Unit 1 Flashcards
(95 cards)
1
Q
• Psychology
A
is the scientific study of
behavior and mental processes.
2
Q
Psychologists
A
are scientists, and their
work is based on scientific principles that
emphasize empiricism, or knowledge
based on observation.
3
Q
Pseudoscience
A
Information that appears scientific but is
based on unsound scientific principles
4
Q
The Roots of Psychology
A
Philosophical Roots
Biological Roots
5
Q
Philosophical Roots
A
• Psychology has deep roots in philosophy, the study of knowledge and existence, which has long considered what motivates behavior.
6
Q
Biological Roots
A
• Physiology, a branch of biology that studies internal biological processes, has focused attention on the link between the brain and human behavior. – Ancient Greek physiologists like Hippocrates discovered that damage to one area of the brain created problems in certain parts of the body.
7
Q
Structuralism
A
• The school of psychology that studies human experience by breaking it down into smaller pieces. Relies on: – Introspection – Anecdotal evidence:
8
Q
Introspection
A
Examination of
one’s own mental and
emotional processes
9
Q
Anecdotal evidence
A
A type
of information that relies on
unscientific observation
10
Q
Functionalism
A
A school of psychology concerned with the purposes of behavior and mental processes – Functionalists were interested in how behavior functions to adapt to the environment
11
Q
Contemporary Psychology
A
Contemporary perspectives in psychology offer specialized ways to study behavior and mental processes. Perspectives continue to evolve and overlap. • Levels of analysis • Eclectic model • Biopsychosocial approach
12
Q
Levels of analysis:
A
Various ways of examining
the same psychological phenomenon
13
Q
Eclectic model:
A
An approach that pulls together
multiple ways of examining a particular problem
or question
14
Q
Biopsychosocial approach:
A
A theory that recognizes three equally important aspects of human mental processes and behavior: -Biological -Psychological -Social
15
Q
Neuroscience:
A
The study of the brain and nervous system; also called biological psychology. Tools include: – Positron emission tomography – Functional magnetic resonance imaging
16
Q
Functional magnetic
resonance imaging
A
Neuroscience imaging technique
used to measure changes in
blood flow
17
Q
Positron emission
tomography
A
A neuroscience
imaging technique that uses
radioactive glucose to indicate
areas of activity
18
Q
The Evolutionary Perspective
A
• Examines the impact of natural selection on behavioral and mental processes. – Natural selection – Heritability
19
Q
Heritability:
A
How much of a
characteristic can be linked to
genetics as opposed to the
environment
20
Q
Natural selection:
A
Varying
success in reproduction resulting
from the interaction of an
organism with the environment
21
Q
The Psychoanalytic Perspective
A
• A family of theories originated by Sigmund
Freud; focuses on unconscious motivation
• Studies topics such as the meaning
behind our dreams and the nature of
personality
• Posits that the way to change behavior is
to understand the conflicting emotions that
underlie it
22
Q
The Behavioral Perspective
A
• The study of learning based on directly observable actions • Examines such things as how we learn from the world around us and how we change what we do in response to expected outcomes
23
Q
The Humanistic Perspective
A
• A branch of psychology that emphasizes
growth, potential, and self-actualization
Humanists such as Abraham Maslow suggested that we are motivated to become good people. Maslow suggested these motivations exist in a hierarchy from basic physiological needs to selffulfillment needs.
24
Q
The Cognitive Perspective
A
• Emphasizes the internal processes of thought that
help us make sense of the world
– Cognition
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• Humanists focus on positive psychology,
| which emphasizes the ....
constructive
features of human strength and healthy
living rather than pathology.
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Cognition
encompasses all types of thinking,
including knowing, remembering, reasoning, deciding,
and communicating.
27
Cognitive psychologists study
the decision-making
processes involved with both slow, deliberative
decisions and quick, intuitive choices.
28
Cognitive neuroscientists
study brain action
| linked to thought, perception, and language.
29
The Sociocultural Perspective
```
• Emphasizes the way that social
and cultural elements in the world
(or environment) influence
behavior and mental processes
– Social psychology
– Cross-cultural psychology
```
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Cross-cultural psychology
```
is
concerned with the impact that
shared attitudes, customs, and
behaviors have on individual
behavior and mental processes.
```
31
Social psychology
focuses on how
our thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors influence and are
influenced by others.
