Week 1- Intro & Research Methods

Question 1

What is the definition of psychology?

VS

Social psychology

Answer 1

The SCIENTIFIC study of the way in which people’s (individual’s) THOUGHTS, FEELINGS AND BEHAVIOURS are influenced by the real or imagined presence of OTHER PEOPLE

The SCIENTIFIC study of how and why we THINK, FEEL AND ACT toward others and ourselves.

Question 2

What are the ABC’s in social psychology?

Answer 2

1) AFFECT (feelings)

2) BEHAVIOUR (actions)

3) COGNITIONS (thoughts)

Question 3

What are the main 3 pillars of psychology?

Answer 3

1) Psychoanalysis

2) Behaviourism

3) Humanism

Question 4

What were Freud’s and Carl Jungs approach to psychology?

Answer 4

Focused on the UNCONSCIOUS

• ***ID
• SUPER-EGO
• EGO

Had student-mentor relationship

Question 5

What was Jungs persona?

Answer 5

The “masks” we are

Collective unconcious

Self-cloak

Question 6

What did Freud and Carl disagree on?

Answer 6

Libido

Collective unconscious

Personality

Question 7

What is behaviourism?

Answer 7

Observable behaviour

Believes psych could take place among natural sciences

Objective methods & experimental method

Question 8

Ivan Pavlov and John. B Watson were involved in behaviourism, what did they do?

Answer 8

Ivan:
- salivation I’m dogs before food arrived, classic conditioning

John:

• “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. ”
• “I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years.“

Question 9

What is humanism?

Answer 9

Existence is a BUMMER

We are AWARE

People are inherently GOOD

Question 10

Abraham Maslow was involved in humanistic psychology, what did he do?

Answer 10

One of the FOUNDERS

Studied the “best” people

Self-actualization is the highest form you can get

Ex) hierarchy of needs

Question 11

What view did the Stanford Prison Experiment show in terms of social psychology?

Answer 11

Interactionist view

Situation did not explain all VARIANCE in behaviour

Behaviour = f(personality enviro)

Question 12

What the are 5 main perspectives in social psychology?

Answer 12

1) Neuroscience/biological
- neural processes, fMRIMRI etc…

2) Cognitive
- perception, memory, interpretation, action, types of cognitive processes

3) Evolutionary
- humans are animals, humans evolved etc…

4) Cultural
- collective group or society

5) Existential
- existence, deeper motives guide and shape the social

Question 13

Psychological theories are “_______” proven

Answer 13

Never

A good theory = best explanation

NOT just psych issue

Question 14

What is the self-deception scale?

Answer 14

“Have you ever felt hatred towards either of you parents”

Internal thoughts

Question 15

What are some issues with behaviour?

Answer 15

It is a big leap from psychology

Helping behaviour is altruism…. Or social sensitivity or….

Behaviour can be CHANGED temporarily

Question 16

What are the 3 different ways to measure variables?

Answer 16

1) reaction times

2) biological measures

3) virtual reality

Question 17

What are some examples of biological measures?

Answer 17

Brain and body

EEG, MRI (brain anatomy), fMRI (blood flow changes), and ERP’s

Question 18

What is validity?

Answer 18

Does is measure what you want it to measure?

Question 19

What is reliability?

Answer 19

Does is measure the SAME thing?

Question 20

What are some different types of validity? (4)

Answer 20

1) construct - underlying theoretical constructs

2) convergent - measures it should be associated with

3) discriminate - does not relate to measures it should not be related to

4) predictive - same construct in the future

Question 21

What are some factors that reduce reliability?

Answer 21

Low precise measurement

State of participant, experimenter

The environment

Question 22

What does “ego depletion” mean?

Answer 22

The ACTIVE SELF is a limited resource

Ex) trying not to eat a cookie, willpower eventually depletes

Question 23

What is a correlational design?

Answer 23

How ‘related’ are these two variables?

Linear relationship

+, - or none

Question 24

What are the 3 possible correlations?

Answer 24

A causes changes in B

B causes changes in A

C causes changes in both A and B

Question 25

What is the third variable problem?

Answer 25

Ice cream consumption is NOT EQUAL drowning just because of the summer

Question 26

What’s the best way to examine whether A causes changes in B?

Answer 26

Experimental CONTROL

RANDOM assignment

Question 27

ONLY “_____________” can assess CAUSALITY

Answer 27

Experiments

Because of the 3rd variable problem

Question 28

What are the complications with experiments?

Answer 28

Uncertainty about what was REALLY manipulated

Experiments aren’t ALWAYS better

Question 29

What’s the replication crisis in social psychology?

Answer 29

FAKED RESULTS spurred a deeper look at psychological science as a whole

Who can we TRUST?

Question 30

How do you improve the science in social psychology?

Answer 30

Increase SAMPLE sizes

Direct VS indirect replications

Preregistration of studies (prevent p-hacking)

Offsite repositories for STIMULI (no replication attempts)

Question 31

Who was Herbert Spencer?

Answer 31

Instinct-based view of human behaviour

EXTENDED Charles Darwins views (evolution)

Question 32

What is the social cognition perspective and when did it emerge?

Answer 32

During the 1970’s and 1980’s

How people perceive, remember and interpret events in their social world

Question 33

What are the 4 core assumptions of social psychology?

Answer 33

Behaviour…

1) is joint product of person and their situation
2) depends on a socially constructed view of reality
3) strongly influenced by our social cognition
4) how to understand = use scientific method

Question 34

What is field research?

Answer 34

Occurs outside the lab

In schools, offices, football games etc…

Question 35

What is a quasi-experimental design?

Answer 35

Grounds are participants are compared on some dependent variable

For practice/ethical reasons they are NOT formed on the basis of RANDOM assignment

Question 36

What makes a good theory in social psychology? (5)

Answer 36

1) ORGANIZES observations
2) EXPLAINS observations
3) provides direction for RESEARCH
4) generates new QUESTIONS
5) has PRACTICAL value

Question 37

What are moderator variables?

Answer 37

Theoretically explain when, where or whom effects are LIKELY to occur

Question 38

What is meta-analysis?

Answer 38

Process of analyzing data across many RELATED studies to determine strength/reliability of a finding

Question 39

What are some limitations of science?

Answer 39

1) human knowledge is LIMITED
2) humans are BIASED
3) some questions are OUT OF SCOPE of science
4) humans influence the questions asked

Question 40

What are demand characteristics?

Answer 40

Aspects of a study that give away a PURPOSE if the study

Might make study inconclusive

Question 41

What is debriefing?

Answer 41

Experimenter probes for any suspicion of true purpose of study, and explains why deception was NEEDED to achieve the goals of the research