Psych 10 Midterm 1 (Caitlin C)

how did we operationalize aggression?

# of times children hit and punched the bobo doll

Edward Tichener

(structuralism) - Wilhelm Wundt's student

Wilhelm Wundt

(structuralism) - father of psychology - studied reaction time - ex: press button as soon as you hear a sound. Press button when you are consciously aware that you heard a sound (took longer)

Greek philosophers psychology

* contemplated origins of knowledge - where did knowledge come from? (develop over time or born with it) - Plato: a child is born with all of the knowledge they will every need (knowledge is innate) - Aristotle: brain is blank slate and we learn through experience

Egyptian doctors psychology

* linked traumatic brain injuries to behavioral changes - what part of the head was injured and what behavior changed? - ex: trauma to the back of the head might result in change in sight and documented this relationship

issues with correlational designs

*correlation cannot infer causation - issues with directionality (did A-->B or B-->A) and potential 3rd variables example: - eating ice-cream--> murder - murder--> eating ice-cream - 3rd variable: may be because of warm weather

benefits of correlational designs

*establishes relationships/making predictions *ethics * inspire experimental studies ex: ask pregnant women if they drank over their pregnancy

Structuralism

- analyzes conscious experience by breaking it down into basic elements - introspection: subjective observation of one's own experiences - the study of the elements of consciousness - limited amount of sensations - underlying properties of apple: color (red), taste(sweetness) - component sensations of cilantro: taste (lemony...)

House-fire problem (demonstrates generalization instead of cross-cultural)

- asked undergrads house is on fire would you save mother or spouse? - Europeans at universities in US usually saved spouse - Twainii's tend to save their mothers (cultural differences in upbringing)

psychoanalytic theory

- attempts to explain how behavior and personality are influenced by unconscious processes - Sigmund Freud!!! - thought that the mind had conscious and unconscious mind - unconscious mind influences your behavior - this unconscious mind might pop up into dreams - mind was made up of ID (unconscious drives: eat, sex), superego (what's right and what's wrong), Ego (balance between ID and superego) - conflict between ID and super ego

hindsight bias

- belief that an outcome was foreseeable after it occurred - ex: of course the lakers were gonna win that game! - "that answer is obvious, but if you had to find that answer on your own it might not have been that obvious"

positive correlation

- both variables increase or decrease together - ex: the more you study, the higher your grades are

applied research

- clear practical application - how can we change things to make things better

limitations to structuralism

- experience is subjective - difficult to access subconscious aspects of cognition (not aware of every single aspect of experience)

independent variable (IV)

- factor that is varied or manipulated - "X"

pros of experimental research

- infer causality when there is a control group!

Benefits of experimental designs

- infer causation - precise control over variables and can eliminate alternatives explanations

scientific origins

- influences from physics - influences by evolution

why is generalization important

- it can be hard to generalize of your sample doesn't reflect entire population

Cons of experimental designs

- may be unethical - highly controlled lab setting can make generalization of findings to the real world

correlational design

- measures how closely two factors/variables vary together - how well you can predict a change in one form from observing a change in the other factor

negative correlation

- one variable increase when the other decreases - one variable decreases as the other increases - the more water you drink, the less thirsty you are

zero correlation

- one variable is not predictably related to the other - the number of Cheetos you eat does not influence how well you speak French

phrenology

- phrenology: believed there were 27 different organs in the brain - ex: if someone was very aggressive, they would be "excerisizing the aggressive part of the brain" which would be shown as a bump on the brain right above the ear or wherever they deemed aggression was

basic research

- psychology for the sake of science - why do people think and behave the way they do

Phineas Gage

- railroad worker that had rod shot through his skull through frontal lobe. After removed, he is personality changed and became very impulsive, developed temper, and couldn't make plans

behavioralism

- study only observable behavior - early 1900's - ex: what does the dog do when hearing a bell ring (we don't care if the dog was hungry or what he/she is thinking, only what they do)

Dependent variable (DV)

- the behavior that is measured (and is expected to change as a function of change in the IV) - "Y"

functionalism

- the study of the purpose and function of behaviors and mental processes - influenced by Darwin's Theory of Evolution

cognitive psychology

- what the mind of the dog doing that leads it to salivate

correlation ranges from

-1 to 1

perfect correlation

1 or -1 - you can completely predict the other variable

steps in Scientific Investigation

1. formulate a testable hypothesis 2. select research method and design the study (operationalize your variables) 3. collect the data 4. analyze data and draw conclusions

cross-cultural psychology is about ____ percent of the world's population

12%

year of birth of psychology

1879

birth of psychology

1879 Wilhelm Wundt: father of psychology

Bobo doll hypothesis

Children who watch aggressive video will display high levels of aggression

T/F Psychology is largely the study of atypical behaviors and mental disorders

FALSE

T/F functionalism is evolution

FALSE

T/F Left-brained people are more logical and right brained are more creative

FALSE: left and right sides of the brain communicate to each other

T/F Distinction between basic and applied research is clear

FALSE: lots of overlap

T/F Different people have different "learning styles"

FALSE: people have different preferences but not a different learning style

T/F Memories work like video recordings

FALSE: we do not remember everything equally

What is the IV and DV in the massed vs. spaced study design?

