PSYC 102 - MIDTERM 1

Psychology

The scientific study of mind and behavior.

Evolutionary Perspective

Identifies aspects of behavior that are the result of evolutionary adaptations.

Cultural Perspective

Investigates how cultural context affects people’s thoughts and preferences.

Cognitive Perspective

Studies the mental processes that underlie 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, behavior, and social relationships.

Biological-Neuroscience Perspective

Studies the biological underpinnings of how we think, act, and behave.

Confirmation Bias

Tendency to seek out, pay attention to, and believe only evidence that supports what we already are confident we know.

Pseudoscience

Makes claims that are supposedly based on rigorous science and fact but that are not supported by reliable evidence.

Empirical

Based on astute observation and accurate measurement.

Theory-Data Cycle

Involves developing a theory about what people do and collecting data that is compared with the theory.

Hypothesis

Prediction about what will happen based on the theory.

Correlational Research

Measuring two or more variables to analyze the relationship between them.

Independent Variable

The hypothesized cause in an experiment.

Dependent Variable

The hypothesized effect in an experiment.

Social Psychology

The study of how social context and broader cultural environments influence people's thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Attribution

Assignment of a causal explanation for an event, action, or outcome.

Cognitive Dissonance

Aversive state when people find themselves behaving in ways that are out of line with their beliefs, values, or attitudes.

Personality

Set of relatively consistent ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving that together explain why different people can react differently to the same situations.

Freud’s Explanation of Personality

Unconscious motives of a person create psychic energy called the ID.

Defense Mechanisms

The various ways in which the ego copes with conflict between the unconscious desires of the id and the moral constraints of society.

Self-Actualization

The process of fulfilling our true potential, gaining a sense of personal autonomy.

Intelligence

The capability to think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, reason, plan, solve problems, learn from experience, and acquire new knowledge.

Fluid Intelligence

The ability to tackle new and unusual situations; used when deliberately thinking through a challenging problem.

Crystallized Intelligence

Accumulated knowledge and skills used to solve familiar problems.

IQ (Intelligence Quotient)

Calculated by dividing a child’s mental age by the chronological age and multiplying by 100.

Achievement Test

A test designed to measure how much a person has learned over a certain period of time.

Stereotype Threat

Concern where one’s performance might confirm a negative stereotype about one’s group.

Mindset

Can shape intellectual growth and vary across different intellectual domains and abilities.

Psychology

the scientific study of mind and behavior

Evolutionary Perspective

identifies aspects of behavior that are the result of evolutionary adaptations

Cultural Perspective

Investigates how cultural context affects people’s thoughts and preferences

Cognitive Perspective

Studies the mental processes that underlie 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, behavior, and social relationships

Biological-Neuroscience Perspective

Studies the biological underpinnings of how we think, act, and behave

Personality Perspective

understand aspects of behaviour that are relatively stable over time and situation

Social Perspective

considers how social contexts influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviours

Clinical Perspective

focuses on the causes and treatments of psychological disorders with the goal of improving human well-being, daily functioning, and social relationships

WEIRD Samples

Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic

Psychological Science

study of psychology

Confirmation Bias

tendency to seek out, pay attention to, and believe only evidence that supports what we already are confident we know

Pseudoscience

makes claims that are supposedly based on rigorous science and fact but that are not supported by reliable evidence

Evidence

an available body of facts and information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true and valid

Empirical

based on astute observation and accurate measurement

Critical Thinking

purposeful, reasoned, and goal-directed

Evolutionary Perspective

identify aspects of behavior that result from evolutionary adaptations that have facilitated humanity’s survival

Cultural Perspective

seeks to identify how culture affects people’s thoughts and preferences

Culture

the rules, values, customs, and beliefs that exist within a group of people who share a common language and environment

Cognitive Perspective

study the mental processes that underlie perception, thought, learning, memory, language, and creativity

Emotional Perspective

understand how our capacity to feel, express, and perceive emotions plays an important role in decision making, behavior, and social relationships

Unconscious

mental processes we cannot directly observe or influence

Biological-Neuroscience Perspective

seeks to understand the biological underpinnings of how we think, feel, and behave

Neuroscience

scientific study of how nerves and cells send and receive information from the brain, body, and spinal cord

Dysfunctions

impaired functions

Developmental Perspective

study how people change physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally as they age

Personality Perspective and Social Psychological Perspective

seek to understand how human behavior changes and stays the same across situations

Clinical Perspective

use psychological science to identify the causes and treatment of psychological disorders

Growth Mindset

belief that human personality and behaviour can change, e.g., through goal-setting and facing setbacks

Positive Psychology

emphasizes factors that make people happy, keep them healthy, and help them manage stress

Metacognition

an awareness and understanding of your own thought processes

Theory-Data Cycle

involves developing a theory about what people do and collecting data that are compared with the theory—the data either confirm or disconfirm the theory

Theory

set of propositions about what people do and why

Hypothesis

prediction about what will happen based on the theory.

Data

observations from a study, usually in numerical form

Replication

study has been conducted more than once

Variable

something of interest that can vary from person to person or situation to situation

Manipulated Variable

amount that a researcher controls by assigning different participants to different levels of that variable

Operational Definitions

specify the exact process for determining the levels or values of each variable

Descriptive Research

focus on one measured variable at a time with the goal of describing what is typical

Sample

select group from a population

Population of Interest

larger set of individuals (or cases) the researcher is trying to understand or describe

Random Sample

equal chance of selection from a population

Naturalistic Observation

psychologists observe the behavior of animals or people in their normal, everyday worlds and environments

Case Study

conducting an in-depth examination of one person’s experience, abilities, and behavior

Correlational Research

measuring two or more variables to analyze the relationship between them

Scatterplot

graph where dots (scatter points) represent a participant; x axis represents one variable; y axis represents one variable

Third-Variable Problem

when the correlation observed is influenced by a third variable (not accounted for)

Experimental Research

conducted to support causal claims, e.g., alcohol leads to aggression

Independent Variable

the hypothesized cause

Dependent Variable

the hypothesized effect

Random Assignment

random method is used to put participants in a group

Experiment Group

active ingredient is present, e.g., intoxication

Control Group

condition is absent, e.g., sobriety

Placebo Condition

influencing the participants to think the active ingredient is present

Random Sampling

aka random selection

Validity

the appropriateness or accuracy of some claim or conclusion

Reliability

the degree to which a measure yields consistent results each time it is administered

External Validity

when the sample in the study can generalize to the population of interest

Internal Validity

the ability of a study to rule out alternative explanations for a relationship between two variables; one of the criteria for supporting a causal claim

Confound

when the experimental groups accidentally differ on more than just the independent variable

Descriptive Statistics

statistics that summarize participants’ differing responses in terms of what was most typical and how much people’s responses varied from the average

Variability

the extent to which the scores in a batch differ from one another

Standard Deviation

a statistic that calculates how much a batch of scores varies around its mean

Effect Size

describes the magnitude of the relationship between manipulated or measured variables

Inferential Statistics

use sample results to infer what is true about the broader population

Statistical Significance

process of inference that applies rules of logic and probability to estimate whether the results obtained in a study’s sample are the same in a larger population

False Positive

statistically significant finding that does not reflect a real effect

Open Science

the practice of sharing one’s data, materials, analysis plans, and published articles freely so others can collaborate, use, verify, and learn about the results

Informed Consent

researcher explains the procedures, including the risks and potential benefits, to the prospective participants, who then decide whether to take part

Social Psychology

the study of how social context as well as broader cultural environments influence people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions

Transference

the tendency to assume that a new person we meet has the same traits as someone else we already know, perhaps because they resemble that other person