Pysch Quiz 1

psychology questions

"Who are we?" "Do we have thoughts?" "What about our feelings?" "Do we have actions?"

Psychology's subfields prespective, focus, sample questions, examples of subfields

neuroscience - How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences - How do pain messages travel from the hand to the brain? How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives? - Biological; cognitive; clinical Cognitive - How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information - How do we use information in remembering? Reasoning? Solving problems? -Cognitive neuroscience; clinical; counseling; industrial-organizational; educational

positive correlation

one variable incr (decr) the other incr (decr) studying incr = grades incr +1.00

These 3 phenomena lead us to

overestimate our intuition. Thus, we need scientific inquiry/attitude to help us understand reality from illusion.

Mary Whiton Calkins

(1863-1930) Became memory researcher and first American Psychological Association (APA) female president Studied with James but discriminated against and denied her Ph.D

Margaret Floy Washburn

(1871-1939) Became second APA female president Wrote The Animal Mind Studied with Edward Titchener but barred from his experimental psychology organization

Humanistic Psychology

(Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers) This school revived interest in study of mental processes. They found behaviorism and Freudian psychology to be limiting. It focused on ways current environments nurture or limit growth potential and importance of having need for love and acceptance satisfied.

Behaviorism

(B. F. Skinner and John B. Watson) Recall that Wundt defined psychology as "the science of mental life." This definition continued until the 1920's, until two American Psychologists dismissed introspection and redefined psychology as the "scientific study of observable behavior." They believed that what you cannot observe and measure, you cannot study scientifically. You can record and observe a person's behavior, and the school of psychology called Behaviorism was born. This school was a major force until the 1960's.

Freudian Psychology

(Sigmund Freud) This emphasized ways unconscious thought processes and emotional responses to childhood experiences affect later behavior. This was a second major force until 1960s.

negative correlation

-1.00 exercise incr = weight decr one variable incr (decr) other decr (incr)

no relationship correlation

0.00 color of eyes and how fast I run

Wilhelm Wundt

1879, the first laboratory in Psychology was established by Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) at the University of Leipzig. This defined the start of scientific psychology. two men helping Wundt create an experimental apparatus, which was used to measure how long it too people to press a key after hearing a ball hit a platform. Wundt who was seeking to measure "atoms of the mind" defined psychology as "science of mental life" He added two key elements to enhance scientific nature of psychology, which included carefully measured observations and experiments.

Cognitive Revolution:

1960 and focus returned to interest in mental processes. scientifically explored ways in which information is perceived, processed, and remembered. The interdisciplinary field of cognitive neuroscience ties the science of mind (cognitive psychology) and the science of the brain (neuroscience) and focuses on brain activity underlying mental activity. Psychology today builds on the work by the earlier schools and pioneers. The concern is with observable behavior as well as with inner thoughts and feelings. Psychology is defined as the science of behavior and mental processes science behavior mental process

1. What event defined the start of scientific psychology? _____________________ 2. Which school/branch of psychology used introspection as a technique? ______________________. 3. Which school focused on how mental processes allow us to adapt, survive, and flourish? _____________________. 4. Name any two psychologists we have discussed so far a. b. 5. Name the two women psychologists we have discussed a. b. 6. From the 1920's to the 1960's, the two major forces in psychology were _____________________ and _________________ psychology.

1st lab structrualism functionalism skinner watson mary calkins margaret washburn bahviorism freudian

clinical psychologist

A clinical psychologist assesses/treats people with mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. A counseling psychologist helps people cope with challenges to improve their personal and social functioning. A community psychologist works to create healthy physical and social environments. A cognitive psychologist deals with how we perceive, think, make decisions, and solve problems. A psychiatrist provides psychotherapy (deals with psychological disorders) and can prescribe medications to assist individuals.

survey

A survey looks at many cases in less depth, asking people to report on their behavior, attitudes, or opinions. Questions about public opinions and sexual practices are put to the public. Some recent surveys results: 1 in 5 people (across 22 countries) believe that aliens have come to earth and walk among us disguised as human (Ipsos, 2010) 68 percent of all humans say that religion is important in their daily lives (Diener et. al, 2011). Saturdays and Sundays are the happiest days (Stone et. al., 2012). Very often, surveys suffer from wording effects; a change in the order of words can have an effect. Critical thinkers will reflect on how phrasing can affect results.

