Week 1

Question 1

How has scientific research has changed the world?

Answer 1

1.“Father of immunology” because he was among the first to conceive of and test
vaccinations. His work directly led to the eradication of smallpox. Many other diseases have been reduced due to Jenner as well.
2. Fritz Haber and Norman Borlaug saved more than a billion human lives with the creation of the “Green Revolution” by
producing hybrid agricultural crops and synthetic fertilizer. Now humanity can
produce food for the seven billion people on the planet; the starvation that occurs is
due to political and economic factors rather than our collective ability to produce food.
3. The percentage of hungry and malnourished people in the world has dropped substantially across the globe.
4. Average levels of IQ have risen dramatically over the past century due to better nutrition and schooling.
5. Major Social and Technological Changes; electricity, cars, radios, televisions, birth control pills, artificial hearts and antibiotics.
6. Life expectancy from 47 years in 1900 to 79 years in 2010

Question 2

What are the key characteristics of the scientific approach?

Answer 2

Systematic observation is the core of science. Scientists observe in an organized way and record their observations so memory biases do not enter conclusions.
They are systematic in that they try to observe under controlled conditions, and also systematically vary the conditions of their observations in order to see variations and when they do/don’t occur.
Observations lead to hypotheses we can test.
Science is democratic, as people want to be able to form their own opinions and debate conclusions. Scientists are skeptical and have open discussions about their observations and findings; these debates often occur as scientists publish competing 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 by earlier scientists, we can build upon them and move farther along the path of knowledge.

Question 3

What are some benefits and problems that have been created by science?

Answer 3

Benefits

• Therapies for the treatment of psychological disorders
• Innovations such as electricity, medicine & crops, etc.
• Scientific approach offers clarity and precision when formulating a hypothesis
• Scientific approach subjects ideas to empirical tests
• Science demands subjective data and thorough documentation before ideas are accepted
• DNA evidence

Problems

• Many psychological phenomena such as depression, intelligence and prejudice do not appear directly observable.
• Lack of honesty in self reporting
• Ethical Issues
• Bias (Sampling bias / Experimenter bias)
• Placebo Effects

Question 4

In what ways has psychological science improved the world?

Answer 4

1. Psychological science has improved the world by creating interventions that help people live better lives, such as determining with therapies are the most and least effective for the treatment of psychological disorders (CBT for people suffering from depression / anxiety).
2. Organizational psychology has found a number of interventions to produce greater productivity and satisfaction in the workplace through the safety and utility of the products used as an example, human factors psychologist Alphonse Chapanis and other researchers redesigned the cockpit controls of aircrafts to make them less confusing and easier to respond to, this lead to a decrease in pilot errors and crashes.
3. Research done by Elizabeth Loftus has shown the limits and unreliability of eyewitness testimony and memory which has improved the wrongful imprisonment of individuals whose cases hinged on this type of psychological evidence.
4. Educational & school psychology aims at improving curriculums design, achievement testing and teacher training and many other aspects of the educational process.
5. Developmental psychology, child development stages through to adolescence, adulthood and old age.
6. Social psychology understanding interpersonal behavior and the social forces governing behavior.
7. Health psychology focusing on how psychological factors relate to the promotion and maintenance of physical health, and the causation, prevention and treatment of illnesses.
8. To understand ourselves, our motivations and our choices.

Question 5

What ethical guidelines do psychologists follow?

Answer 5

Scientific psychologists follow a code of ethics – a few highlights are as follows:
• Informed consent: people should know when they’re involved in research, and
understand what will happen to them during the study, then be given a free choice as to
whether to participate.
• Confidentiality: information learned about a participant should not be made public
without consent
• Privacy: researchers should not make observations of people in private places such as
bedrooms without their knowledge and consent. They should also not seek confidential
info from others without consent.
• Benefits: researchers should consider the benefits of their proposed research and weigh
these against potential risks to the participants. Participants should be exposed to risk
only if they fully understand these risks and only if the likely benefits clearly outway the
risks.
• Deception: some researchers need to deceive participants to hide the true nature of the
study to prevent modifications in behavior in unnatural ways. Researchers must debrief
their participants after the study which is an opportunity to educate participants about the
true nature of the study.

Question 6

Sometimes considered the core of science, _________ refers to the careful monitoring (or watching) of the natural world with the aim of better understanding it.

Answer 6

Systematic Observation

Question 7

______ methods in psychological research are approaches to data-gathering that are tied to actual measurement and observation.

