Psychology P155 exam review

Distinguish between a control group and an experimental group.

...

What is a survey used for? What type of information does it provide?

1. Survey's are used to sample behavior broadly. 2. A survey's provides information about person behavior or psychological differences within a larger group or population.

What is systematic introspection, and why did the structuralists use it as a method? What are the problems with systematic introspection?

1. Systematic introspection was an early technique used to study the mind; systematic introspection required people to look inward and describe their own experiences. Introspection was used because it's not easy to observe the internal workings of the human mind. 2. Introspection only focused on the immediate experience.

What is the focus of evolutionary psychology?

Evolutionary psychology is a movement proposing that we're born with mental processes and "software" that guide our thinking and behavior. These innate mechanisms were acquired through natural selection in our ancestral past and help us to solve specific adaptive problems.

What effect did functionalism have on the development of psychology?

Functionalism greatly expanded the acceptable range of topics. To a functionalist almost any aspect of behavior was considered fair game for study, which helped psychology boom in North America.

What were the basic problems that many psychologists saw with attempting to scientifically investigate consciousness? What are the basic principles behind behaviorism, and who are its pioneering figures?

1. People argued self-observations are personal, so how could we ever really know whether the reports are truly accurate or representative of all people. 2. Behaviorism is a school of psychology proposing that the only proper subject matter of psychology is observable behavior rather immediate conscious experience. The task for the scientific researcher is to discover how changes in the environment can lead to changes in measurable behavior. 3. John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner were the pioneers of this figure.

What is a confounding variable, and how does it affect the interpretation of experimental results? How do researchers solve the problem of confounding variables? How do confounding variables relate to internal validity?

1. A confounding variable is an uncontrolled variable that changes along with the independent variable. It affects the interpretation of experimental results because it's not a constant factor. 2. To solve the problem of confounding variables, researchers make sure every factor is constant, except for the independent variables. 3. When potential confounding variables are effectively controlled the experiment is said to have an internal validity.

Describe how single-blind studies and double-blind studies help control for expectancy effects.

1. A single-blind study is when experimental participants don't know which condition they have been assigned. This helps ensure that the overall expectations are equally represented. 2. A double-blind study is when neither the participants nor research observers are aware of who has been assigned to the experimental and control groups. This helps to control both the subjects and the experimenter expectancies.

What is a measure of central tendency? Describe each of the measures of central tendency. Which measure(s) are the most appropriate, and why?

1. Central tendency is the value around which scores tend to cluster. 2. Mean is the arithmetic average of a set of scores. Mode is the most frequently occurring score in a set of scores. Median is the middle point in an ordered set of scores. 3. Mode is a more meaningful measure of central tendency than the mean because it represents a real score.

Describe the three major types of psychologists, and give examples of the type of the work they do.

1. Clinical psychologists diagnoses and treats psychological problems- such as depression, anxiety, phobias, or schizophrenia- or gives advice on things such as how to raise your children or get along with your boss. 2. Applied psychologists extend the principles of scientific psychology to practical, everyday problems in the real world. 3. Research psychologists try to discover the basic principles of behavior and mind.

Describe the cognitive revolution, how it differs from behaviorism, and some of the factors that led to it.

1. Cognitive revolution is the shift away from strict behaviorism. It's characterized by renewed interest in fundamental problems of consciousness and internal mental processes. 2. Much of our behavior is determined by how we think, therefore, many psychologists are convinced that the key to understanding psychological disorders, like depression lies in the analysis of a person's thought patterns. Not just their behavior. 3. Development of research techniques that allowed them to infer the characteristics of mental processes directly from observable behavior helped lead to cognitive revolution. The development of the computer was also another important factor because it became a model of sorts for the human mind.

What values can a correlation take? What does the value of a correlation tell us about the strength of relationship?

1. Correlations can be negative or positive. 2. The absolute value of the coefficient indicates the strength of the correlation. The closer the value is to 1.00, the stronger the relationship between the two measures and the more likely you'll make an accurate prediction.

What are the major features of Darwin's theory of evolution? What is natural selection? Why did Darwin's theory have such a strong influence on psychologists?

