Psyche 1 Chapter 1

Scientific method: a key theme in the scientific method is that knowledge comes from empirical research. It is the use of the scientific method that makes psychology a science.

1) Observing some phenomenon, this phenomena is called a variable and often developing theories. 2) Formulating hypotheses and predictions 3) Testing through empirical research 4) Drawing conclusions 5) Evaluating conclusions; this never ends for every result is always up for review.

Drawbacks of research

1) it is almost impossible to conduct research in the lab without the participants knowing they are being studied 2) the lab setting is not realistic and therefore can cause unnatural or atypical behavior 3) people who are willing to go into a lab are not necessarily representative of diverse group backgrounds

Natural selection

Darwin's principle of an evolutionary process in which organisms are best adapted to their environment will survive and reproduce. It is the process by which the environment determines who wins the competition (for scarce resources). Organisms with biological features that led to survival and reproduction would be better represented with biological features that are inherited in subsequent generations.

Psychoanalysis

Freud's therapeutic technique involving unlocking a person's unconscious conflicts by discussing childhood memories, thoughts, and feelings.

Functionalism

James' approach to mental processes, emphasizing the functions and purposes of the mind and behavior in the individual's adaption to the environment.

"Stream of consciousness"

James' theory that the mind is flexible and is constantly changing in response to a continuous flow of info from the world.

Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)

The founding father of the psychodynamic approach. He theorized that early relationships with parents shape an individual's personality (1917).

Culture in regards to the sociocultural approach

The shared knowledge, practices and attitudes of people and can include language, customs, & beliefs about what behavior is appropriate.

Structuralism

Wundt and his collaborators concentrated on discovering the basic elements, or "structures of mental processes. It focuses on identifying the structures of the human mind. Person was placed in a lab and was asked to introspect about what was going on mentally as various events took place. The "what" of the mind.

Theory

a broad idea or set of closely related ideas that attempts to explain observations. They seek to explain why certain things are as they are or why things have happened, and they can be used to make predictions about future observations. It must falsifiable, meaning that even a scientist who believes it to be true, must be able to generate ideas about research that would prove the theory wrong or test it.

Experiment

a carefully regulated procedure in which the researcher manipulates on or more variables that are believed to influence some other variable. It has two types of variables: independent and dependent.

Why is human thought adaptive?

a central question of functionalism, it concerns how an adaption makes an organism better able to survive. Why are people better off because they can think than they would be otherwise?

Operational definition

a definition that provides an objective description of how a variable to going to be measured and observed in a particular study. This occurs in the third step. This allows the population to be sure that everyone agrees on what a variable means. An objective description of how a research variable is going to be measured and observed.

Data analysis

a key aspect of the 3rd step and involves applying mathematical procedures to understand what the numerical data collected means.

Confederate

a person who is given a role to play in a study so the social context can be manipulated

Random sample

a sample that gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected

Longitudinal design

a special kind of systematic observation, used by correlational researchers, that involves obtaining measures of the variables of interest in multiple waves over time.

Hypothesis

a testable prediction that derives logically from a theory. In science, it is the other way around.

Explain

after analyzing the data, they might be interested in changing behavior such as by devising strategies to increase or decrease such instances.

Case Study

also called a case history, an in-depth look at a single individual, family, or social group. They are performed mainly by clinical psychologists when, for either practical or ethical reasons, the unique aspects of an individual's life cannot be duplicated and tested in other individuals. It provides info on one person's goals, hopes, fantasies, fears, traumatic experiences, family relationships, health or anything relating to that person's mind and behavior.

The humanistic approach

an approach emphasizing the person's positive qualities, the capacity of positive growth and the freedom to choose one's destiny. Humanistic psychologists stress that people have the ability to control their lives and are not simply controlled by the environment. They theorize that rather than being driven by unconscious impulses (such as the psychodynamic approach) or by extern rewards (such as the behavioral approach), people can choose to live by higher human values such as altruism and free-will.