Answer 7

Empirical

Question 8

Dr. Miller-Lewis is conducting research aimed at understanding how elderly people can best thrive when residing in an assisted-living facility. She has several logical ideas that can be tested in her research. These ideas, which might be thought of as educated guesses, are called _____.

Answer 8

Hypothesis

Question 9

_______ are professional guidelines that offer researchers a path for making decisions that protect their participants from potential harm.

Answer 9

Ethics

Question 10

Oladipo volunteers to be a participant in a research study. When he arrives at the laboratory, he is given a handout that describes the basic purposes of the research and explains that they are not obligated to participate in the study. This handout is related to the ethical consideration of _________.

Answer 10

Informed Consent

Question 11

What features distinguish scientific thinking from everyday inductive reasoning

Answer 11

Scientific claims tend to use less certain language and are more likely to be associated with
probabilities.
I will list below some features that distinguish scientific thinking, theories and date from
everyday thinking:
• 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. All pieces of evidence are accounted for and weighed.
• Simplicity. When multiple explanations are equally good at explaining the date, the simplest
should be selected.
• Fruitfulness. The usefulness of the theory in guiding new research by predicting new,
testable relationships.

Question 12

Why are scientific conclusions and theories trustworthy, even if they aren’t able to be proven?

Answer 12

Unless it can be proven, science more-so sheds light on the probability of something as inductive reasoning is based on probabilities. Probabilities are always a matter of degree; they may be extremely likely or unlikely.

Scientists/researchers use null hypothesis significance testing (described in key terms). The
researcher compares what she expects to find (probability) with what she actually finds (collected data) to determine whether they can falsify or reject the null hypothesis in favor
of the alternative hypothesis. This is done by looking at the distribution of data. The distribution is the spread of values. The researcher can use a probability table to assess the
likelihood of any distribution found.

Overall scientific conclusions and theories are trustworthy even if they cannot be absolutely proven because the research utilizes the scientific method to describe, explain, and predict in a way that can be empirically tested and potentially falsified.

Statistically significant findings are likely to yield accurate conclusions, but they are never a sure thing. Although statistical significance indicates that the likelihood of random findings is very low, it is never zero.

Because it is systematic, using testable, reliable data, it can allow us to determine causality and can help us generalize our conclusions. By understanding how scientific conclusions are reached, we are better equipped to use science as a tool of knowledge.

Question 13

What are the possible outcomes for null hypothesis testing?

Answer 13

• In the process of testing hypotheses, there are four possible outcomes, determined by two factors: reality and what the researcher finds. The best outcome is accurate detection,
meaning the researchers conclusions mirror reality. Another form of accurate detection is when a researcher finds no evidence for a phenomenon, but that phenomenon doesn’t actually exist anyway.
• Another possible outcome is a type I error – when the researcher concludes there is a relationship between two variables but, in reality, there is not. It may be due to coincidence that this occurs.
• Another outcome is a type II error – when the data fail to show a relationship between variables that actually exist.
• There is a concern that these types of errors mean there is no way to tell if data is good or not, and these concerns are addressed by using probability values (p-values) to set a
threshold for type I or type II errors. So, if they say a particular finding is “significant at a p < 0.5 level”, it means if the study were repeated 100 times, this result would occur by chance
fewer than five times
• The most common thresholds for probability used in psychological science are 0.5 (5% chance), 0.1, and 0.001.
• These methodologies are what make science generally trustworthy – scientific claims are more likely to be correct and predict real outcomes than “common sense” opinions and
personal anecdotes because researchers consider how to best prepare and measure their
subjects, systematically collect data from large and – ideally – representative samples, and
test their findings against probability.

Question 14

What does it mean to think like a psychological student?

Answer 14

Thinking like a psychological scientist is not simply setting out to collect isolated facts about the relationships between variables. Psychological scientist construct theories to build towards better understanding of the phenomena they are observing. By integrating apparently unrelated facts and principles into a coherent whole, theories permit scientists to make the leap from description to understanding. Furthermore, the enhanced understanding afforded by theories guides scientists future research by generating new predictions and suggesting possible new lines of inquiry. Scientific theories must be testable, as a cornerstone of science is its commitment to putting ideas to an empirical test.

Question 15

What are some good qualities of scientific explanations and theories

Answer 15

Low P-Values

A key component of good theories is that they describe, explain, and predict in a way that can be empirically tested and potentially falsified.

