Psychology Chapter 1

Which of the following statements best describes the rationale for researchers to use a wide array of diverse people in their studies?

Biased generalizations about non-Western societies may be advanced based on limited studies of Western research participants.

Modern theories in Psychology

Biological perspective Psychological perspective Sociocultural perspective

Which of the following specializes in the treatment of psychological and behavioral disturbances or does research on such disturbances?

Clinical psychologist.

Which of the following refers to the subjects in an experimental study who do not receive the treatment being investigated?

Control group

Which of the following refers to a nonexperimental study that quantifies the degree to which events, measures, or variables are associated?

Correlational research.

Two types of processings

Experiential processing reflective processing

Which of the following is an advantage of the survey method of psychological research?

It allows information about large numbers of people to be gathered and can address questions not answered by other approaches.

What is the first step in the scientific method?

Make observations.

Naturalistic observation

Naturalistic observation

Which of the following refers to the tendency of an observer to distort observations to match his or her experiments?

Observer bias.

What are theoretical questions transformed into through operational definitions?

Testable hypotheses.

William James

Theory was functionalism o he included animal behavior, religious experience, abnormal behavior and other interesting topics into psychology

Wilhelm Wundt

Theory- structuralism 1st psychologist o Studied how humans respond to stimuli o Used introspecting to probe observers reactions

Psychodynamic theory:

-any theory of behavior that emphasizes internal conflicts, motives and unconscious forces -§ Criticized for poor testability, male centered, sexist, depend too heavy on clinical cases

Covert Behavior

a response that is internal or hidden from view

n a marketing research study, researchers found a positive correlation between salespeople who wear the color blue and the number of sales a salesperson makes in one day. Based on this information, which of the following statements is most accurate?

alespeople wearing the color blue are associated with a higher volume of sales than those not wearing blue.

Barnum effect:

always have a little something for everyone, example: u can tailor a horoscope reading to fit anyone's needs. Ex. You will meet a great person in your life soon

A condition or factor that may change and is excluded from influencing the outcome of an experiment is called:

an extraneous variable.

The main difference between a theory and a hypothesis is that a theory is:

based on interrelated facts, summarized observations, and suggestions for further research, whereas a hypothesis is based on the predicted outcome of a particular experiment.

Positive reinforcement:

behavior increases because there is an incentive to get something

B.F Skinner

best known behaviorist: · Believed that our actions are controlled by rewards and punishments. o Skinner rejected introspection and did not support use of punishment because it doesn't teach correct responses o Many of his ideas grew out of using rats and pigeons

Causation

cause and effect relationship. Is

Behaviorism

emphasizes the study of observable actions over the study of the mind

Empirical evidence

information gained from direct observation

The main difference between introspection and the cognitive unconscious is that introspection:

is something that we are subjectively aware of, whereas we are subjectively unaware of the cognitive unconscious

An empirical investigation structured to answer questions about the world in a systematic fashion is called

scientific observation.

Max Wertheimer

stood for Gestalt Psychology

Humanistic psychology

study of people as inherently good and motivated to learn and improve - we have free will - maslows heirachy of needs

Theory

system of ideas designed to interrelate concepts and facts in a way that summarizes existing date and predicts future observations

John watson

theory was behaviorism o he studied the relationship between stimuli and responses, he thought environment influenced child's like more than anything

maslow and carl rogers

theory was humanism

reflective processing

thought that is active, effortful

experiential processing

thought that is passive effortless and automatic

Researcher's bias:

to control do double blind study

Reasons ppl belive is pseudo psychology

uncritical acceptance confirmation bias barnum effect

Independent variable

variable that is manipulated by the researcher in an experiment

Scientific method:

· A form of critical thinking based on careful measurement, controlled observation, and repeatable results.

Operant conditioning

· Form of learning in which voluntary responses come to be controlled by their consequences - like all of the reinforcements post, neg, punsihment

Functionalism

· How the mind functions to help us adapt to the environment brought animals into the study of psychology, educational psychology

Critical thinking

· ability to analyze, evaluate, critique, and synthesize information - A type of reflection involving the support of beliefs through scientific explanation and observation

Psychology

· defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

Scientific observation

· empirical investigation structured to answer questions about the world in a systematic and intersubjective fashion (observations can be reliably confirmed by multiple observers)

Edward Titchener

· student of Wundt, brought his ideas to the United States

Gestalt Psychology

· studied thinking, learning and perception as whole units, not by analyzing experiences into parts - we jump to conclusions and fill in gaps

Uncritical acceptance

· tendency to believe claims because they seem true or it would be nice if they were true. Displays a lack of critical thinking.

Confirmation bias

· the tendency to remember or notice things that confirm our expectation and ignore the rest. We believe what we want to believe

Classical conditioning

· type of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus o Dog hearing bell and knowing its food time

Extinction

Behavior decreases because incentive is gone

Non-experimental research methods:

1. Naturalistic observation 2. Correlational method 3. Case study 4. Survey method

Which one of the following statements describes meta-analysis?

A statistical technique for combining the results of many studies on the same subject.