Double-blind experiment

an experimental design in which neither the experimenter nor the participants are aware of which participants are in the experimental group and which are in the control group until the results are calculated

Demand characteristics

any aspects of a study that communicate to the participants how the experimenter wants them to behave

John B. Watson (1878-1958) & B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)

behaviorists who spread behaviorism until it dominated the psychological research during the first ½ of the 20th century

7 approaches to psychology

biological, behavioral, psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive, evolutionary, and sociocultural.

Quasi-experimental

cases where it is not ethical to do the research in any other way, ex/ cigarette smoking and expectant mothers

Skeptical

challenging whether a supposed fact is really true

Scientific approach has four attitudes

critical thinking, curiosity, skepticism, and objectivity.

Goals of psychological science

describe, predict, and explain behavior. Oftentimes they are interested in controlling or changing behavior.

The three types of psychological research

descriptive, correlational, and experimental. All types of research can be used to address the same research topic.

Neuroscientists believe that thoughts and emotions have a physical basis in the brain

electrical impulses zoom throughout the brain's cells and release chemical substances than enable us to think, feel, and behave.

Behavior

everything we do that can be directly observed

Predict

examining characteristics of the individuals studied, the data is analyzed.

Myths

explanation of why things are the way they are. It gradually gave way to philosophy.

Descriptive Research

finding out about the basic dimensions of some variable, ex. the average level of happiness among men. Determining a phenomenon's basic dimensions and defining what it is and how often but it cannot prove how it occurs, but I can reveal important information about people's behaviors and attitudes. For observations to be effective, they must be systematic. Surveys and interviewing are considered a type of research in psychology. This approach allows a sense of something but cannot answer questions about how and why things are the way they are.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

founder of the first psychology lab in 1879 at the University of Lepzig in Germany. There, the experiment to measure the time lag between the instant a person heard and sound and when the person pressed a telegraph key to signal that he had heard it. He was trying to measure the time it took the human brain and nervous system to translate info into action. He is considered the founding father of modern psychology.

Empirical method

gaining knowledge through the observation of events, the collection of data, and logical reasoning. Says, when answering a question, the objective thinking requires sound evidence before drawing conclusions.

Duchenne Smile

genuine smiling - creates wrinkles on the corner of the eye.

Reliable

if a particular research finding is demonstrated repeatedly across different researchers and different methods, it is a dependable result.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

in 1859, he published the On the Origin of Species and proposed the principle of natural selection.

Research participant bias

in an experiment the influence of participants' expectations, and of their thoughts about hwo they should behave on, on their behavior

Narcissism

intense, unhealthy self-love, a quality numerous in Generation Me, studied and concluded by Jean Twenge.

Independent variable

is a manipulated experimental factor, the variable that the experimenter changes to see what its effects are

Zero correlation

no systematic relationship between the variables, ex. scatter plot; Correlation does not equal causation

Describe

observations by counting how many times something occurs in particular circumstances.

Naturalistic Observation

observing behavior in a real-world setting

Self-determination theory

people are likely to feel fulfilled when their lives meet three important needs: relatedness (good and well sustained rapports), autonomy (independence), and competence (understanding and mastering new skills).

Quasi experimental design

quasi (as if), this experimental approach does not include random assignments of participants to condition because such assignment is either impossible or unethical.

Random assignment

researchers' assignment of participants to groups by chance, to reduce the likelihood that an experiment's results will be due to preexisting differences between groups.

Longitudinal research

suggests potential causal relationships because if one variable is thought to causes changes in another, it should at least come before that variable in time.

Science

systematic methods to observe human behavior and draw conclusions

The evolutionary approach

the approach centered on evolutionary ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors. David Buss argues that just as evolution molds our physical features, it also influences our decision making, level of aggressiveness, fears, and mating patterns. Some arguments against however, describe how the evolutionary approach provides an inaccurate explanation of why men & women have different social roles and does not adequately account for cultural diversity and experiences.

The cognitive approach

the approach emphasizing the mental processes involved in knowing: how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think and solve problems. For example, how we solve math problems & why we remember some things for only a short time.