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Professional Specialization and
| Research Areas in Psychology
```
• A type of research
concerned with
expanding knowledge,
even if the knowledge
has no practical
application
• A type of research
concerned with
solving everyday
problems
```
33
Critical Thinking
```
• The identification
and evaluation of
evidence to guide
thoughts and
decision making
```
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```
The Five Criteria for Critical Thinking
in Psychology (LEARN)
```
* (L)ook for multiple influences
* (E)xamine alternatives
* (A)nalyze the evidence
* (R)easoned skepticism
* (N)otice assumptions
35
Psychological Science
• Studies human behavior in order to learn
what “makes people tick.” Data collection
about human behavior uses the same
scientific method found in other sciences
– Theory
– Hypothesis
36
Theory
An overarching conceptualization or
model about how various factors may
influence behavior
37
Hypothesis
A clear statement or prediction
that can be shown to be true or false in an
experiment
38
The Scientific Method in Psychology (5) steps
```
• Step 1: Formulate a testable hypothesis
• Step 2: Select the research method and
design the study.
• Step 3: Collect the data.
• Step 4: Analyze the data and draw
conclusions.
• Step 5: Report the findings.
```
39
Comparison Groups
• Between-subjects design
| Within-subjects design:
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Within-subjects design:
A research plan
in which each subject takes part in every
part of the study
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Between-subjects design:
A research
plan in which different individuals take part
in differing aspects of the study or in which
different groups are compared
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Why is the Scientific Method
| Important?
```
In psychology the scientific method is used
to determine:
• Reactivity
• Replicability
• Reliability
• Validity
• Generalizability
```
43
Descriptive Research
```
• Descriptive studies are concerned with the
relationships between and among
behaviors, experiences, and individual
attributes (called variables).
– Comparative study
```
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Comparative study
A research project that
compares similarities and differences between
human and animal behavior
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Naturalistic observation
involves observing
human behavior as it occurs in a real-world
setting.
• The researcher makes no attempt to interact
with or change the behavior of those
observed.
• Important because study results conducted
under controlled conditions often differ from
those of a study that takes place “in the wild”
46
Case Studies
```
• Descriptive studies that involve
the extensive examination of the
experience of a single individual or
group
– Cognitive neuroscientists and
clinical neuropsychologists study
individuals who have brain injuries
that produce specific, characteristic
behavior to infer how the injured
areas function within an intact brain.
```
47
Surveys
• Study methods in which individuals are asked
to respond to a set of questions designed by
an experimenter
– Results can be presented in the form of a bar
graph to show the differences among the
categories.
• Population
• Sample
• Sampling bias
• Convenience sample
• Random sampling
48
Population
The larger group
about whom a study would like to
draw conclusions
49
Sample
The subgroup of
individuals included in a study to
represent a larger population
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Sampling bias
```
The selection of
a sample of individuals from
within a population that fails to
capture an accurate
representation of the larger group
```
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Convenience sample
A group of
participants who are readily available for a
study
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Random sampling
```
Selecting which
members of a population will participate in
a study through a systematic method that
gives every person an equal chance of
selection
```
53
Correlation Studies
• Descriptive studies that attempt to determine
the relationship between two types of
observations
– Scatter plots are observed from scores on two
variables.
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Correlation
```
A measure of the degree to which different factors are
associated with one another
– Correlation coefficient
– Positive correlation
– Negative correlation
```
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– Correlation coefficient
An index, “r”, of the degree of
| relationship between two variables, ranging from −1.00 to +1.00
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– Positive correlation
An association between two variables
| where higher scores on one go with higher scores on the other
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– Negative correlation
An association between two variables
| where higher scores on one go with lower scores on the other
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Strength of Correlation
```
• The strength of a correlation is
measured by its distance from
0.0 on a scale of 0.0 to +1.0 or
−1.0.
– The further the number is from
0.0, the stronger the correlation.
– The standard for a correlation is
+0.30, meaning one variable
accounts for 9% of the variance
in the other.
```
59
Experiment:
```
A method by which one or more
independent factors is manipulated by an
experimenter, and the result is measured
through one or more dependent variables
– Independent variable
– Dependent variable
```
60
Independent variable
The factor that an
experimenter manipulates to create different
experiences for participants
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Dependent variable
The measurement
collected to determine if there was any effect of
the independent variable in an experiment
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Random Assignment
Assigning participants to
receive a given treatment or control condition by
chance so that each has an equal likelihood of
appearing in a given group
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Control group
The group that receives
| no extra treatment or experience
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Experimental group
The group that
| receives some treatment or experience
65
Interaction between variables
```
occurs
when the effect of one independent
variable on the dependent variable
depends upon the level of another
independent variable.
