Unit 1 : Scientific Foundations of Psychology Flashcards
Who is Wilhem Wundt? Why is he important?
-Known as the father of Psychology
-Established the first formal psychological laboratory in Leipzig Germany (1879) where he designed an experiment testing how quickly ppl reacted to hearing a noise
-Important b/c his lab was the starting line of Psychology as a science (separated it from philosophy)
- His was the first attempt to bring objectivity and measurement to psychology
Who is Edward Titchener?
- He was one of Wilhem Wundt’s students
- Took many of Wilhem Wudnt’s ideas to the United States and invented the term ‘structuralism’
What is Structuralism and who is associated with it?
-studies the mind by trying to look at what its made of.
-the study of how our minds make meaning through small step by step cognitive processes.
-this approach breaks down mental processes into their smallest possible components (structures) and analyzes them.
- Important people : Wilhem Wunt & Edward Titchener
What is Introspection?
- A research method that involved looking inwards to examine one’s own emotional states.
-relies on people describing their thoughts and feelings - Used by Wilhem Wudnt to study sensation and perception, where participants were asked to describe their experiences when presented with a set of stimuli.
-Used in both Structuralism and Functionalism
-was a very limited research technique; it was impossible to study complex subjects like learning and personality.
-Cannot always be reliable, accounts of people explaining their own experiences cannot be confirmed
Who is William James?
-The first American psychologist
-wrote the first psychology textbook
-One of the main founders of functionalism
-considered the father of AMERICAN psychology (not to be confused with Wilhem Wundt who was based in Germany)
What is Functionalism and who is associated with it?
-the study of what the mind does or its function
-focuses on how our behaviors serve us, claiming that certain behaviors were used for survival (heavily inspired by the evolutionary Approach)
-describes the mind as a functional tool that allows us to adapt to our environments
-Important people : William James
If a structuralist and a functionalist came across a modern computer, how would each study the machine?
(metaphor for the mind)
- Functionalist would want to press the keys and turn it on, to see what it can do
- Structuralist would take apart the computer, to see what its made of and the structures in it
What are approaches or perspectives in psychology?
- interpretations of psychology that help psychologists understand an individual
- basically the different ways psychology is looked at and studied
-approaches/perspectives in psychology can answer many questions, but no single approach answers all questions well
State the different approaches/perspectives
-Psychodynamic/analytic
-Behavioral
-Cognitive
-Humanistic
-Biological
-Socio-cultural
- Biopsychosocial
What is the Psychodynamic Approach? Who is associated with it?
-one of the oldest approaches in psychology and is still used today
-delves deeper into the UNCONSCIOUS mind of individuals to understand why people act a certain way
- developed by Sigmund Freud and was originally called the psychoanalytic theory
BUZZWORDS : unconscious drives/desires, free association, traumas leas to repression into unconscious
What is the Behavorial Approach? Who is associated with it?
-Mainly focuses on observable Reflexes and behaviors that can be measured, counted and recorded to understand humans and animals
-very opposed to invisible ideas like thoughts, emotions, the “unconscious”.
-Ivan Pavlov, John B Watson and B.F Skinner are all behavioral psychologists
-emphasis on learning through conditioning (classical and operant)
BUZZ WORDS : learning, punishment, reinforcement, increase/decrease of behavior
What is Classical Conditioning? Who are the psychologists associated with it?
- a learning process involving a NATURAL stimulus that brings about a NATURAL response being PAIRED with a NEUTRAL stimulus enough times so that the NEUTRAL stimulus ALONE is enough to bring about the NATURAl response
- (confusing ik)
- accidentally started by Ivan Pavlov when he was studying digestion in dogs and discovered that the dogs would salivate (natural) )at something other than food(natural) , if that thing (nuetral) was routinely presented before food.
What is Operant Conditioning? Who are the psychologists associated?
- a learning method in which a specific behavior is associated with either a positive or negative consequence.
- B.F Skinner is known for Operant Conditioning
Explain the difference between Classical and Operant Conditioning.
Classical Conditioning involves learning through the connections of a stimuli.
Operant Conditioning involves learning through rewards and punishments.
What is the Cognitive Approach?
- attempts to explain human behavior by focusing on thought processes.
- In this approach it is believed that an individual’s behaviors or responses are most likely results of the way they perceive and interpret the situation around them
Psychologists involved are Jean Piaget
BUZZZ WORDS : Thinking, reasoning, processing, thought process
What is the Biological Approach?
