Chapter 1- Psychology Basics Flashcards
Science of behavior and mental processes
Psychology
Attempts to understand events in the world around us. Can provide answers for all situations but provides no explanation as to why
Folk Wisdom
Beliefs that interfere with objectivity
Bias
Simple explanations of phenomena are preferred over complex explanations
Law of parsimony
What are guidelines for evaluating the credibility of a claim?
What is statement and who is making it?
Is the statement based on scientific observation?
What do statistics show?
Are there plausible alternative explanations for the claim?
Goal of Psych
To describe, predict and control behavior
Explanation for phenomenon based on careful and precise observations
Theory
Prediction about future behaviors that is derived from observation and theories
Hypothesis
Research method that is an in-depth analysis of one person
Case Study
Research method that is characterized by observing behaviors as they occur without interfering or altering them in any way
Naturalistic Observation
Research that looks at the relationship between two variables
Correlational research
Research method that describes characteristics of a large population. It’s relatively inexpensive and reliable
Survey
Research method that generates cause and effect statements. Many psychologists believe it is the most powerful research approach.
Experimental method
Variable manipulated by researcher
Independent
Variable that’s results are dependent on the changed variable.
Dependent
Group exposed to independent variable
Experimental group
Group not exposed to independent variable
Control group
Procedures used to analyze data after an experiment is conducted to determine if independent variable had significant effect
Inferential statistics
Measures of central tendency
Mean median mode
Measures of variablity
Standard deviation and variance
