PSY100 LEC 1-4

multifactorial

many factors are influential

confirmation bias

overvaluing info that agrees with out beliefs and undervaluing those that don’t

motivated reasoning

doing intensive work to reach a certain belief despite contradicting evidence

meta-analysis

analyzing studies instead of individuals

illusion of causality

assuming there is a cause and effect relationship between 2+ things when there isn’t

clustering illusion

inferring patterns from small. non-representative data that are actually random

apophenia

tendency to perceive meaningful patterns in unconnected stimuli

argument from antiquity fallacy

thinking old ideas are true just because they are old

appeal to authority fallacy

believing a fact or idea just because it was said by someone important or with authority

appeal to ignorance fallacy

believing an idea just because there is no one refuting it yet

bandwagon fallacy

believing an idea is correct because a large amount of people do

either/or fallacy (dichotomous/binary thinking)

no appreciation of gradients (complexity)

not me fallacy

thinking you can’t be wrong

terror management theory

the awareness of invetible death and how that affects our actions/thoughts/beliefs

cognitive dissonance theory

when one holds two beliefs that contradict each other

structuralism

experiences are composed of many different parts that don’t combine but instead merge into an experience

studied the experience through introspection (verbally report)

parts can be identified through introspection

studied mental chronometry

gave credibility to psychology as an experimental science

introspection in this form was unreliable and later abandoned

unconscious processing as not addressed

practical application were discouraged

few use of animals

mental chronometry

study of decision-making time

titchener

early contributor to strucuralism

functionalism

focused on adaptive value and behaviors served it

related to evolutionary theory

transformed views of behavior; they are contextual

attached to evolutionary psychology

more theoretical

gestalt psychology

whole is different than the sum of the parts

contrasts structuralism

mainly focused on visual perception

led us to reconsider reductionist approach (the whole is everything, stimuli are interpreted in context)

identified key perceptual principles

made contributions toward perception related things

more descriptive than predictive

did not describe the mechanism

william james

early contributor of functionalism

psychoanalysis

study the unconscious through many methods like free association, dream analysis, talk therapy

emphasized childhood experiences

popularized psychology and revolutionized mental health care

emphasized the importance of unconscious processing

fixated on case studies which led to generalization concerns

a lot of theories were untestable or unsupported

overvalued environmental influences and sexual function and development

freud & jung

early contributors to psychoanalysis

behaviorism

used math to predict behavior

thought the right stimuli will yield a certain response

focused on behavior

experimentally rigorous

identified learning prciniples and informed mental health care

overvalued environmental influences

undervalued importance of interpretation and mental processes

couldn’t explain certain behaviours well enough

did not consider different species

watson and skinner

early contributors to behaviorism

cognitivism

contrasted behaviorism

studied mental processes (perception, thinking, memory, judgment)

innovative models, experimental designs and approaches that spawned many fields

intellectual predecessors: piaget & ebbinghaus

accompanying roles of emotion interact

can be used with neuroimaging

social and cultural psychology

studied how social situations and culture influence decision making

helped better understand contexts, cultures and people better

broad implications

replicability issues as low effect sizes are common

lab environments may be non-representative because they are too artificial

conceptual variables

intangible variables like thoughts and feelings

operational definition

the specific test of the conceptual variable

positive impression management

exaggerating positive traits

malingering

exaggerating or making up problems

Halo effect

positive traits spill into different areas

test-retest reliability

every retest yeild similar result

inter-rater reliability

no matter who score the test, results will be similar

construct validity

how well a construct, like our test, measure what it claims to measure

predictive/criterion validity

does the test predict other variables, such as variables relevant to the real world

measure of central tendency

mean, median, mode

measures of variability

standard deviation, range

standard deviation (SD)

how much a score deviates from the mean

low SD= not a lot of spread

high SD = a lot of spread

outlier

an extreme score. At least 2 absolute SD units away from the mean

normal distribution

symmetrical (bell curve)

no skewness

limited kurtosis (not a lot of cases on the ends of the graph)

mean, median, mode are very similar

negative skew

most cases are higher values and some are lower values

positive skew

most cases are lower values and some are higher values

hypothesis

a proposed explanation of a phenomenon based on evidence that serves a starting point for an investigation

based  on an educated guess

usually narrow (specific)

can be directional  when it species whether something increases/decreases

control group

the blank slates we compare the manipulated groups to

descriptive research

look don’t touch, assessment of variables through observation only

not possible to infer causation as that usually requires manipulation

descriptive case study

intensive case study of one individual

can inspire new hypotheses

can give insight into rare phenomena, providing proof of existence

common in medicine

descriptive survey

asses many variables in a large population through surveys or interviews

highly generalizable

valuable to social psychology

surveys can asses a lot of people on a lot of things simultaneously

more private

descriptive naturalistic observation

observes an animal in its natural setting without intervention

highly generalizable (external validity)