- according to this approach, most thoughts and behavior are inherited and/or heavily influenced by hormones, genetics, and neurotransmitters
BUZZ WORDS : Anatomy - references to any part of the brain or nervous system, damages to those parts
What is the Humanistic Approach?
-emphasizes the importance of looking at individuals as their own unique selves
-this is a very optimistic and positive approach
-claims that each person has a motivation or drive to achieve their full potential and self improvement
Psychologists associated are Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
BUZZWORDS : self-actualization, self-anything (concept,esteem etc)
What is the Sociocultural Approach?
-Considered external factors like society, environment, and culture to study the effect it has on an individuals mentality and behavior
-According to this approach,a persons behavioral can be influenced by the way they interact with their social or cultural groups.
-Things like social norms and standards can also play a role in how a person thinks, feels, and behaves
BUZZWORDS: neighborhood, friend group, ethnicity, socio-economic status/background, cultural/social impact
Who is Dorthea Dix? Why was she Important?
- She advocated for the mentally ill, opening up the first asylums and hospitals to treat them
-Dix’s extensive investigations into asylums revealed deplorable conditions, leading her to advocate for better care and treatment facilities.
Dorothea Dix’s work transformed the landscape of mental health care, moving away from inhumane treatment to a more compassionate and medical approach.
Who is Stanley Hall? Why was he important?
- He was the first to receive a PHD in psychology in the United States
- He was the first president of the American Psychological Association (APA)
- opened the first psychological laboratory in the U.S
Who was Mary Calkins? Why was she important?
- taught under William James
- the first female president of the APA
Who was Margaret Washburn? Why was she important?
- the first woman to earn a PHD in psychology
- the second female president of the APA
What is the Evolutionary theory? Who is associated with it?
- looks at behavior as adaptations of natural selection
BUZZWORDS : natural selection, gene pool, reproduction
Talk therapy is derived from which approach to psychology?
The Psychodynamic Approach
What is free association? Who was it used by?
-when a word or image signals or summons other words and thoughts in our head
- a technique used by Sigmund Freud in psychoanalysis
- involved the presentation of a word/image/phrase then the patient saying whatever comes to mind about that
EX: “what comes to mind when you hear the word mother?”
What is the difference between Basic Research and Applied Research?
Basic Research: work on building psychology’s knowledge base through research and experiments
Applied Research use/apply the research to take on issues in the world
State the APPLIED Research Domains :
Industrial/Organizational Psychologists
Counseling Psychologists
Educational Psychologists
Clinical Psychologists
State the BASIC Research Domains :
Biological Psychologists
Developmental Psychologists
Cognitive Psychologists
Personality Psychologists
Social Psychologists
What is the difference between a Psychologist and a Psychiatrist?
Psychiatrists are medical doctors, psychologists are not.
Psychiatrist : can prescribe meds, has a medical degree,
Psychologists : has a degree in psychology, can offer a variety in talk therapy,
A person has depression. They go to both a psychologist and psychiatrist. How would each serve the patient?
The psychologist would offer the patient talk therapy
The psychiatrist would give the patient medicine for their depression
What is Gestalt Psychology?
What is natural selection? What approach to psychology uses this concept?
- theory proposed by Charles Darwin
- traits that are useful to survival are more likely to be passed down to future generations, while traits that are useless will die off
- The evolutionary approach to psychology uses this concept to explain behavior
What would a BIOLOGICAL Psychologist do? Are they in the basic research or applied research domain?
- in the basic research domain
- studies the connection between the mind and body
What would a DEVELOPMENTAL Psychologist do? Are they in the basic research or applied research domain?
-in the basic research domain
-studies how behavior and mental processes change throughout lifespan
What would a COGNITIVE Psychologist do? Are they in the basic research or applied research domain?
- in the basic research domain
-studies how we perceive, think, and solve problems
What would a PERSONALITY Psychologist do? Are they in the basic research or applied research domain?
-in the basic research domain
-investigates our persistent traits
What would a SOCIAL Psychologist do? Are they in the basic research or applied research domain?
-in the basic research domain
-analyze how individuals affect one another
What would a INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONAL Psychologist do? Are they in the basic research or applied research domain?
-applied research
-applications of different psychological concepts in the workplace
What would a COUNSELING do? Are they in the basic research or applied research domain?
