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Psychology
The scientific study of mind and behaviour
Mind
All subjective experiences– sensations, perceptions, memories, thoughts, motives, emotions. Also includes cognitive structures and processes shaping experience and behaviour outside of awareness
Behaviour
observable actions of people or non-human animals
Social cognition
Thinking about oneself, other people, and oneself in relation to others– neural networks supporting this are active immediately after birth
Folk psychology
Everyday, common sense understanding of the mental states and behaviours of others and ourselves. Comes from experience and intuition and there is no consensus despite years of research.
Limitations of experience and personal intuition
It produces blind spots; experience has no control group and we all live through a single lens, personal bias, and prejudice. One cannot make generalisations from a single case since we are in bubbles confined to certain perspectives.
Inattentional blindness
the failure to perceive an event outside the focus of one’s attention
Illusion of attention
we don’t notice how much of the world we don’t notice, gorilla experiment
Confirmation bias
The tendency to seek out, pay attention to, and believe evidence that supports what we are already confident we know. Same as belief perseverance
Belief perseverance
We interpret evidence to maintain our initial beliefs– same as confirmation bias
Replication study
Same study, new participants
Summative science
It is perpetually growing
Evolutionary perspective
Identifies aspects of behaviour that are the result of evolutionary adaptations
Cognitive perspective
Studies the mental process that underlies perception, thought, learning, memory, language, and creativity
Emotional perspective
Examines how the human capacity to feel, express, and perceive emotions plays an important role in decision making, behaviour, and social relationships
Cultural perspective
Investigates how cultural context affects people’s thoughts and preferences
Biological-neuroscience perspective
Studies the biological underpinnings of how we think, act, and behave
Personality perspective
Seeks to understand aspects of behaviour that are relatively stable over time and situation
Developmental perspective
Examines how people change physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally as they age
Clinical perspective
Focuses on the causes and treatments of psychological disorders, with the goal of improving human wellbeing, daily functioning, and social relationships
Theory
an integrated set of related principles that explains and generates predictions about some phenomenon in the world– a set of propositions about what people do and why
Hypothesis
A testable prediction about what will happen under specific circumstances IF the theory is correct
Data
A set of observations that are gathered to evaluate the hypothesis, usually in numerical form, collected from people at certain times or in certain situations
Open science movement
The initiative to make scientific research, data, and methods openly accessible and transparent with the goal of increasing reproducibility of research
Meta-analysis
combination of the results of multiple studies
Variable
something that is liable to change or vary
Measured variable
A variable whose values are simply recorded
Manipulated variable
a variable intentionally changed by the researcher
Operational definition
A specific description of how a variable will be measured or manipulated in a study; how a researcher specifies the process for determining the levels or values of each variable
Self report
People describe themselves and/or their behaviour, typically with fixed-response questionnaire with specific set of questions and possible responses determined by researchers
Advantages of self report
Gets inside people's heads, easy and inexpensive which allows more participants → stronger study
Disadvantages of self report
Social desirability bias, self-deceptive enhancement
Social desirability bias
A tendency to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favourably by others
Advantages of behavioural observation
More objectivity, observing real-world behaviour with no manipulation
Disadvantages of behavioural observation
Time and resource-intensive, reactivity
Reactivity
A change in behaviour caused by the knowledge that one is being observed
Indirect measures
Designed to avoid reactivity and social desirability
Sample
The group who participated in research and who belong to the larger group / POI that the researcher is interested in understanding
Random sample
Every person in the POI has equal chance of inclusion
Population of interest
The full set of cases the researcher is interested in
Descriptive research
Often the first step in scientific research and scopes out the problem or phenomenon. The information gathered during this may be helpful for generating hypotheses in the future.
Correlational research
A type of study that measures two (or more) variables in the same sample of people, and then observes the relationship between them. What kinds of people do this? What’s associated with what?
What is needed to establish causality?
Two variables must be correlated.
One variable must precede the other.
There must be no reasonable alternative explanations for the pattern of correlation
Why can experiments establish causation while correlational research can’t?
The manipulation helps determine whether changes in the independent variable directly cause changes in the dependent variable.
Independent variable
The manipulated variable in an experiment
Dependent variable
The measured variable in an experiment
Random assignment
Participants are as likely to be assigned to one condition as to another. By varying just one or two factors at a time, the experimenter can pinpoint their influence
Control group
a condition comparable to the experimental condition in every way except that it lacks the one “ingredient” hypothesised to produce the expected effect on the dependent variable
Mediator
The IV exerts its effect on DV through some other variable
Moderator
The effect of IV on DV is conditional on this value
Internal validity
Can we rule out alternative explanations in an experiment? Threatened by the presence of confounds
Confounds
an alternative explanation for a relationship between two variables
Double blind procedure
neither the experimenters nor the participants know who is in the experimental group or control group
External validity
Can our results be generalised to other samples/other situations?
Measurement validity
Are you measuring what you think you are measuring? Measure should make sense “on its face”, be grounded in theory, be associated with theoretically similar measures, and have predictive value
Reliability
Do you get the same results every time you administer the measure?
Threats to internal validity
Confounds, observer expectancy effect, demand characteristics, differential attrition
How to avoid threats to internal validity
Make sure your experimental conditions only vary on the variable you are interested in (all other variables are kept constant). Use random assignment. Standardise study scripts/instructions, do not reveal hypotheses, and make the study double-blind if possible.
Effect size
A numerical estimate of the strength of the relationship between two variables. It can take the form of a correlation coefficient or, for an experiment, the difference between two group means divided by the standard deviations of the group.
P-values
Tell us the probability of getting a result as extreme as the one we observed if there really was no difference between the two groups (or no relationship between the two variables) → i.e. how likely the obtained results are under the null hypothesis
Factors affecting size of p-value
Size of observed effect, number of participants in study
P-value < .05
LESS THAN, rejects null hypothesis
P-value > .05
MORE THAN, does not reject null hypothesis
Institutional Review Board
A panel tasked with evaluating whether research study meets ethical standards: autonomy, beneficence, justice
Deception in research
Must be scientifically justified. Must be minimal. Must be informed of any risks and right to withdraw at any time. Full debriefing, right to withdraw data. Should not involve harm to participants
Informed consent
Fully explained study procedures, including risks and potential benefits
Autonomy
Each participant must have the right without intimidation or coercion to decide whether to participate in study
Beneficience
Obligation to promote well-being and minimise harm; the benefits of the study must outweigh the risks of harm. Can the risk to participants be minimised? What are the benefits of society? Low risk with high benefit is most preferred for approval.
Justice
Fairness in distribution of benefits and burdens of research. Participants bearing the burden of research must be representative of the population who will benefit from the research. Groups should not be unfairly exploited or unfairly excluded from research that could benefit them
Three guiding principles for research with animals
Replacement, refinement, reduction
Central tendency
The centre of the batch of scores
Standard deviation
A variability statistic that calculates how much, on average, a batch of scores varies around its mean
Measures of central tendency
Mean, median, mode
Variability
The extent to which the scores in a batch differ from each other
Descriptive statistics
Summarise sets of data (mean, median, mode, standard deviation)
