Psych 1 - Exam 1 Flashcards

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1
Q

Confirmations Bias

A

The tendency to test one’s own belief or conjectures by seeking evidence that may confirm or verify them and ignoring evidence that might disconfirm or refute them

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2
Q

Phrenology

A

A discredited doctrine of mental faculties supposedly located in specific and detectable bumps at the corresponding points on the external skull

Germany, early 19th century
Franz Joseph Gall and Johann Kasper Spurzheim

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3
Q

Franz Joseph Gall

A

Germany, early 19th century

Known for:
- Phrenology

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4
Q

Three Early Psychologies

A
  1. Trained Introspection
  2. Functionalism
  3. Psychoanalysis
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5
Q

Trained Introspection

A

Method by which individuals were taught to carefully observe, analyze, and describe their own experiences

Many early North American psychologists were trained this way

Wilhelm Wundt, Germany, 1879

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6
Q

Wilhelm Wundt

A

Germany, 1879

Known for:

  • Trained Introspection
  • Training many North American psychologists
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7
Q

Functionalism

A

An early psychological approach that emphasized the function or purpose of behavior and consciousness

William James, US, 1896

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8
Q

William James

A

US, 1896

Known for:
- Functionalism

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9
Q

Psychoanalysis

A

A theory of personality and method of psychotherapy that emphasizes unconscious motives and conflicts

Sigmund Fraud, Austria, 1896

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10
Q

Sigmund Fraud

A

Austria, 1896

Known for:

  • Psychoanalysis
  • Theory that we are torn between the animalistic side of us and the side of us that wants to be a good member of society
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11
Q

5 major theoretical perspectives

A
  1. Biological Perspective
  2. Learning/Behavioral Perspective
  3. Cognitive Perspective
  4. Sociocultural Perspective
  5. Psychodynamics Perspective
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12
Q

Biological Perspective

A

A psychological approach that emphasizes bodily events and changes associated with actions, feelings, and thoughts

Includes:

  • Hormones
  • Brain chemistry
  • Genes
  • Evolutionary Influences
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13
Q

Learning/Behavioral Perspective

A

A psychological approach that emphasizes how the environment and experience affect a person’s actions

Includes:

  • Behaviors
  • Social-cognitive learning theories
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14
Q

Cognitive Perspective

A

A psychological approach that emphasizes mental processes in perception, memory, language, problem solving, and other areas of behavior

Focuses on inferring mental processes from observable behaviors

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15
Q

Sociocultural Perspective

A

A psychological approach that emphasizes social and cultural influences on behavior

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16
Q

Psychodynamics Perspective

A

An approach that emphasizes unconscious dynamics within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts, or the movement of instinctual energy

Rooted in Freud’s psychoanalysis and has evolved into several variations

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17
Q

Critical Thinking

A

The ability and willingness to assess claim and make objective judgements rather than ones based on emotion and anecodotes

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18
Q

8 Critical Thinking Guidelines

A
  1. Ask questions/be willing to make mistakes
  2. Define your terms precisely
  3. Examine the evidence
  4. Analyze and be aware of assumptions and biases
  5. Avoid emotional reasoning
  6. Consider other interpretations
  7. Tolerate uncertainty
  8. Don’t over simplify but do pick the explanation with the fewest assumptions
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19
Q

Principle of Falsifiability

A

The principle that a scientific theory must make predictions that are specific enough to expose the theory to the possibility of disconfirmation

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20
Q

Representative Sample

A

A group of individuals, selected from a population for study, which matches that population on important characteristics such as sex, age, demographic, etc.

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21
Q

Descriptive Method

A

A method that yields descriptions of behaviors but not necessarily causal explanations

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22
Q

Types of Descriptive Studies

A
  • Case Studies
  • Observational Studies
  • Psychological Tests
  • Surveys
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23
Q

Case Studies

A

A study which yields a detailed description of a particular individual being studied or treated

Most commonly used by clinicians, but occasionally used by academic researchers

Limitations:
- Limited to a single occurrence

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24
Q

Observational Studies

A

A study in which researchers carefully and systematically observe and record behavior without interfering with behavior

Guidelines:

  • May not expose person
  • May not ID person
  • May not lead to any negative consequences
  • It is best to always get approval after

Types:
Naturalistic Observations and Laboratory Observations

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25
Q

Naturalistic Observations

A

A study in which researchers observe how people or animals behave in their natural environment

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26
Q

Laboratory Obeservations

A

A study in which researchers observe how people or animals behave in a more controlled setting

27
Q

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

A

An application of principles of learning and especially operant conditioning to behavioral problems in an every day setting

28
Q

Psychological Tests

A

Procedures used to measure and evaluate personality traits, emotional states, aptitudes, interests, abilities, and values

Characteristics of a good psychological test:

  • Standardization
  • Reliability
  • Validity
29
Q

Standardization Test

A

A test constructed to include uniform procedures for giving and scoring the test

To score tests in a standard way, an individuals’s outcome or score is compared to norms established by testing a large representative sample

