Quiz 1 Review

Assimilation

Involves incorporating new experiences into our current understanding (schema)

Continuity/Stages

Is development a gradual, continuous process or a sequence of separate stages?

Prenatal Development

A zygote is a fertilized egg with 100 cells that become increasingly diverse. At about 14 days the zygote turns into an embryo (a and b). At 9 weeks, an embryo turns into a fetus (c and d). Teratogens are chemicals or viruses that can enter the placenta and harm the developing fetus.

Formal Operaptional

About 12 through adulthood Abstract reasoning Abstract logical Potential for mature moral reasoning

Concrete Operational

About 7 to 11 years Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing aritmetical operations Conservation Mathematical transformations

Scientific Method

1. Forming a testable hypothesis 2. Devise a study and collect data 3. Examine data and reach conclusions 4. Report the findings of the study

Preoperational

2 to about 6 or 7 years Representing things with words and images; use intuitive rather than logical reasoning Pretend play Egocentrism Language development

Scientific Attitude

A composite of number of mental habits, or of tendencies to react consistently in certain ways to a novel or problematic situation. Include accuracy, intellectual honesty, open-mindedness, suspended judgement, criticalness, and a habit of looking for true cause and effect relationships. A cognitive concept; scientific attitudes are normally associated with the mental processes of scientists.

Survey

A data collection tool used to gather information about individuals. Commonly used in psychology research to collect self-report data from study participants Focus on factual information about individuals or it might aim to collect the opinions of the survey takers Can be administered in a couple of different ways In one method known as a structured interview, the researcher asks each participant the questions.

Variable

A factor or element that can change in observable and measurable ways.

Operational Definition

A full description of exactly how variables are defined, how they will be manipulated, and how they will be measured

Null Hypothesis

A hypothesis that the experimental treatment will have no effect on the participants or dependent variables. It is important to note that failing to find an effect of the treatment does not mean that there is no effect. The treatment might impact another variable that the researchers are not measuring in the current experiment.

Correlation

A relationship between two, or more, variables. For example, in the case of the marijuana post, the researchers found an association between using marijuana as a teen, and having more troublesome relationships in mid, to late, twenties.

Conception

A single sperm cell (male) penetrates the outer coating of the egg (female) and fuses to form one fertilized cell.

Rehabilitation Psychology

A specialty area within professional psychology which assists the individual with an injury or illness which may be chronic, traumatic, and/or congenital, including the family, in achieving optimal physical, psychological and interpersonal functioning. The focus is on the provision of services consistent with the level of impairment, disability and handicap relative to the personal preferences, needs and resources of the individual with a disability. Consistently involves interdisciplinary teamwork as a condition of practice and services within a network of biological, psychological, social, environmental and political considerations in order to achieve optimal goals.

Experimental Hypothesis

A statement that predicts that the treatment will cause an effect. Will always be phrased as a cause-and-effect statement

Hypothesis

An educated guess about the possible relationship between two or more variables.

Variable

Anything that can vary, i.e. changed or be changed, such as memory, attention, time taken to perform a task, etc.

Developing Brain

At birth, most brain cells are present. After birth, the neural networks multiply resulting in increased physical and mental abilities.

Sensorimotor Stage

Babies take in the world by looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping. Children younger than 6 months of age do not grasp object permanence, i.e., objects that are out of sight are also out of mind. Children could not think - they do not have any abstract concepts or ideas. Recent research shows that children can think and count.

Having Free Will

Being able to make a conscious decision

Sensorimotor

Birth to nearly 2 years Experiencing the world through senses and actions (looking, touching, mouthing, and grasping) Object permanence Stranger anxiety

Positive Correlation

Both variables increase or decrease at the same time. A correlation coefficient close to +1.00 indicates a strong positive correlation.

Egocentrism

Cannot perceive things from another's point of view.

Overconfidence

Causes people to overestimate their knowledge, underestimate risks, and exaggerate their ability to control events Can be particularly damaging in organizations when individuals have such strong beliefs in their own ability that they take risks that aren't supported by the evidence. Tend not to listen terribly well constructive feedback about their failings or mistakes, with the result that they may not learn about their errors.

Causation

Changes in one variable they measured DIRECTLY caused changes in the other. An example would be research showing that jumping of a cliff directly causes great physical damage.

Insecure Attachment

Children cling to their mothers or caregivers are are less likely to explore the environment

Secure Attachment

Children explore their environment happily in the presence of their mothers. When their mother leave, they show distress.

Community Psychology

Concerned with how individuals relate to society. Synthesizing elements from other disciplines including sociology, political science, public health, cross-cultural psychology and social psychology. Look at the cultural, economic, social, political and environmental that shape and influence the lives of people all over the globe.

Psychometric and Quantitative Psychology

Concerned with the design and analysis of research and the measurement of human characteristics. Been the genesis of intelligence testing, personality testing, and vocational testing, and has contributed to the emergence of new approaches and methods to psychological measurement based on the demands of society and the emergence of new technology.

