Chapter 2

Question 1

T/F people that stutter have more activation in the left hemisphere of the brain

Answer 1

false
right hemi

Question 2

what is the complete explanation for people who stutter using all perspectives of psychology

Answer 2

resulting from genetics and biology with developmental, emotional and social factors - such as feeling embarrassed or anxious about speaking in public

Question 3

contrast faith and science

Answer 3

Faith does not require proof but it is based on on belief
science requires proof and systematic observations and analysis

Question 4

what does objectivity mean

Answer 4

conclusions are based on facts without influence from personal, emotions or biases

Question 5

what does subjectivity mean

Answer 5

conclusions reflect personal POVs
- drawing from memories or our perspectives
- prone to error and biases
- scientists try to be as objective as possible but any observation made is subjective - this is why scientists cannot rely on their introspections to maintain objectivity

Question 6

what does “hit or miss” mean in terms of science vs everyday observations

Answer 6

making conclusions based on whatever is happening around us
- to get a more accurate observation we need to move beyond biases and experiment on people beyond the people we see in our everyday lives

Question 7

what is confirmation bias

Answer 7

the tendency to notice and remember instances that support your beliefs more than instances that contradict them
- “women talk more than men” but when the study occurred, there was no evidence and it was just a highly publicised stereotype

Question 8

what is critical thinking

Answer 8

ability to think clearly, rationally and independently = foundations for scientific reasoning
- good thinkers = identify mistakes, logic
- bad thinkers = academic failure, patient deaths, financial mismanagement
- not born with critical thinking but it develops over time

Question 9

what are 5 questions to ask yourself about new information

Answer 9

what am i being asked to believe or accept
what evidence supports this position
are there other ways that this can be interpreted
what other evidence would I need to evaluate these alternatives
what is the most reasonable conclusion

Question 10

what is an example of confirmation bias

Answer 10

when you drink lots of coffee and search is coffee bad for you, you get lots of opposing sides on the internet, but you pick the one that you want to be true = confirmation bias

Question 11

what are the steps of the scientific method

Answer 11

research question
hypothesis
methods
results
conclusions
- never-ending cycle

Question 12

what are theories

Answer 12

they are a set of facts and relationships that can be used to explain and predict something
- using the best models
- gets confused with the many other English definitions for the word theory
- but it generates new predictions
- scientific theories are not the same as the theory of evolution which is a large guess

Question 13

the steps on how to develop and test a theory

Answer 13

• systematic observation whether it is experimental or nonexperimental
• hypothesis
• testable prediction

Question 14

what is the definition of a hypothesis

Answer 14

a type of interference or an educated guess based on prior evidence and logical possibilities
- a good hypothesis links concrete variables based on your theory and makes specific predictions
-EX: people that are shown a video for stress is good for you vs stress is bad for you have different work performances
- scientists can never prove a hypothesis because there will always be a future experiment that might prove the hypothesis false

Question 15

what happens when a study fails to replicate the same result as it originally did?

Answer 15

scientists usually want to double-check or see if they can get the same result
- it gives them a reason to reflect on their results and tweak it
- it is also important everything is done in the exact order
- if it replicated the study is accepted quickly

Question 16

what are the types of research methods that psychological scientists use

Answer 16

descriptive methods (surveys, case studies)
correlational methods (see how 2 variables of interest relate, ex, social media and depression)
experimental methods (used to test their hypothesis and determine the cause of behaviour)

Question 17

what are constructs

Answer 17

internal attributes that cannot be directly observed but are useful for describing and explaining behaviour
- EX: anxiety, intelligence, extraversion
- when scientists examine a construct, they need to figure out how to measure things that are not objects, such as anxiety

Question 18

what is operationalization

Answer 18

it is the process of taking an abstract construct and defining it in a way that is concrete and measurable
- to measure anxiety - they might measure fidgeting, a self-report system of participants, using galvanic skin response to measure sweat

Question 19

what are descriptive methods (expand)

Answer 19

using case studies, natural observations, surveys, focus groups, interviews
- vulnerable to bias
- but it can make careful systematic real-world observations - it can show the associations between variables

