Week 1- Intro & Research Methods Flashcards
What is the definition of psychology?
VS
Social psychology
The SCIENTIFIC study of the way in which people’s (individual’s) THOUGHTS, FEELINGS AND BEHAVIOURS are influenced by the real or imagined presence of OTHER PEOPLE
The SCIENTIFIC study of how and why we THINK, FEEL AND ACT toward others and ourselves.
What are the ABC’s in social psychology?
1) AFFECT (feelings)
2) BEHAVIOUR (actions)
3) COGNITIONS (thoughts)
What are the main 3 pillars of psychology?
1) Psychoanalysis
2) Behaviourism
3) Humanism
What were Freud’s and Carl Jungs approach to psychology?
Focused on the UNCONSCIOUS
- ***ID
- SUPER-EGO
- EGO
Had student-mentor relationship
What was Jungs persona?
The “masks” we are
Collective unconcious
Self-cloak
What did Freud and Carl disagree on?
Libido
Collective unconscious
Personality
What is behaviourism?
Observable behaviour
Believes psych could take place among natural sciences
Objective methods & experimental method
Ivan Pavlov and John. B Watson were involved in behaviourism, what did they do?
Ivan:
- salivation I’m dogs before food arrived, classic conditioning
John:
- “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. ”
- “I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years.“
What is humanism?
Existence is a BUMMER
We are AWARE
People are inherently GOOD
Abraham Maslow was involved in humanistic psychology, what did he do?
One of the FOUNDERS
Studied the “best” people
Self-actualization is the highest form you can get
Ex) hierarchy of needs
What view did the Stanford Prison Experiment show in terms of social psychology?
Interactionist view
Situation did not explain all VARIANCE in behaviour
Behaviour = f(personality enviro)
What the are 5 main perspectives in social psychology?
1) Neuroscience/biological
- neural processes, fMRIMRI etc…
2) Cognitive
- perception, memory, interpretation, action, types of cognitive processes
3) Evolutionary
- humans are animals, humans evolved etc…
4) Cultural
- collective group or society
5) Existential
- existence, deeper motives guide and shape the social
Psychological theories are “_______” proven
Never
A good theory = best explanation
NOT just psych issue
What is the self-deception scale?
“Have you ever felt hatred towards either of you parents”
Internal thoughts
What are some issues with behaviour?
It is a big leap from psychology
Helping behaviour is altruism…. Or social sensitivity or….
Behaviour can be CHANGED temporarily
What are the 3 different ways to measure variables?
1) reaction times
2) biological measures
3) virtual reality
What are some examples of biological measures?
Brain and body
EEG, MRI (brain anatomy), fMRI (blood flow changes), and ERP’s
What is validity?
Does is measure what you want it to measure?
What is reliability?
Does is measure the SAME thing?
What are some different types of validity? (4)
1) construct - underlying theoretical constructs
2) convergent - measures it should be associated with
3) discriminate - does not relate to measures it should not be related to
4) predictive - same construct in the future
What are some factors that reduce reliability?
Low precise measurement
State of participant, experimenter
The environment
What does “ego depletion” mean?
The ACTIVE SELF is a limited resource
Ex) trying not to eat a cookie, willpower eventually depletes
What is a correlational design?
How ‘related’ are these two variables?
Linear relationship
+, - or none
What are the 3 possible correlations?
A causes changes in B
B causes changes in A
C causes changes in both A and B
What is the third variable problem?
Ice cream consumption is NOT EQUAL drowning just because of the summer
What’s the best way to examine whether A causes changes in B?
Experimental CONTROL
RANDOM assignment
ONLY “_____________” can assess CAUSALITY
Experiments
Because of the 3rd variable problem
What are the complications with experiments?
Uncertainty about what was REALLY manipulated
Experiments aren’t ALWAYS better
What’s the replication crisis in social psychology?
FAKED RESULTS spurred a deeper look at psychological science as a whole
Who can we TRUST?
How do you improve the science in social psychology?
Increase SAMPLE sizes
Direct VS indirect replications
Preregistration of studies (prevent p-hacking)
Offsite repositories for STIMULI (no replication attempts)
Who was Herbert Spencer?
Instinct-based view of human behaviour
EXTENDED Charles Darwins views (evolution)
What is the social cognition perspective and when did it emerge?
During the 1970’s and 1980’s
How people perceive, remember and interpret events in their social world
What are the 4 core assumptions of social psychology?
Behaviour…
1) is joint product of person and their situation
2) depends on a socially constructed view of reality
3) strongly influenced by our social cognition
4) how to understand = use scientific method
What is field research?
Occurs outside the lab
In schools, offices, football games etc…
What is a quasi-experimental design?
Grounds are participants are compared on some dependent variable
For practice/ethical reasons they are NOT formed on the basis of RANDOM assignment
What makes a good theory in social psychology? (5)
1) ORGANIZES observations
2) EXPLAINS observations
3) provides direction for RESEARCH
4) generates new QUESTIONS
5) has PRACTICAL value
What are moderator variables?
Theoretically explain when, where or whom effects are LIKELY to occur
What is meta-analysis?
Process of analyzing data across many RELATED studies to determine strength/reliability of a finding
What are some limitations of science?
1) human knowledge is LIMITED
2) humans are BIASED
3) some questions are OUT OF SCOPE of science
4) humans influence the questions asked
What are demand characteristics?
Aspects of a study that give away a PURPOSE if the study
Might make study inconclusive
What is debriefing?
Experimenter probes for any suspicion of true purpose of study, and explains why deception was NEEDED to achieve the goals of the research