Utilization of levels of analysis

Question 16

Levels of analysis

Answer 16

Levels of analysis suggests that one level is not more correct – or truer – than another; their appropriateness depends on the specifics of the questions asked. It ultimately suggests we cannot understand the world around us, including human psychology, by reducing the
phenomenon to only the biochemistry of genes and dynamics of neural networks. But, neither can we understand humanity without considering the functions of the human nervous system.

Question 17

Discuss science as a social activity

Answer 17

Thomas Kuhn made the argument that as something conducted by humans, science is a social activity. He believes that science is naturally always informed by the scientists values
and beliefs. All science, especially social sciences such as psychology, involves values and interpretation. Consequently, science functions best when people with diverse values and
backgrounds work collectively to understand complex natural phenomena. Therefore, science can benefit from multiple perspectives, and one approach to achieving
this is through levels of analysis – the idea that a single phenomenon may be explained at different levels simultaneously

Question 18

Inductive reasoning is based on data from _____

Answer 18

Samples

Question 19

What does the alternative hypothesis predict in NHST?

Answer 19

That there is a relationship between the two variables

Question 20

What is a type I error?

Answer 20

Finding a relationship when one doesn’t really exist

Question 21

What are some precursors to the establishment of the science of psychology

Answer 21

• Precursors to American psychology can be found in philosophy and physiology
• Philosophers such as John Locke (1632-1704) and Thomas Reid (1710-1796) promoted
empiricism – the idea that all knowledge comes from experience
• The work of Locke, Reid, and others emphasized the role of the human observer and the
primacy of the senses in defining how the mind comes to acquire knowledge
• German physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) measured the speed of the
neural impulse – an electro-chemical signal that enables neurons to communicate – and
explored the physiology of heading and vision. His work indicated that our senses can
deceive us and are not a mirror of the external world. This work showed that even though
the human senses were fallible, the mind could be measured using the methods of science,
therefore suggesting that a science of psychology was feasible.
• In important implication of Hermann von Helmholtz’s work was that there is a psychological
reality and a physical reality and that the two are not identical. This idea was written about
by philosophers like John Locke in the past and in the 19th century, philosophical
speculation about the nature of mind became subject to the rigors of science.
• The question of the relationship between the mental (Experiences of the senses) and the
material (External reality) was investigated by a number of German researchers including
Ernst Weber and Gustav Fechner. Their work was called psychophysics – study of the
relationships between physical stimuli and the perception of those stimuli – and it
introduced methods for measuring the relationship between physical stimuli and human
perception that would serve as the basis for the new science of psychology

Question 22

Describe the development of modern psychology

Answer 22

• The formal development of modern psychology is usually credited to the work of German
physician, physiologist, and philosopher Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920). He helped to
establish the field of experimental psychology; he served as a strong promoter of the idea
that psychology could be an experimental field, and provided classes, textbooks and a lab
for training students. In 1875, he began making plans for the creation of a program of
experimental psychology when he joined the University of Leipzig. In 1879, he added a
laboratory experience to complement his lectures: an event that served as the popular date
for the establishment of psychology.
• Wundt attracted students from around the world and they were trained to offer detailed
self-reports of their reactions to various stimuli, a procedure known as introspection. The
goal was to identify the elements of consciousness. Additionally, research was done on
mental chronometry – reaction time. This work demonstrated that the mind could be
measured and the nature of consciousness could be revealed scientifically – a proposition
that found great interest in America.
• After the opening of Wundt’s lab in 1879, it took just four years for the first psychology lab
to open in the US.

Question 23

Identify some key individuals in the history of American psychology

Answer 23

 Edward Bradford Titchener (1867–1927) - A student of Wundt’s, Titchener brought to America a brand of experimental psychology referred to as “structuralism”. Structuralists were interested in the contents of the mind—what the mind is. For Titchener, the general adult mind was the proper focus for the new psychology, and he excluded from study those with mental deficiencies, children, and animals.

William James (1842-1910) - William James, G. Stanley Hall, and James McKeen Cattell were among a group that became identified with “functionalism.” Influenced by Darwin’s evolutionary theory, functionalists were interested in the activities of the mind—what the mind does. An interest in functionalism opened the way for the study of a wide range of approaches, including animal and comparative psychology.