-applied research
-help people overcome and cope with different life challenges
What would a CLINICAL Psychologist do? Are they in the basic research or applied research domain?
-applied research
-assessing, diagnosing, and treating people with mental illness
What would an EDUCATIONAL Psychologist do? Are they in the basic research or applied research domain?
-applied research
-studies psychological influences in teaching and learning
What is a psychometric psychologist? What do they do?
-basic research
-involves the development and application of psychological tests.
-try to measure peoples attitudes and character traits, and abilities needed to work in a specific place
What is a positive psychologist? What do they do?
-focuses on the positive aspects of human experience
-focus on individual and societal well being
What is the Experiment Research method? (Controlled Experiment)
-only research method that can prove cause and effect
-involves the manipulation of variables in a controlled setting
-tests a hypothesis
What is a hypothesis?
- a prediction that can be tested, and is made before any research is done
-a guess as to what the result will be
-based on theories
What is a theory?
-a statement that explains a question, thought or natural phenomenon
- NOT A GUESS OR PREDICTION
-backed up by evidence and research/experiments that have already been done
What is the difference between an independent variable and dependent variable?
- the independent variable is the variable that is manipulated
- the dependent variable is the variable that changes in response to IV being manipulated
Independent –> Cause
Dependent —> Effected
What is a operational definition? What is it used for?
- precise definitions of a variable being used in an experiment and how it is being measured
-allows for an experiment to be replicated - helps counter biases
What is the Survey Method? What are its benefits and downsides?
- a method of collecting data through questionnaires or interviews about a persons personal thoughts, opinions, or experiences
PROS : cheap, easy way to gather TONS of info quickly, anonymity
CONS : can miss details, relies on self report, misleading wording WORDING EFFECT
Wording Effect
the way a question is worded can affect our thoughts, thus affecting our answer
What is the POPULATION in an experiment?
- the ENTIRE group of people that the researcher has taken an interest in for the experiment
What is the SAMPLE in an experiment?
- individuals from the population are selected in order to represent the population in the research study
Random Sample, Representative Sample, Stratified Sample, and sampling bias?
RANDOM Sampling : method of gathering representative sample through random + fair selection
REPRESENTATIVE Sample : smaller group of participants w/ the same characteristics as the population itself
when a sample isn’t representative it is biased
STRATIFIED Sample: the random sampling of the subcategories of the population
Sampling BIAS : when the group of people gathered from population does not accurately represent the population
What is the Case Study research method? What are it’s benefits and downsides?
- involves the in-depth study of a person, group or situation using observations, tests, and experiments to get a detailed understanding of a specific case.
PROS ; useful for investigating new, rare or complex cases
-provides valuable raw material
for further research
CONS ; hard to generalize (unlikely to be representative of people in general)
What is the Hawthorne effect? What research methods could it apply to?
- when a subject of a study changes their behavior due to their awareness that they are being observed/studied
-Case-studies and natural observations are more prone
-may change behavior in ways that they believe will please researcher/observer
-can impact validity of research findings
What is Pyschology’s BIGGEST Debate?
Nature : environmental and external factors shape s
Nuture : inborn and genetic factors shape us
What is a Correlational Study? What are the pros and cons
-observing the relationship between two variables without manipulating them
-if the changes in one variable are associated with changes in another variable
- CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION
—> can determine strength between two variables
PROS ;
CONS ; does not prove cause and effect
What is a Naturalistic Observation? What are the pros and cons
-research carried out in a natural setting, collecting data by just observation
-gather descriptive information about typical behavior of people or animals without manipulating any
variables.
-no lab, no staged study
PROS ; valuable where other methods are likely to be disruptive or misleading
CONS ; informed consent allows participant to know that they are being observed, which can lead to change in behavior, observer can have a bias and pick+choose what to observe
What do Case Study and Naturalistic Observation have in common?
- Both only DESCRIBE behavior
- do NOT prove CAUSE AND EFFECT
What is a Cross Sectional Study vs Longitudial Study
- both are NOT research methods, they are just ways to DO them
-Cross Sectional: COMPARES DIFFERENT groups, gathers data at ONE point in time, doesn’t give history or full picture kinda like
a picture/snapshot.
