Chapter 1 and 2

Psychology

Scientific study of mind and behavior

* scientific method

Empirical method

acquiring knowledge through observation, includes experimentation, rather than a method based only on forms of logical argument or previous authorities

Willhelm Wundt

* 1st person to be referred to as psychologist
* Psychology is scientific study of conscious experience
* goal was to identify components of consciousness and how those components combined to result in our conscious experience
* Introspection (internal perception): process by which one examines their own conscious experience in an attempt to break it into its component parts
* Voluntarism: people have free will and should know intention of psychological experiment they are participanting in

Introspection

* (internal perception); the process by which one examines their own conscious experience in an attempt to break it into its components
* a process by which someone examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible, making the human mind like any other aspect of nature that a scientist observed.
* learning about one's own currently ongoing, or very recently past, mental states or processes

Voluntarism

people have free will and should know intentions of psychological experiment they are participating in

Edward Tichener

* Willhelm’s student
* created structuralism

Structuralism

understanding conscious experience through introspection

* focus on content of mental process rather than its function
* studying the contents of the mind through the use of lab experiments and introspection
* Analyzes the basic elements of the conscious mind by considering sensations, images, and feelings in a very basic way

Functionalism

* Defined: focused on how mental activities helped an organism adapt to its environment
* created by WIlliam James, John Dewey, Charles Sanders Peirce
* Accepted Darwin’s theory of natural selection, explanation of organism’s characteristics
* Natural selection leads to adaptation to environment and behavior
* survival and reproduction
* purpose of psychology was to study the function of behavior in the world
* James believed that introspection could serve to study mental activities but relied on more objective measures

Sigmund Freud

* studied patients with hysteria and neurosis
* introduced psychoanalytic theory, psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy
* theorized problems came from unconscious mind (dream analysis, 1st word that come up to mind)

Neurosis

a disorder involving obsessive thoughts through anxiety. It is described as mental, emotional, or phyical reactions that are drastic and irrational.

Hysteria

ancient diagnosis for disorder, women who had wide variety of symptom (physical and emotional disturbances), no physical cause

Psychoanalysis

patient talks about experiences and selves

Psychotherapy

examine unconscious aspects of self and relationships between therapist and client

Psychoanalystic theory

focuses on the role of person’s unconscious, early childhood experiences

Gestalt Psychology

* Max Wethemier, Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Kohler
* Gestalt “whole” principles: sensory experiences can be breaken down or relate to each other as a whole
* Today: humanistic theory, influenced research on sensation and perception

behaviorism

focus on observing and controlling behavior


1. learned behavior and its interaction with inborn qualities of organism
2. established psychology as scientific discipline through objective methods and experimentation
3. used in behavioral/cognitive-behavioral therapy

* Ivan Pavlov
* John B. Watson
* B.F. Skinner

Ivan Pavlov

* conditioned reflex to stimulus which overtime conditioned response to different stimulus
* classical conditioning

John B. Watson

study of conciousness flawed, objective analysis of mind impossible, preferred to focus on observable behavior and try to bring it under control

B.F. Skinner

* behavior and drive affected by conequences
* skinner box

Humanism

perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans

* Abraham Maslow: hierarchy of needs
* Carl Roger: client-centered therapy; must have unconditional positive regard, genuineness, empathy

Hierarchy of Needs

created by Abraham Maslow

Client-centered therapy

a therapy where the therapist must show unconditional positive regard, genuineness, empathy

* created by Carl Rogers

American Psychological Association

professional organization representing psychologists in the US

* advance and disseminate pychological knowledge for betterment of people
* diversity, 54 branches

Association for Pychological Science

an association seeking to advance scientific orientation of psychology

Biopsychology

study of how biology influences behavior

* how structure and function of nervous system is related to behavior

Evolutionary psychology

seeks to study the ultimate biological causes of behavior

* Charles Darwin evolution by natural selection

Neuroscience

interdisciplinary approach with biological psychology as component

Cognitive psychology

study of cognitions, or thoughts, and their relationship to experiences and actions