30
Q

Reliability

A

In test construction, the consistency of test scores from one time and place to another

Can be reliable but not valid

31
Q

Validity

A

The ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure

Can’t be valid unless reliable

32
Q

Surveys

A

Questionnaires and interviews that ask people about experiences, attitudes, or opinions

Strengths:
- Get a lot of data quickly

Limitations:

  • Not standardized
  • Self report measures
  • Loaded questions affect answers
  • Volunteer bias

Unreliable because:

  1. People lie
  2. People change their minds
  3. People don’t know
33
Q

Volunteer Bias

A

Volunteers may differ from those who did not volunteer

34
Q

Self Selection Biases

A

A bias that arises in any situation in which individuals select themselves into a group

35
Q

Order Affect

A

The order in which you ask questions affects the answer the answerer gives

36
Q

Correlational Study

A

A descriptive study that looks for a consistent relationship between two phenomena

Limitations:
Does not show causality

37
Q

Correlation

A

A numerical measure of the strength and direction of the relationship between two things

38
Q

Variables

A

Characteristics of behavior or experiences that can be measured or described by a numeric scale

Variables are manipulated and assessed in scientific studies

39
Q

3 Directions of Correlations

A
  1. Not correlated
  2. Positively Correlated
  3. Negative Correlations
40
Q

Positively Correlated

A

An association between increases in one variable and increases in another, or decreases in one variable and decreases in the other

Two variables move together

Goes up to the right on a scatterplot graph

41
Q

Negative Correlations

A

An association between increases in one variable and decreases in another

Two variables more apart

Goes down to the right on a scatterplot graph

42
Q

Confounding Variable / Third Variable Problem

A

Variables that the researcher failed to control. or eliminate, damaging the internal validity of an experiment

43
Q

Coefficient of Correlation

A

The statistic used to express the relationship between to variables; shows how good a predictor one variable is from another

Can range from -1.00 through +1.00

44
Q

Cross-Sectional Studies

A

A study in which individuals of different ages are compared at a given time

Benefit:
- Easy way to study the effect of age on a variable

Limitation:
- “Cohort Effects”

45
Q

Cohort Effects

A

Describes variations in the characteristics of an area of study over time among individuals who are defined by some shared temporal experience or common life experience such as birth year

46
Q

Longitudinal Studies

A

A study in which individuals are followed and periodically assessed over a period of time

Benefits:

  • Very powerful form of research
  • Elegant
  • Lots of data

Limitations:

  • Very hard to do
  • Takes forever
  • Very expressive
  • Subjects drop out
47
Q

Controlled Experiment

A

A controlled test of a hypothesis (null hypotheses) in which the researcher manipulates one variable to discover its affect on another

Gold standard of research and only way to find causality

Controlled and randomized

Limitations:

  • Representative sample
  • Experiment Effect
  • suddle to fraud?
  • Demand Characteristics
48
Q

Informed consent

A

Human research subjects must participate voluntarily, and much know enough about a study to make an intelligent decision about whether to participate

49
Q

Experimental Variables

A

Independent Variable and Dependent Variable

50
Q

Independent Variable

A

A variable that is varied by the experimenter to examine its effects on the dependent variable

At least 2 levels including a Control Group and one or more Experimental Groups

51
Q

Dependent Variable

A

A variable that is potentially liable to be influenced by one or more independent variables

52
Q

Control Condition

A

A comparison condition in which subjects are not exposed to the same treatment as are those in the experimental condition

53
Q

Random Assignment

A

An experimental technique for assigning subjects to different treatment groups preventing bias in these groups

54
Q

Experimenter effect

A

Unintended changes in subjects’ behavior due to cues inadvertently given by the experimenter

Prevented with single- and double-blind studies

55
Q

Confounds

A

Problems that arise when two or more causal variables are not properly controlled, so that their separate effects on the dependent variable cannot be disentangle

Lethal to experiment

56
Q

Demand Characteristics

A

An experimental artifact where participants form an interpretation of the experiment’s purpose and unconsciously change their behavior to fit that interpretation

57
Q

Descriptive Statistics

A

Statistics that organize and summarize research data

Examples:

  • Arithmetic Mean
  • Standard Deviation
58
Q

Arithmetic Mean

A

The average value in a data set

Does not provide information about the variability of the responses in a data set

59
Q

Standard Deviation

A

The average difference between scores in a data set and the average of that set

60
Q

Inferential Statistics

A

Statistical procedures that gives you a probability of if the differences are big enough to matter

Should be less than .05, meaning less than a 5% possibility that what you observed happened by randomness

The most common used are significance tests

61
Q

Significance Test

A

A test which shows how likely it is that a study’s results occurred merely by chance

62
Q

Statistical techniques

A

Help determine if results are really important

Descriptive Statistics and Inferential Statistics

63
Q

Effect size

A

The amount of variance among scores in the study accounted for by the independent variable

64
Q

Meta-analysis

A

A procedure for combining and analyzing data from many studies to find the overall affect