PSYCH 1 MIDTERM 1

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What is Pyschology?

Psychological science is the study, through research, of mind, brain, and behavior.

The mind

perceptions, thoughts, memories, feelings

The brain

biological processes

Behavior

observable actions

Explanation of psychological phenomena refers to their attribution to a general principle - a principle that applies to all people

Some explanations are based on: biology, mental states, social/cultural factors

Critical thinking systematically questions and evaluates information using well-supported evidenc

Weighs facts, considers source, uses logic and reasoning to see whether information makes sense, considers alternate explanations, and keeps an open mind

Confirmation bias

Ignoring evidence Failing to accurately judge source credibility Misunderstanding or not using statistics

Spurious Correlations

Seeing relations that do not exist

Other biases in thinking

*Using relative comparisons
*Accepting after-the-fact (post-hoc) explanations
*Taking mental shortcuts
*Failing to see our own inadequacies (self-serving bias)

Psychology originated in

philosophy

Espistomology

study of knowledge

Plato

Founder of Rationalism (rational analysis to understand the world, rather than empirical observation); We are born with the knowledge inside our mind - we just need to find a way to get it out. Case in point: Mathematics can predict the world even before we get to observe it

Aristotle

Founder of Empiricism (my teacher is nuts - we need to observe the physical world we live in to gain knowledge of it)

Debates that still exist

*Mind-body
*Nature v Nurture
*Cartesian Dualism (Descartes, 17th century)
*British empiricists: all knowledge comes from our senses ( 17th-18th century, John Love, George Berkeley)

School of thoughts originated with

Introspection

Introspection

an examination of subjective mental experiences Introspection requires people to inspect and report on the content of their thoughts

Wilhelm Wundt

father of exp/al psychology Introspection and Reaction Time Introduced quantification in the mental study

Introspection led to

Structuralism

Structuralism

a perspective of psychology based on the idea that conscious experience can be broken down into its basic underlying components (e.g., Titchener)

Problems of introspection

subjective, can be biased, cannot be independently verifiable

Functionalism

an approach to psychology concerned with the purpose/function of behavior - emerged as the antithesis to structuralism - influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution

• William James (late 19th century)

first American psychologist• Stream of consciousness -a person's continuous series of ever changing thoughts• Mind like a river

One of the major influences on functionalism was

Charles Darwin

Evolutionary theory

-views the history of a species in terms of inherited adaptive value
• Variation in features due to random mutations• Natural selection -mutations that facilitate survival and reproduction are passed along
• Adaptation -as genetic mutations are passed from generation to generation, species change (adapt) over time

Gestalt theory

the whole of personal experience is more than the sum of its parts (e.g., Koffka)

Sigmund Freud

Much of human behavior is determined by mental processes operating in the unconscious, below the level of awareness.

Three different mental entities according to freud

- id: unconscious, basic desires and instincts
- super-ego: higher moral values, mostly also unconscious
- ego: the rational part, conscious, always trying to balance the other two

Psychoanalysis

Freud's method that attempts to bring the contents of the unconscious into conscious awareness so that conflicts can be revealed

not subject to rigorous testing (psychoanalysis)

cannot predict behavior, only supply post-hoc explanations and interpretations

John B. Watson

developed behaviorism, a psychological approach that emphasizes the role of environmental forces in producing observable behavior, It explains AND predicts behavior based on a few principles

Behaviorism was

The most successful school of thought in psychology, dominated the 20th century, and is still applicable today (with some modifications)

Behaviorism overemphasizes

observable behavior and ignores all else

Cognitive Pyschology

the study of mental functions such as intelligence, thinking, language, memory, and decision making

Cognitive neuroscience

the study of neural mechanisms underlying thought, learning, perception, language, and memory

Social psychology

the study of how people influence other people's thoughts, feelings, and actions → what makes people the same

Personality psychology

the study of characteristic thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in people and how they vary across social situations → what makes people different individuals

Evolutionary Psychology

•Attempts to explain mental traits as products of natural selection.
•While the brain adapts biologically, some of the contents of the mind adapt through cultural influences.
•Knowledge of the challenges our early ancestors faced helps us understand our current behavior.

Psychoanalytic approach

bring things out of the unconscious to resolve the conflicts

Humanistic approach

How people come to know and accept themselves to reach their full potential

Behavioral modification

shaping behavior through rewards and punishments

Cognitive-behavioral

a popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior)

Three major advances that have helped further the scientific understanding of psychological phenomena

*decoding human genome
*developments in neuroscience
*brain chemistry

Critical thinking

systematically evaluating information to reach reasonable conclusions best supported by evidence

Amiable skepticism

open to new ideas but wary of new findings if not supported by scientific evidence and sound reasoning

Basic Steps in Critical Thinking

1. What am I being asked to believe or accept?
2. Is it a fact or an opinion?
3. Who is trying to get me to believe this?
4. Is there evidence available to support this claim? What is the quality of that evidence? Can that evidence be interpreted in another way? Is the alternative explanation plausible?
5. What conclusions are most reasonable?