. Hindsight bias

Also called the "I-knew-it-all-along" phenomenon is the tendency to believe after learning an outcome that one would have foreseen it. Asking people how or why they felt or acted that way can be very misleading, because common sense describes what has happened, not what will happen. Trying to make a prediction about some event is very difficult. Example: When drilling the Deepwater Horizon oil well in 2010, oil industry employees took some shortcuts and ignored some warning signs, without intending to harm the environment or their companies' reputations. After the resulting Gulf oil spill, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, the foolishness of those judgments became obvious.

Humility

This involves awareness that mistakes are possible and the willingness to be surprised and openness to new perspectives. People and animals do not always behave in predictable ways and this allows us to check and recheck findings and conclusions.

Culture

Culture is the shared ideas and behaviors that one generation passes on to the next. Culture shapes our behavior. It influences our attitudes, willingness, and our assumptions about others. People across different cultures tend to share similar underlying principles: People with a specific learning disorder exhibit the same brain malfunction whether they are Italian, French, or British (Paulesu et. al, 2001) All language share a grammar and emotions can be used to communicate across cultures People in different cultures vary in feelings of loneliness, and across cultures loneliness is magnified by low self-esteem and being unmarried. Gender matters as well. Women = conversational men = advice and information. All of these contribute to contemporary psychology.

Three main Levels of Analysis in Psychology

Each of us is a complex system that is part of a larger social system. We are also composed of smaller systems, cells, nervous system, body organs. The three tiers suggest different levels of analysis, these systems complement each other. Together they form the biopsychosocial approach, which offers a complete picture of any given behavior or mental process. It can be used to explain the horrific school shootings or why impact of games on people. Pysch influences - learned fears, expectations, emotional responces, cog processing social-culture - presence of others, socialetal, fam expectations, peer influences, compelling models (media) biological - genetic predispositions (genetic traits), genetic mutations, natural selection, adaptive traits, genes responding to enviro

Tendency to perceive patterns in random events

Even in random, unrelated data people often find order, because random sequences often do not look random. During the 2010 World Cup, a German octopus Paul, "the oracle of Oberhausen" selected the right box and correctly predicted the outcomes of Germany's matches with Spain. Was that random or really remarkable?

theory

In everyday conversation, we use theory to mean a "mere hunch." In science, a theory is a set of integrated principles that organizes observations and explains behaviors or events (Textbook, p. 26). A theory summarizes and simplifies things for us and as we connect the dots, a coherent picture emerges.

representative samples

In everyday thinking, we tend to generalize the results of our survey to our lives. We need to obtain representative samples of people. The tendency is to use the sample available to us. We would like a random sample (this is one where every person in the population has an equal chance of being selected), but that often does not work. Think about this. Political pollsters survey people to find out who they will vote for. They sample 1500 people drawn from all parts of the country. These kinds of polls can often give misleading results. Hence, the results of surveys should be looked at critically.

Scientific Method

In the previous module, we established that the scientific method combines three things: Curiosity, Skepticism, and Humility. Psychologists arm their scientific attitude with the Scientific Method, which is a self-correcting process for evaluating ideas with observation and analysis. Here, we test our ideas about the world by: Setting up situations that test our ideas with a theory Making careful, organized observations Analyzing whether the data fit with our ideas If the data do not fit our ideas, then ideas are modified and tested again.

hypotheses

No matter how good a theory sounds, it must always be tested. A good theory produces testable predictions called hypotheses (educated guesses). We end up testing hypotheses and the results either support our theory or make us revise it. Let's assume that we come up with a theory that "sleep boosts memory." Notice the hypotheses that we came up with. theories sleep boosts memory --> hypotheses, when sleep deprives ppl remember less from the day before --> research and observation, give materal to ppl before a) an ample nights sleep b) a shortened nights sleep then test memory

Judgmental overconfidence

People tend to think they know more (or are better than they are at something) than they do. This occurs in academic/social behavior. Example: Someone who cannot sing at all, but believes they have a great voice and decide to try out for American Idol. They end up being laughed at or ridiculed for their terrible voice because of their judgmental overconfidence.