1. Darwin proposed that all living thins are the end products of an extended period of evolution, guided by the principles of natural selection. 2. Natural selection is described as some individuals being better than others at overcoming obstacles and solving the problems present in their environment. The animals that survived the obstacles passed on the traits. 3. Because Darwin's theory had a strong emphasis on natural selection, it implied that people may inherit certain ways of thinking or viewing the world.

Describe the basic ideas behind the school of structuralism. Who was the pioneer of this approach?

1. Structuralism was an early school of psychology. Structuralists tried to understand the mind by breaking it down into basic parts. It was believed the experience could be broken down int elements, like sensations and feelings. 2. Edward Titchener and Wihelm Wundt were the pioneers of this approach.

What are the basic purposes and methods of descriptive research? What is reactivity, and how does it present a problem for this type of research, especially in terms of external validity?

1. Descriptive research consists of the methods that underlie the direct observation and description of behavior. 2. Reactivity occurs when an individual's behavior is changed by the process of being observed. The behavior is a reaction to the observation process, hence why it's called reactivity. Reactivity is a problem for descriptive research because your observations wouldn't be accurate and would then corrupt your survey. 3. External validity tells us how well the results of an observation generalize to other situations or are representative if real life. Reactivity would effect external validity because they wouldn't be acting like they act on a day to day basis.

What are expectancy effects? What are two ways in which an experimenter can control for these effects?

1. Expectancy effects are when one group of subjects have an advantage over the other group of subjects and therefore preform better. 1. The investigator can be somewhat misleading in initially describing the study, which will help disguise the true purpose of the experiment. Or the investigator can try to math expectations for both the experimental and control groups.

What is the basic approach of functionalism, and how does this approach differ from structuralism? Why was the theory of evolution influential to this school? Who was the pioneer of this approach?

1. Functionalism is an early school of psychology; functionalists believed that the proper way to understand the mind an behavior is to first analyze their function and purpose. Functionalist worried more about the function and purpose of the immediate experience, rather than just the contents of the immediate experience. 2. The theory of evolution was influential to functionalism because they knew they needed to understand the adaptive value of the operations and processes of the mind. 3. William James and Hames Rowland Angell were pioneers of this approach.

What are the basic ideas behind humanistic psychology, and how is it a reaction against the Freudian approach? What is client-centered therapy?

1. Humanistic psychology is a movement in psychology that focuses on people's unique capacities for choice, responsibility, and growth. They argued that people are not helpless unknowing animals controlled by unconscious forces; they are ultimately in control of their own destinies and can rise above whatever innate sexual urges they possess (which goes against everything Freud believes). 2. Client-centered therapy is where the therapist is seen as a supporter or friend.

Describe the case study method. When might a researcher use this method? What are some problems with its use?

1. In a case study the researcher focuses on a single case. Case studies help the researcher for hypotheses about the possible causes of a behavior or psychological problem, by giving them an important historical perspective. 2. Case studies are excellent for generating hypotheses. 3. Case studies raise concern about external validity, meaning are the experiences of the research subject truly representative of others. Also verification is a problem because it can be difficult to verify the claims of the studied person.

Describe the view known as nativism, and contrast it with empiricism. What is the nature/nurture debate?

1. Nativism is the idea that some knowledge is innate, or present at birth. Empiricism is the idea that knowledge comes directly from experience. Kant, a german philosopher, proposed that humans are born with a certain mental "structure" that determines how they perceive the world. He claimed that people are born with a natural tendency to see things in terms of cause an defect and to interpret the world in terms of space and time. Nativists don't believe all knowledge comes from birth, they do believe a variety of things we learn, but others do not depend on experience. 2. Many psychological traits do have a genetic component, like intelligence and personality, but experience shapes how these characteristics develop. Nature works via nurture and vise versa.

What is naturalistic observation, and how does it attempt to avoid the problems associated with reactivity?

1. Naturalistic observation is a descriptive research technique that records naturally occurring behavior as opposed to behavior produced in the laboratory. 2. Naturalistic observation avoids problems associated with reactivity because the observations are generally considered to be representations of real life. Which means the subjects are unaware they are being observed and therefore go on with their normal every day behavior.