Question 20

what is a case study

Answer 20

provides an in-depth analysis of the behaviour of one person or a small number of people
- medicine, law, business = case study method
- often used when there is not a lot of people to experiment, or one person has a unique feature

Question 21

explain the most productive case studies in psych with Henry Molasion

Answer 21

he had brain surgery to control his seizures but had memory deficits
- after lots of tests they learned a lot about brain structures and memories
- Brenda Milner spent lots of time working with the patient
- she found that there is more than one long-term memory system

Question 22

what is the naturalistic observation

Answer 22

in-depth study of a phenomenon in its natural setting
- EX: chimpanzees - study conducted in their habitat - Jane Goodall - now we have a good understanding of the behaviour of animals in the wild
- sometimes they are conducted with people knowing or not knowing they are being watched (without knowing = ethical issues, with knowing = act differently)

Question 23

what is a survey

Answer 23

questionnaires that allow us to ask a lot of people about attitudes and behaviours
-quick information, little expense, commercial online survey = easier
- A good survey should have a proper sample size or subset that is being studied
- the total participants = population
- trying to get the variation of the global population in ur sample size to get the best results
- self-reporting systems may let people pick to be more socially accepted

Question 24

what are focus groups

Answer 24

small, chosen group of people who engage in a structured discussion on a single topic

Question 25

what are interviews

Answer 25

an interaction where a person is asked a set of questions by the researcher and are allowed to respond however they like

Question 26

explain the investigation of cyberbullying done by UofT

Answer 26

descriptive study, accessing the victimization, perpetration and witness of bullying - 1300 students did an online survey talking about experiences with bullying and its impact on mental health - 28% of women and people of colour were sent threatening messages - and that people who were already experiencing mental health challenges were likely to experience more acute levels of distress after cyberbullying

Question 27

what does correlation mean

Answer 27

measures the direction and strength of the relationship between 2 variables - begins with a measure of how much a variable can be observe

Question 28

what are the 3 outcomes when using correlational methods and comparing 2 variables

Answer 28

positive, negative, zero correlation positive: high levels of one variable being associated with the other = positive slope on the graph negative: high values of one variable are associated with low values of another (high alcohol consumption = low gpa) = negative slope on the graph zero: the 2 variables do not have any relationship with each other = no slope = random clusters

Question 29

what is the significance in a third variable in a correctional study

Answer 29

the third variable would be responsible for the correlation between 2 variables of interest EX: video games are positively correlated with bullying but it does not cause it, perhaps playing video games - aggressive online behaviour = cyber bullying - might be that kids who are victims of aggression are more likely to want violent video games and = cyber bullying

Question 30

what are the steps to a good experiment

Answer 30

random assignment of participants to groups appropriate control groups control of situational variables carefully selected independent and dependent variables

Question 31

what is the independent variable

Answer 31

the variable is controlled and manipulated by an experimenter "if ___ happens, then"

Question 32

what is the dependent variable

Answer 32

defined as the measure used to assess the effects of the manipulation of the independent variable

Question 33

what is a control group

Answer 33

a group that experiences all the experimental procedures except being exposed to the manipulation (independent variables) - that is why we randomly assign participants to the experimental or control groups by random assignment

Question 34

what confounding variables

Answer 34

individual differences among participants are an example of confounding variables - irrelevant to the hypothesis being tested, and can alter or distort our conclusions

Question 35

what are situational confounding variables

Answer 35

such as time of day, and noise level = affect the interpretation of an experiment - they run the experiments in the most constant circumstances possible to rule out these variables

Question 36

what is the bystander effect in psych terms

Answer 36

people are less likely to help if there are a lot of individuals walking rather than there being a few because they feel less personally responsible for assisting when there are more people around

Question 37

what are some limitations to the experimental method

Answer 37

1. people know they are in a research study and may act differently = artificial situation 2. raises ethical concerns if they make the experiment more realistic - EX: the presence of military guns = danger and panic, so they brought it in to observe the real panic - this was before ethics was brought into play, but most people would not want to be put in this situation 3. differences in choices of independent and dependent variables - in psych, it involves the investigation of constructs that require operationalization