-Longitudinal : follows one group, gathers data over a LONG time, not much generalization, great for questions in developmental psychology
-following a person through
all stages of life
Hindsight Bias
- our tendency to believe we could have anticpated the outcome of an event
- “knew it all along”
Confirmation Bias
-looking for evidence that aligns with our beliefs, and ignoring ones that could disprove or challenge it
Experimental/Researcher Bias
- when the researcher unintentionally/unknowingly affects the outcomes of the research
-the unintentional influence of the experimenter’s expectations, beliefs, or preconceived notions on the outcome of a study or research experiment.
Social Desirability/Subject/Participant Bias (goes by all these names)
- when a participant in a study behaves or gives answers in a way they know that the researcher would like
-giving answers they believe the researcher is looking for
Quasi Experiment
What are some thing that researchers can do to AVOID BIAS in their study?
- follow the scientific method
-set operational definitions
-using placebos
-giving pre-screening to participants -conducting a single-blind or double-blind study
-setting clear objectives
What are the steps to the scientific method?
-The Method used to obtain and evaluate data in order to explore observations and answer questions.The steps of the scientific method include the question, research, hypothesis, experiment, data analysis, conclusion, and communication
Reliability Vs Validity
Reliability - how CONSISTENT a measurement/instrument is
Validity - how ACCURATE a measurement/instrument is
What are the Measures of Central Tendency?
- Mean, median, and mode
- mean is the average of a data set
- median is the middle value
- mode is the most frequently occurring value
How to find mean, median, and mode?
- Mean : add up all the values and divide by the # of values
-Median : list all the values in order from smallest to largest and the middle # is the median
- if there are 2 middle, add
them tg and divide by 2
-Mode : identify the most recurring value
Experimental vs Control group
Experimental gets the independent variable, control group does not (placebo)
purpose of control group is to compare with experimental
Random Assignment assigns participants in either one of these groups
Confounding variable
- other factors that could effect the outcome of an experiment that is not intended by researcher
What is a Single-blind procedure vs Double-blind procedure, and what are they used for?
Single-Blind : participants do not know if they are in the experimental group or control group
Double-Blind : participants and researcher do not know who is in the experimental group or control group
-used to PREVENT participants and researcher Bias
Quantitative VS Qualitative Data
QuaNtitative : deals with numbers
QuaLitative : deals with descriptive data
EX ; a personality test
Quantitative data would be the scores not the test (40,90,70..)
Qualitative data would be the ages ,genders, and ethnicity of the participants
What are the measures of variability
- also known as spread or dispersion
- Range : difference between the highest and lowest score (subtract lowest from highest)
- Standard Deviation : average between each score and mean (how far each score is away from the mean)
What are descriptive statistics? List them.
- Descriptive Statistics are numbers that describe the main characteristics of the data
- Includes Measures of Central Tendency (3 m’s) and Measures of Variation (range/standard dev.)
What is a correlational coefficient?
- a number between -1.0 and +1.0 that tells the STRENGTH and DIRECTION of two variables
-the statistical measure that shows the degree of relationship between 2 variables
- the closer to -1.0 or +1.0, the stronger the relationship
What is a positive correlation?
When two variables are increasing together, or decreasing together, the correlation is POSITIVE
-coefficient between 0 and +1.0
Example : increased school attendance with increased good grades
(remember not to use the word CAUSE because it is a Correlational relationship)
What is a negative correlation?
When one variable is increasing while the other is decreasing, it is a negative correlation
-coefficient between 0 and -1.0
- two variables moving in opposite directions
EX : increase of school absence, decrease of good grades
What is no correlation?
When there is no relationship between the relationship of two variables, it has no correlation at all
EX : students who wear hats with school attendance
What do you call a data point(s) that is significantly different from the other data points in a dataset.
Outliers
What is the APA and the ethical guidelines?
APA = American Psychological Association
- Informed Consent = participants are informed about every detail in study (minors cannot give written consent)
- Limited Deception = must only decide when it is necessary to study and when it does not hurt anybody
- Protect from harm and discomfort = minimize any discomfort or risk in study
- Confidentiality = personal/sensitive info must be kept a secret
- Debrief = Must reveal every detail of study after study to every participant
In a normal distribution…
- the mean median and mode are all at the same point (above 0/middle line/center)
- the distribution of scores produces a bell shaped SYMMETRICAL curve
-68 percent of scores fall within ONE standard deviation on either side of the mean (middle line)
-95 percent of scores fall within TWO standard deviations on either side of mean (middle line)
