Thinking With Psychological Science

Question 0

What is the theory of natural selection?

Answer 0

• There is variation among any population of organisms
• There is competition for finite resources
• Those organisms with better traits will survive and reproduce

Question 1

What does the scientific method consist of?

Answer 1

1. A theory
2. A hypothesis
3. Observations

Question 2

What does cognitive theory of depression state?

Answer 2

• Negative thoughts = Negative emotions.
• Therefore, low- self esteem underlies depression.
• Thus, raising self- esteem will alleviate depression

Question 3

What is the neurobiological theory of depression?

Answer 3

• Neurochemical activity underlies all of our experiences, including feelings.
• Serotonin (a neurotransmitter) is associated with mood- chemical imbalance of low serotonin= depression
• Thus, serotonin prescription= alleviated depression

Question 4

What is a hypotheses?

Answer 4

• Testable prediction

- Logically flows from theory

Question 5

What is a case study?

Answer 5

• Examination of a single individual in- depth
• Purpose= detailed description of behaviour
• You would use this method of someone has a rare disorder or brain injury that you want to study in depth

Question 6

What are the drawbacks of case studies?

Answer 6

• Not representative of the majority of people

- Cannot conclude the cause of behaviour

Question 7

What is a survey? What are the drawbacks?

Answer 7

• Many cases in less depth
• Asks people to report their behaviours, attitudes, experiences, etc

Drawbacks= Wording effects, inaccurate responses

Question 8

What is a sample?

Answer 8

• A subset of the population that’s selected and studied (population= group of interest)
  
  • Representative sample= representative of the pop. of interest
    - subgroups must be proportionately represented

Question 9

What is random assignment?

Answer 9

• Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance
• Minimizes pre-existing differences between those assigned to the different groups

Question 10

What is naturalistic observation?

Answer 10

• Unobtrusively observing and recording spontaneous behaviour in natural environments

Question 11

What is the Hawthorne effect?

Answer 11

• Measured behaviour is changed behaviour

- If someone knows they are being watched, they alter their behaviour

Question 12

What is a correlation?

Answer 12

• Relationship between 2 different behaviours

- Have a direction (positive or negative)

Question 13

What is a variable?

Answer 13

• Any characteristic that can vary/ take on different attributes

Question 14

What is a correlation coefficient?

Answer 14

• Value ranges from -1 to +1.
• Represents the direction of the relationship:
  
  • Positive (0 and +1)
  • Negative (0 and -1)

Question 15

What are the roles of operational definitions?

Answer 15

1: Protect against experimenter bias
2: Allow for replication

Question 16

What is the role of the experimental method?

Answer 16

• Allow for conclusions about causation

- Cause- effect relationship between 2 variables, involves manipulation of one variable

Question 17

What is a dependent variable?

Answer 17

• The measured variable (characteristic of the people you’re investigating)
• Hypothesized to depend on the other variable (independent)

Question 18

What is the independent variable?

Answer 18

• The manipulated variable

- Hypothesized to cause the level of the dependent variable

Question 19

Explain the differences between the control group, and the experimental group.

Answer 19

Control= Given a placebo.

• Used for comparison.
• Reveals whether a response to treatment is due to expectation or not.

Experimental= Exposed to the treatment.

Question 20

What is a confounding variable?

Answer 20

• Factor that could influence the dependent variable
  Ex: A study of the effect of room temperature on memory ability.
• Independent variable= Room temp.
• Potential confounding variable= seat comfort
• Dependent variable= memory

Question 21

What is an experimenter bias? How do we prevent it?

Answer 21

• The experimenter’s preconceived notions that influence the behaviour of participants (I.e tone of voice, gestures)
• Prevention= double- blind technique ( neither the experimenter nor the participants know who is in the experimenter and control groups)

Question 22

What are the measures of central tendency?

Answer 22

• Mean
• Mode
• Median

Question 23

What are the measures of variation?

Answer 23

• Range

- Standard deviation

Question 24

What is standard deviation?

Answer 24

• The degree to which the scores vary
• An estimation of the “average difference” amongst scores
  To calculate:
  1) Get sample mean
  2) Obtain individual scores deviations from mean
  3) Square deviations
  4) Add up all the squared deviations & divide by # of scores
  5) Take square root of that #

Question 25

What is statistical significance?

Answer 25

-Take into account the means
- Looks at difference between groups.
Significant if;
- The difference is reliable
- The difference is large