Experimentation

Researchers have found that breastfed infants have higher childhood intelligence scores (3 IQ points difference) than children who were bottle fed. The longer infants were breast fed, the higher their later IQ scores. What do these findings mean? Does this mean that the nutrients in breast milk have something to do with intelligence? How do we know any of this to be true? With experiments, researchers can focus on the possible effects of one or more factors in several ways. They can manipulating the factors of interest to determine their effects, while holding constant ("controlling") other factors.

How can psychological principles help you learn and remember? Scientific studies show:

Testing boosts retention of material Actively processing material and retrieving material helps master it (testing effect) Spaced rehearsal, interspaced with other subjects, is more efficient than cramming Concept familiarity is not effective enough, think critically, process class information actively Use SQ3R S (Survey, Scan/Skim chapter outlines and section heads) Q (Question, Ask questions, write guesses) R (Read, Look for the answer to your question) R (Rehearse, Recall in your own words, Test yourself) R (Review, Recall, Test yourself)

Aristotle

The Greek Philosopher (300 B.C.) theorized about psychological concepts we discuss today, things learning, memory, perception, emotion, motivation, and personality Today, we chuckle at his guesses, like his suggestion that eating a heavy meal makes us sleepy by causing gas. used observation and questioning to understand the body-psyche relationship and questions were answered through observation and guesses.

Functionalism

The next school was called Functionalism, pioneered by William James (1842-1910). Under the influence of evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin, James assumed that thinking (like smelling) was adaptive; it helped our ancestors adapt, survive and flourish. This school studied human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. explore the minds adaptive functions, James studied emotions, memories, willpower, habits, and consciousness.

Scatterplot

The picture above is called a Scatterplot, which is a graphic description that indicates what the data looks like. The slope of points shows the direction of the relationship between the two variables.

description

The starting point of any science is description. We describe people and events, often drawing conclusions about why they think, feel, or act the way they do. Psychologists do the same, but we do this with objectivity and systematically. Some of these techniques are: case studies, naturaistic observation, survery, correlations, experimentation

The Scientific Attitude

There are three main components to the scientific attitude. These are curiosity + skepticism + humility prepare us to think smarter. This smart thinking is called critical thinking and it examines assumptions, appraises sources, looks for hidden bias, evaluates evidence, and examines conclusions. Whether you are reading a research report or an online opinion or listening to a talk show, critical thinkers ask questions like: How do they know that? What is person's agenda? Is there a cause and effect conclusion? Is the conclusion valid? Are there alternative explanations? curiosity, skepticism, humility

nature vs nurture

This contributed to the growing understanding of biology and experience and fueled the nature-nurture debate. The nature-nurture question rages on with people questioning whether our human traits are inherited (nature) or they develop through experience (nurture) nature: Plato: Character and intelligence inherited; some ideas inborn Descartes: Some ideas are intuitive Darwin: Some traits, behaviors, and instincts are part of species; natural selection nurture Aristotle: Content of mind comes through senses Locke: Mind is blank slate

Curiosity

This includes a passion to explore and understand the world without misleading or being misled. No matter how sensible an idea sounds, a smart thinker will ask "Does this work?" "Can its predictions be confirmed?"

Skepticism

This involves doubting and questioning and consistently asking two questions, "What do you mean" and "How do you know?" It also involves questioning results and retesting and when ideas compete, skepticism can help reveal which idea matches the facts.

Naturalistic Observation

This is a descriptive technique that observes and records behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation. Examples include watching chimpanzees in their natural habitat, watching parent-child interactions, or college students interacting. usually done with a pen and paper, but new technologies like phone apps can also assist. For example, researchers can track people's activities and location without interference. We can study moods from twitter messages sent with 504 million twitter messages. large scale = twitter Naturalistic observation does not explain behavior, it only describes it.

Case Studies

This is oldest research methods and describes behavior. It examines one individual or a group in depth with the hope of revealing universal principles. For example, we may say that people who smoke die young, but we must be careful with our statements because we all know people who smoked their entire life and did not die young. Hence, atypical individual cases may be misleading.

