Studied by 88 people
Psychology
the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Rene Descartes and Dualism
Theorized that the mind and body were separate from each other and interact with one another.
John Locke and Empiricism
All learning comes from experiences and observations
Tabula rasa
blank slate - used to describe the mind of an infant
Thomas Hobbes and Materialsm
The only things that exist are energy and matter.
What cannot be seen does not exist
Charles Darwin and natural selection
Creatures have evolved over long periods of time for them to become their present state.
Species best adapted to their environment are likely to survive more and produce more offsprings
Evolutionary theory
in a given population, specific traits are more helpful than others for survival
Wilhelm Wundt
father of psychology
German psychologist
founded a lab to to research about consciousness
Edward Titchener and structuralism
Study the structure of the mind: understanding components of the mind and how each part works together in order to have a greater understanding of the mind and human behavior
Instropection
Examination process in which one observes their own mental and emotional processes
William James and Functionalism
Study the function of the mind:
How consciousness changes according to the environment
Dorothea Dix
founded the first public mental hospital in the US
Mary White Calkins
first female president of APA
first female graduate student in psychology
Margaret Floy Washburn
First female PhD in psychology
Second female president of AOA
G. Stanley Hall
First president of APA
Biological approach
studying human biology (especially brain and nervous system) to study human behavior
genetics and biological processes play an important role in shaping behavior
Behavioral genetics approach
genetics and the environment influence behavior
Behavioralist approach
behavior is learned through interaction with the environment
Classical condition
founded by Ivan Pavlov
behavior is learned by connecting a neutral stimulus with a positive stimulus
John Watson
Little Albert Experiment:
made loud sounds when a 9 month old baby touched the white rat: as a result, he’s scared to touch anything white and furry
Operant conditioning
B.F. Skinner uses rewards and punishments to modify behavior
rewards = increases behavior
punishments = decreases behavior
Neutral stimulus
a stimulus that does not elicit a response
Unconditioned stimulus
stimulus that triggers an unconditioned response (automatic)
Conditioned stimulus
a stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place
Cognitive approach
Studying mental processes such as attention, perception, memory, and decision-making
How the mind thinks
Humanistic approach
studies person as a whole
emphasizes people’s strengths, goals, how they influence behavior to free will
Abraham Maslow and Self actualization
Hierarchy of needs
Individuals reach their fullest potential in unique ways
Carl Rogers and unconditional positive regard
when someone continues to see a person in positive light regardless of the situation (no matter what they do)
Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach
Sigmund Freud stresses the importance of childhood experiences and child’s relationship with parents in developing personality childhood experiences and unconscious desires influence
Sociocultural approach
studies how cultures and society shapes individuals the environment one lives in can shape how they behave
Evolutionary approach
Charles Darwin
How adaptive behavior can be to our survival
Biopsychosocial approach
studying the interaction between biological, psychological, and social factors as contributing to behavior or a mental process
3 major types of research in psychology
experimental, correlational, clinical
Experiment
an investigation seeking to understand relations of cause and effect
Independent variable
variable that stands alone and is manipulated by experimenter
Dependent variable
variable that is measured and cannot b changed by other variables
Constant variable
variable that stays the same throughout the experiment
Population
the total amount of people in an area
Representative sample
a group that closely matches the characteristics of its population as a whole
Random assignment
sample that has an equal chance of being chosen
Random sampling
the process of choosing research participants from population
Sampling bias
some members of a population are more likely to be selected in a sample than others
Self selection bias
participants have a choice to participate in the study or not
Pre-screening/advertising bias
Participants may share the same characteristics and offer similar results, not representing the entire population
Bias of selection
selected research participants are not representative of the population
Healthy user bias
when the study population is in better shape than the general population
Single-blind design
subject does not know if they are in the control or experimental group
Double-blind design
subject and researcher does not know who’s in the two groups
Placebo
an object or procedure that makes the control group believe that they are in the experimental group but actually contains none of the tested materials
Correlational variable
research studying the relationship between 2 or more variables without manipulating them
Confounding variable
variable that influences or affects the independent or dependent
Surveys
questionnaires or interviews
Longitudinal studies
data collected over a long period of time of the same subjects
Cross-sectional studies
data collected at one single point of time from many different individuals
case studies
in-depth study of a person , group, or event
subject’s life and history are analyzed to seek patterns and causes of behavior
generalizability
measure of how useful the results of a study are for a larger group of people in situations
Conceptual defintion
tells you what the concept means
explains what to observe and measure
Operational definition
how to measure or observe the issue
internal validity
certainty that the results of an experiment is not influenced by other factors
external validity
extent to which findings of a study can be generalized to different groups
Reliability
measuring of whether or not results are the same/consistent if experiment is repeated
Inter-rater reliability
two or more raters agree
Descriptive statistics
summarizes graphs and data
can only tell wht data is
do not allow for conclusions
mean, median, mode
central decency
average
mean
average of set of numbers
median
number that lies in the middle
mode
most frequently occurring number
range
largest number - smallest number
Variability
how much the set of numbers differs from each other.
standard deviation
measures the average distribution of numbers around the mean
percentile
number where there is a certain percentage that lies below that number
Positive skew
tail of curve falls to the right
Negative Skew
tail of curve falls to the left
Correlational coefficient
how one variable moves in relation to another
(+ or -) sign
shows direction of correlation
0 to 1.00
shows strength of correlation
Pearson correlation coefficient
a number between -1 and 1 that measures the strength and direction of the relationship between 2 variables
positive correlation
x increases, y increases
negative correlation
x decreases, y increases
causation
change in one variable causes a change in the other variable
correlation
variables are statistically associated
Inferential statistics
tests hypothesis and assesses generalizability to broader population
takes data from sample group and makes inferences about larger population from sample
sample size
number of observations or individuals
the null hypothesis
‘null’ = nothing
there is no effect in the population
the alternative hypothesis
there is an effect in the population
alpha
probability of type 1 error
type 1 error
an investigator rejects the null hypothesis that is actually true in a population
type 2 error
an investigator fails to reject the null hypothesis that is actually false in a population
p-value
shows the likelihood of your data having occurred under the null hypothesis
Deception
misleading research participants about an experiment’s purpose
Stanley Milgram
conducted an experiment
convinced participants that they will electric shock other participants
‘shocked’ participants were confederates, they knew the true purpose and pretended
many people thought that this was unethical as real participants may have believed they caused harm
IRBs
Institute Review Boards
assess research plans and ensure all meets ethical standards
Informed consent
participants may choose to participate only after they’ve received full details about experiment
Debriefing
researcher explains full purpose of study, explain used deception
confidentiality
keeping participants information anonymous
Psychological domains that would be classified as BASIC research
biological
developmental
cognitive
educational
personality
social
positive
psychometric
psychological domains that would be classified as APPLIED research
industrial-organizational
counseling
clinical
basic research (psychology)
builds psychology knowledge base
applied research (psychology)
taking on practical problems, testing hypothesis
counselor
gives professional help and advice to someone to resolve personal or psychological problems