poorly controlled

limited variables to assess

conditions/environment can’t be controlled

infrequent behaviors may be hard to catch

experimental method

artificially manufactured environment (where most variables are controlled) used to observe something

changing one thing to see the outcome. If a change occurs then the changed thing must have caused it

allows for inference for causal relationships between variables

independent variable

manipulated by researchers

dependent variable

variable that responds to change

causal relationship

a cause and effect relationship

quasi-experiment

an experiment setting without true random assignment.

between subject design

2+ groups, each given a different treatment

within subject design

one group observed twice (before and after treatment)

more economical

better control for confounding variables

suspectable to attrition (subject loss which = loss of study data)

suspectable to practice-effects (getting better after each time

mixed design

2+ groups each observed twice

more useful because the amount of time might make a difference

WEIRD problem

studies’ focus on: Western, Educated individuals living in, Industrialized, Rich, & Democratic countries

confounding variable

uncontrolled variable related to the DV or IV that can affect results

hawthorne effect

subjects may work harder because they know they are being watched

placebo effect

an effect of a treatment that cannot be attributed to the active properties of that treatment

single-blinding/participant blinding

when participants don’t know which treatment they are getting (ex. placebo or real treatment)

experimenter effect

researcher unconsciously behave in a way that gets the result they want

double-blinding

when researchers and participants are both blinded (that is researchers don’t know the results of the study until it is over)

ethics guidline

1.      Informed consent - Subject is given all relevant participation (such as the duration)

2.      Freedom to leave at any point

3.      Protection of participants

a. No unnecessary harm, distress, or risk

4. Confidentiality - Data is destroyed after study is done.  Participant info should not be shared

5.Debriefing - reveal any deception and the goal of the study. Allow participants to ask questions afterwards

null hypothesis (Ho)

no difference between groups

alternative hypothesis (Ha)

there is a difference between groups

treatment effect (effect)

there is an effect if we reject null hypothesis

p value (a)

probability a result is due to chance

critical value (alpha value)

preset threshold based on a study’s constraints (risk of being wrong). Is compared to the p value to understand its significance

statistical significance

if p value <a, that means there is a relationship

p-hacking

pursuit of a p value neccessary for significance

researchers may reorganize their study by removing groups or repeatedly run tests (high error risk)

effect size

magnitude of an effect

replication crisis

many research info were not reliable or applicable. many research info were not reliable or applicable

open study

making the data from a study widely available

pre-registration

pre-reporting what you’re supposed to do in a study to make sure researchers stay accountable

pearson r

coefficient for continuous variables

ranges from -1 to 1

absolute r = strength

sign (±) = direction

CNS

central nervous system.

midline incased in bone

PNS

peripheral nervous system

everything not in the midline and not incased in bone; everything else

dendrites

where neurons receive the signal (think fingers)

cell body

(think palm) –  integrates the signal

axon

think your forearm)- where the signal travels

axon terminals

where the signal leaves (release of transmitter

action potential

electrochemical signal
moves potential across membranes

synapse

gap between neurons

agonist

compound binds to a receptor and produces a response

antagonist

a compound that binds to a receptor without activating it

naloxone

helps with treating drug overdoes by competing with opiod for receptor site

competitive antagonist

competes with other neurotransmitters for receptor sites, therefore blocking the activation of said receptor sites

frontal lobe

the government of the brain

takes care of executive functions

has key areas for initiating voluntary movement

breaks down into hundreds of little areas

parietal lobe

sensory, pain, language and many more

different types of tactile perceptions such as proprioception

contains somatosensory cortex (homunculus)
lesion may impair ability to feel/recognize tactile stimuli, do math, and speak

occipital lobe

vision

temporal lobe

prone to be associated with object recognition and memory recognition

primary sensory area for hearing and language

may be associated with complex functions like creativity and religiosity/spiritual/mystical experience

gyri (sing. gyrus)

ridges of the brain

sulci (sing. sulcus)/fissures (if deep)

a groove in the brain

longitudinal fissure

2 halves (hemispheres). The middle groove

central fissure

separates the frontal lobe from parietal

lateral fissure

separates the top and bottom of the brain (frontal and parietal from temporal)

contralateral representation

each hemisphere represents the opposite side of the body

left right brain hypothesis

some traits are localized in only one side of the brain and the idea that a person is left or right hemisphere dominated