Week 1 Flashcards
Learn the scope of mental health problems faced by university students and how that might affect working with course content
Mental health problems are common. Research suggest that mental illness reduces student academic success and adjustment in university overall, but very few people receive the treatment that might help
Define trigger warnings and the existing evidence
They involve a description of the potentially distressing content with the goal of providing the opportunity to prepare for or avoid this content. There is a lack of scientific evidence that they do what they are supposed to. They do not impact emotional reactions to potentially upsetting content
Trigger warnings
Advance notifications at the start of a video, piece of writing, or in educational contexts, a lecture or topic, that contains potentially distressing material
Describe how scientific research has changed the world
Many diseases have been greatly reduced because of vaccines discovered. Medical advances and technological innovations are the direct result of scientific research and understanding
Describe the key characteristics of the scientific approach
Science is the use of systematic observation in order to acquire knowledge. Empirical methods are ways to learn about the physical and biological world. Systemic observation is the core of science. Observation leads to hypotheses we can test. Science is democratic and cumulative
Systemic observation
The careful observation of the natural world with the aim of better understanding it. Observations provide the basic data that allow scientists to track, tally, or otherwise organize information about the natural world. The core of science
Empirical methods
Approaches to inquiry that are tied to actual measurement and observation
Hypotheses
A logical idea that can be tested
Theories
Groups of closely related phenomena or observations
Science is democratic
People are more likely to want to be able to form their own opinions and debate conclusions. Scientists are skeptical and have open discussions about their observations and theories. Findings with the idea that the best data will win the argument
Science is cumulative
A crucial aspect of scientific progress is that after we learn of earlier advances, we can build upon them and move farther along the path of knowledge
Ethics
Professional guidelines that offer researchers a template for making decisions that protect harm and that help steer scientists away from conflicts of interest or other situations that might compromise the integrity of their research
Informed consent
People should know when they are involved in research and understand what will happen to them during the study
Confidentiality
Information that researchers should consider the benefits of their knowledge and consent
Benefits
Researchers should consider the benefits of their proposed research and weigh these against potential risks to the participants
Deception
Some researchers used to deceive participants in order to hide the true nature of the study. Typically done to prevent participants from modifying their behaviour in unnatural ways. Researchers are required to “debrief” their participants after they completed the study
Accuracy
Explanations and theories match real world observations
Consistency
A theory has few exceptions and shows agreement with other theories within and across disciplines
Scope
Extent to which a theory extends beyond currently available data, explaining a wide array of phenomena
Simplicity
When multiple explanations are equally good at explaining the data, the simplest should be selected
Fruitfulness
The usefulness of the theory in guiding new research by predicting new, testable relationships
pseudoscience
Beliefs or practises that are presented as being scientific or which are mistaken for being scientific, but which are not scientific
Why does a study not prove a hypothesis
Even if we tested this across 10 thousand or 100 thousand people, we still could not use the word “proven” to describe this phenomenon. Inductive reasoning is based on probabilities, which are always a matter of degree; they must be extremely likely or unlikely. Proof is more associated with deductive reasoning
Deductive reasoning
Starts with general principles that are applied to specific instances. When the general principles, or premises are true, and the structure of the argument is valid, the conclusion is, by definition, proven; it must be so
Representative
In research, the degree to which a sample is a typical example from the population from which it is drawn
Correlation
In statistics, the measure of relatedness of two or more variables
Null-hypothesis significance testing
Assesses the probability that the data would be the same if there were no relationship between the variables in the study
Distribution
In statistics, the relative frequency that a particular value occurs for each possible value of a given variable
A scientific theory
A comprehensive framework for making sense of evidence regarding a particular phenomenon. They describe, explain, and predict in a way that can be empirically tested and potentially falsified
Thomas Kuhn
Argued that science, as an activity conduced by humans, is a social activity. There is no such thing as objective theory or data; all of science is informed by values. Highlights a distinction between facts and values
Facts
Objective information about the world
empiricism
The belief that knowledge comes from experience
functionalism
A school of American psychology that focused on the utility of consciousness
behaviourism
The study of behaviour.
Cognitive psychology
The study of mental processes.
consciousness
Awareness of ourselves and our environment.
Eugenics
The practice of selective breeding to promote desired traits.
Flashbulb memory
A highly detailed and vivid memory of an emotionally significant event.
Gestalt psychology
An attempt to study the unity of experience.
Individual differences
Ways in which people differ in terms of their behavior, emotion, cognition, and development.
Introspection
A method of focusing on internal processes.
Neural impulse
An electrochemical signal that enables neurons to communicate
Practitioner-Scholar Model
a model of training of professional psychologists that emphasizes clinical practise
Psychophysics
Study of the relationships between physical stimuli and the perception of those stimuli.
Scientist-practitioner model
A model of training of professional psychologists that emphasizes the development of both research and clinical skills.
Realism
A point of view that emphasizes the importance of the senses in providing knowledge of the external world.
Structuralism
A school of American psychology that sought to describe the elements of conscious experience.
Tip of the Tongue phenomenon
The inability to pull a word from memory even though there is the sensation that that word is available.
Type I error
When the researcher concludes there is a relationship between two variables but, in reality, there is not
Type II error
When the data fails to show a relationship between variables that actually exist
How do researchers address type I and type II errors
By using probability values to set a threshold for type I and type II errors
Inductive reasoning
A form of reasoning in which a general conclusion is inferred from a set of observations,
null hypothesis
Statement that two variables are related