20. Question WorkspaceCheck My WorkAnna and Maurice are both interested in studying the plight of refugees seeking asylum in foreign countries. Anna identifies one family of refugees, consisting of four people, that has immigrated into her region, and she decides to research this family in depth as a case study. Maurice decides that he would like to include as many refugees as possible in his study, and so with the help of a nonprofit organization, he identifies a survey population of 100 refugees, to which he distributes a survey questionnaire about their experiences. Based on this information, which of the following statements best describes the scientific viability of these two research studies?

Anna's study and Maurice's study are both scientifically viable by research design, albeit the methodologies are different and the research data will be different in kind. The scientific viability will depend upon how the research data is interpreted and upon what conclusions are drawn.

Overt behavior

Any directly observable action or response

Variable

Any factor that is manipulated in research

Jane is a university student who is often criticized or made fun of because she prefers to take notes in class using a pencil and a pad of paper instead of a laptop computer or another digital device. Jane decides to conduct a research study to determine if there is a relation between paper and pencil use to take class notes and high grades. She distributes a survey questionnaire to a random sampling of university students. After compiling her data, Jane finds that there is a +0.85 correlation between paper and pencil use and high grades. Based on this information, which of the following statements most accurately describes Jane's research study results?

Paper and pencil use is associated with high grades.

What is introspection?

Personal observation of one's own thoughts, feelings, and behavior

Maslow hierarchy of needs:

Physiological -----> Safety -----> Belonging and love -----> Self esteem -----> Self actualization

Which of the following is a mental health professional (usually a medical doctor) trained to practice the perspective initially developed by Freud?

Psychoanalyst

Sigmund Freud

Psychoanalytic psychology - o Believed the behavior is influenced by unconscious wishes, thoughts and desires

Edwina conducts an experiment in order to determine whether taking public transportation is faster or slower than driving her car for her commute to and from her job. For one month, she drives to work and carefully records exactly how much time it takes to get from her home to her place of employment. She also records the amount of time it takes to get home from her place of employment. The following month, Edwina takes public transportation and also carefully records exactly how much time it takes to get from her home to her job and from her job back home. At the end of two months, she calculates the average time for each direction and for each method of transport. To her surprise, Edwina observes that the two methods, public transportation and driving, take exactly the same amount of time for each direction, both from home to work and from work to home. In this scenario, which component of Edwina's experiment is the independent variable, and which component of Edwina's experiment is the dependent variable?

The independent variable is the mode of transport, either public transportation or driving her car; the dependent variable is the amount of time for her commute, in either direction.

Professor Anderson designs a research study to investigate how religious tolerance might be correlated with socioeconomic status in the United States. Professor Anderson uses a survey method with a broadly representative group of subjects from across many different social demographic domains. Based on her research findings, Professor Anderson concludes that one particular socioeconomic group is significantly more tolerant of religious difference and another is significantly less tolerant of religious difference. Based on the information in this scenario, you can reasonably infer that Professor Anderson uses which psychological perspective?

The sociocultural perspective.

Basic principles of critical thinking

o 1) Few truths transcend the need for logical analysis and empirical testing § Meaning, most truths should be evaluated by using science and the scientific method o 2) Authority or claimed expertise does not automatically make an idea try or false o 3) Judging the quality of the evidence is crucial o 4) Critical thinking requires an open mind o 5) Critical thinkers often wonder what it would take to show that a "truth" is false

· 6 steps of the scientific method:

o 1) Make observation o 2) Define the problem o 3) Propose a hypothesis o 4) Gather evidence/test hypothesis o 5) Build theory o 6) Publish results

Dependent variable

o : element of an experiement that measures the effects of the independent variable

Self-fulfilling prophecy

o : prediction hat prompts ppl to act in ways that make their prediction come true

Sociocultural perspective

o Behavior is influenced by ones social and cultural context

Psychological perspective

o Behavior is result of psychological processes within a person

Biological perspective

o Behavior is the result of internal physical, chemical, and biological processes o Behavior is the result of evolution

How to perform an experiment

o Directly vary a condition that you think might affect behavior o Create two or more groups of participants, groups should be the same except for the condition you are varying o Record if the varying condition affects behavior

phrenology

o Founded by Franz Gall

o Case study

o In depth analysis of the behavior of one person or small group

Punishment

o behavior decreases to avoid pain

Negative reinforcement

o behavior increases because there is an incentive to get away from something, ex: procrastination

Research participant bias:

o changes in participants behavior due do their expectations - to control do blind study

Extraneous variable

o condition that researches want to prevent from effecting outcome of experiment

Frame of reference

o mental perspective used to interpret events

Self-image:

o perception of our own self

Correlation research:

o refers to any nonexperimental study that quantifies the degree to which events measures or variables are associated § Degree of correlation can be expressed as a correlation coefficient. Number falls between +1.00 and -1.00

Structuralism

o study of sensations and personal experience analyzed as basic elements, analyze the structure of mental life into basic elements or building blocks o Using introspection

2 types of behavior

overt covert

Cognitive unconscious

part of the mind that we are unaware of and it is NOT open to introspection

Self-evaluating:

positive or negative feelings toward own self