QUIZ 1

correlation

A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.

Distinguish between basic research and applied research.

Basic research is used to find out something new, it is more of a broad topic whereas applied research is done in order to solve something. Basic research is done for the sake of learning more and applied research is done for a purpose

Based on your own experience or on things you have already learned about psychology, list two basic research questions and three applied research questions of interest to you.

Basic: 1. What kinds of pain signals are processed in the spinal cord rather than in the brain? 2. How many participants in a study is considered to be enough but not too many? Applied: 1. What types of medication work best to alleviate symptoms of anxiety? 2. How does the use of technology in schools effect the retention of material in students?

Negative correlation

as x increases y decreases

People sometimes suggest that psychology cannot be a science because either (a) human behavior cannot be predicted with perfect accuracy or (b) much of its subject matter (e.g., thoughts and feelings) cannot be observed directly. Do you agree or disagree with each of these ideas? Why?

I disagree with both ideas. I feel that psychology, just like most other science, has some common themes with can be considered rules. Behavior can't be predicted with perfect accuracy, but I feel that in general it can be predicted pretty well based on previous behaviors and the personality of the individual. I also believe that today, we do have the technology to observe thoughts and feelings enough to study them well and with enough accuracy. Psychology also technically hits all of the briefs required in order to be considered a science.

Consider the following psychological claim. "People's choice of spouse is strongly influenced by their perception of their own parents. Some choose a spouse who is similar in some way to one of their parents. Others choose a spouse who is different from one of their parents." Is this claim falsifiable? If not, how could it be changed so that it is?

No this is not a falsifiable claim. This claim covers all possible occurrences. Either way, if an individual chooses someone like their parents of different to their parents, the claim will be correct. To make this claim correct and falsifiable, it would need to be broken up into two studies. One study could be how people pick spouses like their parents based on perception, and the other study could follow how people choose spouses different from their parents based on their perception.

Define pseudoscience and give some examples.

Pseudoscience is what occurs when a study or idea lacks one or more of the key features of a science. It may at first looks legitimate but after digging deeper into the claims it should be very apparent that there are some important features missing. For example, phenology at one point seemed very plausible but today, after actual research, it has been found to be a pseudoscience and has no backing behind it.

Explain why psychology is a science.

Psychology is a science because it contains all three features of a science. There are empirical questions which can be studied and answered via observations which can then be put into concise written word for others to read and learn from. Psychology helps us gain a better understanding of the world and other people around us.

Milgram Obedience Studies

-inspired by WWII Nazi Germany -took place at Yale with 40 males between the ages of 20 and 50 - teacher and "learner" -shock generator for each error -65% of participants went to max voltage -unethical- there was an element of extreme stress during the experiment for the participants

List 5 variables that might be of interest to a researcher in psychology. For each, specify whether it is quantitative or categorical.

1. Height- quantitative 2. Age- quantitative 3. Race- categorical 4. Gender- categorical 5. Occupation- categorical

PHS Syphilis Study

1932 found a poor group of black men in Tuscaloosa told them they would be treated even though the focus of the study was to see how the disease progressed without treatment ended in 1972

Describe a general model of scientific research in psychology.

A general model of scientific research in psychology would start off with a question. A study would then be designed in order to investigate this question, and then the researchers would look at all of the data they collected and draw conclusions based on their observations.

Explain the difference between a population and a sample.

A population is a large group that researchers will make inferences about based on research. These inferences will be made based upon data gathered from a smaller population, also known a sample. A sample is a small group that is representative of the larger population.

Define the concept of a variable, distinguish quantitative from categorical variables, and give examples of variables that might be of interest to psychologists.

A variable is a quality or quantity that can be different among individuals of a group. There are different types of variables. One type is the quantitative variable, which is measured by assigning a number value to it. For example, researchers might be measuring the height of individuals in their study. Another type of variable is categorical which can be measured by assigning a label, for example, sex, job, or hair color.

For each of the following statistical relationships, decide whether the directionality problem is present and think of at least one plausible third variable: A. People who eat more lobster tend to live longer. B. People who exercise more tend to weigh less. C. College students who drink more alcohol tend to have poorer grades.

A. There is a directionality problem in this scenario, perhaps the people are living longer because they have more money for medical treatments which is also why they can afford to eat lobster often. B. There is directionality problem here. Exercise really has no baring on weight. A third variable here could be the individual's metabolism. Some people can eat whatever they want and never work out and be very thin while others can follow a strict diet and workout regularly and will still struggle with their weight. C. There is a directionality problem. Priorities of the student may play a role here. Some people can drink frequently and maintain good grades while others can not drink at all and still fall behind. The nondrinking student may have other distractions which affect their school more than drinking does.

