Unit 1 Test Flashcards
Psychodynamic Perspective
All humans are born as animals and are socialized by their parents during the first 5 years of life to be a functioning member of society. Expectations, pressures, and beliefs are pushed back into the unconscious and manifest in different ways throughout life.
Freud
The psychologist who believed in and created the Psychodynamic perspective. He believed that our unconscious mind and childhood affect our behavior when we’re older.
Unconcious
The thoughts and feelings that happen without us controlling them. These are all of the things that we are not aware of. Freud believes that the unconscious drives our behavior.
Behavioral Perspective
Behavior that is rewarded will be repeated. Behavior that is punished will be diminished. They believe that thoughts and feelings don’t matter and that we act how we act based on how we have acted in previous situations.
Black box of the mind
These are out thoughts and feelings because we lock them away inside of us, so we shouldn’t bother studying them. The only things we can study our our environment and behavior.
Humanistic
All humans are born with prepotential. How we feel about ourself shapes our decisions and behaviors. We all want to grow and be the best person we can be. Our environment has shaped our ability to reach our potential, and our self-esteem is shaped by others around us. Our choices are determined by how we feel about ourselves and what we think others think of us.
Unconditional positive regard
Loving someone no matter what. Knowing that someone has unconditional positive regard for you creates and boosts your self-esteem.
Self-esteem
The belief that you are a person with value and worth.
Cognitive
Having to do with thinking. We have a cycle of behaviors thoughts and feelings. Our unconscious thoughts are automatic but can be changed with an attitude adjustment, for example. Our thoughts determine our behavior and EVERYTHING THAT WE DO.
Socio-cultural
Our immediate cultural environment (class, ethnicity, race, religion, etc.) shapes our behavior.
Hindsight bias
The belief, even after something has already happened, that you knew the outcome before it happened. “I knew it all along”.
Overconfidence
When we think we know more than we do and we come up with quick answers rather than correct answers.
Theory
An explanation using a set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behavior and events.
Ex. sleep positively affects memory.
Hypothesis
A testable prediction, based on/implied by a theory. What the researcher thinks the experiment will show. Phrase as an “if…then…” statement.
Ex. If someone gets 8+ hours of sleep, then they will score above a 90% on their test the next day.
Replicate
Repeating the essence of a research study to see if you get similar results. This is done with different participants in different situations to see if the results can be replicated. Similar results lead to greater confidence because replication is confirmation.
Correlation
This is NOT causation. Correlation shows that variable A and B happen at the same time, but it does not prove that variable A causes variable B.
Ex. when there is more ice cream consumption, there are also more shark attacks.
Positive correlation
When variable A goes up/down, variable B does the same.
Negative correlation
When variable A goes up/down, variable B does the opposite.
Natural observation
A descriptive technique of observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring environments. The researcher does not manipulate or control the situation. Technology has helped this a lot because we can observe people’s online behavior as well.
Ex. observing who follows COVID protocol.
Case study
A descriptive technique where an individual or small group is studied in depth to reveal larger principles. This can be very revealing and misleading because it tells us a lot, but the same thing might not apply in every situation. People often use anecdotes to contradict what the case study finds because of personal past experiences that don’t match up with the results. However, this is not fair because the plural of anecdote is not evidence. Case studies suggest ideas, but we need to dig deeper for the truth.
Survey
A descriptive research technique where questions are sent out to a large or small group of people, and they answer in any way. This is for observing self-reported attitudes and behaviors. The way the question is worded greatly affects how the person answers. People also may skew their answers to make them more socially desirable.
Wording effects
Someone taking a survey will answer a question differently based on its wording.
Ex. “Have you ever been on drugs?” - most people answer yes because they have been on prescribed medication.
“Have you ever been addicted to a drug?” - more people answer no because it is not socially desirable, and it is less true for most people.
Random sample
When everyone has the same chances of being included in the study, rather than being selected for some other reason. This gets rid of sampling bias. Can be done by flipping a coin, for example.
Representative sample
A subset of a population that seeks to represent the overall population.
