unit 1 foundation and research

11th grade ap psychology

psychology

- the study of behavior and mental processes
- seeks answers to question about us (how we think, feel, and behave)

wilhelm wundt

- father of psychology
- performed first psychological experiments in first psychology laboratory at the university of leipzip in germany (1879)

edward titchener

- student of wundt
- introduced structuralism

structuralism

- discover elements of the mind ("atoms of the mind")

introspection

- looking inward
- subjective emotions and objective sensations
- focused on thoughts, images, and feelings
- conscious experience

self reflective method

- thinking about mental processes and then reporting them

william james

- functionalist
- taught first psych class at harvard (1875)
- mentored mary whiton calkins
- wrote first textbook "the principles of psychology" (1890)

functionalism

- focused on function/purpose of behavior (stream on consciousness)

mary whiton calkins (1863-1930)

- emphasized importance of introspection in understanding "self"
- first woman president of the american psychological association

margaret floy washburn (1871-1939)

- first woman to get a psych PhD
- studied motor processes (thinking is based on movement)

gesalt

- the whole is greater than the sum of all parts
- max wertheimer
- focus was not on how we feel, but how we experience/perceive the world
- perception

psychoanalysis

- sigmund freud
- unconscious mind
- free response and dream analysis to reveal unconscious processes

psychodynamic

- freud's theories along with his followers

behaviorism

- john watson
- people ignored how you felt inside and how you acted was all that mattered
- if psychologists could change your behavior, they can change the way you think (classical conditioning)

eclectic

- variety of behaviorism, psychoanalysis, humanistic, biological, social-cultural, cognitive
- psychologists pick which theories/perspectives to use depending on the situation and client
- where we are now

biological perspective

- brain and their functions (neuroscience)

evolutionary perspective

- adaptive value (ex: flight or fight response)

behavior-genetics perspective

- how genes and environment influence our individual differences

psychoanalytic perspective

- we may repress some of our true feelings and may not be fully aware of them, so to get "better," we must bring these issues to the surface to confront them

behavioral perspective

- focuses on observable behaviors while putting feelings to the side

humanistic perspective

- helping individuals improve their sense of "self"

cognitive perspective

- focuses on how we think

socio-cultural perspective

- how behavior and thinking vary across situations (groups) and cultures

why we need psychological science

- hindsight bias
- overconfidence

hindsight bias

- to believe after learning/observing an outcome, that we would have predicted it

overconfidence

- to think we know more than we do

naturalistic observation (descriptive research)

- watching subjects in their natural environment to see true and natural behavior
- advantage: observing "normal" or natural behavior
- disadvantage: can't show cause and effect relationship, time consuming, no control, difficultly in not attracting attention

survey (descriptive research)

- interviews or questionnaires
- requires a representative sample and random sampling
- advantage: efficient, interviews allow more clarity and control, open-ended vs close-ended questions
- disadvantage: low response rate, dishonesty, wording effects, difficult to gain in-depth info

random sampling

- a way of randomly selecting members of a population to be in the study

random assignment

- randomly assigning participants to groups in the study with an equal chance in being in either groups to avoid confounding variables and researcher bias
- methods include flipping a coin, drawing names from a hat, assigning random numbers, and computer-generated randomization (best method)

case studies (descriptive research)

- obtaining detailed information about an individual or group to develop general principles about behavior
- advantages: useful in studying rare disorders or circumstances, can generate new questions/topics
- disadvantage: requires lots of time, effort, and attention to detail
- ex: following a child's lifespan to adulthood

correlation

- relationship between two or more variable when researches are not able to manipulate variables
- used to make predictions and analyze descriptive research methods
- cannot be used to determine cause and effect relationships
- CORRELATION ≠ CAUSATION

positive correlation

- variables go in the same direction

negative correlation

- variables go in the opposite directions

illusory correlations

- when we believe there is a relationship, we tend to recall and notice instances that confirm our belief
- ex: sugar \= hyperactive children
- ex: weather change \= sore joints

gambler's fallacy

- assuming certain random outcomes are more likely than other random outcomes
- ex: flipping coins, choosing lottery numbers

experimental psychologists

- performs research to understand how humans operate physically and psychologically

experiment

- investigator manipulates a variable under controlled conditions and observes any changes in the second variable
- only method that determines cause and effect relationships

participant groups

- experimental
- control

experimental group

- exposed to the independent variables
- receives the experimental manipulation

control group

- receives no treatment or placebo treatment

experimental research

- types: single-blind study and double-blind study
- advantage: investigators can control variables in an effort to eliminate alternate explanations, allows conclusions about cause and effect relationships, can determine causation
- disadvantage: cannot be used to explore all research questions because certain variables cannot be manipulated

single blind study

- subjects are unaware which group they are in
- protects against the placebo effect

placebo effect

- believing you are receiving treatment

double blind study

- both subjects and researchers are unaware of group placement
- protects against placebo effect and experimenter bias

frequency distribution

- table or graph that shows how often different numbers or scores appear in a particular set of scores

histogram

- bar graph that shows a frequency distribution

polygon

- line graph that shows a frequency distribution

mean

- average
- impacted by outliers

median

- middle
- not impacted by outliers

mode

- most common
- not impacted by outliers

normal (bell) curve

- scores are symmetrically distributed around the mean

positively skewed

- scores are concentrated at the low end of the distribution with outliers drawing up the mean

negatively skewed

- scores are concentrated at the high end of the distribution with outliers drawing down the mean

bimodal distribution

- scores are concentrated at two high points

range

- difference between the highest and lowest scores

standard deviation

- average difference between each of the values

z score

- distance from the mean in units of standard deviation

percentile score

- shows how an individual did compared to the rest of the group

descriptive statistics

- provides a way to summarize information

inferential statistics

• determines whether or not findings can be applied to a larger population from which the sample was selected

• if the sample does not represent the larger population, we cannot infer anything about the larger population from the sample

• reduce the possibility of error in measurement

• looks for statistical significance

• p value

sampling error

- extent to which sample differs from population

statistical significance

- how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance

p value

- probability that the difference in groups was due to chance
- must be LESS THAN 0.05 to be real/valid/significant

ethics

- all ethical guidelines are established by the american psychology association
- research proposals must be reviewed and approved by ethics board

ethics for participants

- must be informed about the experiment and its procedures
- must be protected from any physical or mental harm
- must have their privacy protected
- must freely choose to participate and can withdraw anytime
- must be debriefed/informed after the study

ethics for researchers

- must explain the study after participant's completion (debriefing)
- keep personal information confidential unless there is harm the participant must know, court asks, or permission granted

animal research

- clear purpose needed
- treat animals in a humane way (any harm must be done for greater human good and justified)
- acquire animals legally
- least animal of suffering possible for the animals
- decent living conditions for laboratory animals