Chapter 1-2

Psychological lens

- Learned fears, expectations, and behaviors - Emotional responses - Cognitive processing - Perceptual interpretations

Biological lens

- Natural selection of adaptive physiology - Genetic predispoitions - Brain mechanisms - Hormones

Socio-cultural

- Presence of others - Cultural, societal, and family expectations - Peer influences - Media portrayal

Hypothesis has to be...

1. Falsifiable 2. Testable

When did the first psych lab emerge?

1879

When was the cognitive revolution?

1950s

When studying personality traits, someone who is helpful, trusting, and empathetic will score high on the ________ trait.

Agreeableness

Noam Chomsky

An American linguist who influenced the cognitive revolution

Generalizing

Apply particular research findings to society

Self-report

Asking them something; infringing upon environment and doing something to them

Inter-rater reliability

Assesses the consistency of observations by different observers

Empirical method

Based on observation, including experimentation, rather than a method based only on forms of logical argument or previous authorities

Why is psychology considered a social science?

Behavior is biological, and our behavior is influenced by our interactions with others.

Evolutionary

Behavior rooted within mechanisms of evolution (e.g., natural selection)

Structuralist

Believe our cognitive experiment was best understood by breaking that experience into its component parts (introspection) Ex. Wudnt--first psych lab

Theory

Best understanding that we have of that part of the natural world

Lab

Bringing people into a space to have greater control over environment

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

Charged with ensuring that all experimental proposals require the humane treatment of animal research subjects

Institutional review board

Committee of individuals often made up of members of the institution's administration, scientists, and community members; review proposals for research that involves humans

Debriefing

Completely honest information about experiment and why deception was necessary at conclusion

Reliability

Consistency to produce a given result

Naghemeh wants to focus on the emotional, social, vocational, and health-related outcomes of individuals who are considered psychologically healthy. Which area of psychology should she work in?

Counseling psychology

Longitudinal research

Data-gathering is administered repeatedly over an extended period of time

Operational defintion

Description of how we will measure our variables

Statistical analysis

Determines how likely any difference found is due to chance; determines if meaningful differences exist between two groups in a research study

Humanism

Emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans Ex. Maslow & Rogers

Inductive reasoning

Empirical observations lead to new ideas (broad generalizations); come up with explanations for tests--start with data...big picture); everything is brand new

Random assignment

Everyone has equal chance of being in either group

Random sample

Everyone has equal chance of being selected

Placebo effect

Expecting something to happen can make it happen

Validity

Extent to which a given tool accurately measures what it's supposed to measure *To be valid you have to be reliable, but not vice versa

Illusory correlations

False correlations

Correlational

Figure out relationship among variables

Behaviorism

Focus on observing and controlling behavior--psychology is not studied in the brain, only what we can observe Ex. John Watson

Clinical or case study

Focus on one person or a few individuals; deeper understanding

Psychoanalytic theory

Focus on role of unconscious in affecting conscious behavior

Functionalism

Focused on how mental activities served as adaptive responses to an organism's environment; practicality of the mental process Ex. William James

Which kind of psychologist would be consulted in jury selection and witness preparation?

Forensic

A series of dots arranged in the shape of a face will be perceived as a face, not a series of dots. A psychologist studying this phenomenon is applying the principles of ________.

Gestalt

Empirical

Grounded in objective, tangible evidence that can be observed time and time again, regardless of who is observing

Gestalt psychology

Holistic view on an individual and his experiences Ex. Germans--Wertheimer, Koffka, Kohler

________ is a perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans.

Humanism

Which aspect of the scientific method occurs first?

Hypothesis

Deductive reasoning

Ideas rested against empirical world (begins with generalization); already have conclusion and you're looking for data to support

Sociocultural

Important to recognize intertwined and systemic influences of culture

Personality psychology

Individual's unique patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion

Jean Piaget

Known for his theory of cognitive development in children

Behaviorists study ________.

