psych 1301 chapter 1

Applied Research

Practical (evidenced-based) research and solves a problem.

Compare and contrast the ways psychologists perform research

Psychologists share a keen interest in behavior, but they may differ markedly in other ways. Psychologists engage in research, practice, and teaching. Some researchers engage primarily in basic, or pure, research. Pure research is undertaken because the researcher is interested in the research topic. Pure research has no immediate application to personal or social problems and has therefore been characterized as research for its own sake. However, although pure research is sparked by curiosity and the desire to know and understand, today's pure research frequently enhances tomorrow's way of life. For example, pure research on learning and motivation in pigeons, rats, and monkeys done early in the 20th century has found applications in today's school systems. It has shown, for example, that learning often takes time and repetition and also profits from "booster shots" (repetition after the learning goal has been reached). Pure research into the workings of the nervous system has enhanced knowledge of disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Other psychologists engage in applied research , which is designed to find solutions to specific personal or social problems.

Experimental Group

Receive the treatment.

Dependent Variable

Result of the experiments.

Psychology

Scientific Study of behavior and mental processes

Define psychology

Scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Scientific Method

Step by step procedure for our research. 6 steps: 1) observe 2) Define a problem 3) Make a hypothesis 4) Gather evidence 5) Publish results and replication (repeat w/ similar group) 6) theory (set of ideas to explain info) 7) Hypothesis

Eclectic

Take the best of many theories. Most Psych are this

Population

a complete group of interest to researchers, from which a sample is drawn

Population

a complete group of interest to researchers, from which a sample is drawn.

Theory

a set of hypothesized statements about the relationships among events

Describe Critical thinking and how it is important for today's citizens

it has many meanings. On one level, it means taking nothing for granted—not believing things just because they are in print or because they were uttered by authority figures or celebrities. On another level, critical thinking refers to a process of thoughtfully analyzing and probing the questions, statements, and arguments of others.

William James

He wrote the first modern psychology textbook in 1890. He wrote, "I wished, by treating Psychology like a natural science, to help her become one."Toward the end of the 19th century, The psychologist became a major figure in the development of psychology in the United States. He focused on the relation between conscious experience and behavior. He argued, for example, that the stream of consciousness is fluid and continuous. Introspection convinced him that experience cannot be broken down into objective sensations and subjective feelings as the structuralists maintained. He was a founder of the school of functionalism , which focused on behavior as well as the mind or consciousness. Functionalists looked at how our experience helps us function more adaptively in our environments—for example, how habits help us cope with common situations. (When eating with a spoon, we do not create an individual plan to bring each morsel of food to our mouths.) They also turned to the laboratory for direct observations as a way to supplement introspection. Structuralists tended to ask, "What are the pieces that make up thinking and experience?" In contrast, functionalists tended to ask, "How do behavior and mental processes help people adapt to the requirements of their lives?"

Independent Variable

How you divide groups.

Charles Darwin

In the mid-nineteenth century, the British naturalist presented his theory that the animal and plant species that occupy the world today—including homo sapiens (us)—have evolved from earlier species. He argued that in the age-old struggle for existence, only the fittest (most adaptive) organisms manage to reach maturity and reproduce. For example, fish that swim faster or people who are naturally immune to certain diseases are more likely to survive and transmit their genes to future generations. Therefore, species tend to evolve in adaptive directions. Evolutionary psychologists suggest that much human social behavior, such as aggressive behavior and mate selection, has a hereditary basis. People may be influenced by social rules, cultural factors, and personal choice, but evolutionary psychologists believe that inherited tendencies sort of whisper in people's ears and tend to move, them in certain directions.

Critical Thinking

It has many meanings. On one level, it means taking nothing for granted—not believing things just because they are in print or because they were uttered by authority figures or celebrities. On another level, it refers to a process of thoughtfully analyzing and probing the questions, statements, and arguments of others. (All in all, be creative, be skeptical, consider, the evidence, do not oversimplify).

Double Blind

Participants and researchers don't know what group there are in accept administers.

Single Blind

Participants don't know what group there are in.

Naturalistic Observation

People or groups in their real habitat. Trouble: cannot be controlled.

