PSYC212 - applied psychology content

What is applied psychology?

branch of psychology concerned with everyday, practical problems

How many divisions are there in the IAAP?

18

According to Geissler (1917) applied and pure psychology differ least in terms of what?

their methods, aims and standpoints are similar

What are the aims of pure psychology?

to understand people, research for the sake of research

What are the aims of applied psychology?

to apply psychological theories to real life situations eg policies, education

What do applied questions focus on?

specific individuals, subgroups, general population, organisations, places, objects systems or tools

What did McInerney (2005) outline as the 4 basic emphases of educational psychology?

cognitive psychology, behavioural psychology, humanism, social cognitive theory

What is the focus of educational psychology?

practitioners work in a range of contexts, work with what children do, strength based approach, evidence based approach

Why might educational psychologists work at the organisational/educational system level?

often more beneficial than individual level, can improve outcomes for lots of people

What is the ultimate goal of educational psychology?

improving outcomes for students

What is the history of educational psychology?

existed as separate discipline since lat 19th/early 20th century (1910)

What did Herbert suggest about educational psychology?

formal steps of learning for teachers, reviewing what students already know and how new material relates to this

What did Witmner suggest about educational psychology?

conducting a comprehensive assessment, often considered father of Clinical Psychology

What is the Binet-Simon scale?

basis for Stanford-Binet IQ test, aimed to help struggling students and thought qualitative view was important

When was using psychological principles to evaluate effectiveness of teaching methods and interventions first suggested/used?

1910

What did Piaget suggest?

young children think in a fundamentally different way to older children and adults

Why is cognitive psychology important in educational psychology?

fundamental to education - Piaget, focuses on cognitive aspects of learning

Why is behavioural psychology important in educational psychology?

useful in managing classroom behaviour - BF Skinner, learning from outcomes of behaviour (reward and punishment)

Why is social cognitive theory (social learning theory) important in educational psychology?

useful in understanding children's self regulation - Bandura, learning from observing others

Why is humanism important in educational psychology?

focuses on individual as a whole, eg Steiner schools, student-centred learning, students encouraged to take control of their education eg focus on subjects that interest them

What is metacognition?

understanding of our own learning eg own assessment of our learning

What are JOLs?

judgements of learning, important for improving learning, having accurate JOLs improves learning eg experiments of learning new word pairings

How many cues are there for JOLs?

3, intrinsic, mnemonic, extrinsic

What are intrinsic cues?

characteristics of the item eg how easy it is to learn

What are mnemonic cues?

internal signals about how well we have learned information eg ease of recall

What are extrinsic cues?

conditions of learning eg study methods, learners don't seem to recognise effective study methods

What did Kornell and Son's (2009) study on memory and JOLs show?

proportion of words correct was greater in the test mode than the pair mode, proportion of words correct was greater with feedback in the test mode than with no feedback

What are the high utility study techniques?

practice testing and distributed practice

What are moderate utility study techniques?

self-explanation, elaborative integrations, interleaved practice

What are low utility study strategies?

re-reading, summarising, highlighting, imagery for text, keyword mnemonic,

What is the testing effect?

more information remembered with practice testing compared to without practice testing

In Karpicke et al.'s study, which study strategy did students prefer even though it was not evidence based?

re-reading notes/textbook even though it is not very effective

What is an example of a pure research question?

eg is CBT effective?

What is an example of an applied research question?

eg what is the best way to teach children to read?

What is a false positive in applied psychology?

concluding an intervention works when it doesn't, eg effect due to confounder, can cause harm in some cases eg harmful treatment, preventing people from accessing more beneficial treatment

What is a false negative in applied psychology?

intervention is effective however conclude that it is not

What are the features if a good study design?

has both reliability and validity

What is test-retest reliability?

how consistent results are if we administer the same test multiple times, do we expect results to be the same/different over time

What is reliability?

consistency of measurement, do we get the same results if we repeated the study

What does research have to be?

reliable

What is validity?

does the study measure what it claims to measure

What is inter-rater reliability?

qualitative component, are the results the same with different experimenters (subjective component)

What is absolute validity?

eg do participants drive the same speed in a driving study and in real life, important for making decisions similar to study

What is relative validity?

do we see the same patterns in the study and in real life eg texting and driving

What is face validity?

eg is driving in the simulator the same as a real car

What are some experimental research methods in applied psychology?

eg quasi-experiments, interventions, RCTs

What are some observational research methods in applied psychology?

surveys, interviews, focus groups, epidemiological studies, accident/incident analysis

What is the key difference between pure and applied research?

context, nature of research question/reason for carrying out study is different

What are the aims of pure research?

isolating and controlling variables

What are the aims of applied research?

research that can be applied in real life

What does WEIRD stand for?

western, educated, industrialised, rich, democratic

Why is using WEIRD participants problematic (Henrich et al, 2010)

oversampling of US undergrad students, US undergrads over 4000 times more likely to be a research participant than a member of the general population, don't represent most people eg more individualistic and liberal, findings from studies may not apply to other people/general population

What does the p-value depend on?

effect size, determines whether we can generalise study findings to population of interest

What is statistical significance?

whether the p-value is greater than the alpha value

What is practical significance?

real-world importance, small effect sizes can have practical significance eg how much training is required, unlikely we will see large effect sizes for some topics

What type of significance is more important in applied psychology?

practical significance eg what the results mean in real life, more important than effect size and p-value

What is the independent variable?

variable(s) that are changed in a study/intervention

What are the dependent variables?

outcome/response, variable(s) that are measured in a study/intervention

What is a between-subjects design?

different participants complete/represent different conditions

What is a within-subjects design?

all participants experience all conditions in a study/intervention

What is a mixed within-between subjects design?

one or more within-subjects variable, one or more between-subjects variable included in the same study eg measurement time (within-subjects), teaching style (between-subjects)

What is the control group?

participants who do not receive the treatment, what the results of the study are compared to

What is counterbalancing?

changing the order in which participants complete the study, to avoid order effects

What are order effects?

order of the study impacts the results of the experiment eg reduced or improved performance

What is a 2x2 factorial design?

