Introduction to Psychology

Question 1

What is psychology?

Answer 1

Psychology is the science of behavior and the mind. Behavior refers to the observable actions of an person or an animal. Mind refers to an individual’s sensations, perceptions, memories, thoughts, dreams, motives, emotions, and other subjective experiences. Psychology is also an applied science.

Question 2

What is science?

Answer 2

It refers to all attempts to answer questions through the systematic collection and logical analysis of objectively observable data.

Question 3

What are the three fundamental ideas of psychology?

Answer 3

1. Our behavior and mind can be studied physically.
2. People change because of what they experience.
3. The human’s body has changed overtime by evolution.

Question 4

Dualism

Answer 4

According to the church, each human being consists of two entities: a material body and an immaterial soul.

Question 5

What was Descartes’ version of dualism?

Answer 5

As a biologist, he knew that heat can be created by the body itself. He challenged the original theory by using the fact that nonhuman animals have souls, but they can a lot of what we can do, e.g. breathing, eating, moving, etc. The only difference between us and nonhuman animals is that we have thought and they don’t. He claims that our soul is connected to our body through our pineal body. Through this organ, the soul receives information, thinks about it, and wills the body to move and execute other physical actions.

Question 6

Materialism

Answer 6

Thomas Hobbes(1588-1679) argues that spirit, or soul, is a meaningless concept and that nothing exists but matter and energy. All human’s behavior, including the seemingly voluntary choices we make, can be understood in terms of physical processes in the body, especially the brain. Conscious thought is purely a byproduct of the brain’s machinery and therefor subject to the natural law.

Question 7

Which belief came out as the winner? (Materialism or Dualism)

Answer 7

Materialism. The problem with dualism is that the second entity, the soul, does not follow the natural laws. Because of it being immaterial, we are unable to prove it. Materialism, on the other hand, has manage to give us a better understanding of our minds. Thanks to materialism, we managed to make considerable progress: the nervous system and our reflexes.

Question 8

How did discoveries of localization of function in the brain help establish the idea that the mind can be studied scientifically?

Answer 8

Thanks to the evidences of Johannes Muller, Pierre Flourens and Paul Broca, people were able to see a relationship between the mind and the brain.

Question 9

Empiricism

Answer 9

Our knowledge and thoughts are gained from our sensory senses (vision, hearing, smell, touch) according to British philosophers James Mill (1773-1836), John Locke (1632-1704), David Hartley (1705-1759), and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873).

Question 10

Association by contiguity

Answer 10

If a person experiences two environmental events (stimuli, or sensations) at the same time or one right after the other (contiguously), those two events will become associated (bound together) in the person’s mind, such that the thought of one event will, in the future, tend to elicit the thought of the other.

Question 11

Mental Chemistry

Answer 11

Complex ideas and thoughts are formed from combinations of elementary ideas, much as chemical compounds are formed from combinations of chemical elements.

Question 12

Nativism

Answer 12

Is the view that the most basic forms of human knowledge and the
basic operating characteristics of the mind, which provide the foundation for human nature, are native to the human mind—that is, are inborn and do not have to be acquired from experience. It is the opposite of empiricism.

Question 13

Priori knowledge

Answer 13

Knowledge built into the human brain and does not have to be learned.

Question 14

Posteriori knowledge

Answer 14

Knowledge that is gained from experience in the environment

Question 15

What was Charles Darwin known for?

Answer 15

He was known for his principles of evolution. Living things evolve gradually, over generations, by a process of natural selection. All the organisms on earth evolve in such ways to promote their own survival and rate of reproduction.

Question 16

Level of analysis

Answer 16

Used in psychology and other sciences, refers to the level, or type, of the causal process that is studied. It has two clusters: biological (consisting of neural, physiological, genetic, and evolutionary explanations) and the effects of experience and knowledge (consisting of learning, cognitive, social, cultural, and developmental).

Question 17

Neural explanations

Answer 17

All behaviors and mental experiences are products of the nervous system.

Question 18

Physiological explanations

Answer 18

The ways hormones and drugs act on the brain to alter behavior and experience, either in humans or non-humans.