Case study

Person and group study them thoroughly. A carefully drawn biography that may be obtained through interviews, questionnaires, and psychological tests

Education and training for a psychologists

4 years Bachelors (4 years), Master degree (2-3) years, may have Ph.D. One year intership required and state test.

Education and training for pychiatrists

4 years bachelor's degree, 4 year medical school , 2-4 years clinicals, 2-4 years residences, 1 year psychoanalytic training, can prescribe medicine, private practice

Ethics

Code of conduct for our research and our work.

Desribe Ethics and why ethics are important for psychologists

Code of conduct for our research and our work. They are governed by American Psychological Association (APA) No physical harm, privacy/confidential, Informed consent, no coercion

Random Sample

Everyone has an equal chance of being selected

Placebo

Fake treatment.

Pure Research

Joy of knowledge and research.

Experiment

Wanna know cause. Use experiment

Survey

Written or oral questionnaire : population, sample, random sample. They are cheap, Population: cannot use population. Sample: representative group of population Random sample: Everyone has an equal chance of being selected. Cannot use population.

Control Group

in experiments, groups whose members do not obtain the treatment, while other conditions are held constant.

Hypothesis

in psychology, a specific statement about behavior or mental processes that is tested through research.

Understand the scientific method

(Step by step procedure for our research) An organized way of using experience and testing ideas to expand and refine knowledge. Psychologists do not necessarily follow the steps of the scientific method as we might follow a recipe in a cookbook, but research is guided by certain principles. Psychologists usually begin by formulating a research question. Research questions can have many sources. Our daily experiences, psychological theory, and even folklore all help generate questions for research. Daily experience in using day-care centers may motivate us to conduct research on whether day care affects the development of social skills or the bonds of attachment between children and their parents. Social-cognitive principles of observational learning may prompt research on the effects of television violence. Research questions may also arise from common knowledge. Consider familiar adages such as "misery loves company" and "opposites attract." Psychologists may ask: Does misery love company? Do opposites attract? A research question may be studied as a question or reworded as a hypothesis (see Figure 1.5). A hypothesis is a statement about behavior or mental processes that is testable through research. A hypothesis about day care might be that preschoolers who are placed in day care will acquire greater social skills in relating to peers than preschoolers who are cared for in the home. Psychologists next examine the research question or test the hypothesis through controlled methods such as the experiment. For example, we could take a group of preschoolers who attend day care and another group who do not and introduce each to a new child in a controlled setting such as a child-research center. We could then observe how children in each group interact with the new acquaintance. Psychologists draw conclusions about their research questions or the accuracy of their hypotheses on the basis of their observations or findings. When their observations do not bear out their hypotheses, they may modify the theories from which the hypotheses were derived. Research findings often suggest refinements to psychological theories and new avenues of research. In our research on day care, we might find that children in day care show greater social skills than children who are cared for in the home (Belsky et al., 2001). As psychologists draw conclusions from research evidence, they are guided by principles of critical thinking. For example, they try not to confuse correlations —or associations—between findings with cause and effect. Although more aggressive children apparently spend more time watching violent television shows, it may be erroneous to conclude from this kind of evidence that television violence causes aggressive behavior. A selection factor may be at work because the children being studied choose (select) for themselves what they will watch. Perhaps more aggressive children are more likely than less aggressive children to tune in to violent television shows.

Wihelm Wundt

The German psychologist looked as if he were going to be a problem child. He did poorly in elementary school—his mind would wander—and he had to repeat a grade. Eventually he attended medical school because he wanted to earn a good living. But he did not like working with patients and dedicated himself to philosophy and psychology. He saw the mind as a natural event that could be studied scientifically, like light, heat, and the flow of blood. Wundt used introspection to try to discover the basic elements of experience. He and his students founded the school of psychology called structuralism. Structuralism attempted to break conscious experience down into objective sensations, such as sight or taste, and subjective feelings, such as emotional responses, and mental images such as memories or dreams. Structuralists believed that the mind functions by combining objective and subjective elements of experience. founder of structuralism (psychology), attempted to break down conscious experience into sensations such as sight and taste, emotions, and mental imagery.