2 independent variables with two conditions each

What two factors does the p-value depend on?

effect size and sample size

What is confounding?

third factor present that impacts the results, associated with both exposure and outcome

Why do we need evidence?

intuition/people's beliefs are not always correct

What is the distribution of intelligence?

normally distributed, 50% above and below average intelligence

What did Heck's study (2018) about average intelligence show?

63% of people in the US believed they were above average intelligence, respondents with more education underestimated their intelligence, younger males tended to overestimate their intelligence

What were the different statements in Simon and Chabris' (2011) study?

amnesia - people suffering from amnesia typically cannot recall their own name or identity, video memory - human memory is like a video camera, hypnosis - hypnosis is useful in helping witnesses accurately recall details of crimes, permanent memory - once you have experienced an event and formed a memory of it, that memory does not change, confident testimony - in my opinion, testimony of one confident eyewitness should be enough evidence to convict a defendant of a crime

In Simon and Chabris' (2011) study, how many experts agreed with statements?

none, none of the statements are true however are common beliefs in the general public

What statement was most agreed with in Simon and Chabris' (2011) study by the general public?

amnesia - people suffering from amnesia typically cannot remember their own name or identity, 83% of general public agreed with statement

What percentage of the general public agreed that human memory works like a video camera?

63%

What percentage of the public believed that hypnosis would be useful in helping witnesses accurately remember details of crimes?

55%

What percentage of the general public agreed that once you have experienced an event and formed a memory of it that memory does not change (permanent memory)?

48%

What percentage of the general public agreed that testimony of one confident eyewitness should be enough evidence to convict a defendant of a crime?

37%

What is unintentional blindness?

don't necessarily see things even when they are right in front of us eg gorilla when focusing on counting ball passes, one issue in court cases eg injuries

What are policies?

principles or rules that guide decision making and actions to achieve desirable outcomes

What are some examples of research questions?

eg does cannabis impair driving performance? is impairment from cannabis worse than impairment from alcohol? what dose is required to produce impairment?

What are some examples of policy questions?

eg should we legalise cannabis? should we prohibit use of cannabis before driving? how should we measure impairment of cannabis use?

Why aren't all policies evidence based?

pragmatic reasons and political/ideological reasons - long standing beliefs or vested interest, trade off between costs and benefits etc,

What are the intervention standards (Flay et al, 2005)?

relevant samples, sound measures and procedures, appropriate analysis, effects of practical significance, at least one long term follow-up

When is the casualty rate from driving the highest?

immediately after getting restricted licence, decreases with months after driver liscencing

What happens to the crash rate as the number of hours of driving practice/experince increases?

number of crashed per 1000 drivers and crashed per 10M km decreases, rate of crashes was highest in 17.5 year olds with least hours of driving practice

Why is 120 hours recommended for driving practice?

required hours in Australia, decreases crash rate significantly

Why is 120 hours of practice not always possible?

limitations with study data and methodology, not everyone can access same amount of driving practice or driving instructors etc

What is human factors and ergonomics?

understanding interactions among humans and other elements of the system

What is the human factors organisation in NZ?

HFESNZ (human factors and ergonomics society of NZ)

What do human factors professionals focus on?

workplace design eg issues such as increased injury, burnout

What are the aims of human factors?

identify what hinders/enables people to work at optimal level, ensures systems and equipment are user friendly and designed efficiently, environment changes to fit person's needs not trying to change person to fit environment

What is similar about the HFE NZ approach and Te Ao Maori worldview?

takes a Te Ao Maori approach with people at the centre

What are the 3 main components of HFE?

systems approach, design driven, outcome focused

What does an outcome focused approach focus on?

performance, safety, user satisfaction

What is a systems approach?

links closely with cognition, perception and neuroscience, took off after WWII, important findings from aviation, same principles regardless of industry, looks at the system as a whole

How does human factors differ from organisational psychology?

human factors - what we need people to do, organisational psychology - factors of people

How does human factors and organisational psych overlap?

aspects of task design, (personnel selection) eg jobs of pilot, what aspects/personality factors would you look for when interviewing people to be a pilot?

What is design induced error?

relates to usability, design of ambient environment eg lighting, noise, eg B17 plane (1940s), pilots repeatedly made same error when landing due to switch too close to another switch, wrong switch accidentally flipped

What happens if there is a highly likely error?

interface (HET template) should fail

What are the different stages in the human error template (HET)?

fail to execute, execution incomplete, executed in wrong direction, wrong task executed, task repeated, executed on wrong interface element, executed too early, executed too late, executed too much, executed too little, misread information, other