Psych A Flashcards
Define psychology
The study of the mind and behaviour.
It is a vast and diverse scientific discipline comprising several major branches of research (biological, cognitive, social) and applied psychology. The practice of psychology involves the use of psychological knowledge to:
- understand and treat mental, emotional, physical, and social dysfunction
- understand and enhance behaviour in various setting of human activity
- improve machine and building design for human use
Define psychiatry
- the medical specialty concerned with the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental, behavioural, and personality disorders.
- It focuses on complex and severe mental illness.
- It involves the prescription of medication and other treatments to treat or control symptoms of mental illnesses and hospital admission (if deemed necessary).
- based on the premise that biological causes are at the root of mental and emotional problems
Define social work
- a profession devoted to helping individuals, families, and other groups deal with personal and practical problems within the larger community context of which they are a part
- addresses problems including those related to mental or physical disorder, poverty, living arrangements, child care, occupational stress, and unemployment, especially through involvement in the provision of social services
What is the free will vs determinism debate about?
the extent to which our behaviour is the result of forces over which we have no control or whether people are able to decide for themselves whether to act or behave in a certain way
What does the determinism approach propose?
that all behaviour has a cause and is thus predictable. Free will is an illusion, and our behaviour is governed by internal or external forces over which we have no control (e.g. our upbringing, genes, prior experiences etc.). According to the deterministic approach, we don’t have individual responsibility for our own actions.
What does the free will approach propose?
that we are able to have some choice in how we act and assumes that we are free to choose our behaviour, in other words we are self determined. E.g. people can make a free choice as to whether to commit a crime or not (unless they are a child or they are insane). This does not mean that behaviour is random, but we are free from the casual influences of past events. According to freewill a person is responsible for their own actions.
What is nature vs nurture debate about?
the extent to which particular aspects of behaviour are a product of either inherited (i.e. genetic) or acquired (i.e. learned) influences.
What does the nature approach propose?
that what we think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors. Examples of biologically determined characteristics (nature) include certain genetic diseases, eye colour, hair colour, and skin colour.
What does the nurture approach propose?
nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors after birth, e.g. the product of exposure, life experiences and learning on an individual. Some characteristics are tied to environmental influences. How a person behaves can be linked to influences such as parenting styles and learned experiences.
What is a research question?
a specific and answerable inquiry into an area of interest
What is the independent variable?
is the variable that you manipulate (change) and has a direct impact on the dependent variable. The IV is divided in to levels based on the groups being compared.
What is the dependent variable?
is the variable you measure and is the outcome of the study
What is an extraneous variable?
any variables other than IV which MAY HAVE an effect on the DV if not controlled for
What is a confounding variable?
any variables other than the IV that HAVE HAD an effect on the DV
What is a hypothesis?
a statement of what you predict will happen in an investigation
What must a hypothesis include?
the operationalised independent variable (IV)
the operationalised dependent variable (DV)
the expected relationship between the variables of difference between the groups
What does a null hypothesis predict?
there will be NO significant difference between the two condictions (one variable does not affect the other)
What does an alternative hypothesis predict? (non-directional, two-tailed)
there will be a significant difference between the two condictions (one variable has an effect on the other), but the direction of the effect is NOT specified
What does an alternative hypothesis predict? (directional, one-tailed)
there will be a significant difference between the two conditions (one variable has an effect on the other) and the direction of the effect is specified
What is correctional research?
the relatedness of two variables and attempt to predict the value of one based on the other. Correlations examine the relationship between two variables (co-variables) without manipulation
Summarise the steps in the scientific method in order
- Identify the research question
- Formulate a null hypothesis and an alternative hypothesis
- Design the method
- Collect the data
- Process data, and analyse and evaluate evidence
- Report the findings
Independent groups design
Groups only try one condition, Mann-Whitney U
Advantage: the design is the least time-consuming experiment type
Disadvantage: participant variables (individual differences)
Repeated measures design
The groups try both conditions
Advantage: participants act as their own control which reduces the amount of error
Disadvantage: carry-over effects (fatigue, practice) form participants being a part of all groups
Matched participant design
Similar people in each group, completing one condition
Advantage: major participant variables are eliminated (if they are matched)
Disadvantage: there are still participant variables that may confound the results because not all variables can be matched (it would just be the same person) and the matching process is time consuming
Correlational, ordinal (qualitative)
Spearman’s correlation coefficient