Developmental pychology

scientific study of development across a lifespan

* Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget

* Young children have no object permanence
* focused on cognitive change during infancy, childhood, as we move to adulthood
* However, there are changes that occur much later in life

Freud

personality arose as conflicts between unconscious and conscious part of the mind

* part of personality psychology


* psychosexual stage of development

Personality trait

consistent pattern of thought and behavior, stable over lifespan, influenced by genetics

* part of personality psychology


* Big Five: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeable, Neuroticism (OCEAN)

social psychology

how people interact and relate with others

* Stanley Milgram study on obedience

Health Psychology

Focuses on how health is affected by interaction of biological, psychological, sociocultural factors

Biopsychological model

a health psychological perspective that asserts that biology, psychology, social factors interact to determine an individual’s health

Clinical psychology

focuses on diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and other problematic pattern of behavior

Counseling psychology

focus on improving emotional, social, vocational, other aspect of lives of psychologically healthy individuals

* part of clinical psychology

Sports and exercise psychology

interactions between mental and emotional factors with physical performance in sports, exercise, and other activities

forensic psychology

applies science and practice of psychology to issues within and related to justice system

PhD

doctoral degree conferred in many disciplinary perspective house in a traditional college of liberal arts and sciences

dissertation

long research paper/bundled published articles describing research that was conducted as part of the candidate’s doctoral training

postdoctoral training programs

allows young scientists to further develop their research programs and broaden their research skills under the supervision of other professionals in field

PsyD

places less emphasis on research-oriented skills and focus more on application of psychological principles in clinical context

Fact

objective and verifiable observation, established using evidence collected through empirical research

opinion

personal judgements, conclusions, attitudes that may or may not be accurate

empirical

grounded in objective, tangible evidence that can be observed time and time again, regardless who is observing

deductive reasoning

* results are predicted based on general premise (**broad → specific**)
* Generalization/hypothesis → logical conclusions about real world
* Hypotheses correct=conclusion correct, incorrect=logical, yet incorrect conclusion
* Used to empirically test hypotheses
* Experimental research

Inductive reasoning

conclusions drawn from observations (**specific → broad**)

* Conclusions may/not be correct, regardless of observations which they’re based
* Formulate theories to generate hypotheses tested with deductive
* Case studies

theory

well-developed set of ideas that propose an explanation for oberved phenomena

hypothesis

tentative and testable statement about relationship between 2+ variables

Falsifiable

able to be disproven by experimental results

Clinical/Case study

observational research that focus on 1 or few people

* **Pros**: gain deep insight of individual(s)’s phenomenon, unmatched by other single research method
* **Cons**: used when individuals are interested b/c of rare characteristics, applying to average people may be limited, __hard to generalize__
* Ex: Krita and Tatiana Hogan who are conjoined twins
* connected at the head, thalamus; insight of mind and brain

Generalize

inferring that results for sample apply to large population

Naturalistic observation

observation of behavior based in its natural setting

* **Pros**: higher degree of ecological validity, __generalize findings of research to real-world__
* **Cons**: difficult to et up and control, require investment of time, money, luck

observational bias

when observations may be skewed to align with observer expectations

inter-rater reliability

measure of agreement among observers on how they record and classify a particular event

Survey

list of question to be answered by research participants--paper and pencil--administered electronically--conducted verbally allowing researchers to collect data from large number of people

* **Pros**: collect info from large sample allows __better generalizations__
* **Cons**: not able to collect same depth of info on ea person, people don’t always give accurate responses (lie, misremember, anwers what makes them look good)

sample

subset of individuals selected from large population

population

overall group of individuals that researchers are interested in

Measures of center

mode, median, mean, range, standard deviation

mode

frequently occurring response

median

lies at the middle of a given data set

mean

average, conducts additional analyzes, sensitive to outliers

range

highest minus lowest

standard deviation

variance of the whole

* square root variance
* high: spread out; low: close

archival research

method of research using past records/data sets to answer various research questions, or to search for interesting patterns/relationships

