Term 1 Flashcards
What is psychology?
The science of behaviour and the mind
True or False. The visual system is really good at noticing changes both gradual and sudden
False, the visual system tends to only notice sudden changes rather than gradual changes.
Why is the human visual system better at noticing sudden changes rather than gradual?
It is due to our human biology as we are programmed to make decisions based on human survival. Sudden changes are recognised as a potential risk to human survival and that is why our visual system would notice this change although gradual changes are recognised as low risk to human survival and therefore are not noticed as often.
How do we study psychology?
Using a scientific method to discover reliable knowledge about the world.
What is the scientific method?
The scientific method is a set of rules and techniques that allow researchers to avoid biases and mistakes in reaching conclusions.
What is the bystander effect?
The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological claim that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present; the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that one of them will help
What is the common process of phycological research?
To first describe the situation and the behaviour in the natural environment then predict such as specifying how things may co-vary the finally explain what you may think is the cause of that behaviour. (Description, Prediction, Explanation)
What are the main types of research methods in psychology?
The descriptive method, the correlation method and the experimental method.
What is the descriptive method?
The descriptive method is used to describe characteristics and behaviours of a population or phenomenon being studied. It does not answer questions about how/when/why the characteristics or behaviours occurred.
What is the most important 1st step of research?
Using the descriptive method
What are some techniques that can be used for the descriptive method?
Observation without intervention, Observation with intervention and (sometimes) structured intervention.
What are demand characteristics in psychology?
Demand characteristics are any aspect of an experiment that may reveal the hypothesis being tested or that may cue participants as to what behaviors are expected. aka will change the participants natural answer.
What is observer bias?
Occurs when the observers know the aims of the study study or the hypotheses and allow this knowledge to influence their observations.
What is the difference between observer bias and demand characteristics?
Observer bias is quite similar to demand characteristics except that the bias is with the “observers” of the research (i.e., the research team) rather than the participants.
What is the double blind technique?
A double-blind study is one in which neither the participants nor the experimenters know who is receiving a particular treatment. This procedure is utilized to prevent bias in research results.
What is the correlational method?
The correlational method involves looking at relationships between two or more variables. While researchers can use correlations to see if a relationship exists, the variables themselves are not under the control of the researchers. … In other words, correlational studies cannot prove cause-and-effect relationships.
What is a positive correlation?
When both variables increase or decrease together
What is a negative correlation?
When one variable increases and the other decreases.
What is the correlation range?
0-1, with 0 indicating no correlation and 1 indicating a correlation
What is important to remember about correlation?
That correlation is not causation.
What are the 3 criteria for causality?
- An association or a correlation, 2. A temporal precedence, 3. Genuine relationship
What is the experimental method?
The experimental method involves manipulating one variable to determine if changes in one variable cause changes in another variable. This method relies on controlled methods, random assignment and the manipulation of variables to test a hypothesis.
What are the 4 components of a true experiment?
- Manipulation (The variables of interest: Independent and dependant variables) , 2. Participants (Having random selection and random assignment), 3. Data (Collecting results from the experiment), 4. Interpretation (making a conclusion based on the experiment).
What are independant variables?
The variables which are manipulated during an experiment for example if the variable was participants you would be manipulating how many participants you had.