PSYCH1200 Exam 1 (CHAPTER 1-4)

Psychology is the scientific study of?

The study of behavior, thoughts, and experiences; also can be the study of the brain.

What is the Scientific Method?

• A way of learning about the world through collecting observation which can then can be used to test questions and support ideas.

• Using theories to make predictions about future events.

  • A dynamic interaction between hypothesis testing and the construction of theories.

What is A Hypothesis?

A testable prediction about processes that can be observed and measured.

• do not prove our hypothesis to be true.

• acknowledge the possibility of it being wrong.

• must be falsifiable.

• must be precise and have relevant terms.

What is A Theory?

An explantion for a broad range of observation that also generates new hypothesis and integrates numerous finding into a coherent whole.

• desperate in finding or funding terms.

• must also be falsifiable.

• new information can be integrated rather than negating one.

• not the same to someone’s opinion

• not all equally plausible

• validity of a theory is not determined by the people who believe it ot be true

Determinism

All event can be xlpained thorugh lawful cause and effect relationship.

• if we got enough information about bow psychology works, we can then make predictions.

• in contrast to free-will.

Zeitgeist

Refers to a general set of beliefs of a particular culture at a specific time in history.

• Delayed the science of psychology.

Materialism

The belief that human, and other living beings, are composed of exclusively of physical matter.

• Challenging to some poeple because it went agianst their religious beliefs.

Hippocrates

Considered the father of western medicine.

• “Hippocratic Oath” - An oath to only heal and do no harm towards biological diseases.

• Developed the four humors, ‘fluids’ coursed through our bodies.

Aristotle

• Tabula Rasa - Man veins life with a blank slate.

• Para Psyche (‘about the mind’) - First text in history of Psychology.

  • ancient primitive textbooks that devoted to Psychology.

• Psyche - “The mind” is the source of all human behaviour.

• Rooted for the heart as being the important factor and where memories were being stored.

Rene Descartes

The ‘Mind Body Problem’ - whether our mind is just a part of our body or if our mind is different from our body.

Cartesian Dualism

Argued that the body and the mind are two different things having exclusive functions to each other.

• The body which is physical in nature and the mind which is non-material and a little bit more mystical in a sense 

• He thought that these interacting components of the mind and the body was the source of our behavior 

The “Problem of Interactionalism”

Could not really explain how a non physical mind can influence a physical body.

• Rene Descartes pointed out that the pineal gland to the solution.

Psychophysics

Proposed by Gustav Fechner, it is the study of relationship between the physical world and our mental representation of that world.

Response Compression

As intensity is increased, so is the magnitude, but not as rapidly as the stimulus intensity.

• light brightness displayes response compression.

Response Expansion

As intensity is increased, perceptual magnitude increases more than the intensity.

• Electric shock displays response expansion.

Charles Darwin “Theory of Natural Selection”

Certain traits were advantageous for organisms and therfore those traits were more likely to survive and be more prominent in the future organisms.

• Explaining the variation of how plants and animals look.

Brain Localization

The idea that certain spots in our brain control specific mental abilities.

Phrenology

The idea that our brain is made up of distinct area, and each brain is responsible for a particular part of people.

• 27 ‘organs’

• more of particular trai then there would be more brain mass in that certain area.

Brain Injury

• Paul Borja, identified brain region associated with speech production.

• Carl Wenicke, identified brain region associated with speech comprehension.

Franc Mesmer

• Believed that metallic fluids within our blood could be redirected by magnet to cure diseases 

• Directed fluids by ‘mesmerizing’ the patient with hand movements , inducing a trance 

  • Phenomenon of inducing trances later renamed hypnosis

Psychoanalysis

The view that many of our behaviors our governed by outside of our unconsciousness.

Three unconscious parts

• Id: instincts

• Super-ego: morality and critical thinking

• Ego: organized part that mediated between the desires of the Id and the Super-ego

Medical Model

Use of the medical ideas to treat psychological disorder.

• not just dismissing them as simple diseases.

Sir Francis Galton

• developed statistical techniques for the comparison and analysis for human behavior.

• Investigated nature and nurture relationship.

• Believed heredity explaned psychological differences

  • Used self-serving ideas and used himself to support his own claims.

Eminence

the combination of ability, morality, and achievement resulting from good genes.

Eugenics

Coined by Galton which the idea that while some people have better genetics, they should be able to have better opportunities than to those who are less.

Introspection

Coined by Wilhelm Wundt, the means to look within and to describe the intersubjective of our experiences.

Structuralism

Analyzing conscious experiences by breaking it down into basic element and to understand how these elements work together.

Edward Titchener

Created a periodic table of thoughts and experiences.

• borrow language from established from science.

• mental experiences as composed ‘elements’.

• different combinations of elements responsible for more complex experiences.