Describe the four steps that make up the scientific method.

1. Observe- In psychology, we choose the behavior of interest and begin recording its characteristics as well as the conditions under which the behavior occurs. 2. Detect regularities- The researcher looks for regularities in the observations; are there certain consistent features or conditions under which the behaviors commonly appear. 3. Generate a hypothesis- Forms a hypothesis, which is usually a prediction about the characteristics of the behavior under study. 4. The predictions of the hypothesis are checked for accuracy, through observation. If the new data are consistent with the prediction of the hypothesis, the hypothesis is supported.

What are operational definitions, and why do psychologists use them? What's the difference between an operational definition and a hypothesis?

1. Operational definitions are definitions that specify how concepts can be observed and measured. Psychologists use them to make sure observation always begins and ends the scientific process. 2. Operational definitions specify how concepts can be observed and measured, a hypothesis is a prediction you make based on the characteristics of the behavior in the study.

What are some examples of how naturalistic observation can be used to examine behavior?

1. Participant observation is when the observer attempts to become a part of the activities being studied, to blend into the group. (when psychologists joined a doomsday cult by pretending they were believers, and the recorded and studied the reactions of the cultists.) 2. You can also measure behavior indirectly, by looking at the results of the behavior rather than the behavior itself. (museums figure out which exhibits are the most popular by which floor tiles need to be replaced sooner than others).

Define random assignment, and describe how it helps researchers to control subject differences in experimental and control groups.

1. Random assignment is technique ensuring that each participant in an experiment has an qual chance of being assigned to any of the conditions in the experiment. 2. Random assignment helps researchers control differences in experiment and control groups by randomly assigning subjects to groups. This then increases the chances that these differences will be equally represented in each of the groups.

In an experiment, what is the independent variable? What is the dependent variable? Give an example of a simple question you might address in an experiment, and name the independent and dependent variables.

1. The independent variable is the aspect of the environment that is manipulated in an experiment. 2. The dependent variable is the behavior that is measured or observed in an experiment. Ex. When measuring aggression using television shows, the independent variables would the nonviolent show and the violent show. The dependent variable is the amount of aggressive behavior that is seen after watching the programs.

What is the purpose of a correlation? What is a correlation coefficient, and what does it tell us about the relationship between two variables? How is this represented in a scatter plot?

1. The purpose of correlation is to help determine whether a relationship exists between two measures of behavior, the one recored and the one expected. 2. A correlation coefficient gives the researcher a feel for how well the value of one variable can be predicted if the value of a second variable is known. There can be positive correlations (same direction) or negative correlations (opposite direction). 3. On a scatter plot, each point represent a person's score on the two measures.

What is the purpose of experimental research? How is such research generally done?

1. The purpose of experimental research is to set up the proposed conditions and see what happens. 2. The researcher will directly manipulate the environment. Ex. to examine the role of television violence on aggressive behavior, an experimenter would directly manipulate the amount of violence the person watches. One group of children will watch a violent superhero movie, while a noter group of children will watch a playful, happy movie. The experimenter would then carefully measure the effect of the manipulation on the behavior of interest. aka aggression.

Describe variability, and why it is important to consider. Define range and standard deviation.

1. Variability is a measure of how much the scores in a distribution of scores differ from one another. It's important to know how far apart the individual scores are from each other, because just knowing the average doesn't give you all the important information. 2. Range is the difference between the largest and smallest scores in a distribution. Standard deviation is an indication of how much individual scores differ or cary from the mean.

What does a zero correlation mean? Why do people tend to see relationships even when two events are uncorrelated?

1. When a correlation coefficient is not statistically different from zero, the two measures are said to be uncorrelated. 2. People tend to make the mistake of looking only at the cases where the two variables appear to be related.

What does the word "psychology" mean? What is the current definition of psychology? How would psychologists define "behavior" and "mind"?

