Psychology (Dr. C) Unit 1 Test

psychology

the scientific study of behavior and mental processes; it is not just a matter of common sense and intuition

hindsight bias

once an outcome is known, the tendency to believe it was obvious and predictable ("I knew it all along") ex: long distance relationships

in general, what may common sense seem to do well, and what does common sense often do much less well?

common sense is good at explaining what already happened but is not good at predicting what is going to happen

scientific method

1. make observations

2. form theories to explain the observations

3. come up with specific hypotheses and predictions to test the theory

4. make new observations to test whether the facts support the theory, hypotheses, and predictions

5. use the new observations to modify and improve the theory and come up with new hypotheses and predictions to test

it is a continuous process involving critical thinking

theory

set of principles that organizes and predicts observations

hypothesis

a specific prediction that we can put to a test generally derived from and/or implied by a theory; therefore something that, if tested, could partly confirm or disconfirm the theory

replication

repeating an experiment to see if a similar result is obtained; this is done keeping the essential elements of the experiment the same, but with new, different subjects and sometimes different experimenters; it is important in making sure the theory is repeatable/reliable

where do many of our erroneous beliefs come from?

overconfidence, belief perseverance, and counterfactuals

what attitudes must we take in psychology?

curiosity, skepticism, and humility

general approaches to research in psychology

descriptive/observational, correlational, experimental

descriptive/observational research

observing and describing/recording what we see

correlational research

measuring how different things occur/change together

experimental research

performing a controlled study to see if one thing is causing another

three methods used in descriptive research

case study, survey, naturalistic observation

case study

a descriptive research technique in which a single individual is studied in depth in the hope of discovering things that would be true of everyone, beyond that individual; however, the case might not be typical or represent the majority

how do anecdotes mislead us about evidence? what must we remember?

anecdotes are not evidence; and everyone loves a good story

naturalistic observation

a descriptive research technique in which behavior is observed and recorded in its natural setting, with no attempt to manipulate or change it

ex: Jane Goodall- followed social patterns of great apes; prof. studied first year university students by pretending to be one; big data researchers look at search history/ word clouds

how do men's and women's word clouds differ?

women: shopping, love, cute, adorable, etc

men: f*k, s*t, fight, screw, football

survey

a descriptive research technique where the self-reported attitudes, behaviors, etc. of a group are gathered and analyzed

population

everyone in the group you are studying; you cannot usually study everyone in a population- instead you must take a random sample

random sample

a sample that is a fair representation of the total population, where all members of the total group have an equal chance of being included in the study; it is important because it is a fair representation of the population, so you can trust what you learn about the population

how did shere hite fail to use a random sample in her study of gender attitudes and martial behaviors among american women?

she sent out 100,000 surveys and only had 4,500 come back (poor response rate). she also only sent the surveys to women's groups. she found that 70% of all women married 5 years or more were having affairs and that 95% of all women reported that they felt emotionally abused by their husbands

when legitimate social scientists investigated the same subject with true random samples, what did they find instead?

it was 7% of women cheating on their husbands

volunteers can be used as subjects

false; this is because the people who volunteer are not typical of people in general (the results would not be worth much)

if you used a true random sample of adult americans, how many people would you have to survey in order to accurately predict the attitudes and opinions of all americans?

around 1,500

wording effects

the effects that even small changes in the wording of questions have on the way that people taking surveys answer them ex: "helping the needy" as opposed to "providing government housing to the needy"

correlation

when two things (variables) that can change or vary tend to change together (if they change together, then knowing one of them allows you to predict the other one)

positive correlation

as one thing changes, the other thing changes in the same direction

negative correlation

as one thing changes, the other thing goes in the opposite direction

a negative correlation between two things means that this is not a significant correlation between them

false

correlation coefficient

a mathematically calculated index of how much two things are correlated (the extent to which they change together, and thus the extent to which one can be predicted from the other) ex: ACT- there is a positive correlation to grades on the ACT and grades in college (0.5)

range of correlation coefficients

-1.0 to 1.0 (it is typically 0.2-0.4)

in social sciences, how often do we see correlation coefficients at the extreme ends of the possible range?

not often

typical correlation coefficients in actual research

0.2-0.4

in order to interpret how much of the variability in one thing is connected to variability in the other, what must we do with the correlation coefficient?

square it

ex: 0.5^2 - only 25% of the grades at college can be predicted from ACT scores

correlation does not equal causation

true

if two things are correlated, what would be the three possible explanations for this?

