Chapters 1 to 3 Key Terms

Psychology

The scientific study of the mind and behavior. Predominantly concerned with how and why organisms do what they do

Confounding variable

in an experiment, a factor other than the factor being studied that might influence a study’s results.

Somata Sensory Cortex

Specifically designed for the most sensitive parts (fingers, tongue, face)

Motor Cortex

a cerebral cortex area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements.

Wernicke’s Area (What did you say?)

interprets both written and spoken speech; damage to this area would allow you to hear words/language but not be able to understand what it means

Association areas

areas of the cerebral cortex that are NOT involved in primary motor or sensory functions, but rather are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking.

• The brain is essentially synthesizing the cortex

Broca’s area (Bro Can’t Talk)

Allows you to utilize human speech

• damaged = can HEAR and KNOW what people are saying but won’t be able to speak coherently

Reticular formation

a nerve network that travels through the brainstem into the thalamus; it filters information and plays a role in controlling arousal, alertness, and regulating the sleep/waking cycle.

Hypothesis

It is a tentative and testable statement about the relationship between two or more variables. Is often worded as an if-then statement and should fit into the context of scientific theory and be tested empirically.

Scientific Method

Ideas (in the form of theories and hypotheses) are tested against the real world (in the form of empirical observations), which leads to more ideas that are tested and so on.

Scientific Theory

An integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events. Researchers then carry out an experiment to test the validity of the experiment/make observations. A good ___ is falsifiable and parsimonious, which means it can be tested by collecting consistently supportive evidence and is the simplest explanation.

Empirical Method

A method based on observation, including experimentation, rather than a method based only on forms of logical argument or previous authorities

• . It is only through ____ research that facts are established.

Critical Thinking

Active application of a set of skills to information for the understanding and evaluation of that information

American Psychological Association (APA)

professional organization representing psychologists in the United States. Seeks to advance and spread psychological knowledge

Assoication for Psychological Sciences (APS)

Founded in 1988, it seeks to advance the scientific orientation of psychology. Founding was a result in disagreement between scientific and clinical branches of people within APA

Biopsychology

Explores how our biology influences our behavior. It is a broad field, but many want to understand how the structure and function of the nervous system is related to behavior

• view that psychological disorders like depression and schizophrenia are associated with imbalances in one or more neurotransmitter systems

Interdisciplinary Approach

Way of studying psychological phenomena by integrating knowledge, methods, and perspectives from multiple disciplines, such as neuroscience (work with biologists, medical professors, physiologists, and chemists).

Evolutionary Psychology

Assumes that behavior is a result of evolution through natural selection. It studies the adaptive value of behavior and also encompasses sociobiology and behavioral genetics. Drawback is that the traits we have now evolved under environmental and social conditions far back in history (don’t know what the conditions were)

• ex, ancestors ate a lot of sugar (fruits) and fat (meat) → sugar gave us energy → eat M&M’s because we still need sugar (passed down need)

Natural Selection

All members of a species compete to survive and reproduce. Random genetic mutations occur in a member of a species, with beneficial mutations being more likely to survive and reproduce than organisms with harmful mutations.

Evolutionary Pressures

Can affect many human behaviors like maintaining your own survival, whether you aid others, care of children, and selection of friends and mates

What Women Want (according to evolutionary psych)

• One mate (want them to stick around)

  • healthy

  • lots of resources

  • emotionally committed

What Men Want (according to evolutionary psych):

• As many mates as possible (want many kids)

  • fertile

  • physically attractive (sign of good genes and health)

  • sexually monogamous

Behavioral/Learning Psychology

Assumes that behavior results primarily from learning and also believes that mental processes are not that important. Focuses on the effects of rewards and punishments.

• Eat M&M’s because they are a reward for you

Cognitive Psychology

Explores mental processes (thoughts and their relationship to our experiences and our actions) involved in memory, judgment, decision-making, and other aspects of complex thought. Uses the experimental method to make inferences about mental processes.

