Psychology midterm 1

Goldberg's Big 5 Personality Traits

Extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, intellect

Deep approach

Involves transformation Is ideal for self-directed learning Understanding ideas for yourself Applying knowledge to new situations Using novel examples to explain a concept Learning more than is required for unit completion

Surface learning approach

Involves investing little time in the academic task and memorising information with rote learning.

Strategic learning approach

Involves being guided by the assessment criteria and enhancing self-esteem through competition.

Metacognition

awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.

controlled processing

slow response, attention, demanding, serial in nature, easily disputed

automatic processing

fast response, not attention demanding, patrolled in nature, often unavoidable

attention control

using attention control requires a portion of the limited capacity, based on self control " capacity" theory

selective attention

focusing attention on one aspect of the environment, while avoiding attention to other stimuli

dividing attention

attending and responding to multiple streams of info at the same time

sustainable attention

focusing attention over a long period of time

Flow

a completely involved, focused state of consciousness, with diminished awareness of self and time, resulting from optimal engagement of one's skill, and less aware of autonomic responses ( hunger, fatigue, discomfort)

motivation determines allocation

the importance of information determines what proportion of your available resources will be consumed about it

Heuristics

mental shortcuts that help us make decision quickly with little effort

availability heuristic

helps us makes fast but sometimes incorrect assessments

anchoring heuristic

shortcut to estimate a number. Make judgment under uncertainty is to anchor on info that comes to mind and adjust a plausible estimate is reached

representativeness heuristic

judgments about which category something belongs in

conformation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

comparative cognition

scientific study of thought and intelligence in non-human species

why is studying any species difficult?

One form of intelligence can be mistaken for another

Standford-Binet Test

the widely used American revision of Binet's original intelligence test

g factor (general intelligence)

the notion of a general intelligence factor that is responsible for a person's overall performance on tests of mental ability

Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Eight intelligences in problem solving: namely linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Possible ninth is existential.

emotional intelligence

the ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions

Five elements of emotional intelligence

self awareness, self regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills

3 C's of EI

consciousness, compassion, connectedness

sensory memory

takes all info from our sensory system and holds it for a moment so it can be processed, organized, and interpreted

short-term memory

selective attention determines what info moves from sensory to memory to STM

long-term memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences. Info is stored based on meaning and importance

difference between sensory and short term

if you are experiencing the sensation or just thinking about it

Chunking

helps out STM, chuck things together into meaningful pieces

3 stages of learning and memory

encoding, storage, retrieval

encoding

the initial learning of information

storage

maintaining info overtime

Retrieval

ability to access info when needed

maintenance rehearsal

practice of saying some information to be remembered over and over in one's head in order to maintain it in short-term memory

Schemas

a group of information that are linked together because of how they relate

Prime

a stimulus that activates a related concept

Accessibility

the extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of people's minds and are therefore likely to be used when making judgments about the social world

state-dependent memory

The theory that information learned in a particular state of mind (e.g., depressed, happy, somber) is more easily recalled when in that same state of mind.

We might be able to remember bc..

decay, Interference, insufficient priming, disorganization, retrograde amnesia, anterograde amnesia

decay

fading away of memory over time

interference memory loss

retrieval error caused by the existence of other, similar information

insufficient priming

The memory might be stored correctly, but you may not have enough activation to locate it and move it from long term to short term memory.

disorganization

can't find information because of how it was stored

amnesia

condition where there is loss of memory

Retrograde amnesia

inability to remember things prior to the onset of memory loss

antergrade amnesia

inability to form new memories

acronym

combination of letters w/ each letter corresponding with a subject I need to remember

Acrostic

a sentence when the first letter of each word corresponds with a subject. Need to remember

Rhyme-keys

1. memorize key words that can be associated with numbers

2. create an image of the items you need to remember with key words

loci method

A strategy for remembering lists by picturing items in familiar locations.

Keywords method

select the foreign words you need to remember, then identify an English word that sounds like a foreign one

Image-Name Technique

invent a relationship between the name and the physical characteristics of the person.

Chaining

create story where each word or idea you have to remember will cue the next idea you need to recall

elaborative rehearsal

a method of transferring information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some way

Empiricism

only source of knowledge comes through our senses

Rationalism

A belief or theory that opinions and actions should be based on reason and logical argument

The Nature of Scientific Inquiry

theory of the foundation of hypotheses and actual empirical methods of inquiry

empirical evidence

evidence that comes from direct experience, scientifically gathered data, and reported in detail so others can repeat and attempt verify the work

hypothesis testing

a statement predicting what might happen

null hypothesis

default position that the effect you are looking doe not exist

alternative hypothesis

you prediction is correct

Replication

repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances

Psychoanalysis

Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions, explanatory power and understanding of behavior

Behaviorism

reinforcement, behavior shaping, generalization, believe of the principles of determinism and orderliness

Cognitive Psychology

the scientific study of mental processes, including perception, thought, memory, and reasoning

humanistic approach

focused on our inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment

Common Sense

comes from personal experiment, upbringing, and culture

Hypotheses are

tentative guesses for expected observations that can be tested.

Theories

Broad explanations and predictions concerning phenomena of interest

Over-arching theories

reflect broad understandings of a particular part of the natural world

model

complex theory or hypothesis

directional hypothesis

pecifies the expected direction to be followed to determine the relationship between variables

one tail

hypothesis has an implied direction

two tail

hypothesis does not imply a direction

statistical significance

a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance

type 1 error

rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true (false positive)

type 2 error

Accepting null hypothesis when you should have rejected it

independent groups

control group and treatment group

same subjects

data consists of multiple measurements from the same group of participants

Parametric

make certain assumption about the nature of the underlying data

Non-parametric

assume that the data distribution cannot be defined in terms of such a finite set of parameters

sampling

process by which participants are selected

target population

the whole group you want to study or describe

Population

a group of ppl that we want to understand and gain knowledge about

Sample

the ppl that take part in the study

Generalizability

the extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied

random sampling

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

random assignment

assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups

naturalistic observation

observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation

structured observation

set up a situation and observe that participant behavior. you have more control of the situation and keep most variables under control but the participant is aware of the researcher and may be influenced and may still need to interpret the behavior

Self-Report

participants are asked to provide info from a survey. This is inexpensive and efficient and easy to collect and score date, but user error might happen and participants might chose an answer depending on what they think the research might want

psychophysiological

use of technological devices to measure what is taking place in the body. This give direct measurements of the body that do not require subjective judgment and participants can't hide their body's reaction but it is expensive and cannot be collected unobtrusively

Archival

researchers can examine data that has already been collected for other purposes. Researchers can conduct an analysis of very large data sets w/o the time and expense of collecting all the date but data may be missing, incomplete, filled w/ errors, or difficult to access

longitudinal study

track participants for an extend period of time. Able to track changes but long time to conduct, not all participants will finish ( attrition), selective attrition

Selective Attrition

something that causes particular participants to drop out

cross sectional study

participants of different ages and look for difference between the groups. Study the effect of time or experiment in much less time and attrition is not an issue but cohort effects ex: generational differences

Case Studies

detailed analysis of particular person or group. Study unusual, rare, or difficult-to-find participants or events and is an in-depth study but does not always generalize to other cases

correlational design

two different variables are measured to see if there is a relationship