Psych Chapter 1
Which approach to psychology emphasizes the role of physical processes such as brain and nervous system functioning?
Biological
In dealing with confidential and anonymous data, ___ data can be linked back to the individual person, but ___ data cannot.
Confidential, anonymous
In an experiment, the group that receives no treatment is referred to as the ___ group.
Control
Your roommate tells you that he spent four hours at Starbucks this week and his GPA is a 3.1. You spent six hours at Starbucks and your GPA is 3.5. You have started collecting data in which type of research?
Correlational research
In an experiment, the ___ variable is expected to change as a result of the experimental manipulation
Dependent
____ research serves the purpose of determining the basic dimensions of a phenomenon and defining what it is or how often it occurs, but it cannot provide causal information.
Descriptive
When researchers gather evidence and examine it logically, they are using the ___ method.
Empirical
The ___ approach uses evolutionary ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors.
Evolutionary
Science is most defined by ___ it investigates
How
Pedro is thinking deeply about his feelings and monitoring how he responds to common stimuli. Pedro is engaging in _______, which literally means "looking inside" and is also an approach historically used by structuralists in the field of psychology.
Introspection
Experimental bias can effect the validity of an experiment's results because
It introduces systematic differences between the experiment and the control groups
Who was the major proponent of the functionalist movement?
James
Identify a true statement about the role of media in presenting psychological research.
Media often focus on sensationalistic and dramatic psychological findings to capture public attention.
Which statements are true of survey research?
People are asked to self-report, a disadvantage is that people may not answer honestly
What is the correct interpretation of the statement "Extroversion and attending parties are positively correlated"?
People who go to parties tend to be extroverted
Random assignment reduces the likelihood that the results of an experiment will be due to any ___ between groups.
Preexisting differences
____ is generally defined as the science of human behavior.
Psychology
What does it mean that the hours a child spent watching TV and the total number of discipline problems the child has in school are correlated +.45?
The more hours a child spends watching TV, the more likely it is that the child will get into trouble at school.
What is a disadvantage of a within-participant design?
The order of the conditions might influence their effects on performance.
The soundness of conclusions that can be drawn from an experiment is known as _____.
Validity
What is survey research?
A standard set of questions used to obtain people's self-reported attitudes or beliefs about a particular topic
What is the difference between a theory and an opinion?
A theory is falsifiable, whereas an opinion is not.
Critical thinking is a(n) ___ process that involves engaging with ideas and not settling for simple answers
Active
Which of the following are among the contemporary approaches to psychological science?
Behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, sociocultural
A(n) ____ _____ is an in-depth analysis of a single individual.
Case study
Which psychological perspective focuses on the mental processes involved in knowing - that is, how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems?
Cognitive approach
Which of the following are examples of the areas in which psychological animal research has provided benefits to human populations?
Drugs to treat anxiety and severe mental illness, behavioral medicine, alleviation of the effects of stores and pain, and rehabilitation of neuromuscular disorders
In an experiment, the group that receives the treatment the researchers want to study is known as the ____ (control/experimental) group.
Experimental
What factors may lead to differences between groups on the dependent variable that threaten the validity of experimental results?
Experimenter bias, confounds, demand characteristics
The degree to which an experimental design actually reflects the real-world issues it is supposed to address is called ___ validity.
External
Animal research has provided no benefit to humans.
False
The dependent variable is the manipulated experimental factor in an experiment.
False
___ is a historical approach advocated by William James that concentrated on mental processes and the purposes of the mind and behavior in the individual's adaptation to the environment.
Functionalism
___ is an approach that concentrates on what the mind does and the role of behavior in allowing people to adapt to their environment
Functionalism
The ___ approach to psychology emphasizes a person's positive qualities, the capability for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny.
Humanistic
A(n) ___ is an idea arrived at logically from a theory. It can be thought of as an educated guess, and it can be tested.
Hypothesis
Darwin's principle of ___ ___ describes an evolutionary process in which organisms that are best adapted to their environment will survive and produce offspring
Natural selection
What approach is practiced by a psychologist who believes the way people think, feel, and behave are influenced by sexual and aggressive impulses that are buried deep within the unconscious mind?
Psychodynamic approach
Which psychological perspective emphasizes unconscious thought, the conflict between biological drives and society's demands, and early family experience?
Psychodynamic approach
Experimental research
Research concerned with establishing causal relationships between variables
Descriptive research
Research that involves finding out about the basic dimensions of some variable
Correlational research
Research that is interested in discovering relationships between variables
Which of the following are significant ingredients in producing behavior, according to the biopsychosocial approach?
Social factors, biological factors, psychological factors
Which psychological perspective examines the ways in which the social and cultural environments influence behavior?
Sociocultural approach
___ of consciousness is the term used by James to describe the natural flow of thought.
Stream
_____ (functionalism/structuralism) is the name of the approach to psychology endorsed by Wilhelm Wundt
Structuralism
What is a longitudinal design?
Systematic observation that involves obtaining measures of the variables of interest in multiple waves over time.