Question 38

what is a meta-analysis

Answer 38

also called statistical analysis of many previous experiments on the same topic - it often provides a clearer picture than a single experiment observed in isolation - if the publication bias is present, it may result in any meta-analysis to be misleading

Question 39

what is the double-blind procedure

Answer 39

a research design that controls for placebo effects in which neither the participants nor the experimenter observing the participant knows whether the participant was given an active substance or treatment, or a placebo - the placebo is an inactive substance that cannot be distinguished from the real active substance

Question 40

what is the significance of giving someone a placebo in an experiment

Answer 40

not letting subjects know whether they received a real substance or the placebo helps to offset these misleading effects

Question 41

what do double-blind placebo-controlled studies have to say about their effects on child behaviour after eating sugar/food additives

Answer 41

kids were given the option to have drinks with no additives (placebo) or a combination of colouring and preservation - bc it was a double-blind study, the children did not know which of the 2 options they received and neither did the researchers - the results showed that the kids who got the colouring and additives = had higher movement = ADHD

Question 42

what is a cross-sectional study

Answer 42

an experiment design for assessing age-related changes in which data are obtained simultaneously from people of differing ages

Question 43

what are the 3 specific techniques that psychologists use to asses normal behaviour with age

Answer 43

CROSS-SECTIONAL - gather varying age groups and expose them to violent video games to see their aggression - this method = cohort effect which is the generational effects of being born in different parts of history (younger kids don't live life without the internet and the older generation has experienced life without the internet) LONGITUDINAL - an experimental design for assessing age-related changes that is obtained from the same individual at intervals of their life - group of infants to see their exposure to violent video games, and their aggression into adulthood - it is expensive and time-consuming MIXED LONGITUDINAL DESIGN - combines cross-sectional and longitudinal methods - ppl of a range of ages are observed for a limited time - 5 years - faster, cost-effective

Question 44

strengths and weaknesses of a case study

Answer 44

+ can explore new and unusual phenomena - can falsify a hypothesis (-) has limited generalization

Question 45

strengths and weaknesses of naturalistic observations

Answer 45

(+) provides insight into natural, real-world behaviours (-) people act differently when watched, and = ethical issues

Question 46

strengths and weaknesses of surveys

Answer 46

(+) provides large amounts of data quickly and cheap (-) needs a lot of people to represent, some people will change their answer to appear socially appropriate

Question 47

strengths and weaknesses of focus groups and interviews

Answer 47

(+) provides in-depth qualitative information on a topic (-) can be time consuming

Question 48

strengths and weaknesses of correlations

Answer 48

(+) allows us to predict behaviour, stimulate the development of hypotheses, address some difficult ethical situations (-) cannot be used to discuss the cause of a situation

Question 49

strengths and weaknesses of experiments

Answer 49

(+) allows control of situations, strong hypothesis testing, judgment of causality of the topic (-) raises artificial situations when people know that they are being monitored, raises ethical concerns - time consuming

Question 50

strengths and weaknesses of cross-sectional study

Answer 50

(+) quick and cheap (-) has cohort effects - everyone experienced different things when they were born in different times of history

Question 51

strengths and weaknesses of longitudinal study

Answer 51

(+) reduces the impact of cohort effects (-) expensive and time consuming, people drop out and get tired

Question 52

strengths and weaknesses of mixed longitudinal study

Answer 52

(+) less expensive and time consuming than longitudinal, has some control of cohort effects (-) still expensive, time consuming, drop outs

Question 53

what are the 2 standards that a measure must meet

Answer 53

reliability and validity

Question 54

what is reliability

Answer 54

refers to the consistency of a measure - EX: firefighters must pass a fitness test every year - good measures also show high interrater reliability = the consistency in the interpretation of a measure across different observers

Question 55

what is inter-method reliability

Answer 55

describes the positive correlation of several approaches to measure a feature in an individual - the correlations support the reliability of the measure