William James is regarded as writing perhaps the most influential and important book in the field of psychology, Principles of Psychology, published in 1890. Opposed to the reductionist ideas of Titchener, James proposed that consciousness is ongoing and continuous; it cannot be isolated and reduced to elements. For James, consciousness helped us adapt to our environment in such ways as allowing us to make choices and have personal responsibility over those choices.

G. Stanley Hall (1844 – 1924) also contributed to the establishment of psychology in the US.
At John Hopkins University, he founded the first psychological laboratory in America in
1883. In 1887, he created the first journal of psychology in America – American Journal of Psychology. In 1892, he founded the APA. In 1909, he invited and hosted Freud at Clark University (the only time Freud visited America). He was interested in the process of adaption and human development, which was influenced by the evolutionary theory. He wrote extensively on child development and education, while using surveys and
questionnaires to study children.

James McKeen Cattell (1860-1944) received his Ph.D. with Wundt but quickly turned his
interests to the assessment of individual differences. He was influenced by the work of Frances Galton, and he believed that mental abilities such as intelligence were inherited and could be measured using mental tests. Like Galton, he believed society was better served by identifying those with superior intelligence and supported efforts to encourage
them to reproduce. These beliefs were associated with eugenics – the promotion of selective breeding – and fueled early debates about the contributions of heredity and environment in defining who we are. He developed a department of psychology at
Columbia University that became world famous and was a publisher of scientific journals and reference works.

Question 24

Describe the rise of professional psychology in America

Answer 24

By 1900, there were more than 40 laboratories in the United States and Canada.

The establishment of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1892.

As early as 1917, applied psychologists organized to create standards for education, training, and licensure. By the 1930s, these efforts led to the creation of the American Association for Applied Psychology (AAAP). While the American Psychological Association (APA) represented the interests of academic psychologists, AAAP served those in education, industry, consulting, and clinical work

In 1917, applied psychologists organized to create standards for education, training, and licensure.

By the 1930s, these efforts led to the creation of the American Association for Applied Psychology (AAAP). While the APA represented the interests of academic psychologists, AAAP served those in education, industry, consulting and clinical work.

WWII was so tragic that the government urged the AAAP and the APA to work together to meet the mental health needs of the nation, which resulted in the merging of the two and a focus on the training of professional psychologists. Through the provisions of National Mental Health Act of 1946, funding was made available that allowed the APA, Veterans Administration, and Public Health Service to work to develop training programs that would
produce clinical psychologists. This led to the convening of the Boulder Conference on Graduate Education in Clinical Psychology in 1949 in Boulder, Colorado; this meeting launched doctoral training in psych and gave us the scientist-practitioner model of training - A model of training of professional psychologists that emphasizes the development of both
research and clinical skills. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, alternatives to Boulder were debated. In 1973, the Vail Conference on Professional Training in Psychology
proposed the scholar-practitioner model and the Psy.D degree (Doctor of Psychology). It is a training model that emphasizes clinical training and practice that has become more
common.

Question 25

Discuss Gestalt psychology

Answer 25

• Gestalt psychology was an attempt to study the unity of experience, and began in Germany with the work of Max Wertheimer (1880-1943); him
and his colleagues Kurt Koffka (1886-1941), Wolfgang Kohler (1887-1967) and Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) believed that studying the whole of any experience was richer than studying the individual aspects of that experience. Gestalt said “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. The Gestalt psychologists proposed that the mind often processes information
simultaneously rather than sequentially; using Gestalt principles, they often explored the nature of learning and thinking. Most of the German Gestalt psychologists were Jewish and forced to flee the Nazi regime, and in America they were able to introduce a new audience
to this perspective, demonstrating how it could be applied to perception and learnings.
• The work of the Gestalt psychologists, in many ways, served as a precursor to the rise of
cognitive psychology in America.

Question 26

Discuss behaviorism

Answer 26

• Behaviorism emerged early in the 20th century and became a major force in American psychology. Influential psychologists included John B. Watson (1878-1958) and B.F. Skinner
(1904-1990), and it rejected any reference to mind and viewed overt and observable behavior as the proper subject matter of psychology. It was hoped that through the
scientific study of behavior, one could predict and control behavior. Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) influenced early behaviorism in America; his work on conditioned
learning, popularly referred to as classical conditioning, provided support for the notion that learning and behavior were controlled by events in the environment and could be explained with no reference to mind or consciousness.
• For decades, behaviorism dominated American psychology, however by the 1960s psychologists began to recognize that behaviorism was unable to fully explain human
behavior as it neglected the mental processes. There was then a turn to cognitive psychology, though this was not new.