The psychodynamic approach

the approach emphasizing unconscious thought, the conflict between biological drives (such as the sex drive) and society's demands, and early childhood experiences. Such practitioners believe that sexual and aggressive impulses buried deep within the unconscious mind influence the way people think, feel, & behave.

The biological approach

the approach to psychology that focuses on the body, especially the brain and nervous system. The largest contribution to physiological psychology has come through the emergence of neuroscience.

The behavioral approach

the behavioral approach emphasizes the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their environmental determinants.

Third variable problem/confounds

the circumstance where a variable that has not been measured accounts for the relationship between two other variables.

Experimental research

the concern for establishing casual relationships between variables, ex. if we make men smile, do women perceive them as more attractive?

Counterintuitive

the contradiction of our intuitive impressions of how the world works

Correlational coefficient

the degree of relationship between two variables as expressed as a numerical value, most commonly represented by the letter "R" - tells us two things about the relationship; its strength and its direction. The value of a correlation always falls between -1.00 and +1.00

External validity

the degree to which an experimental design actually reflects the real-world issues it is supposed to address

Internal validity

the degree to which changes in the dependent variables due to the manipulation of the independent variable

Correlational Study

the discovery of relationships between variables & examine whether and how two variables change together. The key feature is that the variables of interest are measured or observed to see how they relate

Cognition

the early behaviorists' rejection of thought processes

Population

the entire group about which the investigator wants to draw conclusions

The sociocultural approach

the examination of the influences of social and cultural environments on our behavior. It often includes cross-cultural research.

Experimenter Bias

the influence of the experimenter's expectations on the outcome of the research

William James (1842-1910)

the key question for psychology is not so much what the mind is (that is, its structures), as what it is for (its purpose or function). His approach was called functionalism

Introspection

the method used in the study of mental structures where a person thought what was going on mentally as various events took place

Strength of the relationship

the number of magnitude of the correlation, the closer the number is to +/= 1.00, the stronger it is.

Dependent variable

the outcome, the factor that can change in an experiment in response to changes in the independent variable

Experimental group

the participants in an experiment who receive the drug or other treatment under study, that is, those who are exposed to the change that the independent variable represents

Control group

the participants who are much like the experimental group as possible who are treated similarly in every way except for a manipulated factor, the independent variable.

Survey

the presentation of a standard set of questions or items, to obtain people's self-reported opinions on a particular topic. They can only measure what people think themselves. Survey research is not the preferred method for studying socially undesirable phenomena such as holding racist attitudes.

Critical thinking

the process of thinking deeply and actively, asking questions and evaluating the evidence. They test what some people say are facts and examine research to how soundly it acts as support. It reduces the likelihood that conclusions will be based on unreliable personal beliefs, opinions and emotions.

Philosophy

the rational investigation of the underlying principles of being and knowledge. Western philosophy came of age in ancient Greece in the 4th and 5th centuries B.C.E. where people such as Socrates and Aristotle, and gradually, psychology grew out of the tradition of thinking about the mind and body. Psychology also has roots in the natural sciences of biology and physiology.

Cross-culture in regards to the sociocultural approach

the research that compares individuals in various cultures to see how they differ on important psychological attributes.

Psychology

the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

Neuroscience

the scientific study of the structure, function, development, genetics, and biochemistry of the nervous system, emphasizing that the brain and nervous system are central to understanding, behavior, thought, and emotion.

Direction of the relationship

the sign (+ or -), the positive sign means that as one variable increases the other also increases.

Placebo effect

the situation where participants' expectations, rather than the experimental treatment, produce an experimental outcome

Validity

the soundness of the conclusions that a researcher draws from an experiment

Sample

the subset of the population chosen by the investigator for study is a sample

Mental processes

the thoughts, feelings and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be observed directly.

Clinical psychologists

they specialize in studying and treating psychological disorders.

Experience sampling method (ESM)

to study people in their natural settings

Objective

trying to see things as they really are, not just as the observer would like them to be. To gather objective evidence, scientists rely on empirical methods.

Altruism

unselfish concern for other people's wellbeing.

Curiosity

wants to know what something is and why it is that way.

Variable

Anything that can change