1.Psychology is the SCIENTIFIC study of behavior and mind. 2.Today the definition of psychology is precise and has an emphasis on it being the scientific study of behavior and mind, not just the study of the mind. 3. Mind is defined as the contents and processes of subjective experience: sensations, thoughts, and emotions. Behavior is defined as observable actions such as moving about, talking, gesturing, and so on; behaviors can also refer to the activities of cells and to thoughts and feelings.

Define random sampling, and discuss its importance in the context of survey research.

1.Random sampling- a procedure guaranteeing that everyone in the population has an early likelihood of being selected for the sample. 2. It's important because it helps ensure that all possible biases, viewpoints, and backgrounds will be represented.

In what ways does the computer serve as a model for the mind?

Cognitive psychologists often explain behavior by appealing to information processing systems. Internal structures in the brain that processes information from the environment in ways that help us solve problems.

Suppose we find that variables A and B are correlated. Why can't we conclude, based on the correlation, that "A caused B?" Give two alternatives to the explanation "A causes B."

Correlation does not necessarily imply causation. There could be a third variable connecting A and B, or B could cause A.

What is debriefing, and why is it an important part of the psychologist's "code of conduct?"

Debriefing- at the conclusion of an experimental session, informing the participants about the general purpose of the experiment, including any deception that was involved. Debriefing is intended to clear up any misunderstandings that the person might have about the research and explain in detail why certain procedures were used. Debriefing gives the researchers an opportunity to counteract any anxieties that a person might have developed as a result of the research.

What is Descartes' view of the relationship between mind and body?

Descartes argues that the mind and body are separate. The physical body, he claimed, cannot think, nor is it possible to explain thinking by appealing to physical matter. He did allow for the possibility that one could have an important influence on the other. He believed the mind controlled the actions of a mechanical body through the pineal gland.

What is informed consent, and why is it the cornerstone of ethical conduct?

Informed consent is the principle that before consenting to participate in research, people should be fully informed about any significant factors that could affect their willingness to participate. Informed consent is the cornerstone of ethical conduct because the experimenter must be aware of any significant factors that could affect their willingness to participate in the experiment.

What are the basic assumptions in Freud's theory of psychoanalysis? What unique contributions did Freud make to the science of psychology?

Psychoanalysis is a term used by Freud to describe his theory of mind and systems of therapy. Freud believed that the mind and its contents- the psyche- must be analyzed extensively before effective treatments can begin. He believed that psychological problems are bed solved through insight. Referred to as insight therapy. 2. One of Freud's unique contributions was his emphasis on unconscious determinants of behavior. He believed each person houses a hidden reservoir in the mind, filled with memories, urges, and conflicts that guyed and control actions.

What are the important ethical concerns revolving around the use of animals in research?

Researchers are expected to treat the animals humanely, which means they are responsible for the animals care and any experiments that cause pain, discomfort or illness must be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Failure to follow proper rules regarding animal safety can result in censure or termination of membership by the governing body.

Give an example of a correlation that can be explained with a third variable.

Statistics show that the amount of people that eat ice cream increases while the amount of people drown increases. People assume that eating ice-cream causes drowning, which in reality the third variable is that it's hot. So people eat ice cream and go swimming when it's hot.

Relate the strides made in technology and the understanding of brain chemistry to psychology; describe the biological approach.

Technology is now allowing psychologists to take pictures of mental life in action. We are able to see how mental activities change as the mind processes its environment.

Briefly describe the eclectic approach to psychology.

The eclectic approach is the idea that it's useful to select information from several soured rather than to rely entirely on a single perspective or school of thought.

What is the purpose of statistics?

The purpose of statistics is so we can collect data in a more efficient way without testing the entire population.

Why is culture an important consideration in the study of mind and behavior?

To understand modern psychology you must discuss culture and the role it plays in determining how we act and think.

What is the relationship between the amount of control employed in a research study and the degree of external validity?

When the researcher tries to gain the appropriate controls, he or she creates an environment that is sterile or artificial and not representative of situations in which a person normally behaves. The results of the experimental research then cannot easily be generalized to real-world situations; which then means the results are said to have little external validity. Ex. The television violence experiment lacks external validity because the children may not act the same at home if they had just watched a violent television show.

In what disciplines do the roots of modern psychology lie?

philosophy and physiology