____ created the first psychology laboratory.
Wundt
What is a theory?
a broad idea, or set of closely related ideas, that attempts to explain certain observations
Researchers studying the long-term effects of an antidepressant have asked participants every six months of the past decade to undergo blood work, a physical, and a short mental status exam. They are now compiling their research. What type of research have they been conducting?
a longitudinal design
Scores in bowling go up as ability goes up. This is an example of
a positive correlation
Scores on an exam go down as the time spent studying goes down. This is an example of
a positive correlation
Before it can be conducted, all psychological research is subject to review by
an institutional review board
Quasi-experimental designs do not randomly assign participants to a condition because:
assignment is either impossible or unethical.
Psychologists study
behavior and mental processes
Experimenter _____ refers to a situation in which the expectations of the experimenter influence the outcomes of the research being conducted.
buas
Which of the following are descriptive research methods?
case studies, surveys, observation, interviews
Journalists are often not trained in psychological research; therefore, they frequently will have issues presenting material appropriately. One of the better sources to learn about research would be from _______.
college professionals
During the third step of the scientific method, when researchers test the hypotheses, they
conduct empirical research.
The degree of relationship between two variables is expressed as a numerical value called a(n):
correlational coefficient
Which of these are components of the American Psychological Association's ethics guidelines for researchers?
debriefing, confidentiality, informed consent
The term _______ characteristic is used to describe any aspect of a study that communicates to the participants how the experimenter wants them to behave.
demand
Which of these are among the steps in the scientific method?
drawing conclusions, observing some phenomenon, formulating hypotheses and predictions
An experimenter provides hints as to the preferred responses. The result is that the study produces results consistent with the hypothesis. However, the results may reflect
experimenter bias
The second step in the scientific method involves:
formulating a hypothesis
A(n) ___ variable is the manipulated experimental factor in an experiment.
independent
Before people agree to participate in psychological research, the researcher must first tell them what this participation will entail, along with any potential risks and benefits. This process is known as ___
informed consent
The degree to which changes in the dependent variable are due to the manipulation of the independent variable(s) is called ___ validity.
internal
Jiang-Li attempts to study the structure of her mental processes by thinking carefully about the experience of sunlight warming her skin. Jiang-Li is practicing _____.
introspection
What setting would researchers choose if they needed to remove the complex factors of the real world to conduct their research?
laboratory
A behaviorist might study
learning through environmental determinants
An experiment involves ___ one variable and observing the effect on another variable
manipulating
An operational definition is an objective description of how a research variable is going to be ___ and observed.
measured
The functionalists focused on
mental processes and the purposes of the mind and behavior in the individual's adaptation to the environment
The functionalists focused on:
mental processes and the purposes of the mind and behavior in the individual's adaptation to the environment
When media reports present big conclusions but fail to provide characteristics of the research sample on which the results were based, they run the risk of viewers and readers
overgeneralizing the results of the study
When researchers mathematically crunch the numbers from the information they have collected to see if the numbers support their theory, they are
performing data analysis
Contemporary psychology was deeply influenced by ___, the rational investigation of the underlying principles of being and knowledge
philosophy
The steps in the scientific method do NOT include
preparing meta-analyses.
Operational definitions are important to research because they
provide clarity in the explanation and measurement of a phenomenon
In some research, the researchers are not able use random assignment to divide participants among groups. Instead, they compare preexisting groups, which results in a(n) _____ - _____ design.
quasi-experimental
The practice of ___ assignment in experimental research is used to make sure that experimental and control groups are equivalent.
random
In social psychology research, the term confederate refers to
someone who plays a specific role that helps the researcher manipulate the social situation
The behavioral perspective
suggests that observable, measurable behavior should be the focus of study
A curious psychologist sees something and wants to know how or why it is the way it is. This best describes
the first step in the scientific method: observing some phenomenon.
In psychological research, the population is
the group about which the researcher would like to draw conclusions
Overall, psychology may concern itself with the nervous system, emotion and motivation, and mind and body. However, it is essentially all about
the individual
Malia had a headache, so she took what she thought was a painkiller, but it was just a vitamin pill (with no painkilling ingredients). Malia tells her brother that the medicine was good because her headache went away only 5 minutes after taking it. Malia is probably experiencing _____.
the placebo effect
An extraneous variable that has not been measured that accounts for the relationship between two other variables is known as
third variable problem
Many psychologists believe that because psychologists are human, they cannot be ___, even if they try.
value-free
In an experiment, random assignment is most effective
with a large pool of people.
In some research studies, participants will be in both the control group and the experimental group. Each participant is exposed to all of the conditions. This type of research is called a(n) ___-participant design.
within
What is a variable?
anything that can change
Research that involves determining the relationship between variables and whose purpose is to examine whether and how two variables change together is called ___ research.
correlational
The entire group about which the investigator draws conclusions is known as a
population
What is random assignment?
the assignment of participants to research groups by chance
Research participant bias is
The influence of research participants' expectations on their behavior within an experiment.
___ is a broad term for any characteristic that can change in some way
Variable
What does it mean if the hours a child spent watching TV and the total number of discipline problems the child has in school are correlated 0?
Watching TV and disciplinary problems are not related.