```
66
Confounding Variables
• Alternative factors that might account for observed
differences in the dependent measure. Can occur
due to:
– Experimenter bias:
– Social desirability bias:
– Placebo effect:
67
Experimenter bias
The introduction of inaccuracy of
| measurements due to the researcher’s expectations
68
Social desirability bias
Participants may alter their
responses to be perceived as depicting themselves
positively.
69
Placebo effect
A participant’s belief that he or she is
receiving a treatment can produce changes in
behavior.
70
Operational Definition
```
• The concrete
implementation of a
psychological
concept within a
study
```
71
Types of Experimental Studies
Longitudinal studies
| Cross-sectional studies
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Cross-sectional studies
compare people at
different ages with different people in the age
groups.
– Cohort effects
73
– Cohort effects
are the differences observed
between age groups that may be due to
differences in their experiences in addition to age.
74
Longitudinal studies
follow a person
through development by studying him or her
at different points in time.
75
Statistics
The numerical
summaries of the results
of data collection
76
Central tendency
```
The
“typical value” of a group
of scores, described by
the mean, mode, or
median
```
77
Mode
The most frequently observed
| score in a data sample
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Median
The score at the middle of a
| distribution of scores from a sample
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Mean
The arithmetic average, or the sum
of all scores in a sample divided by the
number of scores
80
Variance
The variability between
scores observed on a given dependent
variable
- Range
81
Range
A measure of variation in a data
sample determined by subtracting the
lowest score from the highest score
82
Standard Deviation
```
• A statistical
measure tracking
how each score in
a sample differs
from the mean
```
83
Patterns of Scores
Bimodal distribution
| Normal distribution
84
Normal distribution
```
The
inverted bell-shaped
frequency distribution that
often occurs for
psychological tests and for
variables such as height
```
85
Bimodal distribution
A pattern of scores with two
distinct clusters with different
modes (frequently occurring
scores)
86
Inferential statistics
guide us in making
conclusions from data, and help us decide
whether any differences observed are meaningful
or due to random variation. Based on:
– size of the difference between the two groups
– variability within each of the groups
– how many observations were collected
• When the probability (p) of an observed difference
occurring is determined to be less than 5% (p
<0.05), it is considered to be statistically
significant.
87
Ethics in Psychological Research
• In 1974, the National Research Act was signed
into law, creating the National Commission for the
Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and
Behavioral Research. This Common Rule:
– Requires federally funded investigators to obtain and
document the informed consent of research subjects
– Describes requirements for institutional review boards
at universities and hospitals to review research before
it is conducted
– Addresses additional requirements when conducting
research with vulnerable populations such as
pregnant women, children, and prisoners
88
The Belmont Report (Department of Health
| and Human Services,1979)
```
identifies the
rights of participants in research, including:
1.Respect for persons
2.Beneficence
3.Justice
```
89
Informed Consent Process
• Participants are given information about:
– the nature of the tasks they will be asked to complete
– disclosure of any risks and benefits
– rights to privacy and confidentiality
– the length of participation requested
– any compensation provided for participation
– the right to withdraw from participating at any time.
• Participants can ask questions of the researcher.
90
Deception
• In studies where the experimenter uses
deception, the Belmont regulations require a
full debriefing following the study. This
debriefing:
– walks the participants through the study
– ensures they understand that they were assigned
to the treatment they received at random
– ensures that they know the manipulation had
nothing to do with them personally
– answers any questions before they leave the
study
91
Animal Studies (pros)
• Pros
– Animal models are much more practical for
some studies due to their shorter natural
lifespan.
– Allow us to gain knowledge that would not be
possible with human subjects due to ethical
or practical concerns.
– The results from animal studies have been
shown to greatly benefit human health and
medical treatments.
– In behavioral research, laboratory animals
have played critical roles in developing new
theories that are now improving research into
human behavioral disorders.
92
Animal Studies (cons)
```
• Cons:
– Animals cannot consent
to participation.
– The practice of testing
animals for purely
research purposes is
controversial, and some
argue that it is not
appropriate.
```
93
Using Medical Devices in Behavioral
| Research
• Brain-imaging devices from medicine have
now been used in behavioral research to
measure thinking through correlates in the
brain’s activity.
– PET scans
– fMRI scans
– ERPs
94
Universal Truths
```
• There is a special area of the human brain
devoted to learning and recognizing
human faces.
• People have a deep need to belong to a
social group or relationship.
• The basic human emotions are displayed
in characteristic facial expressions.
```
95
Differences in people
* Gender
* Age
* Ethnicity
* Nationality
* Education
* Socioeconomic status
* Environment
* Personality
* Culture