Define the concept of an empirically supported treatment and give an example.

An empirically supported treatment is a drug which has been tested scientifically and has been proven to have more of an impact then no drug, a placebo, or a different medication. All of this is done through observations and data collection. An example of this provided in the text is exposure therapy for certain phobias. This type of treatment was found to be helpful to individuals suffering from specific phobias and was more beneficial to them then having no intervention at all.

Explain why correlation does not imply causation.

Correlation does not imply causation because there could be an underlying cause which would make two variables look related. For example, during the summer ice cream sales increase and so do drownings, but this does not mean that ice cream causes children to drown. There is a cofounding variable in this scenario and that is the summertime heat. Ice cream sales go up because people want to stay cool and drownings also increase because there are more people swimming during the summer than any other time of year.

Give several examples of common sense of folk psychology that are incorrect.

One common example of folk psychology is that people believe that you would not admit to a crime you didn't do unless you were tortured. Another example is people believe that anger can be relieved by letting it out by screaming or hitting something. Another common example of this is that many people believe that people act crazy or act out when there is a full moon.

Define operational definition

Operational definition is defining a variable exactly. The variable being measured will be precisely laid out in words how it will be measured so that all participants are measured in the same way. This reduces interpretation of criteria in researcher.

Stanford Prison Experiment

Philip Zimbardo's study of the effect of roles on behavior. Participants were randomly assigned to play either prisoners or guards in a mock prison. The study was ended early because of the "guards'" role-induced cruelty.

Explain how science is relevant to clinical practice.

Science is relevant to clinical practice because it is pretty much the same thing. A clinical psychologist testing a new drug would first start off with an empirical question—what does this drug do and who would it benefit? Then, they would conduct research by testing the drug along side a placebo on many different people and see of it is beneficial. If the drug is found to be successful, it is then called the empirically supported treatment because there is systemic empiricism backing it up. Finally, after approval, the drug will go into the public knowledge stage of science research and be published as a successful treatment for whatever disorder it was studied to be used for.

Define skepticism and its role in scientific psychology.

Skepticism is believing something could possibly not be true until definitively proved otherwise. This is useful in research because if you go into a study thinking you know what the results will be it can cause a bias and may cause the data to be interfered wrongly in favor of whatever belief you may hold.

For each of the following intuitive beliefs about human behavior, list three reasons that it might be true and three reasons that it might not be true: Studying is most effective when it is always done in the same location.

Studying in the same place may be effective if the room is quiet and allows you to focus all of your attention on the material. Studying in the same place may be effective if studying is done for reasonable periods of time with rest breaks in between. Studying in the same place may not be effective if the place is loud and distracting. Studying in the same place may not be effective if the individual only studies for a few minutes before the test.

Explain who conducts scientific research in psychology and why they do it.

The majority of people conducting psychological research are individuals with a PhD in philosophy followed up by those with master's in psychology. A PhD in philosophy is considered to be the highest achievable degree in many fields, including psychology. People continue to do research because they enjoy doing it and like the challenge of discovery. They may also enjoy contributing to what we know as mankind.

Describe three fundamental features of science.

The three keys features of science include systemic empiricism, empirical questions, and public knowledge. Systemic empiricism means that we learn about the world around us through personal observations. Empirical questions are questions about the world around us and can be answered by our observations of the world, also known as systemic empiricism. Public knowledge is the last feature of science and it is when systemic empiricism is published for others to see in order to answer common empirical questions.

Describe two basic forms of statistical relationships and give examples.

There are two basic forms of statistical relationships which include differences between groups and correlations between quantitative variables. Differences between groups is a statistical relationship that measures the difference in the means between two groups on a particular variable. An example of this would be do people talking on their cell phone have poorer driving abilities then individuals who do not talk on their phones? Correlations between quantitative variables is a relationship is which the average score on one variable differs across all levels of the other. An example of this would be does the effectiveness of psychotherapy depend on how much the patient likes the therapist?

Falsifiable

a claim is able to be disproved, important requirement of a research study

Research ethics

a set of guidelines to assist the researcher in conducting ethical research

Positive correlation

as x increases y also increases

Representative sample

similar to or resembles a larger population

Magnitude of correlation

the stonger the magnitude (closer to -1.0 or +1.0), the better prediction about the future events can be made

Applied Research

used to find a specific answer to a question

Basic Research

used to gain a better understanding of how things work

sample of convenience

using participants which researcher has easy access to