Question 19

Genetic explanations

Answer 19

Psychological differences among individuals in terms of differences in their genes.

Question 20

Evolutionary explanations

Answer 20

All the basic biological machinery underlying behavior and mental experience is a product of evolution by natural selection.

Question 21

Learning explanations

Answer 21

Essentially all forms of human behavior and mental experience are modifiable by learning; that is, they can be influenced by prior experiences.

Question 22

Cognitive explanations

Answer 22

One way to explain any behavioral action or mental experience is to relate it to cognitions (items of mental information) that underlie that action or experience.

Question 23

What is the difference between cognitive and learning psychology?

Answer 23

In general, cognitive psychology differs from the psychology of learning
in its focus on the mind. Learning psychologists typically relate learning
experiences directly to behavioral changes and are relatively unconcerned
with the mental processes that mediate such relationships. To a learning
psychologist, experience in the environment leads to change in behavior.
To a cognitive psychologist, experience in the environment leads to
change in knowledge or beliefs, which in turn leads to change in behavior.

Question 24

Social explanations

Answer 24

One way to explain mental experiences and behavior is to identify how they are influenced by other people or by one’s belief about other people. Social-psychological explanations are often phrased in terms of people’s conscious or unconscious beliefs about the potential social consequences of acting in a particular way. This means that many social-psychological explanations are also cognitive explanations.

Question 25

Cultural explanations

Answer 25

Mental experiences and behavior in terms of a person's cultural background.

Question 26

Differences between social and cultural explanations

Answer 26

Cultural and social psychology are closely related, but they differ in emphasis. While social psychologists emphasize the immediate social influences that act on individuals and groups, cultural psychologists strive to characterize entire cultures in terms of the typical ways that people within them feel, think, and act. Social psychologists use concepts such as conformity and obedience to explain behavior, whereas cultural psychologists more often refer to the unique history, economy, and religious or philosophical traditions of a culture to explain the values, norms, and habits of its people.

Question 27

Developmental explanations

Answer 27

The typical age differences in how people think, feel, and act.

Question 28

What are the three main divisions of academic studies?

Answer 28

Natural sciences, social sciences and humanities.

Question 29

Theory

Answer 29

An idea, or a conceptual model, that is designed to explain existing observations and make predictions about new observations that might be discovered.

Question 30

Hypothesis

Answer 30

Any prediction about new observation that is made from a theory

Question 31

What are the three dimensions of research strategies?

Answer 31

The research design, the setting and the data-collection method.

Question 32

What are the tree types of research design?

Answer 32

Experiments, correlational studies and descriptive studies.

Question 33

What are the two basic types of the setting?

Answer 33

Field and laboratory.

Question 34

What are the two basic types of data-collection method?

Answer 34

Self-report and observation.

Question 35

Experiment

Answer 35

A procedure in which a researcher systematically manipulates (varies) one ore more independent variables and looks for changes in one or more dependent variables, while keeping all other variables constant.

Question 36

Subjects

Answer 36

Refer to the humans or animals that are being studied in any research study.

Question 37

Within-subject experiments

Answer 37

Or repeated-measures experiments, are experiments where each subject is being tested in each of the different conditions of the independent variable.

Question 38

Between-groups experiments

Answer 38

Or between-subjects experiments, a separate group of subjects each get a different condition of the independent variable.

Question 39

What's the advantages and disadvantage of using random assignments?

Answer 39

Pros: It prevents bias. Any results that differ among the groups must be a result of chance. Cons: Confounds can occur.

Question 40

Correlational studies

Answer 40

Observing the relationship between variables. There are no manipulations involved here. We do this when experimental studies are too difficult or are impossible.

Question 41

Descriptive study

Answer 41

Describing the behavior of an individual or set of individuals without assessing relationships between different variables.

Question 42

Laboratory study

Answer 42

Any research study in which the subjects are brought to a specially designated area that has been set up to facilitate the researcher’s collection of data or control over environmental conditions.

Question 43

Field study

Answer 43

Any research study conducted in a setting where the researcher does not have control over the subjects’ experiences.

Question 44

What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of laboratory studies and field studies?

