Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology
As a science, psychology gains knowledge through observation and measurement using an approach called BLANK 1. The step-by-step implementation is called the BLANK 2 method, which follows systematic steps to obtain BLANK 3 results.
BLANK 1: empiricism BLANK 2: scientific BLANK3: replicable
Identify whether each of the following is a specific step in the critical thinking process. If it is, identify the step: 1, 2, or 3. Note that not all of the answers are part of good critical thinking a. Explore whether there is good empirical evidence to support the claim. b.Determine whether the source of the claim is credible. C. Decide to accept or reject the claim based on intuition. d. Look for more information to see if other believable sources agree with the claim.
A) Step. 2 B) Step 1 C) Not a step in good critical thinking D)Step 3
Which of the following key ethical decisions would an institutional review board (IRB) approve of?
Approve: 1. keeping study participants' data confidential 2. protecting study participants from unreasonable potential mental and physical risk 3. obtaining informed consent Not Approve: 1. placing cameras in unsuspecting subjects' homes 2. deceiving participants and never revealing the study's true purpose
Which one of the following statements does NOT correctly describe one of the three aspects of psychology? A) Psychology explores people's thoughts, feelings, and behavior. B) Psychology is subjective because it is based on your own experiences. C) Psychology investigates how the brain allows all mental activities and behaviors. D) Psychology is objective because it uses empiricism to investigate psychological processes
B) Psychology is subjective because it is based on your own experiences.
Experimental psychology began with a psychologist named BLANK 1, who established the first psychology BLANK 2. Over the past century, he and others studied mental activity, behavior, and the brain using BLANK 3 research methods. Given the complexity of topics within psychology, several BLANK 4 emerged recently to provide specific perspectives and expertise when examining human behavior and mental processing.
BLANK 1: Wilhelm Wundt BLANK 2: laboratory BLANK 3: empirical BLANK 4: domains of psychology
Fill in the blanks to complete the passage about different domains in psychology. In studying hospitalized children, a psychologist from the BLANK 1 domain might look at how the chemicals in their brains were affected by the hospital treatment, whereas a psychologist from the BLANK 2 domain might compare their growth to normal children's growth, a psychologist from the BLANK 3 domain might study the children's performance at problem solving, and a psychologist from the BLANK 4 domain might focus on how the hospital setting affected the children emotionally.
BLANK 1: biological BLANK 2: developmental BLANK 3: cognitive BLANK 4: mental and physical health
Fill in the blanks to complete the passage about challenges associated with one kind of empirical study. When a psychologist simply records the relationship between two variables without manipulating them, it is called a BLANK 1 study. The observed relationship does not reveal whether a certain variable BLANK 2 changes seen in another variable. This is the BLANK 3 problem. Also, the relationship may be due to a BLANK 4 controlling both of the observed variables.
BLANK 1: correlational BLANK 2: causes BLANK 3: directionality BLANK 4: third variable
Studying psychology will help you with which of the following careers?
Psychology Will Be Helpful: 1. managing at a company 2. working as a physician 3. teaching middle school 4. designing advertisements Psychology Will Not Be Helpful: NA
Researchers conduct a study to measure the effect of sunlight on levels of vitamins in participants' bodies. Match each type of variable with its example in this study.
The levels of vitamin D and calcium in the participants' bloodstreams are measured: dependent variable Some participants eat a diet high in calcium, and other participants do not, but experimenters are not intentionally manipulating their diets.: confound Participants are randomly assigned to eight hours, four hours, or zero hours of sunlight exposure.independent variable Correct label: independent variable
Name the six strategies that can make an IMPACT on your learning.
The six learning to learn strategies are (1) Improving, (2) Monitoring, (3) Practicing, (4) Attending, (5) Connecting, and (6) Thinking
A psychologist conducts a study by observing people in their homes through their living room windows using a telescope from a nearby building. He does not tell participants about the study, and they do not find out about it. Which of the following ethical guidelines is the psychologist violating?
Violating Guidelines: privacy informed consent Not Violating Guidelines: confidentiality protection from harm
Match each goal of science with the corresponding question about student learning.