• ex. Eat M&M’s with mom → M&M’s remind you of mom which is why you eat them now

Developmental Psychology

scientific study of development across a lifespan

• interested in processes related to physical maturation (physical and cognitive changes)

Personality Psychology

study of patterns of thoughts and behaviors that make each individual unique

• Freud proposed that an individual goes throughout psychosexual stages of development

Personality Trait

consistent pattern of thought and behavior

Big Five (CANOE)

Conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion

Social-Cultural Psychology

Studies how human behavior and thinking varies across situations and cultures

• focuses on how the environment affects human behavior

  • ex. Professor Shaw craves chocolate after dinner (from USA), wife craves oranges (from China)

Environment

anything outside the organism

Industrial-Organization Psychology

It is a subfield of psychology that applies psychological theories, principles, and research findings in industrial and organizational settings.

• deal with issues related to personnel management, organizational structure, and workplace environment.

• Businesses often seek the aid of ___ psychologists to make the best hiring decisions, as well as to create an environment that results in high levels of employee productivity and efficiency

Health Psychology

focuses on how health is affected by the interaction of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors. This particular approach is known as the biopsychosocial model. Are interested in helping individuals achieve better health through public policy, education, intervention, and research.

• might conduct research that explores the relationship between one’s genetic makeup, patterns of behavior, relationships, psychological stress, and health.

biopsychosocial model

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

sport and exercise psychology

Area of psychology that focuses on the interactions between mental and emotional factors and physical performance in sports, exercise, and other activities

Neuroscience Perspective

Assumes that behavior and mental processes are largely shaped by biological processes. This approach emphasizes the role of the brain, genes, and hormones.

• ex. Eat M&M’s → certain parts of brain activated → feel pleasure

Psychodynamic Psychology

Assumes that behavior is a result of unconscious psychological struggles. Utilizes case study method in which an analyst tries to uncover hidden fears and desires. Is important in personality and clinical psychology.

• ex. Professor Shaw binges on M&M’s on Fridays → says it’s because of an internal struggle that you’re taking out on food

Humanistic Psychology

Also known as the phenomenological approach. Assumes that people choose how to think and act. Focuses on potential for personal growth

• ex. You eat M&M’s because they complete you

forensic psychology

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

• Must have a good understanding of the law and provide information in the context of the legal system (rather than just the realm of psychology)

counseling psychology

area of psychology that focuses on improving emotional, social, vocational, and other aspects of the lives of psychologically healthy individuals

Clinical Psychology

area of psychology that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and other problematic patterns of behavior

Organisms

anything with a nervous system

fact

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

opinion

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

deductive reasoning

results are predicted based on a general premise (ideas tested in the real world).

inductive reasoning

conclusions are drawn from observations (real world observations lead to new ideas)

Correlational

relationship between two or more variables; when two variables are ____, one variable changes as the other does

• CANNOT be used to make cause-and-effect relationships

Clinical/Case Study

An intensive examination of a particular individual, group, or situation.

• Pro = can learn everything about one person, data collection is easy

• Con = hard to use to apply beyond the case, can’t expand beyond the person, will take a long time (have to build trust, time intensive)

Naturalistic Observation

Observing people or animals in their natural environment.

• Pro = no bias, won’t change their behavior (authentic)

• Con = ethics, don’t know what the subject’s true intentions, the psychologist has no control over the situation, hard to set up

Structural Observation

people are observed while engaging in set, specific tasks

• ex. “Strange Situation” by Mary Ainsworth

Observer Bias

People who observe are closely involved in the research project and can unconsciously skew their observations

inter-rater reliability

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

Surveys

A questionnaire or interview designed to obtain people’s attitudes, beliefs, opinions or intentions.

• Pro = large population answering, cheap, target your population and hone in on a representative population

• Con = bias (respondents usually answer untruthfully (how they want to be seen)), just set numbers (get the answers but not the why), word bias (how you ask questions can change results).

sample

subset of individuals selected from the larger population

population

overall group of individuals that the researchers are interested in

Mode

Most frequently occuring response/number

Median

Lies in the middle of a given data set

Mean

The average of a set of values, calculated by dividing the sum of all values by the number of values (arithmetic average of all data points)

Archival Research

Using existing records to answer various research questions.

• Pro = Less money and time (no interaction with participants)

• Con = No control over what information was collected and no guarantee of consistency between records from one source to another, also can’t follow up and are stick with how the questions were asked/worded

Longitudinal

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

• ex. survey a group of individuals about their dietary habits at age 20, then retest them a decade later at 30, and then again at 40

• Pro = tracking changes and trends over extended periods, providing a deeper understanding of cause-and-effect relationships by observing the sequence of events, and reducing recall bias through real-time data collection

• Con = results won’t be known for a considerable amount of time, substantial financial investment, research participants must be willing to continue participation for an extended period of time, attrition ra

Cross-sectional Research

compares multiple segments of a population at a single time to assess differences across groups.