Correlations

This kind of research explores relationships between variables. Do we think there is a relationship between texting while driving and accidents on the road? We intuitively know that there is a relationship; the 2 variables we study are correlated. A statistical measure (called a correlation coefficient which ranges from +1.00 to -1.00) helps us figure out how closely the two things are correlated. We are going to look at two variables (Amount of caffeine consumed to level of alertness) and plot the results. The picture above is called a Scatterplot, which is a graphic description that indicates what the data looks like. The slope of points shows the direction of the relationship between the two variables. positive, no relationship, negative

common sense and intuition

We make assumptions about things based on our common sense and intuition. This intuition is an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought as contradicted with conscious reasoning and thinking (Textbook, p. 20). Very often these assumptions based on intuition, common sense, or everyday thinking lead us to a wrong conclusion. Often we fall back on what is called "grandma's common sense" (feed a fever, starve a cold) which is informed by countless observations is wrong as well. Here things seem like common sense because they are repeated so often and these statements whether true or false makes them easier to process and remember, hence they seem more true seeming. There are three roadblocks to critical thinking. These roadblocks help us understand why we should not rely just on common sense, intuition, or grandma. . Hindsight bias, judgemental over confidence, Tendency to perceive patterns in random events

Cross-Culture and Gender:

What we can learn from people in general from psychological studies done in one place and time, often with people from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) culture gives us an insight into behavior.

Using Critical Thinking is crucial.

When you do this, you overcome your biases, you ask for facts and evidence, and you challenge preconceived notions that one might have. So why is this difficult to do? ppl want to take a side + once you pick a side you look for reasons to say why its correct critical thinking = analysing info to decide if it makes sence rather than simply accepting it if flaw in how info was collected other possible explanations for the facts or results hidden assumptions to decide if you agree look for bias, politics, values, personal connections put aside your own assumptions and biases and look at evidence

illusory correlation

With correlations, very often we look for things that confirm our beliefs and look for a relationship between variables when none exists. This is called an illusory correlation. Examples include: People from small towns have X traits and are nice The day I wore orange, my husband got into an accident Illusory correlations are chance events and we believe that we have some personal control over these events. What is important to remember with correlations: No matter how strong the relationship, correlation does not prove causation. Correlation indicates the possibility of a cause-effect relationship, but does not prove it. Take for example, the relationship between low self-esteem and depression. We can explain that with three possible cause and effect relationships: Remember: Correlation does not prove causation. It can show the possibility of a cause and effect relationship, but it does not prove it. low self esteem --> depression depression --> low self esteem distressing event, predisposition --> self esteem and depression

wundt pavlow piaget skinner

Wundt: German philosopher/physiologist Pavlov: Russian physiologist Piaget: Swiss biologist Skinner: American psychologist

Structuralism

an early school of thought pioneered by Edward B. Titchner (1867-1927). This school used introspection to study the structure of the human mind. This technique is a self-reflective technique that involves looking inward, training individuals to report elements of their experience. What were their immediate sensations, feelings, and images? introspective reports were used to build a view of the mind's structure Introspection was unreliable and varied from person to person and structuralism was slowly on its way out.

There are three roadblocks to critical thinking. These are: a. b. c. 2. The scientific attitude involves three things. These are: a. b. c. 3. List one thing that a good theory does? 4. What is one advantage of using naturalistic observation? 5. What is a random sample? 6. What is an unrepresentative sample and how do you avoid it?

hindsight bias, judgment, tendency, patterns curiosty, skepism, humility organize, predict, produces testable prodictions happens naturally every person in population has equal chance of being selected data doesnt represnt what the majority thinks = random sampling

evolutionary psychology

individuals differ because of our genes and environments and the focus of behavior and genetics.

applied research

psychologists conduct applied research, which tackles practical problems. conduct basic research that builds the knowledge base in the field. Each discipline tackles issues that help the individual.

science behavior mental process

test in some way what we do thinking

A good theory does the following:

• Effectively organizes a range of self reports and observations • Leads to clear predictions that anyone can use to check the theory • Often stimulates research that leads to a revised theory which better organizes and predicts what we know • May be replicated and supported by similar findings