Baby Media

claimed watching educational videos helped foster speech, understanding of number and other educational benefits

Baby Einstein was based in the

Mozart Effect

Mozart Effect

A set of research results indicating that listening to Mozart's music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as "spatial-temporal reasoning;"

Newer evidence suggests TV has no

educational value for children under 2

Psychologists ask \_______ questions about \______, \_______, \_______, and \______ of behavior and mental processes

empirical,what,when,why,how

Good theory

questions are testable, capable of being measured unlike philosophical questions

Piaget Theory

cognitive development occurs in fixed stages (GOOD THEORY)

Freud's theory

Dreams represent the fulfillment of an unconscious wish (NOT GOOD THEORY)

Scientific Method

*Systematic procedure for observing & measuring phenomena to answer empirical questions
*Bias-free
*More objective than casual observations
*Orderly steps

Three Critical Elements

Theory: An explanation or model of how a phenomenon works
Hypothesis: A specific, testable prediction about the outcome that would best support the theory
Research: The systematic and careful collection of data

HOMER

Hypothesize
Operationalize
Measure
Evaluate
Report/Replicate/Revise

Variables (Involved in research)

Something in the world that can vary and that a researcher can measure

Operational definition

identifying and qualifying variables so they can measured (operationalized)

Extremely specific

Explain precisely how everything will be manipulated and/or measured

Population

Everyone in the group the experimenter is interested in

Samples (involved in research)

A subset of population
*You want your sample to be representative of the population
*Don't want sample to be biased

Random sampling

Everyone in the population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate

Convenience sampling

Using participants who are available to you, but may not be a representative sample for some questions

Three types of research studies

*Descriptive
*Correlational
*Experimenta

Descriptive studies

Involve observing & noting the behavior of people or other animals to provide a systematic & objective analysis of the behavior (aka observational studies)

Two basic types of observational studies

Naturalistic
Participant

Naturalistic observation

Passive observation; don't interact in situation

Participant observation

Active involvement; involved in situation

Observer bias

Systematic errors in observation that occur because of an observer's expectations, experimenter should be blind to hpothesis

Experimenter expectancy effect

Actual change in the behavior of people/animals observed due to expectations of the observer

Pros of descriptive/observational studies

Valuable in the early stages of research
Take place in the real world

Cons of descriptive/observational studies

Observer bias
Participants may simply react because they're being observed, or because they want to please the observer

Correlational Studies

*Examine how variables are naturally related in the real world, without any attempt by the researcher to alter them
*Can be positively or negatively related
*correlation doesn't equal causation

Directionality problem

Researchers find a relationship between two variables but cannot determine which variable may have caused changes in the other variable

Third variable problem:

Researchers cannot be confident that an unmeasured variable is not the actual cause of differences in the variables of interest

Correlational studies pros

Often convenient and economical
Examine naturally-occurring relationships, often in the real word

Correlational studies cons

Cannot be used to support causal relationships

Experimental Studies

Experiments-Study that tests causal hypotheses by measuring and manipulating variables
Hypothesis-factor X causes result Y

independent variable

Variable that is manipulated by the experimenter (the X)

Dependent variable

Variable that is affected by or related to the IV (measured) aka outcome or effect variable (the Y)

Confound

Anything that affects a DV & may unintentionally vary between experimental conditions of a study

Selection bias

Unintended differences between participants in different groups

Random assignment:

Each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any level of the IV, to ensure preexisting differences are randomly distributed between conditions

Random assignment does not equal Random sample

*Random sampling involves SELECTING participants to be in the experiment Happens before the experiment Do the results generalize to other groups of people?


*Random assignment involves ASSIGNING participants to conditions Happens during the experiment Is the IV thew true cause of the DV?

Experimental studies pros

Can demonstrate causal relationships

Experimental studies cons

*May be labor-intensive/costly
*Often take place in artificial settings
*Samples may not generalize to population

Data

objective observations or measurements; tests the hypothesis

Descriptive, correlational, and experimental studies all collect

data

Data can come from

observation, case studies, self-report, response performance, body-brain activity

Validity

Extent to which study actually measures what it intends to measure

Reliability

Extent to which a measure is stable & consistent over time Can be reliable without being valid!

Internal validity

The degree to which the effects observed in an experiment are truly due to the manipulation of the IV (e.g., a confound will impair the internal validity)

external validity

The degree to which the findings of a study generalize to the real world

Descriptive statistics

Characterize the group of data collected in a study

central tendency

Describes a typical response or behavior of a group as a whole

Mean

Average of a set of numbers

Median

The value in a set of numbers that falls exactly halfway between the lowest and highest values

Mode

The most frequent value in a set of numbers

Variability

How widely dispersed the values are from each other & the mean

standard devation

How far away each value is, on average, from the mean In a "normal distribution", distance from mean reflects % of population