psych chapter 1

Compare and contrast the jobs of a psychologist and a psychiatrist.

Psychologists have the degree of PhD, PsyD or EdD. They can work in either applied or clinical settings. Psychiatrists attend medical school, so they are actually MDs who focus on the biological aspect of psychological issues.

Discuss 2 jobs psychologists might hold and explain how they could affect the community.

Psychologists might work as laboratory scientists or clinical psychologists. Laboratory scientists affect the community by learning new things about the human brain. Clinical psychologists diagnose and treat mental and emotional problems in their communities.

Give an example of three critical thinking guidelines.

An example of examining the evidence is checking the reliability of a source of information. Identifying your cultural biases is an example of analyzing assumptions. Making sure you do not generalize from a personal experience is an example of not oversimplifying.

Compare and contrast 2 of the current perspectives in psychology.

Biological perspective is how biological issues affect behavior, feelings, and thought. Similarly, learning (behavior) perspective is how the environment and experiences affect an individuals actions.

What is the difference between experimental and applied research? Why do we need both?

Experimental research is conducted in a laboratory setting under controlled conditions that is done to get knowledge rather than practical information. applied research is concerned with issues with direct practical significance. We need both because you need the basic knowledge and information about psychology before you can apply it to a practical setting.

Discuss the difference between fact and opinion.

Facts are realities that are supported by empirical evidence and are generally agreed upon by everyone. Opinions are people's personal preferences about ideas or values that cannot be proven by scientific research.

Of the 3 early psychologies, (structuralism, functionalism, and psychoanalysis) which contributed most to our current science of behavior? Talk about how and why.

Functionalism contributed the most to our current science of behavior. Functionalists were interested in the causes and effects of behavior. This is most similar to our current science of behavior, which analyzes how a person's history and environment affects their behavior.

Compare and contrast one current perspective with the past perspective of psychology.

Functionalism is a past perspective that describes how and why, or the causes and consequences. That became the basis for all the current perspectives, most similarly the sociocultural perspective which focuses on social and cultural forces outside of the individual (environment) and how those shape their behavior.

Draw the learning model and give one example.

Learning Model: Input -> Organize -> Output Example: Read -> Ask questions -> Write paper

Elaborate on what it means to say the phrase "all opinions are not created equal."

Opinions are not necessarily equal, especially if your opinion obviously ignores reality. In that case, your opinion is not equal to others because it is just an incorrect fact.

Discuss the difference between science and pseudoscience and explain why it is important that we are able to tell the difference.

Science is based on empirical evidence while pseudoscience is considered by most people to have no scientific basis. It is important to tell the difference between them so that when you make decisions, you are informed by reliable sources rather than those without much support.

What are the 3 main components of the scientific approach/method and what do they lead to? Why is it done this way?

The three components of the scientific method are experimentation, validation, and replication. Scientists use this method because it is standardized and systematic. When experiments are performed in the same way each time, you get valid results.

Discuss how asking questions might help you learn something new.

When you ask questions about the world around you, you are identifying problems or challenges that lead you to learn even more about the things you take for granted every day. For example, you might notice that the opposite ends of a magnet attract each other, but if you ask why that's true, you learn about physics and magnetism.

Provide the definition of psychology as it was discussed in the lecture (PP).

the scientific study of human behavior