Question 27

Discuss the beginning of cognitive psychology

Answer 27

• In the 1930s, British psychologist Frederic C. Bartlett (1886-1969) explored the idea of the
constructive mind, recognizing that people use their past experiences to construct frameworks in which to understand new experiences.
• Some major pioneers in American cognitive psychology include Jerome Bruner (1915– 2016), Roger Brown (1925–1997), and George Miller (1920–2012)
• In the 1950s, Bruner conducted pioneering studies on cognitive aspects of sensation and
perception.
• Brown conducted original research on language and memory, coined the term “flashbulb memory” (a highly detailed and vivid memory of an emotionally significant event), and
figured out how to study the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
• Miller’s research on working memory is legendary; his 1956 paper “The Magic Number, Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information” is one
of the most highly cited papers in psychology. A popular interpretation of his research was that the number of bits of info an average human can hold in working memory is 7+2.
Around the same time, the study of computer science was growing and was used as an analogy to explore and understand how the mind works.
• The work of Miller and others in the 1950s and 60s has inspired tremendous interest in cognition and neuroscience, both of which dominate much of contemporary American
psychology.

Question 28

Discuss applied psychology in America

Answer 28

• Modern intelligence tests were developed by the French psychologist Alfred Binet (1857-1911) with the goal to develop a tests that would identify schoolchildren in need of
educational support. This test was introduced in the United States by Henry Goddard (1866-1957) and later standardized by Lewis Terman (1877-1956) at Stanford University.
• What psychologists were leaning in their labs was applied to many settings including the military, business, industry, and education. The early 20th century was witness to rapid advances in applied psychology.
• Hugo Munsterberg (1863-1916) of Harvard made contributions to such areas as employee selection, eyewitness testimony, and psychotherapy
• Walter D Scott (1869-1955) and Harry Hollingworth (1880-1956) produced original work on the psychology of advertising and marketing
• Lillian Gilbreth (1878-1972) was a pioneer in industrial psychology and engineering psychology. Working with her husband Frank, they promoted the use of time and motion studies to improve efficiency in industry. Lillian also brought the efficiency movement to the home, designing kitchens and appliances like the pop up trashcan, and it helped at home with their 12 children. The experience served as inspo for Cheaper by the Dozen (movie)
• Clinical psychology was also an early application of experimental psychology in America.
• Lightner Witmer (1867-1956) received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology with Wilhelm Wundt and returned to the University of Pennsylvania, where he opened a psychological
clinic in 1896. He believed that because psychology dealt with the study of sensation and perception, it should be of value in treating children with learning and behavioral problems. He is credited as the founder of both clinical and school psychology.

Question 29

Discuss the role of women and people of colour in the history of American psychology

Answer 29

• Titchener’s first doctoral student was a woman, Margaret Floy Washburn (1871-1939). Despite many barriers, in 1894, Washburn became the first woman in America to earn a Ph.D. in psychology, and in 1921, only the second woman to be elected president of the APA.
• Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930) was a student of William James at Harvard, however when she completed all the requirements for the doctoral degree, Harvard wouldn’t grant her a diploma because she was a woman. Despite this, she became an accomplished researcher and the first woman elected president of the APA in 1905.
• G. Stanley Hall mentored Francis Cecil Sumner (1895-1954) who, in 1920, became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in psychology in America. This was a big deal, as graduate education was previously non-existent for African Americans in Hall’s time.
• Mamie Phipps Clark (1917-1983) and husband Kenneth Clark (1914-2005) were among the first generation of African American psychologists, and they studied the psychology of race
and demonstrated the ways in which school segregation negatively impacted the self-esteem of African American children. This research was influential in the 1954 Supreme
Court ruling in the case Brown v. Board of Education, which ended school segregation.
• Advocacy for issues impacting the African American community were advanced by the creation of the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) in 1968

Question 30

Discuss the relationship between social justice and psychology

Answer 30

• In 1936, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) was founded, and it
has supported research and action on a wide range of social issues.
• Helen Thompson Woolley (1874-1947) and Leta S. Hollingworth (1886-1939) were pioneers in research on the psychology of sex differences. In the early 20th century (when women’s
rights were marginalized), Thompson examined the assumption that women were overemotional compared to men and found that emotion didn’t influence women’s decisions any more than mens. Hollingworth found menstruation didn’t negatively impact
women’s cognitive or motor abilities. This work combatted harmful stereotypes and proved psychological research could contribute to social change.
• Evelyn Hooker (1907-1996) published a paper in 1957, “The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual,” which reported her research that showed no significant differences in psychological adjustment between homo and hetero sexual men. This research helped depathologize homosexuality and contributed to the decision by the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973.