IV: how the student studies (massed or spaced) DV: score on the test

Identify IV and DV in bobo doll study

IV: watching an adult model aggressive behavior or not DV: aggressive behavior (# of hits and punches)

a researcher is testing a new antidepressant medication. There are two groups of people: one receives the antidepressant and the other receives the placebo. Then measures depression on a standardized depression scale what is the IV what is the DV how did we operationalize DV what is the control what type of study design

IV: whether the groups received the antidepressant medication or placebo DV: depression score operationalize: score on a standardizes depression scale control: placebo group study design: experimental

When showing results, do we report every single person and graph each individual?

No, we find the mean of the data and report that number

T/F it is common to end up with a convenience sample

TRUE

father of psychology

Whilhem Wundt

to show causality, we need to have ____

a control group with the varying independent variable

operationalize

a description of a property in concrete measurable terms ex: how can we measure internet use? (screen time, how much data is used, percent of class time on the internet...)

sample

a subset of a population

converging operations

a variety of research techniques are used to investigate or converge upon a particular experimenter or research result

What was the dependent variable in the Bobo doll experiment we discussed in class? a. The number of times the child hit, punched, and was verbally aggressive towards the doll b. There was no dependent variable, it was a correlational design c. Whether the child watched an aggressive or unaggressive model d. How aggressive the child was in everyday life (prior to visiting the lab) e. The amount of time that passed before the child became aggressive

a. The number of times the child hit, punched, and was verbally aggressive towards the doll

If a student was accepted for training in the psychology laboratory of Wilhelm Wundt. It is likely that the student would have been trained to_______________. a. analyze how to break down his sensations into their most basic elements. b. condition his participants to fear certain types of stimuli c. listen intently while individuals tell him of their depression or nervousness. d. determine the function or purpose of a particular human behavior. e. carefully feel the bumps on a person's head in order to determine his or her character traits.

a. analyze how to break down his sensations into their most basic elements.

Random Assignment

assigning participants random to experimental conditions why: increases the chances that characteristics will be equally distributed across the groups - want nothing to be systematic

Which shows the strongest relationship? a. +54 b. -.72 c. +10.0 d. +.10

b

Which of the following is true regarding phrenology? a. It is still used by forensic psychologists. b. It was an early approach to brain localization c. It was developed by Sigmund Freud. d. It was developed in the 1960's. e. None of the above are true

b. It was an early approach to brain localization

The purpose of operational definitions in science is to____________________ a. increase ecological validity. b. carefully define terms and variables so they can be objectively studied. c. reduce participant demand. d. keep participants from knowing which treatment group they are in.

b. carefully define terms and variables so they can be objectively studied.

Mary is participating in a psychological experiment for one of the graduate students at her university. She is pretty confident that she knows the true intent of the study and is trying to answer the questions accordingly. A common pitfall in experiments, Mary is falling prey to ______________. a. deception b. participant demand c. intentionality d. experimenter bias e. the placebo effect

b. participant demand

what does psychology today encompass?

basic research and applied research

What type of evidence was embraced by structuralists but rejected by behaviorists? a. Reliability b. Reaction time c. Introspection d. Function-based evidence

c. Introspection

John's research team randomly assigned some newborns and their mothers either to a breastfeeding promotion group (where breastfeeding was encouraged, but not required) or to a normal pediatric care group (where breastfeeding was neither encouraged nor discouraged). Which research method did they use? a. Case study b. The correlational method c. Experimentation d. Naturalistic observation

c. experimentation

Bobo doll theory

children who watch adults display aggressive behavior will subsequently act more aggressively

stronger correlations

closest absolute value to 1

which is the best type of study

converge all three

A teacher feels better when wearing bright colors. She hypothesizes that wearing brightly colored clothing can also improve the mood of people around her. She tests this using her students. She wears dull clothing to her morning class of 45 students and brightly colored clothing to her afternoon class of 45 students. She reports that her afternoon class seemed more alert and smiled more. She concludes that wearing bright colors improves other peoples' moods. type of study? can we infer causality? potential 3rd variables? what could we improve?

correlational no time of class, she teaches differently while wearing bright clothes no control, different times of classes, no measurable value

