Unit 1 Foundations of Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt

- father of experimental psychology

- founded the first psych lab

- structuralist

Edward Titchener

- Wundt's student

- coined the term "structuralism"

- structuralist

Structuralism

studying the mind by trying to look at what it's made up of

- problems with methods used, such as introspection

William James

- wrote the first psychology textbook

- functionalist

- father of AMERICAN psychology

Functionalism

attempt to study what the mind does/its functions

Introspection

- one examines their own sensations, feelings, thoughts, and perceptions

- often very subjective

Margaret Floy Washburn

- first woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology

- second woman to become president of the APA

Gestalt

"Pattern;" How the brain organizes and structures our perceptions of the world

Behavioral Approach

Only environment molds behavior of animals/humans; John B Watson

Behavior

Observable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals; Is shaped by rewards and punishments; Looks at observable behaviors, not what's going on in the mind or biological process

BF Skinner

Operant conditioning

Ivan Pavlov

Classical conditioning

Cognitive Approach

How we process, perceive, store, and recall information (memory)

Humanistic

How people pursue GOALS that give their lives a sense of meaning and purpose; Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow

- focuses on the need for love, acceptance, and self-fulfillment

Socio-Cultural

Study of how situation and cultures affect our behavior and thinking

Evolutionary

Our behavior reflects inherited predispositions or tendencies that increased the likelihood of survival of our ancestors

- traits passed down to us

- Darwin's natural selection

Psychodynamic/analytic Perspective

Focuses on the unconscious mind; Sigmund Freud

- psychoanalysts looked for impulses or memories pushed into the unconscious mind, often times during childhood, through repression

Mary Whiton Calkins

- First female president of the APA

- "self-psychology" -> field that emphasized introspection

Dorthea Dix

- Created the first mental hospitals across the US and Europe

- Improved existing mental health facilities and opened many new ones

G. Stanley Hall

- "Father of Adolescence"

- Coined the term "storm and stress" -> describes the period of adolescence

Clinical domain

Clinical psychologists help individuals with psychological disorders

- applied research

Psychiatrist vs. Psychologist

Psychiatrists CAN prescribe drugs, psychologists CANNOT prescribe drugs

Counseling Domain

Looks to help individuals who are going through a difficult time in their lives

- applied research

Biological Domain

Studies how structures in the brain and nervous system influence behavior

- basic research

Cognitive Domain

How humans process, perceive, store, and recall information

- basic research

Developmental Domain

How people change and grow over their lifetimes

- basic research

Experimental Domain

Deals with researching a broad spectrum of human behaviors, mental processes, disorders, etc..

- basic research

Educational Domain

Investigates how people learn and process information

- helps teachers implement the most effective practices of teaching

- applied research

Industrial-Organizational Domain

How to maximize employee performance in the work place

- applied research

Personality Domain

Examines how personalities affect the ways in which people navigate the world

- applied research

Psychometric Domain

Creation and implementation of tests (SAT, ACT, etc.) that can be used to measure mental attributes, behavior, performance, etc.

- basic research

Social Domain

How things like culture, religion, family, peer groups, income, and the environment shape an individual's beliefs, goals, and behaviors

- basic research

Positive Domain

Helps people live their most meaningful and fulfilling lives

- Martin Seligman

- applied research

Applied Research

Research performed in an attempt to solve scientific problems

Basic research

Increase the scientific knowledge base

- expanding our understanding of why humans do what they do

Mode

Most frequently occurring score in a distribution

Mean

Arithmetic average of a distribution

- obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores

Median

Middle score in a distribution

- half the scores are above it and half are below

Range

Difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution

Social desirability bias

Tendency to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself

- to make oneself look good to others

Confounding variable

Variable that the experimenter did not account for initially that WILL affect the variables being studied

- extraneous variable whose presence affects the variables being studied so that the results you get do not reflect the actual relationship between the variables being investigated

Within subject design

Experimental design in which the same group of participants is exposed to all the treatments in an experiment

- all participants are exposed to every treatment/condition

Between subject design

Each participant participates in one group

- study in which individuals are assigned to only one treatment or experimental condition and each person provides only one score for data analysis

Longitudinal study

Research design that examines how individuals develop by studying the same sample over a long period of time

- good for looking at effects/changes over a long period of time, usually as people age

Cross sectional study

Research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time

Stratified sampling

Sampling method used when the population is composed of several subgroups that may differ in the behavior or attribute that you are studying

- individual groups are called "strata"

Scientific method

Question, theory, hypothesis

- way of making observation, gathering data, forming theories, testing predictions, and interpreting results

Hypothesis

Tentative and testable explanation of the relationship between at least two events or variables

- IF -> THEN statement

Reliability

Yields consistent results

- results can be replicated by someone else

Validity

The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Operationalize (Operational definition)

Defines the variable in very specific terms as to how it will be measured, manipulated, or changed

- amount, time/duration, change

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident that correct; Overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments

Theory

Something that has already been tested and researched

- not just an “idea“

Case study

Research design involving an in-depth and detailed examination of a single subject