William James

• wrote the first textbook in psychology, ‘The Principle of Psychology’

  • influenced by Darwin’s evolutionary principles.

  • born our of functionalism, to try to explain why do we behave the way we do.

• Dismissive of the use of introspection

Functionalism

The study of the purpose and function of behavior and conscious experiences.

Edwin Twitmyer

Proposed how organisms learn to anticipate bodily function and discovered condition by accident.

Classical Conditioning

A learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired

• accidentally discovered, was not really interested in the conditioning but the physiological process

Behaviorism

The study of observable behaviour, with little or no reference to mental events or instincts a possible influences on behaviour.

• proposed by Ivan Pavlov

John B. Watson

• Rise of behaviorism in North America.

• All behaviors could be explained by conditioning.

• Revolutionized the principle of marketing.

  • evoking feeling in an advertisement.

Objective Measurement

The measure of an entity or behavior that, within an allowed margin of error, is consistent across instruments and observers.

• needs to be independent of who is doing the measure.

Variable

Refers to the object, concept, or event being measured.

• behavioral measures, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), blood or saliva, self-reporting.

Operational Definition

Statements that describe the procedures and/or specific measure that are used to record observation.

• To do what we have to do to come up with a precise definition of what it is, since people might come into play and have preconception of what it means to be intoxicated.

Reliability

When a measure provides consistent and stable answers across multiple observation and points in time.

Test-retest reliability

The need to give the same test consistently to gain the same conclusion

Alternate-forms reliability

The need to have one version of a test and an alternate one but has the same context to both test.

• to prevent biases of a same test being taken over and over again.

Inter-rater reliability

Multiple observers of a behavior should come to the same conclusion.

Validity

The degree to which an instrument or procedure actually measures what is claims to measure.

Generalizability

Refers to the degree to which one set of results can be applied to other situations, individuals, or events.

Researchers Bias vs Subject Bias

The biases can vary depending on what experiment is being tested.

Hawthorne Effect

The idea that behavior will change if you know the experiment being tested on you.

• rooted from scientist wanting to test the productivity of the workers.

• the researchers were biasing the study as they were making themselves too obvious and the workers were also biasing themselves because they were not behaving naturally.

Demand Characteristic

Any unintentional cue that is left in the experimental design that the participants can use to figure out what the experiment is all about.

what is the Clever Hans Effect

The Clever Hans Effect refers to a phenomenon where an animal, typically a horse, appears to possess human-like intelligence or the ability to understand and respond to questions or commands. However, it is actually responding to subtle cues from its trainer or handler, rather than truly understanding the task at hand. This effect was named after a horse named Clever Hans, who gained fame in the early 20th century for seemingly performing arithmetic calculations. It was later discovered that Clever Hans was actually responding to unconscious cues from his trainer, such as body language or facial expressions.

Social Desirability Responding

Research participants respond in ways that increase the chances they will be viewed favourably.

• people will answer in a way that will increase their chances to be viewed in a good way

• contradicts the unbiased results experimenters are trying to convey

Observers Expectancy Effect

Researcher’s expectation can influence subject’s behavior

• a teachers behavior in children or their student can influence them to do better in their studies

Placebo Effect

A measurable and experiences improvement in health or behavior that cannot be attributed to a medication or treatment.

• Conditioning effects.

• “all in the head” or actual physiological response?

• pain relief and changes in brain activation, can be purely subjective.

Nocebo Effect

The opposite where people are more focused on the side effect of taking such placebo and will then experience it more than the people that have no side effect.

• e.g. Stress

Anonymity

Each individual’s responses are recorded without any name or other personal information that could link a particular individual to specific results.

Confidentiality

Only researchers will have access to the data.

• informed participants will then reduce their anxiety and social desirability bias.

Single-blind Study

The participants do not know the true purpose of the study, or else do not know which type of treatment they are receiving.

• e.g., placebo or treatment drug

Double-blind study

A study in which neither the participants nor the experiments know the exact treatment or any individual.

• a third party is in play that knows what is being conducted but not the direct researchers.

• the researchers who are directly conducting it can analyze the data after they are done conducting it.

Peer Review

A process in which paper submitted for publication in scholarly journals are read and critiqued by experts in the specific field of study.

Replication

The process of repeating a study and finding similar outcome each time.

Anecdotal Evidence

An individuals story or testimony about an observation or event that us used to make a claim as evidence.

• e.g. when someone is telling you a story and they are relying on you to believe their account of what happens

  • not really providing evidence beyond this anecdote

Appeal to Authority

The belief in an “expert’s” claim even when no supporting data or scientific evidence is present.

Appeal to Common Sense

Asserts that a proposition must be false because it contradicts one’s personal expectations or beliefs, or is difficult to imagine.

Selective Use of Data

Statistics are often inappropriately used to bolster weak arguments.

• distorts data to come to the conclusion to what you want it ot be if you are biased in that way