Bill's mom told him that taking vitamin C will cure a cold. The very next time Bill caught a cold he drank three glasses of orange juice every day for 5 days. Orange juice contains vitamin C. At the end of the fifth day, Bill's cold was gone. Bill concluded that vitamin C cures colds. type of study? can we infer causality? potential 3rd variable? what could we do to improve?

correlational study we cannot infer causality taking medicine, the pulp of the juice (other things than vitamin C in the juice) having a control group to isolate one variable, testing on more than 1 person

Luke surveyed 30 undergraduate students and found that the students who ate more servings of fresh fruit per day also reported getting sick for fewer days during the school year. What is the best conclusion to draw from this study? a. Eating more fruit causes students to get sick less often. b. Being sick less often makes students want to eat more fresh fruit. c. An overall focus on healthy living causes students to both eat healthier and get sick less. d. Eating fresh fruit and days being sick are negatively correlated in this population. e. All of these conclusions are equally valid based on this study.

d. Eating fresh fruit and days being sick are negatively correlated in this population.

Dr. Johnson was interested in finding out how to help people do well on exams in an astronomy class. He randomly assigns participants into one of three exam prep groups: 1-additional study and take a practice test, 2-additional study only, or 3- come to the lab and play video games. After participants completed their assigned conditions, they returned to the lab three days later to take a final test. What is the dependent variable? a. The test all participants took before signing up for the experiment to see whether they had prior knowledge about the solar system b. The assigned study technique (study + practice test, study only, or video games) c. The delay between study and test d. The final test e. The control group

d. final test

cross-cultural psychology

draws comparisons about individual and group behaviors across cultures (1980's)

random sampling

every person in the population has an equal chance of being selected

population

everyone in the group the experimenter is interested in

besides changing the single IV, everything else should be ___

exactly the same (control variables "Z" for bobo doll: same room, experimenter, doll)

Good theories must be

falsifiable ex: Darwin's Theory of evolution (finches show these patterns. good example!) ex: Freud's psychoanalytic theory (hard to come up with specific hypothesis about super ego and ego...)

Who developed the world's first personality classification

greek physician Hippocrates

second step in scientific method

hypothesis: prediction based on theory ex: students who eat chocolate before the exam will do better than students who do not should be testable and specific

influence of medicine

in the 1800's localization of brain function was studied using phrenology - phrenology and how traumatic experiences influenced brain

psychology is a relatively ___ science

new - this doesn't mean people weren't studying psychology before it was declared its own field

should we change our answers on a test

no! We just remember when we mess up more strongly

can we say that internet use caused students to do poorly on the exam?

not in this correlational study possible 3rd variables: prior knowledge...

verbatim vs. summary notes

one reason why people who hand writing is better is because it forces summary notes!

demand characteristics

people can act differently when they know they are being studied ex: Hawthorne Effect (what increases productivity? no matter what they manipulated, productivity was always higher than baseline)

If Professor Miller created two groups by assigning the first 30 people to the experimental group and the last 30 to the control group, the process would violate the principle of: a. Variability b. Random assignment c. Generalization d. Correlational research

random assignment

random assignment vs. random sampling

random sampling comes first and refers to picking a sample that is representative of the general population you wish to study. Random assignment is taking the people from random sampling into experimental and control group random sample: who you determine who is in your study to begin with random assignment: which group they go to

Quasi-Experimental Designs

similar to experimental research but there is no random assignment to conditions relies on existing group membership (gender, age groups...) IV is the membership to one of these groups (ex: male or female) more difficult to infer causality ex: burning house example

Albert Bandura

social learning theory - you learn from watching other people - Bobo doll

good hypothesis must be _____ and ___

specific and testable

experimenter bias

the experimenter's expectations influence the outcome of a study - we see what we want to see - in bobo, experimenter knows that child watched aggressive video and so experimenter might view a little shoulder nudge to doll as aggressive when is reality it isn't. experimenter interprets child be more aggressive than is - in slow walking study, experimenter could say last instructions slow or indicate with your body language to suggest slow walking solve- double blind procedure: experimenter is blind to group participant was in and participant doesn't know what group they are in

replication

the process of repeating a study and finding a similar outcome each time - improves hypothesis the more similar outcomes you have

psychology

the scientific study of mind and behavior

Influence of Evolution

the the 1800's, Charles Darwin's "survival of the fittest," suggested that behavior is shaped by natural selection

first step in scientific method

theory: explanation based on observations - more broad than hypothesis ex: chocolate improves cognitive performance should be falsifiable

convenience sample

this sample onsitis of people who are conveniently available for the study

how do we solve/reduce bias?

using the scientific method

placebo effect

when receiving special treatment or something new affect human behavior ex: Q-ray was advertised to get rid of pain because it is ionized when it wouldn't really do anything but people reported their pain was reduced people don't know which group they are in

psychology is W.E.I.R.D.

who we tend to study: - Western - Educated - Industrialized - Rich - Democratic