Answer 44

Laboratory and field settings offer opposite sets of advantages and disadvantages. Laboratory settings might be too strange or artificial for the subjects, causing behaviors to occur that might act as confounds.

Question 45

Introspection

Answer 45

One form of self-report. The personal observation of one's thoughts, perceptions, and feelings.

Question 46

Self-report methods

Answer 46

Procedures in which people are asked to rate their own behavior or mental state in some way.

Question 47

Observational methods

Answer 47

All procedures by which researchers observe and record the behavior of interest rather than relying on subjects' self reports.

Question 48

What are tests and naturalistic observations?

Answer 48

Both are sub categories of observational methods. With tests, researchers deliberately presents problem, tasks, or situations to which the subject responds. With naturalistic observations, researchers avoid interfering with the subjects' behavior.

Question 49

Hawthorne effect

Answer 49

Changes in subjects' behavior as a result of knowing they are being watched.

Question 50

What's one way of minimizing the Hawthorne effect?

Answer 50

By taking advantage of the phenomenon of habituation: a decline in response when a stimulus is repeatedly or continuously present.

Question 51

Disadvantage of naturalistic observations

Answer 51

It takes a long time, you cannot change anything, operationalizing the data so it can be used for statistical analysis is difficult too.

Question 52

How do we make sense of the data collected in a research study?

Answer 52

By using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.

Question 53

Descriptive statistics

Answer 53

Statistical procedures used to summarize sets of data. It involves using numbers and uses the terms mean, median and a measure of variability.

Question 54

Inferential statistics

Answer 54

Statistical procedures which help researchers decide how confident they can be in judging whether the results observed are due to chance.

Question 55

Variability in statistics

Answer 55

The degree in which the numbers in the set differ from one another and from their mean.

Question 56

Standard deviation

Answer 56

A common measure of variability.

Question 57

Correlation coefficient

Answer 57

A statistic that indicates the direction of the correlation (negative or positive). It produces a result ranging from -1.00 to +1.00. When the cc is 0, it means that there are nor relation at all between the variables.

Question 58

What does it mean to say that a result from a research study is statistically significant at the 5% level?

Answer 58

To say that results are statistically significant is to say that the probability is acceptably small (generally less than 5%) that they could be caused by chance alone

Question 59

How is statistical significance affected by the size of the effect, the number of subjects or observations, and the variability of the scores within each group?

Answer 59

A large observed effect, a large number of observations, and a small degree of variability in scores within groups all reduce the likelihood that the effect is due to chance and increase the likelihood that a difference between two means, or a correlation between two variables, will be statistically significant.

Question 60

Bias

Answer 60

It refers to nonrandom (directed) effects caused by some factor or factors extraneous to the research hypothesis.

Question 61

What is the difference between bias and random viariation?

Answer 61

Imagine two archers, one is a novice and the other an expert. The novice is expected to shoot around and near the target (random variation). They are not experienced enough. An expert however can shoot more accurately. But let's say the expert got a misaligned bow. All of the shots would be very close to each other, but not near the bullseye.

Question 62

Why is bias the more serious problem than random variation?

Answer 62

Because statistical techniques cannot identify or correct for it. Error only reduces the chance that researchers will find statistically significant results (by increasing the variability of the data).

Question 63

Biased sample

Answer 63

The members of a particular group are initially different from those of another group in some systematic way, or are different from the larger population that the researcher is interested in.

Question 64

How can we prevent bias in an experiment?

Answer 64

By using random assignment. Their individual differences are now merely a source of error.

Question 65

Why do bias samples occur in descriptive studies?

Answer 65

The human subjects who are easily available to be studied may not be the representative of the grater population.

Question 66

What is reliability?

Answer 66

Reliability has to do with measurement error, not bias. Because it is a source of error, low reliability decreases the chance of finding statistical significance in a research study.

Question 67

Interobserver reliability

Answer 67

Or interrater reliability: the same behavior seen by one observer is also seen by a second observer. To ensure interobserver reliability, most investigations require that at least two independent observers record the target behavior, and these recordings are then compared statistically to determine if the two people are seeing the same things.

Question 68

Operational definition

Answer 68

An operational definition defines something in terms of the identifiable and repeatable procedures, or operations, by which it can be observed and measured.