Industrial Organizational I/O

Concerned with the scientific structuring of organizations and of work to improve the productivity and quality of life of people at work. Very much want to produce solutions to problems in the workplace, but also usually want to develop a fuller understanding of life at work to produce a solid scientific knowledge base. Like being in an environment that has problems that need to be solved, but they also like to discover and collect scientific facts about work and organizational settings that they can apply to problems yet to be faced.

Development Psycholgoist

Conduct research in age related behavioral changes and apply their scientific knowledge to educational, childcare, policy and related settings

Forms of Consciousness: Some occur spontaneously

Daydreaming, Drowsiness, Dreaming

Range

Describes the spread of scores in a distribution. Calculated by subtracting the lowest from the highest score in the distribution.

Clinical Psychologist

Diagnoses and treats patients with psychological problems, and also trains, teaches, and conducts research in a hospital, clinic, school or office

Stability/Change

Do our early personality traits persist through life, or do we become different persons as we age.

Motor Development

First, infants begin to roll over. Next, they sit unsupported, crawl, and finally walk. Experience has little effect on this sequence.

Counseling Psychologist

Focuses on a wide variety of mental health issues. Mainly deal with clients suffering from depression, anxiety, family or social problems, or vocational problems. Also trained to treat mental problems that would be considered more severe such as schizophrenia. Focus on wellness and strengths of individuals rather than mental deficiencies. Set themselves apart from clinical psychologists because they stress preventative care with individuals and communities. Focus on treating the problems and or symptoms, want to prevent the problems from occurring in the first place.

Concrete Operational Stage

Grasp conservation problems and mentally pour liquids back and forth into glasses of different shapes conserving into quantities.

Forms of Consciousness: Some are physiologically induced

Hallucinations, Orgams, Food or oxygen starvation

Nature/Nuture

How do genetic inheritance (our nature) and experience (the nurture we receive) influence our behavior?

Development Psychologist

Interested in changes in behavior that come with age. Want to know how and also why people are different at different times of their lives in the ways that they behave, in their feelings, and in their relationships to other people. For example observes a study addressing how children of different ages perform on a particular test. Would be concerned with the differences between the age groups, why they performed differently, what developmental issues may be the causal factors in the differences, etc.

Normal Curve

If enough measures are taken of a variable and plotted as a frequency polygon, the result is a normal curve or normal distribution. The curve is symmetrical and the mean, median, and mode fall at the highest point on the curve.

Choice Blindness

In one experiment, people chose their favorite among two jams. But when the jar's contents were deceptively reversed and tasted again, people described the same jar's contents as their chosen jam.

Accuracy

In order to get at or closer to the truth, critical thinkers seek accurate and adequate information.

No Correlation

Indicates no relationship between the two variables. A correlation coefficient of 0 indicates no correlation.

Negative Correlation

Indicates that as the amount of one variable increases, the other decreases (and vice versa). A correlation coefficient close to -1.00 indicates a strong negative correlation.

Competent Newborn

Infants are born with reflexes that aid in survival, including rooting reflex which helps them locate food. Offspring cries are important signals for parents to provide nourishment. In animals and humans such cries are quickly attended to and relieved.

Physical Development

Infants' psychological development depends on their biological development. To understand the emergence of motor skills and memory, we must understand the developing brain.

Neuropsychologist

Investigate the relationship between neurological process (structure and function of the brain) and behavior

Mentally Tough

Likely to Achieve relatively consistent performances regardless of situational factors; Retain a confident, positive, optimistic outlook, even when things are not going well, and not 'choke' under pressure Deal with distractions without letting them interfere with optimal focus Tolerate pain and discomfort Remain persistent when the "going gets tough" Have the resilience to bounce back from disappointments

Relevance

Means that the information and ideas discussed must be logically relevant to the issue being discussed.

Variance

Measure of variation from the mean of the squared deviation scores about the means of a distribution

Schemas

Mental molds into which we pour our experiences

Sports Psychology

Mental strength is not going to compensate for a lack of skill, but in close contests it can make the difference between winning and losing.

Community Psychologist

Move beyond focusing on specific individuals or families and deal with broad problems of mental health in community settings.

Infancy

Newborn to toddler

Consistency

Our beliefs should be consistent. We shouldn't hold beliefs that are contradictory.

Selective Attention

Our brain is able to choose a focus and select what to notice

Unconscious "Low" Track

Our minds perform automatic actions, often without being aware of them Examples: walking, acquiring, phobias, processing sensory details into perceptions and memories

Conscious "High" Track

Our minds take deliberate actions we know we are doing Examples: problem solving, naming an object, defining a word

Permissive

Parent submit to children's demands.

Authoritative

Parents are demanding but responsive to their children.

Authoritarian

Parents impose rules and expect obedience.

Cognitive Development

Piaget believed that the driving force behind intellectual development is our biological development admist experience and the environment. Our cognitive is shaped by the errors we make.

