levels of analysis: biological, psychological, and social-cultural. This approach offers a more complete understanding than by relying one one of psychology’s theoretical perspectives. It helps us understand our diverse world considering humans share a biologically rooted nature, but many psychological and social-culture influences affect assumptions, values, and behaviour,

Question 26

What does a good theory do?

Answer 26

A good theory organizes observed facts and implies hypotheses that offer testable predictions and, sometimes, practical applications. It also often stimulates further research.

Question 27

Why is replication important?

Answer 27

When other investigators are able to replicate an experiment with the same (or stronger) results, scientists can confirm the result and become more confident of its reliability.

Question 28

What are the advantages and disadvantages of naturalistic observation?

Answer 28

Naturalistic observation does not explain behaviour, and it does not control for all the factors that may influence it. Nevertheless, the description it provides can be revealing, expanding our understanding and paving the way for future studies.

Question 29

What measures do researchers use to prevent the placebo effect from confusing their results?

Answer 29

Research designed to prevent the placebo effect randomly assigns participants to an experimental group or to a control group. A double-blind procedure prevents people’s beliefs and hopes from affecting the results, because neither the participants nor those collecting the data know who receives the placebo.

Question 30

__________ helps researchers generalize from a small set of a survey responses to a larger population.

Answer 30

Random sampling

Question 31

__________ helps minimize preexisting differences between experimental and control groups.

Answer 31

Random assignment

Question 32

__________ controls for the placebo effect; neither researches nor participants know who receives the real treatment.

Answer 32

Double-blind procedure

Question 33

What is the basic purpose of the descriptive research method?

Answer 33

To observe and record behaviour, such as in case studies, naturalistic observations, or surveys.

Question 34

What is the basic purpose of the correlational research method?

Answer 34

To detect naturally occurring relationships and/or to assess how well one variable predicts another by collecting data on two or more variables without manipulation.

Question 35

What is the basic purpose of the experimental research method?

Answer 35

To explore cause and effect by manipulating one or more factors and/or using random assignment.

Question 36

How does our everyday thinking sometimes lead us to a wrong conclusion?

Answer 36

The hindsight bias is the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would have foreseen it. Overconfidence is often the result of our readiness to be more confident than correct. These tendencies, along with our eagerness to perceive patterns in random events, lead us to overestimate the weight of commonsense thinking. Scientific inquiry can help us overcome such biases and shortcomings.

Question 37

Why do correlations enable prediction but not cause-effect explanation?

Answer 37

They show how two factors are related, either positively or negatively. A correlation can indicate the possibility of a cause-effect relationship, but it does not prove the direction of the influence or whether an underlying third factor may explain the correlation.