wk1_L2. History & Methods 1 Flashcards
Which approach is most important in Psychology?
Scientific
Huge industry in pop-psychology. Some examples may be?
Self-help books, exaggerations or personal experiences without proven scientific evidence. Some authored by religious persons pushing beliefs.
‘Quick-fix’ promises. Downplay significant factors relating to depression/low self esteem.
Which method is applied in the field of Psychology when acquiring knowledge?
The Scientific Method
Multiple levels of analysis required to obtain the complete picture. List the levels of analysis…
Social (No. 1 on list)
Behavioural
Mental
Neuro/Physio
Neurochem
Molecular (No. 6 on list)
Core area - SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY is?
How we’re affected by others or situations
CORE area - PERSONALITY & INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES is?
Extent to how the same we are & qualities measured. Introvert/Extrovert
CORE area - DEVELOPMENTAL is?
Changes across lifespan
CORE area - COGNITIVE is?
Internal mental processes, how we think
CORE area - PERCEPTION is?
How we process sensory info
CORE area - LEARNING is?
Changes in behaviour as a result of experience
CORE area - BIOPSYCHOLOGY is?
Biological, physiological, genetic variables & their relation to psychological or behavioural variables
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY - CLINICAL is?
Assessment & treatment of conditions
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY - ORGANISATIONAL is?
Occupation, behaviour, job stability
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY - HEALTH is?
Promoting health, prevention/treatment
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY - NEUROPSYCHOLOGY is?
Assessments, treatments neuro injury
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY - EDUCATIONAL is?
How people learn, teaching methods
Give some examples of challenges faced in studying Psychology as opposed to Physics or Biology for instance…
Almost always multiple factors involved
Causes rarely independent of each other
People are different
People influence each other
Culture shapes behaviour
What are the 4 parts of The Scientific Method in order?
THEORY - HYPOTHESIS - RESEARCH - OBSERVATION
Examples;
Theory - we have the emotion of disgust to protect us from disease pathogens
Hypothesis - (specific prediction generated from theory). Fate of hypothesis accepts/rejects/modifies theory. Faeces/pus study to prove disgust emotion theory. Check other hypothesis also to check this is not a result of social learning.
Research - do closest human relatives (chimps) show same signs? Are all cultures having the same reaction?
Commonsense (intuition) V Science.
Relying on The Scientific Method avoids pitfalls such as?
CONFIRMATION BIAS: tendency to seek out info that supports our beliefs while dismissing contradictory info.
BELIEF PERSEVERANCE: once developed, difficult to demolish
PSEUDOSCIENCE: not derived using Scientific Method. E.g. Astrology
Asch (1951; 1955) Line Judgement Task.
Classic example of scientific evidence.
Investigating extent to which people withstand group pressure.
Asked participants to make simple line judgements.
Investigated other variables such as group size, anonymity etc
*my thoughts were this experiment may be very different now to how it played out in the 1950’s, firstly that long ago people a lot more likely to conform. A lot of variables.