1. A caused B

2. B caused A

3. A and B are caused by a third, external factor

ex: when depression is very high, self esteem is very low (A caused B). people with low self esteem have depressive tendencies (B caused A). both depression and self esteem are caused by a third factor: possibly abuse

regression toward the mean

the tendency for extreme events or results to be followed by ones closer to the average ("sports illustrated curse")

what can tell us about causation?

experimentation

experiment

a research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors, called independent variable, while keeping everything else the same, to observe the effect on behaviors or mental processes, which would then be called dependent variables

subjects

the people or animals being studied or experimented on

variables

things that can change

independent variables

the factors (variables) being manipulated or changed in the experiment by the experimenter, the variables the experimenter controls

dependent variables

the results the experimenters are examining; the factors (variables) the experimenters expect may change when the independent variables are changed

experimental conditions

the parts of the experiment that expose subjects to the treatment, to one version of the independent variables; these subjects are the experimental groups, the subjects you try out the independent variables on, often the subjects you try something new on

control conditions

the conditions you use for comparison, to see if the experimental condition changed the dependent variables; control groups are the subjects you use to compare the experimental groups to, to see if the experimental groups really changed in a meaningful way in which the control groups did not change on the dependent variables

how must subjects be assigned to the experimental groups or the control groups?

randomly, such that each subject has an equal chance of being in the experimental groups or control groups; random assignment minimizes any pre-existing differences between the experimental groups and control groups; this makes it highly likely that if there are any differences in the dependent variables between the experimental groups and the control groups, then those differences were caused by the independent variables

example of independent variable

whether or not you gave people with colds the drug or not

example of dependent variable

how soon those with colds got over the cold

placebo

a neutral, harmless, inconsequential substance or treatment designed to make subjects think that they are getting the real thing; the purpose is to give both groups the same psychological expectation (it controls for mindsets)

double blind procedure

an experimental procedure in which neither the subjects nor the experimenters gathering the results are aware of who is receiving the treatment and who is receiving the placebo at the time the experiment is being carried out

in psychological research, the people who create the experiments should be the people who actually carry them out to get the data

false

in psychological research, the people gathering the data for the experimental should not be aware of the hypotheses of the experiment

true

informed consent

a subject's permission to be studied, to be given only after the subject has been clearly and completely informed of any potential risks and any other information that would reasonably be expected to affect their choice as to whether or not to participate

debriefing

explaining to subjects the exact purpose of the study, informing them of any deceptions that may have occurred, ensuring that they leave the experiment in at least as good as a psychological state as when they entered it, and offering to share the results of the study with the subjects when it has been completed and analyzed

what mistake do mathematical statistics protect us from in psychological research?

failure to recognize when results/observations are random, are just due to chance, rather than being part of a reliable, systematic pattern

ex: on tests, you may get many "false" answers in a row and think that it is not random, when it actually is

we are very good at recognizing when events and patterns of results are random

false

statistical significance

the odds that the results observed, often differences between groups or correlations between variables, could have happened naturally just be chance, through entirely random variation

ex: a person holds up either 1 or 2 fingers and the subject gets the answer right. the subject is not special because the odds were already 50% (very easy)

what are the two generally accepted levels of statistical significance in psychological research?

.05 and .01

.05 means that the odds of getting results like the ones you got is at the most 5% and you can be 95% sure that what you got was not by chance

.01 means that the odds of getting results like the ones you got is no more than 1% and you can be 99% sure that what you got was not by chance

three questions that must be asked before we accept and use a research finding in psychology

1. was it statistically significant?

2. was the magnitude of the results meaningful if statistically significant?