• Advantages: allows researchers to gather and document information about rare conditions or cases; may provide new evidence to support psychological theories; help researchers develop a hypothesis that could be useful in future studies

• Disadvantages: what is true of one person may not be true of everyone; can’t generalize

Survey

Technique used for ascertaining the self-reporting attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by QUESTIONING a representative, random sample of the group

• Advantage: great way to collect a LARGE amount of data

• Disadvantages: social desirability bias; volunteer bias (people who chose to vote aren’t representative of the whole population)

• You need a large enough sample to represent your population; if your population isn’t large enough, you CAN’T make generalizations from your study about the entire population

Population

The ENTIRE GROUP you want to study

Random sample

In which every person in the population has an equal chance of participation

Naturalistic observation

Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to measure and control the situation

• Describes behavior, doesn’t explain it

• Advantages: flexibility; external validity; suitability for topics that can’t be studied in a lab setting

• Disadvantages: lack of scientific control; ethical considerations; potential for bias from observers and subjects

Correlational study

Shows relationships between two or more variables

Positive correlation

Both variables increase OR decrease

Negative correlation

One variable increases and one decreases (opposite directions)

Correlation coefficient

Reveals the strength of the relationship between two things

R-Value

The further away R is from zero, the stronger the relationship is between two things

• measures the amount of variation in the data that is explained by the model

What is the only type of study that can prove cause and effect?

Experiments

• Important: Correlation does NOT imply causation

Illusory correlation

The PERCEPTION of a relationship where NONE exists

• ex. superstition

Experiments

Research method in which an experimenter can determine cause and effect through manipulation of (independent) variables

• only research method that can prove cause and effect

Independent variable

The variable which is manipulated by the researcher

Dependent variable

What’s being measured

Third/Lurking/Extraneous variable

Variable not being investigated that MAY affect the outcome

• ONLY applies to correlational studies

• for AP exam→need to explain how it affects BOTH variables

Experimental group

The group receiving or reacting to the independent variable in an experiment

Control group

The group that does not receive the independent variable in an experiment

• used to COMPARE

Placebo

Fake treatment with no known medical effects, but possibly mental ones

Placebo effect

When someone/a group of people behave as if they have received the real treatment, when they have actually been given a placebo

Gestalt psychology

Looking at things as a whole; gestalt psychologists argued against diving human thought and behavior into discrete structures

• Max Wertheimer

Single-Blind Experiment

Participants don’t know which group they’re in

• prevents participant bias

Random Assignment

When each participant has an EQUAL chance of being placed into the experimental or control group

• goal: make groups identical so that a COMPARISON can be made between the experimental and control groups

• reduces the possibility that participant/subject variables (eg. gender, age, weight, etc.) may bias the results

• limits the effects of confounding/lurking variables

• in experiments

Double-Blind Experiment

Both the researcher and participants don’t know who is in which group

• prevents researcher AND participant bias

Random Sampling

When the group of subjects in your experiment accurately depicts the whole population

• typically in surveys

• everyone in the population has an equal chance of becoming the representatives of the populaiton

• can make generalizations about the population as a whole after collecting data from the sample

Unlike with correlations, cause and effect can be determined through EXPERIMENTATION. WHY?

1. Manipulate variables

2. Control the setting (ie random assignment)

Downside to experiments

Experiments can be too artificial and don’t always replicate the real world

Quasi Experiment

When participants are NOT randomly assigned

Hindsight Bias

“I knew it all along“ effect

Deterministic behaviors

Theorized that all behaviors are caused by past conditioning

Normal distribution

Approximate distribution of scores expected when a sample is taken from a large population

Positive skew

Data that has a long tail extending toward the right

• lots in the left

Negative skew

Data that has a long tail extending left

• lots to the right

Measures of variability

Range, interquartile range, variance, and standard deviation

Statistical significance

Term used to indicate whether or not the difference between groups can be attributed to chance or if the difference is likely the result of experimental influence

• if something is statistically significant, it did not occur by chance

Experimenter bias

When researchers influence the results of an experiment to portray a certain outcome

Percentile score

Indicates the percentage of scores that fall below a particular score

• -3 = 0.13%

• -2 = 2.28%

• -1 = 15.87%

• 0 = 50%

• 1 = 84.12%

• 2 = 97.72%

• 3 = 99.87%

Self-fulfilling prophecy

When a person unknowingly causes a prediction to come true, due to the simple fact that they expect it to come true

• an expectation about a certain subject can sometimes affect the outcome of said subject

Field Experiment

Applies the scientific method to experimentally examine an occurrence in the real world (or in naturally-occurring environments) rather than in the laboratory

Hawthorne effect

People will work harder when they believe they are being watched

Scatter diagram

Graphical display that shows the correlation or relationship between two sets of data (or co-variables) by plotting dots to represent each pair of scores

Measures of central tendency

Normal distribution - mean

Skewed graphs - median

Histogram

A bar graph depicting a frequency distribution

Nature

Innate biological factors that influence development and personality

Nurture

External and environmental factors, including learning, that influence development and personality

Frequency distribution

Plotting how often certain phenomena occur

Normal distribution (bell curve)

Arrangement of data values that cluster around the middle