Question 69

Validity

Answer 69

A measurement procedure is valid if it measures or predicts what it is intended to measure or predict. Lack of validity can be a source of bias.

Question 70

How can we assess the validity of a measurement procedure?

Answer 70

A more certain way to gauge the validity of a measurement procedure is to correlate its scores with another, more direct index of the characteristic that we wish to measure or predict. In that case, the more direct index is called the criterion, and the validity is called criterion validity.

Question 71

Observer-expectancy effect

Answer 71

The expectation of a researcher might be conveyed/noticed by the subjects, causing them to behave differently than normal.

Question 72

Subject-expectancy effects

Answer 72

Subjects' expectation may also cause them to behave differently.

Question 73

What can we do to minimize observers and subjects expectancy effect?

Answer 73

By using a double-blind placebo experiment: both the observer and the subjects are kept blind about the treatment subjects are receiving. While one group receives the real treatment, the other get a placebo (an inactive substance that looks like the drug).

Question 74

Evolution

Answer 74

The long-term adaptive process, spanning generations, that equips each species for life in its ever-changing natural habitat.

Question 75

How can genes affect behavioral traits through their role in protein synthesis?

Answer 75

All the effects that genes have on behavior occur through their role in building and modifying the physical structures of the body. Those structures, interacting with the environment, produce behavior.

Question 76

What is a gene?

Answer 76

A segment of a DNA molecule that contains the code that dictates the particular sequence of amino acids for a single type of protein.

Question 77

What does it mean to say that genes can influence behavioral traits only through interaction with the environment? How are genes involved in long term behavioral changes derived from experience?

Answer 77

Food supply genes with amino acids, which are needed to manufacture proteins. Experiences activate genes, which produce proteins, which in turn alter the function of some of the neural circuits in the brain and thereby change the individual’s behavior.

Question 78

Genotype

Answer 78

The set of genes that the individual inherits.

Question 79

Phenotype

Answer 79

Observable properties of the body and behavioral traits

Question 80

Mitosis

Answer 80

The process that divides cells to produce new cells other than egg or sperm cells. Each chromosome precisely replicates itself and then the cell divides, with one copy of each chromosome moving into each of the two cell nuclei thus formed.

Question 81

Meiosis

Answer 81

The process that divides cells to produce egg or sperm cells. Each chromosome replicates itself once, but then the cell divides twice.

Question 82

Zygote

Answer 82

When a sperm and egg unite, the result is a single egg, that contains 23 paired chromosomes.

Question 83

What is the advantage of producing genetically diverse offspring?

Answer 83

It reduces the risk that all of the offspring will die as a result of some unforeseen change in the environment.

Question 84

What is the difference between a dominant and a recessive gene (or allele)?

Answer 84

An dominant gene will produce its observable effect in either the homozygous or the heterozygous condition, while a recessive gene will only produce it in the homozygous condition.

Question 85

Who came up with the idea that the units of heredity come in pairs and that one member of a pair can be dominant over the other?

Answer 85

Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel.

Question 86

Why might a disease caused by two recessive genes persist in the gene pool?

Answer 86

In the situation that people have that gene in the heterozygous position, that's when the benefit will be found.

Question 87

How do genes and the environment interact to affect individuals with PKU?

Answer 87

Genes has caused the inability to process phenylalanine. Food (comes from the environment) can cause excessive phenylalanine.

Question 88

Polygenic characteristics

Answer 88

Characteristics that vary in a continuous (when characteristics do not fall into two or more distinct group but can lie anywhere within the observed range of scores) way are generally affected by many genes.

Question 89

How are the characteristics of animals shaped through selective breeding?

Answer 89

For single-gene characteristics the effects of selective breeding are immediate, but for polygenic characteristics the effects are gradual and cumulative over generations.

Question 90

Epigenetics

Answer 90

Changes in gene function that do not alter its underlying structure of DNA but result in genes being switched on or off in a reversible way. How genetic material is activated or deactivated—that is, expressed—in different contexts.

Question 91

Artificial selection

Answer 91

Human-controlled selective breeding

Question 92

Natural selection

Answer 92

Selective breeding in nature is dictated not by the needs and whims of humans but by the obstacles to survival and reproduction that are imposed by the natural emvironment.