Question 31

Summarize the timeline of the history of modern psychology (exact dates are not necessary)

Answer 31

• 1600s – Rise of empiricism emphasizing centrality of human observer in acquiring knowledge 1850s – Helmholz measures neural impulse / Psychophysics studied by Weber & Fechner 1859 – Publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species
• 1879 – Wundt opens lab for experimental psychology 1883 – First psychology lab opens in the United States
• 1887 – First American psychology journal is published: American Journal of Psychology
• 1890 – James publishes Principles of Psychology
• 1892 – APA established
• 1894 – Margaret Floy Washburn is first U.S. woman to earn Ph.D. in psychology 1904 – Founding of Titchener’s experimentalists
• 1905 – Mary Whiton Calkins is first woman president of APA 1909 – Freud’s only visit to the United States
• 1913 – John Watson calls for a psychology of behavior
• 1920 – Francis Cecil Sumner is first African American to earn Ph.D. in psychology
• 1921 – Margaret Floy Washburn is second woman president of APA
• 1930s – Creation and growth of the American Association for Applied Psychology (AAAP) / Gestalt psychology comes to America
• 1936 – Founding of The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues 1940s – Behaviorism dominates American psychology
• 1946 – National Mental Health Act
• 1949 – Boulder Conference on Graduate Education in Clinical Psychology 1950s – Cognitive psychology gains popularity
• 1954 – Brown v. Board of Education
• 1957 – Evelyn Hooker publishes The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual
• 1968 – Founding of the Association of Black Psychologists
• 1973 – Psy.D. proposed at the Vail Conference on Professional Training in Psychology
• 1988 – Founding of the American Psychological Society (now known as the Association for Psychological Science)

Question 32

Behaviorism considers _______ to be the proper subject matter of psychology.

Answer 32

Observable behavior

Question 33

The saying the “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” represents to philosophy of ____ psychology

Answer 33

Gestalt

Question 34

Why did Alfred Binet develop modern intelligence tests?

Answer 34

To identify schoolchildren in need of additional help

Question 35

What do scientists call a “logical idea that can be tested”?

Answer 35

Hypothesis

Question 36

What does it take to falsify a claim?

Answer 36

The ability of a claim to be tested and possibly refuted

Question 37

What is the difference between a type I and type II error

Answer 37

A type 1 error is the error of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true, a type 2 error is the error of failing to reject the null hypothesis when it is false)

Question 38

What is the major difference between the practitioner-scholar model and the scientist-practitioner model of training?

Answer 38

Practitioner-scholar model emphasizes clinical practices while scientist-practitioner model emphasizes both research and clinical skills

Question 39

Structuralism

Answer 39

Contents of the mind - what the mind is

Question 40

Functionalism

Answer 40

activities of the mind - what the mind does

Question 41

Why was Haber and Borlaug’s “Green Revolution” so important?

Answer 41

Green revolution lead to the production of synthetic fertilizer and hybrid crops, allowing humans to produce enough food for the planet (meaning famine/starvation occurs for political or economic factors rather that collective ability to produce food)

Question 42

What does Kuhn’s argument that science is a social activity mean? How does his argument relate to diversity in science?

Answer 42

Kuhn’s argument that science is a social activity means that because it is conducted by humans it is subject to the same psychological influences of all human activities. Individual values are a factor, as a result science functions best with diverse values and backgrounds working collectively. Science benefits from multiple perspectives

Question 43

Why is deception used in psychological studies? Why is debriefing a participant in a study important if deception is being used? When does the debriefing take place?

Answer 43

Deception is used to prevent participants from modifying their behaviour in unnatural ways. Debriefing is important to educate the participants about the true nature of the study. Debriefing participants after the study has taken place is mandatory.

Question 44

How would you describe the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning?

Answer 44

Inductive reasoning: a general conclusion is inferred from a specific set of observations (small scale/specific —> large scale/general)
Uses patterns to arrive at a conclusion. Drawing conclusions from evidence.
Deductive reasoning: a premise determines the interpretation of specific observations (large scale/general —> small scale/specific) uses facts, rules, definitions, properties to arrive at a conclusion. Finding evidence to support or disprove conclusions.