Learned behavior

Field

Letting them remain in natural environment

Collectivism

Look at well-being of group as part of yourself; Eastern culture

Cognitive perspective

Mental processes most important: attending, thinking, remembering, and understanding; Thoughts = results and causes of overt actions

Correlation coefficient

Number from -1 to 1 that indicates the strength and direction of relationship (r) - closer to one... stronger - no relation... 0 - positive... move in same direction - negative... move in opposite directions

Naturalistic observation

Observing behavior in natural setting

When studying personality traits, someone who is practical, conventional, and prefers routine will score low on the ________ trait.

Openess

Occam's razor

Parsimony--simpler is better

Observer bias

People who are observers are closely involved in research and may unconsciously skew their observations to meet their goals

Edmund wants to identify relatively consistent patterns of thought and behavior, measure these traits, and determine how these traits interact in a particular context to determine how a person will behave in any given situation. Edmund wants to conduct research in the area of ________.

Personality

Introspection

Process by which someone examines their own conscious experience in an attempt to break it into its component parts

Deception

Purposely misleading experiment participants in order to maintain integrity of experiment *Never harmful

Attrition

Reduction in number of research participants due to dropouts

Cognitive psychology

Relationship between though and behavior

Correlational research

Relationship between two variables

Archival research

Relies on looking at past records or data sets to look for interesting patterns or relationships

Cross-sectional research

Researcher compares multiple segments of the population at the same time (comparison)

Experimenter bias

Researcher's expectations may skew results

Pseudoscience

Set of claims that seem scientific, but aren't

Which theorist published research related to the psychology of personality?

Sigmund Freud

A(n) ________ is a chamber that isolates the subject from the external environment.

Skinner box

Observational

Strictly observing; hands off

Biological psychology

Study of biological bases of behavior

What is a criticism of structuralism?

The process was highly subjective.

Population

The whole group that you want to learn about (not just the people in your study)

What do structuralism, Gestalt psychology, and Sigmund Freud all have in common?

They were all concerned with describing and understanding the inner experience.

Carl Rogers

Unconditional positive regard

Sigmund Freud

Unconscious mind (dream analysis, slips of the tongue, free association)

Individualistic

Western culture; put yourself above the group

Falsifiability

You can find evidence to prove false *If its not falsifiable, then it is not in the realm of science

Psychoanalytic theory focuses on ________ and early childhood experiences.

a person's unconscious mind

Critical thinking is ________.

applying a set of skills to understand and evaluate information

In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the ________ include food, water, and shelter.

basic survival needs

Ashya wants to focus on the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and other problematic patterns of behavior. What area of psychology should she work in?

clinical psychology

When studying personality traits, someone who is hardworking, dependable, and organized will score high on the ________ trait.

conscientiousness

External validity

degree to which findings can be generalized to real-world settings

Which kind of psychological area does the work of Jean Piaget exemplify?

developmental psychology

Internal validity

extent to which we can draw cause and effect inferences from a study (ONLY AN EXPERIMENT)

When studying personality traits, someone who is quiet, reserved, and withdrawn will score low on the ________ trait.

extroversion

Generalizability

findings of research should extend beyond people in the study and to the whole population of interest

Guillermo spends some time each day applying the principles of structuralism to examine his own conscious experience as carefully as possible. Guillermo is engaged in ________.

introspection

The empirical method of study is based on ________.

observation

Behaviorism focuses on making psychology an objective science by studying ________.

overt behavior and deemphasizing the importance of unobservable mental processes

For a scientific explanation to be testable, it must also be ________.

perceivable and measurable

What is Abraham Maslow best known for?

proposing a hierarchy of human needs in motivating behavior

Susan wants to study prejudice, attraction, how we explain our own behavior versus how we explain the behavior of others, and how we resolve interpersonal conflicts. Susan should conduct research in the area of ________.

social psychology

According to William James, the purpose of psychology was to ________.

study the function of behavior

Belief Perseverance

tendency to cling to one's initial belief even after receiving new information that contradicts or disconfirms that belief

Interrater reliability

the degree that different people collecting data on the same thing agree

Functionalist psychologists focus on the function of behavior and ________.

the operation of the whole mind rather than the individual parts

Test-Retest Reliability

the same people take the same measure twice and get a similar score Ex. ACT

Confirmation Bias

the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories

Cognitive psychology focuses on studying ________.

thoughts and their relationship to our experiences and our actions