Question 93

Darwin's concept of natural selection

Answer 93

1. More individuals are born in a generation than will survive. 2. Not all members of generation are the same. 3. These individual differences are inherited, passed from one generation to the next. 4. Individuals with collections of traits that fit well with the local environment are more apt to survive and have more offspring than individuals whose traits do not fit as well with the local environment.

Question 94

How are genes involved in evolution? What are the sources of genetic diversity on which natural selection acts?

Answer 94

Genes that improve an individual’s ability to survive and reproduce in the existing environment increase from generation to generation, and genes that impede this ability decrease over the generations. The genetic variability on which natural selection acts has two main sources: the reshuffling of genes that occurs in sexual reproduction (already discussed) and mutations.

Question 95

Mutations

Answer 95

Errors that occasionally and unpredictably occur during DNA replication, causing the 'replica' to be not quite identical to the original.

Question 96

How does change in the environment affect the direction and speed of evolution?

Answer 96

Environmental change spurs evolution not by causing the appropriate mutations to occur but by promoting natural selection.

Question 97

Misconceptions of evolution

Answer 97

1. Natural selection can only lead to changes that are immediately adaptive; it cannot anticipate future needs. 2. There is no preset pathway for evolution. 3. The naturalistic fallacy is the error of equating “natural” with “moral” or “right.” Natural selection is not a moral force.

Question 98

Funtionalism

Answer 98

The study that attempts to explain behavior in terms of what it accomplishes for the behaving individual.

Question 99

How does an understanding of evolution provide a basis for functionalism in psychology?

Answer 99

The mechanisms underlying behavior are products of natural selection; they came about because they promoted survival and reproduction.

Question 100

Distal explanations of behavior

Answer 100

(as in “distant”) are explanations at the evolutionary level. They are statements of the role that the behavior has played in the animal’s survival and reproduction over evolutionary time. Viewed from the vantage point of the gene, they are statements of how the behavior helped the individual’s ancestor’s genes make it into the next generation. Distal causation is sometimes referred to as ultimate causation.

Question 101

Proximate explanations of behavior

Answer 101

(as in “proximity”) are explanations that deal not with function but with mechanism; they are statements of the immediate conditions, both inside and outside the animal, that elicit the behavior.

Question 102

How are the distal and proximate explanations of the behavior complementary?

Answer 102

The distal explanation states the survival or reproductive value of the behavior, and the proximate explanation states the stimuli and physiological mechanisms through which the behavior occurs.

Question 103

Vestigial characteristics

Answer 103

Remaining traits that evolved because they served the need of our ancestors and are no longer functional today.

Question 104

What are four reasons for the existence of traits or behaviors that do not serve survival and reproductive functions?

Answer 104

1. Some traits are vestigial. 2. Some traits are side effects of natural selection for other traits- like the navel. 3. Some traits result simply from chance-genetic drift. 4. Evolved mechanisms cannot deal effectively with every situation.

Question 105

Species-typical behaviors

Answer 105

Or more commonly called instincts, certain characteristics of behaving.

Question 106

How do the examples of two-legged walking and language in humans, and singing in white-crowned sparrows, illustrate the point that species-typical behaviors may depend on learning?

Answer 106

If the environment did not allow them, they won't display species-specific behavior.

Question 107

How is the concept of biological preparedness related to that of species-typical behavior?

Answer 107

The body has to come with appropriate mechanisms to be able to act in some way. Dogs do not have the appropriate muscles and skeletal system to walk on two legs without practising.

Question 108

Homology

Answer 108

Any similarity that exists because of the different species' common ancestry.

Question 109

Analogy

Answer 109

Any similarity that stems not from common ancestry but from convergent evolution.

Question 110

When does convergent evolution occurs?

Answer 110

When different species, because of their similar lifestyle and context, independently evolve a common characteristic.

Question 111

How are homologies used for learning about (a) the physiological mechanisms and (b) the evolutionary pathways of species-typical traits?