\*no direct interaction with research participants, no control over info collected, no guarantee of consistency

longitudinal research

studies in which the same group of individuals is surveyed/measured repeatedly over an extended period of time

* **pros**: same individuals (less concerned with different cohorts)
* **cons**: require time/financial investment, participants willing to continue over extended period of time

cohorts

people with similar characteristics or experiences

attrition

reduction in the number of research participants as some drop out of the study over time

cross-sectional research

compares multiple segments of a population at single time

* **Pros**: requires shorter-term investment
* **Cons**: limited by difference that exit between different generations b/c of social and cultural experiences

correlation

relationship between 2+ variables; when 2 variables are correlated, one variable change a the other does

* positive correlation
* negative correlation

positive correlation

2 variables change in the **same** direction, both becoming either smaller/larger

negative correlation

2 variables change in **different** directions, 1 becoming larger as other becomes smaller; not the same as no correlation

Correlation coefficient

number from -1 to +1, indicating strength and direction of relationship between variables \[r\]

* closer to -/+1 means strongly related and predictable variables are; 0 then weaker relationship and less predictable

Cause-and-effect relationship

changes in one variable causes the changes in other variables; can be determined only through an experimental research design

confounding variable

unanticipated outside factor that affect both variables of interest, often giving the false impression that changes in 1 variable change in other variable(s), when, in actuality, the outside factor causes changes in both variables

illusory correlation

seeing relationships between two thing when in reality no such relationship exists

experimental group

designed to answer research question

is given the manipulated independent variable

control group

serves as basis for comparison, controls for chance factors that might influence study’s results

not given the manipulated independent variable

operational definition

description of what actions and operations will be used to meaure the dependent variables and manipulate independent

experimenter bias

researcher expectation skews studies’ results

double-blind study

experiment in which both researchers and participants are blind to group

single-blind study

experiment in which researcher knows which participant are in the experiment vs control group

placebo effect

people’s expectations/beliefs influence/determine their experience in given situation

independent variable

influenced/controlled by experimenter; in well-designed experimental study, the variable is the only important difference between experimental and control groups

dependent variable

measured by researcher to see how much effect independent variable had

participants

subjects of psychological research

random sample/selection

subset of larger population in which every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected

random assignment

method of experimental group assignment in which all participants have an equal chance of being assigned to either groups

peer-reviewed journal articles

read by several other scientist with expertise in subject matter, providing feedback regarding quality of manuscript before publication

replicate

repeating an experiment using different samples to determine research reliability

* reliability
* validity

reliability

Experiment can be repeated multiple times with same result

* **Inter-rater: degree of 2+ different observers agree on what has been observed**
* **Internal consistency: degree of different items on survey that measure same thing correlate with one another**


* **Test-retest**: degree of outcomes of particular measure remain consistent over multiple administrations

inter-rate

degree of 2+ different observers agree on what has been observed

* a type of reliability

internal consistency

degree of different items on survey that measure same thing correlate with one another

* a type of reliability
* Ex: if the respondent expresses agreement with statements like “i like riding bicycles”, “I used to like riding bicycles”, or disagreement “I hate bicycles.” This is internal consistency because it covers the same subject: bicycles.

test-retest

degree of outcomes of particular measure remain consistent over multiple administrations

* a type of reliability

Validity

accuracy of given result in measuring what it’s designed to measure

* Çan this test actually measure intelligence?
* **Ecological: degree of research results generalize real-world applications**
* **Construct: degree of given variable actually captures/measures what it’s intended to measure**


* **Face**: degree of given variable seems valid on surface

ecological

degree of research results generalize real-world applications

construct

degree of given variable actually captures/measures what it’s intended to measure

face

degree of given variable seems valid on surface

Institutional review board (IRB)

committee of administrators, scientists, community members that reviews proposal for research involving humans