CHAPTER 1 PSYC 101

Is psychology simply a mental health profession, or is there more to it than that?

Psychology is not simply a mental health profession, but rather a science

What other types of things do psychologists do?

teaching, researching, consulting, counseling x

Define Psychology

The science of behavior and mental processes

What are examples of observable behavior?

speech and physical movement

what are examples of mental processes?

remembering and thinking

What are the four major research perspectives within psychology?

Biological, cognitive, behavioral, and sociocultural

What is the biological perspective?

physiological hardware being viewed as a determiner of behavior (emphasizes internal factors)

What is the cognitive perspective?

emphasis on how our mental processes work and impact our behavior (emphasizes internal factors)

What is the behavioral perspective?

explains that we behave as we do because of our past history of conditioning by our environment (emphasizes external factors)

what is the sociocultural perspective?

focuses on the impact of other people and culture on our behavior and mental processing (emphasizes external factors)

What are key words that relate to the biological perspective?

Brain chemistry, brain, nervous system, genetics

What are key words that relate to the cognitive perspective?

mental processes, perception, memory, problem solving, thinking, beliefs

What are key words that relate to the behavioral perspective?

experience, learning, reinforcement

What are key words that relate to the sociocultural perspective?

other people, culture

What is hindsight bias (I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon)?

the tendancy, after learning about an outcome, to be overconfident in one’s ability to have predicted it

what three categories do research methods fall under?

1. Descriptive

2. Correlational

3. Experimental

What is the descriptive research method?

provide objective and detailed descriptions of behavior and mental processes

What is the correlational research method?

where two variables are measured to see if they are related

What is the experimental research method?

most common because it allows researcher to explore cause-effect relationships

When can the experimental research method NOT be used?

When experiments would be unethical

What is the main goal of psychology?

To explain cause-effect relationships

What are the three types of descriptive methods?

1. observational techniques

2. case studies

3. survey research

What are observational techniques?

when the researcher unobtrusively observes behavior of interest (laboratory, naturalistic, or participant)

What are case studies?

research method in which the researcher studies an individual in depth over an extended period of time

What is survey research?

research method where the researcher uses questionnaires and interviews to collect information about the behavior, beliefs, and attitudes of particular groups of people

What can descriptive methods NEVER be used to do?

Descriptive data only allows researchers to speculate about cause-effect relationships, which must then be tested with experiments

What is a naturalistic observation?

descriptive research method in which the behavior of interest is unobtrusively observed in its natural setting

Why would a naturalistic observation be conducted?

when researchers are interested in how humans or other animals behave in their natural habitats

What are two well-known examples of naturalistic observations of other species?

Dian Fossey - Mountain gorillas

Jane Goodall - chimpanzees

What is a participant observation?

descriptive research method in which the observer becomes part of the group being observed

Why would a participant observation be conducted?

Briefly describe the Rosenhan (1973) study, and understand why it is an example of a participant observation.

A study where a group of people posed as patients with symptoms of a major mental disorder to see if doctors at a psychiatric hospital could distinguish them from real patients. Apparently the staff couldn’t, but the patients could. (The observers become a core part of the experiment)

Define population

the entire group of people that a researcher is studying

Define sample

The subset of a population that actually participates in a research study

What is random sampling?

a sampling technique that obtains a representative sample of a population by ensuring that each individual in a population has an equal opportunity to be in the sample

What is a correlational study?

two variables measured to determine if they are related (how well either one predicts the other)

What is a variable?

any factor that can take on more than one value

How is a correlational study conducted?

conducted by getting a representative sample of the relevant population. Next, the researcher takes the two measurements on the sample

What is a correlation coefficient?

a statistic that tells us the type and the strength of the relationship between two variables

What does it mean to have a positive correlation?

direct relationship between two variables (low, low; high, high)

What does it mean to have a negative correlation?

Inverse relationship between two variables (low, high; high, low)

What determines the strength of a correlation?

Indicated by the number (closer to 1.0, the stronger the correlation)

What is the range for the absolute values of a correlation coefficient?

0.0-1.0

What is a scatterplot?

visual depiction of correlational data in which each data point represents the scores in the two variables for each participant

What is the major limitation of correlational studies? (the same thing descriptive research methods cannot do)

cannot talk about cause-and-effect relationships

What is the third-variable problem?

an explanation of a correlation between two variables in terms of another (third) variable that could possibly be responsible for the observed relationship between the two variables

What are key words to remember for experimental research?

control, manipulation, and measurement

What two influences must be controlled in experimental research, and how is this done?

1. controls for possible influence of third variables by making sure they are held constant across all the groups or conditions in the experiment

2. controls for possible influence due to the individual characteristics of the participants, such as intelligence, motivation, and memory

what is random sampling?

sampling technique in which a sample of participants that is representative of the population is obtained

What is random assignment?

control measure in which participants in a sample are randomly assigned to the groups or conditions in the experiment

What is an experiment?

a research method in which the researcher manipulates one or more independent variables and measures their effect on one or more dependent variables while controlling other potentially relevant variables

What is an independent variable?

in an experiment, the variable that is a hypothesized cause and thus is manipulated by the experimenter

What is a dependent variable?

in an experiment, the variable that is hypothesized to be affected by the independent variable and thus is measured by the experimenter

What is an operational definition?

a description of the operation or procedures that a researcher uses to manipulate or measure a variable

Why are operational definitions absolutely essential to the science of psychology?

What is a placebo effect?

improvement due to the expectation of improving because of receiving treatment

What is a placebo?

an inactive pill or sham treatment that has no known effects

What research participants get the placebo?

placebo group

what is the placebo group?

a control group of participants who believe they are receiving treatment, but who are only receiving a placebo

What does it mean to say an experimental finding is “statistically significant?”

statistical significance tells us the probability that a finding did not occur by chance, but it does not insure that the finding has practical significance or value in our everyday world

How is statistical significance related to practical or social significance?

Statistical significance confirms a result is unlikely due to random chance, while practical or social significance measures whether that result is large enough to be meaningful in the real world

What is a double-blind procedure, and why is it used?

a control measure in an experiment in which neither the experimenters nor the participants know which participants are in the experimental and control groups.

Helps to prevent experimenters from treating participants differently based on what groups they’re in

Helps the participants, especially when in a placebo group

What are inferential statistics?

allows researchers to draw conclusions about the results of their studies by determining that the probability the results are due to random variation (chance)

What are descriptive statistics?

statistics that describe the results of a research study in a concise fashion

What are examples of descriptive statistics?

correlation coefficient, mean, median, mode

What do the measures of central tendency define?

the measures of central tendency define a “typical” score for a distribution of scores

What is the mean?

the numerical average for a distribution of scores

What is the median?

the score positioned in the middle of a distribution of scores when all of the scores are arranged from lowest to highest

What is the mode?

the most frequently occurring score in a distribution of scores

What is variability?

how spread out the scores are

What are two measures of variability?

range and standard deviation

What is range?

the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution of scores

What is standard deviation?

the average extent that the scores vary from the mean for a distribution of scores

What are the benefits of thinking like a scientist, now more than ever in today’s digital world?

thinking like a scientist allows all of us to gain a better understanding of ourselves, others, and the world we all inhabit. Such thinking has enabled psychological scientists to gain a much better understanding of human behavior and mental processing

Describe how a simple experiment would be set up, including the terms experimental group and control group.

Randomly assign participants to either the experimental group, or the control group. The experimental group is the only group being tested with the independent variable. The control group does not receive treatment, or they may end up being given a placebo, which is a sham treatment.