• ex. Studies a group of 20-year-olds individuals about their dietary habits and compares them to a group of 30-year-olds and a group of 40-year-olds

• Con = limited by differences that exist between the different generations (social + cultural experiences)

• Pro = quick and inexpensive, can assess the prevalence of outcomes, and identify multiple exposures and outcomes simultaneously.

Experiment

A method in which an experimenter manipulates one or more independent variables (while holding all other variables constant) and examines the effect on one or more dependent variables

• Pro = can control variables (CAN talk about cause and effect)

• Con = can’t generalize (artificial environment)

Attrition rates

reduction in the number of research participants due to dropouts (happens most often in longitudinal research)

Correlational Coefficient

A statistical measure that describes the strength and direction of a relationship between two variables, ranging from -1 to +1.

• Closer to 1 (whether - or +) = more strongly related the numbers are

• closer to 0 = weaker

Positive Correlation

variables move in the same direction (both up or both down)

• ex. with more exposure to violent tv, there are more acts of aggression in children

Third variable

a variable that effects the two other variables (NOT a confounding variable)

• ex. Heat affects both murder and ice cream (both rates go up, not because they correlate with one another but because of heat)

Negative Correlation

variables move in opposite directions (up and down or vice versa)

• ex. people who aren’t ill are more optimistic

illusory/false correlation

seeing relationships between two things when in reality no such relationship exists (ex. moon phases on human behavior)

confirmation bias

The tendency to ignore evidence that disproves ideas or beliefs

Conceptual Variable

A variable that is conceived at the abstract level.

Operational Definition

The specific way that you define a conceptual variable in a particular study

Zero Correlation

There is no relationship between two variables; changes in one do not predict changes in the other.

• no relationship between crimes and the phases of the moon

experimental group

group designed to answer the research question (gets the treatment/variable being tested); experimental manipulation is the only difference between the experimental and control groups, so any differences between the two are due to experimental manipulation rather than chance

control group

serves as a basis for comparison and controls for chance factors that might influence the results of the study—by holding such factors constant across groups so that the experimental manipulation is the only difference between groups

Experimenter bias

Refers to when a researcher’s expectations skew the results of the study

single-blind study

experiment in which the researcher knows which participants are in the experimental group and which are in the control group

double-blind study

experiment in which both the researchers and the participants are blind to group assignments (can control for both experimenter and participant biases/expectations)

• REDUCES placebo effect

placebo effect

people's expectations or beliefs influencing or determining their experience in a given situation

Independent Variable

A variable that is MANIPULATED in an experiment.

Dependent Variable

A variable that is MEASURED in an experiment and may be affected by changes in the independent variable

Descriptive Statistics

Numbers that summarize and describe a data set.

Range

The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.

Standard Deviation

A measurement of the amount of variation among the scores in a standard distribution.

participants

subjects of psychological research and actively participants in process

random sample

subset of a 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 group

statistical analysis

determines how likely any difference between experimental groups is due to chance and assesses the significance of findings.

peer-reviewed journal article

article read by several other scientists (usually anonymously) with expertise in the subject matter, who provide feedback regarding the quality of the manuscript before it is accepted for publication

replicate

repeating an experiment using different samples to determine the research’s reliability

reliability

consistency and reproducibility of a given result

Interval consistency

The degree to which different items on a survey that measure the same thing correlate with one another.

Test-retest reliability

degree to which the outcomes of a particular measure remain consistent over multiple administrations.

validity

accuracy of a given result in measuring what it is designed to measure

ecological validity

degree to which research results generalize to real-world applications

construct validity

The degree to which a given variable actually captures/measures what it’s intended to measure

Face validity

the degree to which a given variable seems valid on the surface

chromosomes

long strand of genetic information known as DNA

deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

helix-shaped molecule made of nucleotide base pairs

Genes

The basic unit of heredity. Partially controls a number of physical characteristics known as traits (like eye color, hair color, etc). A single ___ may have multiple possible variations known as alleles

Alleles

Different versions of a single gene.

Genotype

An organism’s genetic makeup with respect to a trait.