Question 56

what is validity

Answer 56

means that a measure leads to correct conclusions or evaluates the concept that it is designed to do -EX: your bathroom scale is supposed to measure how much you weigh (this can lead you to have a valid conclusion or an invalid conclusion because different scales can measure differently)

Question 57

T/F you can have a consistent result that lacks meaning

Answer 57

true you can have reliability without validity

Question 58

T/F a measure cannot be reliable without being valid

Answer 58

false a measure cannot be valid without being reliable

Question 59

what is descriptive statistics

Answer 59

help us organize individual bits of data into meaningful patterns and summaries - to determine the number of females in STEM over time - use a frequency distribution - which is created by figuring out how many students are enrolled in each field of study and then break it up into gender

Question 60

what are the 3 types of measures for central tendency

Answer 60

1. mean - the average of a set of scores 2. median - represents the halfway mark in the data set, less affected by extreme scores or outliers than the mean 3. mode - the score that is the most frequent - easiest to see on a histogram - when there is more than one mode for a set of data

Question 61

what is the traditional way to look at the variance of scores

Answer 61

to find the standard deviation - this tells us how tightly clustered around the average a score is - the smaller STD = near the mean = good - the larger STD = further from the mean = bad

Question 62

what is a normal distribution

Answer 62

a symmetrical probability function - the most scores near the middle and fewer scores near the bottom halves because it is less likely = outlines - the further from the middle = larger standard deviation

Question 63

what is the correlation coefficient?

Answer 63

coefficient is between -1 and +1 - the closer the coefficient is to either -1 or +1 the stronger the correlation between the 2 variables - when the coefficient is exactly -1 or +1, the correlation is perfect

Question 64

what is inferential statistics

Answer 64

permit us to draw inferences or conclusions from data - to reach conclusions about how observations of a sample might fit the bigger picture of groups of people

Question 65

what are generalizations

Answer 65

to extend conclusions to larger populations outside of your research sample

Question 66

what is the null hypothesis

Answer 66

a hypothesis stating the default position that there is no real difference between 2 measures - rejecting the null hypothesis suggests that the alternative hypothesis is false

Question 67

what is statistical significance

Answer 67

a standard for deciding whether an observed result is because of chance - we can check the likelihood of observing a result due to chance by repeating a study like throwing a dice multiple times

Question 68

T/F participants that are willingly volunteering, they must pay them with reasonable incentives

Answer 68

true incentives such as extra credit for participation, pay, etc

Question 69

what is informed consent

Answer 69

permission obtained from a research participant after the risks and benefits of an experimental procedure have been thoroughly explained

Question 70

can you obtain informed consent from a person with hallucinations, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, etc

Answer 70

no, you must ask a qualified guardian

Question 71

T/F researchers should not do any irreversible harm to the participants and should be clear about what they are looking for

Answer 71

true although some researchers might say they are investigating one factor when they are interested in another - usually they are mild factors like being told the study is about memory when it is about social behaviour

Question 72

explain privacy and confidentiality in terms of human participants in an experiment

Answer 72

privacy = participant control over sharing of their personal information with others - stated in paperwork - ex: if medical records are needed, they need to agree to share them with the researchers confidentiality = participants' right to have their data revealed to others with their permission only - not using real names, storing data in locked areas, collecting anonymously

Question 73

90% of animals used in experiments are ___ and ___

Answer 73

rodents and birds

Question 74

in Canada, what are the "Three R's" when using animals for research

Answer 74

REPLACEMENT- refers to the research methods that avoid or replace the use of animals in an area of research where they would have been used otherwise REDUCTION - refers to any strategy that will result in fewer animals being used REFINEMENT - the modification of animal care or experiment procedures to minimize pain and distress

Question 75

what is field experiments

Answer 75

an experiment conducted outside of a laboratory setting - instead of relying on surveys or laboratory experiments, a majority of research on conservation campaigns is conducted using field experiments - involves the manipulation of independent variables and measuring dependent variables - done in the field, such as residential homes