3. have the results been replicated? (you want to make sure it has been and that the results are the same)

how did an eminent harvard university astronomer describe the human brain?

by far the most complex physical object we know of in the entire cosmos

relationship between psychological and biological aspects of behavior and mental processes

everything psychological is simultaneously biological

plasticity

the brain's ability to change, by building new neural pathways based on experience, and/or by reorganizing the way it accomplishes things after parts of the brain are damaged or removed

we see the greatest plasticity in the brain in very young patients

true

we see the least plasticity in the brain in elderly patients

true

neurogenesis

the formation of new neurons (nerve cells); physical exercise, sleep, sex, and non-stressful stimulation promotes neurogenesis

most neurons regenerate

false

neuron

a single nerve cell in the entire nervous system that consists of billions of neurons

cell body (soma)

the central part of the neuron, that contains the nucleus of the nerve cell and regulates the cell's biochemical rxns that act as life support for that cell

dendrites

structures on the input end of the neuron that are bushy, branching, extensions from the neuron that allow it to receive and integrate incoming messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body

axon

an elongated structure on the output end of the neuron, on the opposite end of the dendrites, ending in tiny, branching fibers that can pass messages to other adjacent neurons or to adjacent muscle cells or glands

myelin sheath

a layer of segmented fatty tissue surrounding some axons, that greatly speeds up the transmission of neural impulses and increases their effectiveness

De-myelinating Diseases

the myelin sheath is destroyed and messages from one part of the body cannot get to another part of the body effectively

ex: multiple sclerosis

glial cells

support cells that surround, nourish, support, and protect neurons

mental functions of glial cells

1. learning

2. thinking

3. memory

resting potential

the stable state of the neuron when it is not firing

action potential

a neural impulse; a very brief electrical charge, a wave of electro-chemical energy, that travels very rapidly, down the axon, always in the direction from the input end of the neuron toward the output end

excitatory neural impulses

neural impulses that, when they reach a neuron's dendrites, are designed to trigger the action potential

inhibitory neural impulses

neural impulses that, when they reach a neuron's dendrites, are designed to stop the action potential

threshold of neural firing

the level of stimulation required to trigger neural firing, when the excitatory impulses significantly exceed the inhibitory impulses

all-or-none response

like a gun, the neuron either fires, full strength, or it does not fire at all; approximately the same amount of energy is released each time it fires

how does neural firing vary?

1. the rate an individual neuron fires

2. the number of different neurons in a particular area that are firing at a given time

synapse

the area where the tip of the sending neuron comes together with the dendrites of the receiving neuron

neurotransmitters

chemical messengers that are released into the synaptic gap when the sending neuron fires; when they are released, within 1/10,000 of a second the neurotransmitter chemical cross the synaptic gap and may bind to receptor sites on the adjacent receiving neuron, influencing whether or not that receiving neuron will fire

reuptake

if neurotransmitters do not bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron, they are either broken down by enzymes in the synapse, or else those neurotransmitters are reabsorbed by the neuron that released them

example of a medical use of the reuptake process

SSRIs

SSRIs

selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors that are designed to alleviate depression. they make it hard for a cell to take back serotonin, thus raising serotonin levels in the brain

how many neurotransmitters are there? are they present in all synapses?

several dozen; no

endorphins

natural, opitate-like neurotransmitters produced in your own brain that are linked to pain control and pleasure; "endogenous morphine"

how do endorphins relate to runner's high?

after running for several hours, a runner might stop feeling pain so they can run for several more hours

opiate drugs have a pain-killing effect

true

opiate drugs do not stop endorphin production

false; the brain is tricked by the presence of the drug and thinks that you have enough endorphins, so it stops producing them

what happens when people try to stop taking opiate drugs?

1. they have lots of withdrawal symptoms (endorphins are low)

2. they might relapse because the symptoms are so bad

nervous system

all of the nerve cells of the body; the body's speedy, electrochemical communication network, allowing information to be taken in, decisions to be made, and orders to be carried out

CNS

brain and spinal cord

PNS

the sensory and motor neurons that connect the CNS to the rest of the body

nerves

group of axons that are bundled together to form neural "cables" that connect the CNS with the sense organs, muscles, and glands ex: optic nerve (contains millions of axons)

sensory neurons

neurons that carry incoming information from the sense receptors (eyes, ears, skin, etc) to the CNS

motor neurons

neurons that carry outgoing command information from the CNS to the muscles and glands, triggering them to take action

interneurons

neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and process information in between the sensory inputs and the motor outputs