Clinical Psychologist

Promote psychological health in individuals, groups, and organizations

Formal Operational Stage

Reasoning ability expands from concrete thinking to abstract thinking. We can now use symbols and imagined realities to systematically reason.

Naturalistic Observation

Refers to the collection of data without manipulation of the environment. Study the behavior of an organism (including a human) in natural settings This technique is great because the experts can see the subject's behavior in their own natural settings, but one major disadvantage is the fact that it is not always crystal clear what causes certain reactios when you are dealing with so many variables

Experimental Psychologist

Refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to the study of behavior and the processes that underlie it. Employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, including, among others sensation & perception, memory, cognition, learning, motivation, emotion; developmental processes, social psychology, and the neural substrates of all of these.

Hindsight Bias

Reflects a tendency to overestimate your own ability to have predicted or foreseen an event after learning about the outcome. I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon

Forms are Consciousness: Some are psychologically induced

Sensory deprivation, Hypnosis, Mediation

Cognitive Psychology

Studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn. Related to other disciplines including neuroscience, philosophy and linguistics. How people acquire, process and store information. Numerous practical applications for cognitive research, such as improving memory, increasing decision-making accuracy and structuring educational curricula to enhance learning.

Neuralpsychologist

Studies the structure and function of the brain as they relate to specific psychological processes and behaviors. Seen as a clinical and experimental field of psychology that aims to study, assess, understand and treat behaviors directly related to brain functioning. Can be seen in hospitals and psychiatric wards/hospitals.

School Psychology

Study the mind, thought processes, and behaviors of school aged children and young adults. Trained to provide diagnostic assessments, counseling for children and their families, evaluation of programs, behavior intervention, crisis intervention and counseling

Sports Psychologist

Study the psychological factors that influence, and are influenced by participation in sports and other physical activities

Industrial Organizational Psychologist

Study the relationship between people and their working environments

Cognitive Psychologist

Study through process and focus on topics such as perception, language, attention, problem solving, judgement and decision making, intelligence.

Self Awareness

The ability to think about self

Forensic Psychology

The application of the science and profession of psychology to questions and issues relating to law and the legal system. A specialized branch that deals with issues that connect psychology and the law.

Maturation

The development of the brain unfolds based on genetic instructions, causing various bodily and mental functions to occur in sequence- standing before walking, babbling before talking - this is called maturation

Maturation and Infant Memory

The earliest age of conscious memory is around 3 1/2 years. A 5-year-old has a sense of self and an increased long-term memory, thus organization of memory is different from 3-4 years.

Stranger Anxiety

The fear of strangers that develops at around 8 months. Age at which infants from schemas for familiar faces cannot assimilate a new face.

Accommodation

The process of adjusting a schema and modifying it

Standard Deviation

The square root of the variance.

Educational Psychologist

The study of how people learn, including topics such as student outcomes, the instructional process, individual differences in learning, gifted learners and learning disabilities. Involves not just the learning process of early childhood and adolescence, but includes the social, emotional and cognitive processes that are involved in learning throughout the entire lifespan. Incorporates a number of other disciplines, including developmental psychology, behavioral psychology and cognitive psychology.

Childhood

Toddler to teenager

Preoperational Stage

Too young to perform mental operations.

Change Blindness

Two thirds of people didn't notice when the person they were giving directions to was replaced by a similar looking person.

Health Psychologist

Understand the way people engage with their health; ie. how social, cognitive, and physical factors interlink to make people act in a certain way. Concerned largely with health behavior and health behavior change; how can we understand how people approach their health, and how do they change? Look at a whole range of health conditions and investigate the psychology behind dealing with this. Examples: Diabetes: how to get people to manage their insulin better/ modify their diet Sexual Health: Getting people to be more willing to be screened/use condoms Pain: Techniques to manage chronic pain

Correlation

Used to look for relationships between variables. There are three possible results of a correlational study: a positive correlation, a negative correlation, and no correlation. The correlation coefficient is a measure of correlation strength and can range from -1.00 to +1.00

Independent Variable

Variable the experimenter manipulates (i.e. changes) - assumed to have a direct effect on the dependent variable

Dependent Variable

Variable the experimenter measures, after making changes to the IV that are assumed to affect the DV.

Inattentional Blindness

Various experiments show that when our attention is focused, we miss seeing what others may think is obvious to see Some "magic" tricks take advantage of this phenomenon

Cocktail Party Effect

We can focus our mental spotlight on a conversation even when other conversations are going around us. The bad news: We can hyperfocus on a conversation while driving a car, putting the driver and passengers at risk

Clarity

We must be clear in how we communicate our thoughts, beliefs, and reasons for those beliefs.

Selective Inattention

What are we not focused on, what we do not notice; Refers to our failure to notice part of our environment when our attention is directed elsewhere

Precision

What is the problem at issue? What are the possible answers? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each answer?

Psychometricians

Worked collaboratively with those in the field of statistics and quantitative methods to develop improved ways to organize and analyze data.

Visual Perception Track

the "high road" or conscious track

Visual Action Track

the "low road" or unconscious, automatic track