Answer 111

a. Because convergent evolution can produce similar behaviors that operate through different mechanisms, researchers use animals to understand the physiological mechanisms of humans. b. By comparing the different forms of a particular species-typical behavior in closely related species, it is often possible to reconstruct how the more complex of these forms evolved through a series of steps from the simpler form.

Question 112

How can we use analogies to make inferences about the distal functions of species-typical traits?

Answer 112

Analogies, in contrast, are not useful for tracing evolutionary origins, but are useful for making inferences about the distal functions of species-typical behaviors. If different species have independently evolved a particular behavioral trait, then comparing the species may reveal commonalities of habitat and lifestyle that are clues to the distal function of that trait.

Question 113

Polygyny

Answer 113

When one male mates with more than one female.

Question 114

Polyandry

Answer 114

When one female mates with more than one male.

Question 115

Monogamy

Answer 115

When one male mates with one female.

Question 116

Promiscuity

Answer 116

Members of a group consists of more than one male and more than one female mates with one another.

Question 117

Parental investment

Answer 117

The time, energy, and risk to survival that are involved in producing, feeding, and otherwise caring for each offspring.

Question 118

Trivers's version of paternal investment

Answer 118

The sex that invests more in parenting will be more selective in choosing a mate than the less-investing sex, whereas the less-investing sex will compete more vigorously for access to the more investing sex.

Question 119

Based on Trivers’s theory of parental investment, why does high investment by the female lead to (a) polygyny, (b) large size of males, and (c) high selectivity in the female’s choice of mate?

Answer 119

a. Because of the female’s high investment, the number of offspring she can produce in a breeding season or a lifetime is limited. b. The male's involvement with offspring is, at minimum, simply the production of sperm cells and the act of copulation. These require little time and energy, so his maximum reproductive potential is limited not by parental investment but by the number of fertile females he mates with. c. Because she invests so much, risking her life and decreasing her future reproductive potential whenever she becomes pregnant, her genetic interests lie in producing offspring that will have the highest possible chance to survive and reproduce.

Question 120

What conditions promote the evolution of polyandry? How do sex differences within polyandrous species support Trivers’s theory?

Answer 120

Polyandry seems to come about in cases where the female can produce more eggs during a single breeding season than either she alone or she and one male can care for. Consistent with Trivers’s theory, females of polyandrous species are the more active and aggressive courters, and they have evolved to be larger, stronger, and in some cases more brightly colored than the males

Question 121

What conditions promote the evolution of monogamy? Why are sex differences in size and strength generally lacking in monogamous species?

Answer 121

Equal parental investment is most likely to come about when conditions make it impossible for a single adult to raise the young but quite possible for two to raise them. Because neither sex has a much greater likelihood of fighting over mates, there is little or no natural selection for sex differences in size and strength, and, in general, males and females of monogamous species are nearly identical in these characteristics.

Question 122

For what evolutionary reasons might monogamously mated females and males sometimes copulate with partners other than their mates?

Answer 122

From the female’s evolutionary perspective, copulation with a male that is genetically superior to her own mate (as manifested in song and feathers) results in genetically superior young, and copulation with any additional male increases the chance that all her eggs will be fertilized by viable sperm. For the male, evolutionary advantage rests in driving neighboring males away from his own mate whenever possible and in copulating with neighboring females whenever possible. Genes that build brain mechanisms that promote such behaviors are passed along to more offspring than are genes that do not.

Question 123

Helping

Answer 123

Any behavior that increases the survival chance or reproductive capacity of another individual

Question 124

Two categories of helping

Answer 124

Cooperation and altruism

Question 125

Cooperation

Answer 125

When an individual helps another while helping itself.

Question 126

Altruism

Answer 126

When an individual helps another while decreasing its own survival chance or reproductive capacity.

Question 127

The kin selection theory of altruism

Answer 127

Behavior that may seem altruistic came about through natural selection because it preferentially helps close relative, who are genetically most similar to the helper.

Question 128

The reciprocity theory of apparent altruism

Answer 128

The reciprocity theory provides an account of how acts of apparent altruism can arise even among nonkin.

Question 129

Hormones

Answer 129

Chemical messengers that are secreted into the blood. They are carried by the blood to all parts on the body, where they act on specific target tissues.