What types of study behaviors lead students to earn higher exam scores? explanation What percentage of students earn a passing grade on the exam? description How many more students could pass the exam if they were given quizzes at the end of each lecture? prediction If there is a group of 100 students and 50 are taught to quiz themselves on the material after reading, will the pass rate on the exam go up among those who quizzed themselves? control
Match each research method with the corresponding example.
A psychologist from the mental and physical health domain randomly assigns people to meditate in the morning, at night, or not at all. After eight weeks, people rate their overall moods: experiment A psychologist from the developmental domain measures the relationship between personal development and spirituality: correlational study A psychologist from the social and personality domain spends the afternoon at the mall and unobtrusively records how teenagers act in groups: observation A psychologist from the cognitive domain sends out a questionnaire to all incoming students to determine their computer skills: self-report survey
Fill in the blanks to complete the passage about a psychologist's experiment about bullying. A middle-school psychologist wants to determine which program decreases unfriendly behaviors in adolescents. He implements an anti-bullying program with one group of students, and the students' teasing behaviors decrease. He spends time on an activity unrelated to bullying with another group of students. This second group does not show a decrease in bullying behavior. The psychologist then measures bullying behavior by observing the two groups in the experiment. The different types of activities the adolescents are placed into are called the BLANK 1 variables. The student group that received the anti-bullying treatment would be called the BLANK 2, and the group that did an activity unrelated to bullying would be called the BLANK 3
BLANK 1: independent BLANK 2: experimental group BLANK 3: control group
Fill in the blanks to complete the passage about large differences in psychology research worldwide. Arnett (2008) found that most of the participants in psychology research lived in Western, BLANK 1 countries such as the United States, even though a BLANK 2 percentage of the world's population lives in these countries. This disparity represents the need for BLANK 3 in psychology research today.
BLANK 1: industrialized BLANK 2: small BLANK 3: diversity
What is the term for the people who receive none of the independent variable, to serve as a comparison?
Control group
Which of the following are examples of descriptive research methods?
Correct Answer(s): A forensic psychologist infiltrates a criminal group to study the group's activities. A psychologist talks to the elderly participants at a senior center about which activities they like and asks them to suggest other activities they would enjoy. An industrial/organizational psychologist collects surveys that describe people's favorite incentives. A social psychologist studies the aggressive behaviors displayed at a video arcade. A school psychologist keeps detailed records on how an autistic child learns. Incorrect Answer(s) A psychologist measures the relationship between people's ages and the number of hours of TV they watch. A psychologist randomly assigns children to study either alone or in groups and then tests the children on what they remember.
An advertisement on Alex's social media feed about a new memory supplement claims that in addition to improving a person's memory, the supplement will also increase the quality of sleep and improve overall life satisfaction. Having read these claims, Alex decides to consume this new memory supplement twice a day to help him excel in his classes. Which of the following questions would a psychologist suggest that Alex ask himself to think critically about the new memory supplement?
Correct Answer(s): Should I believe that taking this new memory supplement will cure all the problems the ad is claiming? What evidence is there to support the claims about this new memory supplement? Are there other explanations for the claim that the new memory supplement can cure so many problems? Incorrect Answer(s): Have any celebrities or athletes endorsed this new supplement?
A professional educator reads a magazine article published in a recent issue about how listening to Mozart increases intelligence. Based on this article, he wants to implement a very costly program designed to have high school students listen to Mozart to raise their SAT scores. Which of the following are good critical thinking questions the educator should ask about the article before implementing such a program?
Correct Answer(s): What is the evidence that listening to Mozart's music will increase intelligence? Could there be other reasonable explanations for the study's conclusion that listening to Mozart increases intelligence? Am I being asked to believe that listening to Mozart will always increase intelligence? Incorrect Answer(s): Does the claim that listening to Mozart increases intelligence align with what I believe?
Watch the following Concept Video about correlation and causation. Sort each of the following claims into the corresponding category of research.
