S1M1 - Science Fundementals

Question 1

Biological Paradigm

Answer 1

• explains everything in terms of the body and the brain
• neural activity
• works with both cognitive and behaviourist paradigms
• nature vs. nurture

Question 2

Cognitive Paradigm

Answer 2

• causal determinants of bahaviour
• interpretation of environment (behaviour) by the organism (biology) results in certain behaviours
• just think “interpretation” and you’re set

Question 3

Behaviourist Paradigm

Answer 3

• environment shapes you
• no other factors
• “product of one’s environment”
• Watson or Skinner

Question 4

Skinner’s Behaviourism

Answer 4

HOW you’re capable of being shaped into anyone
- classical conditioning
- operant conditioning (reinforcement and punishment)
- considers thoughts and feelings (in reaction to the environment) as important concepts to understanding the observable reaction

Question 5

Watson’s Behaviourism

Answer 5

THAT you’re capable of being shaped into anyone
- “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select — doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.”

Question 6

Correlational Design

Answer 6

• sampling based on IV application
• sampling is not random
  e.g. measuring time smoking with number of doctor’s appointments; do they go because they smoke, or do they smoke because they’re sick, or is there an underlying cause, or is there something else going on?

Question 7

Experimental Design

Answer 7

• direct manipulation (random assignment) of IV
• random sampling
  e.g. measuring the time to complete a puzzle after being assigned reading or maths beforehand

Question 8

Quasi-experimental Design

Answer 8

• not randomly assigned to conditions of the IV
• random sampling
  e.g. measuring time to read a passage and comparing the results based on gender or age

Question 9

Naturalistic Observation

Answer 9

• no variable manipulation
• watching and recording (creepy)
  e.g. recording the number of people in the park wearing headphones

Question 10

Case History

Answer 10

• no variable manipulation
• identifying all changes/ differences in a subject and matching it to known information (e.g. neurotoxin exposure or lesions)
• note that comparing symptoms before and after an event may be subjective (exaggerated or unmentioned)
  e.g. Henry Molason who had both hippocampi removed and could not create new memories from that point forward

Question 11

Rosenthal (Pygmalion) Effect

Answer 11

When high expectations leads to better performance and low expectations leads to poorer performance

Question 12

Sampling Bias

Answer 12

When the sample does not reflect the population the data is attributed to
e.g. “according to surveys, 98% of people loke doing surveys”, or the WEIRD bias

Question 13

Hawthorne Effect

Answer 13

Altering behaviours of a subject due to the fact that they are (or believe they are) being watched or obseerved

Question 14

Demand Effect

Answer 14

When participants interpret the intention of an experiment and subconsciously changes their behaviour to fit their interpretation

Question 15

Confirmation Bias

Answer 15

Searching for evidence in support of the theory while disregarding evidece on the contrary.