Unit 1- Scientific Foundations of Psychology (10-14%) Flashcards
Psychometrics
Field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement ex: objective measurement of skills, knowledge, abilities
Rehabilitation Psychologists
focus on treating individuals dealing with disabilities and problems that make living normal lives difficult
School/Educational Psychologists
Someone who uses applied behavior analysis to meet children’s and adolescent’s behavioral health and learning needs in a collaborative manner with educators and parents
Social Pyschologist
Someone who studies people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others
Sports Psychologists
Someone who studies how psychological factors affect performance and how participation in sports and exercise affect psychological and physical factors
Psychiatry
Medical field of psychology that treats psychological disorders often with prescription medication
Max Wertheimer
Pioneer of the Gestalt field of Psychology
Behavioral Genetics
The field of study that examines the role of genetic and environmental influences on animal (including human) behavior.
Abraham Maslow
Humanistic psychologist who developed a theory of motivation that emphasized psychological needs
Sigmund Freud
Developed the influential psychoanalytic theory of personality. Emphasized the ways emotional responses to childhood experiences and our unconscious thought process affect our behavior.
Repression
The psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memory.
Free Will
The human ability to act freely, a focus of humanism. Psychoanalysis and Behaviorism minimized the emphasis on human free will.
Psychoanalysis
A set of psychological and psychotherapeutic theories and associated techniques, created by Sigmund Freud
Humanism
Emphasis on the importance of current environmental influences on our growth potential, and the importance of having our needs for love and acceptance satisfied.
Gestalt Psychology
the study of perception and behavior from the standpoint of an individual’s response to configurational wholes with stress on the uniformity of psychological and physiological events and rejection of analysis into discrete events of stimulus, percept, and response. In perception, “the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts.”
Human Factors Psychology
focuses on a range of unique topics of interest in psychology and engineering. For example, ergonomics, human errors, work site safety, product engineering and human-machine interactions
Scientific method
A self correcting recess for asking questions and observing natures answers
Theory
An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.
Replication
Repeating the essence of a research study.usually with different participants in in different situations to see whether the basic findings extend to different participants and circumstances.
Dependent Variable
The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable. It is the thing being measured.
Operational Definition
Statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables. For example, human intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures
Population
All the cases in a group being studied, from school samples may be drawn
Random Sample
A sample that fairly represents a population because each member had an equal chance of inclusion
Random Assignment
Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups
Experimental Group
In an experiment, the group that is exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable
Control Group
In an experiment, the group that isn’t exposed to the treatment (independent variable); contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment
Confounding variables
Outside variables that can alter the result of the experiment.
Correlation Research
A study to show how closely two things vary to each other.
Double-Blind Procedure
During an experiment where both the experimenter and participants are blind about if they receive a placebo or not. and the
Survey
Used to estimate the behaviors of a whole population from a group of people.
Naturalistic Observation
Watches behavior and describes it. Does not seek to explain behavior.
Experimenter Bias
A process where the scientists performing the research influence the results, in order to portray a certain outcome.
Single-blind Procedure
An experiment where the experimenter knows what is the placebo and what isn’t but the participants do not.
Statistical Significance
A statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance.
Normal Distribution (Normal Curve)
A bell shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the mean (68% fall within one standard deviation of it, and fewer near the extremes).
Inferential Statistics
Used to make generalizations from a sample to the general population.
Informed Consent
An ethical principle that research participants must be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate.
Debriefing
The post-experimental explanation of a study; an ethical requirement.
Institutional Review Board
Committee designated to review, monitor, and approve behavioral research involving humans.
Mean
The arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores
Median
The middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it
Mode
The most frequently occurring scores in a distribution
Range
The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution
Standard deviation
A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score
Normal curve
A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the mean and fewer and fewer near the extremes.
Reliability
The degree to which an assessment tool produces stable and consistent results.
Validity
Refers to how well a test measures what it is purported to measure.
Case Study
An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.
Illusory Correlation
The perception of a relationship where none exists.
Placebo Effect
Experimental results caused by expectation alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent.
Scatterplot
A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the two variables. The amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation. (Little scatter indicates high correlation)
Correlation Coefficient
A statistic index of the relationship between two things. (From -1 to +1). The closer the value is to 1, the stronger the correlation.
Hindsight Bias
the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.
Hypothesis
a testable prediction, often implied by a theory.
Null hypothesis
a statistical hypothesis that is tested for possible rejection under the assumption that it is true (usually that observations are the result of chance).
Independent variable
the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.
Random Selection
All members of the population being studied have an equal chance of being selected for the survey or correlational research.
Introspection
The examination or observation of ones own mental and emotional processes
Psychology
the science of behavior and mental processes.
Dualism
The mind and body are separate, the mind can continue without the body
Monism
The mind and body are connected/ the brain is the mind
Plato and Descartes
Believed in Dualism and that knowledge was innate
Aristotle and Locke
Believe we gain knowledge through experience/ Locke coined “tablula rasa” or blank slate
Structuralism
school of psychology that used introspection to explore the structural elements of the human mind.
Functionalism
school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function
Clinical Psychologists
assess and treat mental, emotional, and behavior disorders
Counseling Psychologists
help people to cope with challenges and crises (including academic, vocational, and marital issues) and to improve their personal and social functioning.
Developmental Psychologists
study our changing abilities from womb to tomb
Forensic Psychologists
apply psychological principles to legal issues. They conduct research on the interface of law and psychology, help to create public policies related to mental health, help law enforcement agencies in criminal investigations, or assist in forensic consultation involving jury selection and deliberation research.
Industrial/Organizational Psychologists
use psychology’s concepts and methods in the workplace to help organiza- tions and companies select and train employees, boost morale and productivity, design products, and implement systems.
Neuropsychologists
investigate the relationship between neurological pro- cesses (structure and function of the brain) and behavior.
Sociocultural Approach
Focus on the contributions of other people and culture, learn through social interactions
Carl Rogers
Pioneered Humanistic Psychology
Evolutionary Psychology
The study of the roots of behavior and mental processes using the principles of natural selection.
Charles Darwin
Founded the evolutionary process of natural selection
Cognitive psychology
Study of how we think
Jean Piaget
Developmental psychologist who pioneered theories of cognitive development of children
Cognition
How we think
Natural selection
The principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations.
Empiricism
The view that knowledge originates in experience and that science should, therefore, rely on observation and experimentation.
Nature-nurture issue
The longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development psychological traits and behaviors. Today’s science sees traits and behaviors arising from the interaction of nature and nurture.
Edward Titchener
Used introspection to search for the minds structural elements
Margaret Floy Washburn
The first women to receive a psychology PhD., Washburn synthesized animal behavior research in The Animal Mind
Mary Calkins
Mentored by William James. Became a pioneering memory researcher and the first women to be president of the American Psychological Association
G. Stanley Hall
First president of the APA
William James
A functionalist; considered the evolved functions of our thoughts and feelings; he admitted Mary Calkins into his seminar
Behaviorism
The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2)
Ivan Pavlov
The study of conditioning. Famous for dog saliva experiments.
John Watson
Science of behavior; demonstrated conditioned responses with “Little Albert”; conditioned fear
B.F. Skinner
Behaviorist; rejected introspection and studied how consequences shape behavior, with animal behaviors (pigeons and rats in skinner boxes)
Operant Conditioning
A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher
Personality Psychologists
Person who studies personality and it’s variation among individuals