Correlational Research: People who eat breakfast most days tend to have a higher GPA. As pizza consumption increases so does a person's anger level. As exercise rate increases, a person's memory increases. Causal Research A group that breathed pure oxygen had better test performance than a group that breathed normal air. A group that consumed more caffeine showed less ability to focus than a group that consumed no caffeine.
What is the term for the measured variable?
Dependent variable
The text explains the six strategies that IMPACT your study skills. Match each skill with its description.
Elaboration is the active process of explaining ideas in your own words and giving examples that relate to your own life. thinking deeply Engaging in active study sessions whereby you answer questions across several study sessions about the course content. practicing Focusing your attention on what you need to study and turning off and ignoring distractions will help you remember the course material better. attending attending Using different cues can help you remember the connections between newly learned information in your classes and your own knowledge, skills, and experiences. connecting Adopting a growth mindset will help you believe you can do the hard work to change how you think, feel, and act. improving Self-regulated learning helps you set goals, plan your studying, use good study strategies, and check your progress along the way to ensure success. monitoring
What is the term for the people who receive some level of the independent variable?
Experimental group
IRBs assess ethical issues before research is conducted. Match each ethical issue with its description.
If telling participants the goals of the study might alter their responses, some information is not shared with them until after the study: deception A study will not expose participants to any unreasonably harmful conditions or events: protection from harm A brief overview of the study is presented before a person signs an agreement to participate: informed consent When participants fill out the data sheets, they are assigned numbers to use instead of their names: confidentiality Researchers only observe public behaviors: privacy
Identify each scenario as relating to either random sampling or random assignment.
In a study about how drinking coffee affects how friendly people feel, the experimenter does not want all the regular coffee drinkers to be in one group, so he chooses names from a hat to assign them to the experimental group and the control group. random assignment A researcher wants to test whether watching cat videos makes people happier, but he doesn't want to include only people with cats in his study. He goes to the mall and uses an app to program his phone to buzz after a random interval of time. When the phone buzzes, he approaches the next person that enters the mall and asks them to participate. random sampling A researcher wants to test the effect of turning up the heat on seasonal depression but does not want everyone with a history of depression to be in the control group, so she alternates between assigning people to the experimental and control groups in the order that they respond to her offer to participate in the study. random sampling For a study on how users experience a travel booking website, the website uses a random number generator to invite some of the site's visitors to participate in a survey, regardless of whether they are trying to book hotels or flights, or are just browsing. random assignment
What is the term for the manipulated variable?
Independent variable
What is the term for the quantifiable description of a variable?
Operational definition
A cognitive psychologist studies the effects of coconut oil on memory function in elderly people who have been given an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's. Match each type of variable with its example in this study.
Subjects are randomly assigned to eat either 0 teaspoons, 2 teaspoons, or 4 teaspoons of coconut oil a day: independent variable Some participants live alone, and some are married: confound Subjects' memory is measured using their performance on a 20-question memory test: dependent variable
A psychologist designs an experiment on the effects of exam preparation strategy on long-term memory. She randomly assigns college students to one of three groups in the experiment. Group 1 studies using visual information only. Group 2 studies using auditory information only. Group 3 does not study at all. The students follow the instructions for how they must study for four days to prepare for a 100-question multiple-choice exam. They all study the same chapter in the textbook and all take the same exam. Exam scores are then recorded. Categorize each item from the experiment as a dependent variable, an independent variable, or neither.
independent variable: the exam preparation strategy neither independent nor dependent variable: the 100-question multiple-choice exam the information that the students studied the college students dependent variable: the students' scores on the exam
Psychological science uses research to study mental activity and behavior. Match each psychological topic with the appropriate area of study.
mental activity: thought memory experiencing sights and smells behavior: mating eating cooperation
Match each domain of modern psychology with the appropriate area of study. One of the targets doesn't have a match.
studies changes over a life span developmental domain studies impact of mental activities cognitive domain studies the influence of social factors or the enduring characteristics of people social and personality domain studies how underlying brain structure and genetics influence mental functioning and behavior biological domain
