Week 1

Question 1

Learn the scope of mental health problems faced by university students and how that might affect working with course content

Answer 1

Mental health problems are common. Research suggest that mental illness reduces student academic success and adjustment in university overall, but very few people receive the treatment that might help

Question 2

Define trigger warnings and the existing evidence

Answer 2

They involve a description of the potentially distressing content with the goal of providing the opportunity to prepare for or avoid this content. There is a lack of scientific evidence that they do what they are supposed to. They do not impact emotional reactions to potentially upsetting content

Question 3

Trigger warnings

Answer 3

Advance notifications at the start of a video, piece of writing, or in educational contexts, a lecture or topic, that contains potentially distressing material

Question 4

Describe how scientific research has changed the world

Answer 4

Many diseases have been greatly reduced because of vaccines discovered. Medical advances and technological innovations are the direct result of scientific research and understanding

Question 5

Describe the key characteristics of the scientific approach

Answer 5

Science is the use of systematic observation in order to acquire knowledge. Empirical methods are ways to learn about the physical and biological world. Systemic observation is the core of science. Observation leads to hypotheses we can test. Science is democratic and cumulative

Question 6

Systemic observation

Answer 6

The careful observation of the natural world with the aim of better understanding it. Observations provide the basic data that allow scientists to track, tally, or otherwise organize information about the natural world. The core of science

Question 7

Empirical methods

Answer 7

Approaches to inquiry that are tied to actual measurement and observation

Question 8

Hypotheses

Answer 8

A logical idea that can be tested

Question 9

Theories

Answer 9

Groups of closely related phenomena or observations

Question 10

Science is democratic

Answer 10

People are more likely to want to be able to form their own opinions and debate conclusions. Scientists are skeptical and have open discussions about their observations and theories. Findings with the idea that the best data will win the argument

Question 11

Science is cumulative

Answer 11

A crucial aspect of scientific progress is that after we learn of earlier advances, we can build upon them and move farther along the path of knowledge

Question 12

Ethics

Answer 12

Professional guidelines that offer researchers a template for making decisions that protect harm and that help steer scientists away from conflicts of interest or other situations that might compromise the integrity of their research

Question 13

Informed consent

Answer 13

People should know when they are involved in research and understand what will happen to them during the study

Question 14

Confidentiality

Answer 14

Information that researchers should consider the benefits of their knowledge and consent

Question 15

Benefits

Answer 15

Researchers should consider the benefits of their proposed research and weigh these against potential risks to the participants

Question 16

Deception

Answer 16

Some researchers used to deceive participants in order to hide the true nature of the study. Typically done to prevent participants from modifying their behaviour in unnatural ways. Researchers are required to “debrief” their participants after they completed the study

Question 17

Accuracy

Answer 17

Explanations and theories match real world observations

Question 18

Consistency

Answer 18

A theory has few exceptions and shows agreement with other theories within and across disciplines

Question 19

Scope

Answer 19

Extent to which a theory extends beyond currently available data, explaining a wide array of phenomena

Question 20

Simplicity

Answer 20

When multiple explanations are equally good at explaining the data, the simplest should be selected

Question 21

Fruitfulness

Answer 21

The usefulness of the theory in guiding new research by predicting new, testable relationships

Question 22

pseudoscience

Answer 22

Beliefs or practises that are presented as being scientific or which are mistaken for being scientific, but which are not scientific

Question 23

Why does a study not prove a hypothesis

Answer 23

Even if we tested this across 10 thousand or 100 thousand people, we still could not use the word “proven” to describe this phenomenon. Inductive reasoning is based on probabilities, which are always a matter of degree; they must be extremely likely or unlikely. Proof is more associated with deductive reasoning

Question 24

Deductive reasoning

Answer 24

Starts with general principles that are applied to specific instances. When the general principles, or premises are true, and the structure of the argument is valid, the conclusion is, by definition, proven; it must be so

Question 25

Representative

Answer 25

In research, the degree to which a sample is a typical example from the population from which it is drawn

Question 26

Correlation

Answer 26

In statistics, the measure of relatedness of two or more variables

Question 27

Null-hypothesis significance testing

Answer 27

Assesses the probability that the data would be the same if there were no relationship between the variables in the study

Question 28

Distribution

Answer 28

In statistics, the relative frequency that a particular value occurs for each possible value of a given variable

Question 29

A scientific theory

Answer 29

A comprehensive framework for making sense of evidence regarding a particular phenomenon. They describe, explain, and predict in a way that can be empirically tested and potentially falsified

Question 30

Thomas Kuhn

Answer 30

Argued that science, as an activity conduced by humans, is a social activity. There is no such thing as objective theory or data; all of science is informed by values. Highlights a distinction between facts and values

Question 31

Facts

Answer 31

Objective information about the world

Question 32

empiricism

Answer 32

The belief that knowledge comes from experience

Question 33

functionalism

Answer 33

A school of American psychology that focused on the utility of consciousness

Question 33

behaviourism

Answer 33

The study of behaviour.

Question 34

Cognitive psychology

Answer 34

The study of mental processes.

Question 35

consciousness

Answer 35

Awareness of ourselves and our environment.

Question 36

Eugenics

Answer 36

The practice of selective breeding to promote desired traits.

Question 37

Flashbulb memory

Answer 37

A highly detailed and vivid memory of an emotionally significant event.

Question 38

Gestalt psychology

Answer 38

An attempt to study the unity of experience.

Question 39

Individual differences

Answer 39

Ways in which people differ in terms of their behavior, emotion, cognition, and development.

Question 40

Introspection

Answer 40

A method of focusing on internal processes.

Question 41

Neural impulse

Answer 41

An electrochemical signal that enables neurons to communicate

Question 42

Practitioner-Scholar Model

Answer 42

a model of training of professional psychologists that emphasizes clinical practise

Question 43

Psychophysics

Answer 43

Study of the relationships between physical stimuli and the perception of those stimuli.

Question 44

Scientist-practitioner model

Answer 44

A model of training of professional psychologists that emphasizes the development of both research and clinical skills.

Question 44

Realism

Answer 44

A point of view that emphasizes the importance of the senses in providing knowledge of the external world.

Question 45

Structuralism

Answer 45

A school of American psychology that sought to describe the elements of conscious experience.

Question 45

Tip of the Tongue phenomenon

Answer 45

The inability to pull a word from memory even though there is the sensation that that word is available.

Question 46

Type I error

Answer 46

When the researcher concludes there is a relationship between two variables but, in reality, there is not

Question 47

Type II error

Answer 47

When the data fails to show a relationship between variables that actually exist

Question 48

How do researchers address type I and type II errors

Answer 48

By using probability values to set a threshold for type I and type II errors

Question 49

Inductive reasoning

Answer 49

A form of reasoning in which a general conclusion is inferred from a set of observations,

Question 50

null hypothesis

Answer 50

Statement that two variables are related