Psych unit 1 &2

Socrates and Plato

-thought the mind and body were separate and knowledge grows within us

Aristotle

knowledge grows from experiences

Rene Descartes

cranial fluid (spirit flowed through body (nerves) to command it

Francis bacon

Founder of modern scientific thinking

John locke

"mind is a blank state"

Wilhelm Wundt

* Founder of modern psych
*founder of first psych laboratory in germany
*his first experiment was on human awareness

empiricism

the doctrine that knowledge derives from experience (the answer to what is psych)

the scientific attitude

Curiosity, scepticism and humility

G-Stanley Hall

was Wundt's student and opened the first psych laboratory to the US in john hopkins Uni

Edward Bradford Titchner

Another student of Wundt and brought the idea of structuralism and introspection.

structuralism

Understanding the mind's complex structure through introspection

introspection

using consciousness to take a closer look at ones feelings or motives.

functionalism (William James)

a psychology based on the assumption that all mental process are useful to an organism in adapting to the environment

Mary whitton calkins

studied under William James and became president of the APA

Margaret Floy Washington

Studied under William james and was the first women to receive her PHD in psych.

Psychoanalyalytic/Psychodynamic (Sigmund Freud)

A perspective of psych that focuses on a persons unconsionness and their childhood and how that impacts their personality now.

Behaviorism (John.B.Watson)

A perspective of psych that Thought that people learn how they act and that anybody can be thought to act a certain way if they grow up in a certain environment.


Watson also thought that psych is an objective science (builds upon itself)

BF skinner

studied how consequences shape behavior

Humanism (Abraram Maslow)

A perspective of phych that said that people act they way they do because they want to improve themselves and become better people

Carl Roders

He thought that people would act in any way as long as their needs were fullfilled

gestalt psychology

The idea that small things make a big picture and many things shape the way a person acts of thinks (5 different breeds of dogs = 5 dogs)

3 levels of analysis

Biological influences, Psychological influences and Socio-cultural influences explain our thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

*(if too extreme these things can cause psychological disorders)

Biological

A perspective that states that people act the way that they do because of their biology such as
-brain functions
-adrenaline
-sensory experiences
-body chemistry

Cognitive

A perspective that states that people act the way that they do because of how or when to make a decision
-benefits vs. consequences
-problem solving
-previous experiences

Evolutionary (darwin)

a perspective that says that people act they way that they do because of wanting to increase chances of survival
-natural selection
-mate selection
-reproduction success

Socio-cultural

a perspective of psych that says that people act the way that they do because of society
-media
-culture
-friends
-values

Devolpmental Psych

how people change as they grow

Cognitive Psychologist

A basic reaserach job that studies thought processes, perception, language and question how thought processes work

-could work as a professor, industrial consultant, or human factors specialist.

Basic reasearch

a psychology job category that means that people in this category only look into psych but don't fix or change anything.

Delopmental Psychologist

They reacearch age related behavioral changes
(Basic reasearch)

Educational Psychologist

look at people psychologies when learning
(Basic reasearch)

Experimental Psychologist

Investigate basic behavioral processes in humans & animals
-Can be cognitive Psychologists
-reacearch methods of science, motivation, learning, thought, attention etc.
(Basic reasearch)

Psychometric Psychologist

study methods that help people get psychological knowledge
-they update personality tests.
(Basic reasearch)

Quanitive Psychologists

Make tests that Psychologists use and analyze that data
(Basic reasearch)

Social Psychologists

Study how beliefs, feelings and behaviors are affected by or influence other people
(Basic reasearch)

Applied reacearch

A phych job category that focuses on helping people by using psych

Forensic Psychologists

Use psych for legal reasons
-Can prove if criminals are mentally unstable
(Applied reacearch )

Health Psychologists

Use psych to help prevent diseases and promote health
-encourage things like eating healthy, staying fit, getting good sleep etc.
(Applied reacearch )

Industrial/Organizational Psychologists

Study the relationships between people and their working environments

-they try to create productivity and a better workplace
(Applied reacearch )

Neuropsychologists

Investigate systems between the nervous system and behavior
(Applied reacearch )

Rehabilitation psychologists

Help people that have lost a certain ability due to some event
(Applied reacearch )

School Psychologist

Diagnose cognitive, social and environmental issues that could impact a student
(Applied reacearch )

Sport Psychologist

study how psychology influences or is influenced by sports
(Applied reacearch )

Clinical Psychologist

Promote mental health and behavioral disorders (helping)
- assess and treat them as well
(Applied reacearch )

Community Psychologists

Deal w peoples mental health issues in commodities
-focus on enhancing environments
(Applied reacearch ) and helping)

Counseling Psycologists

Help people deal with life changes (helping)
(Applied reacearch )

Hindsight bias

one of the blocks for critical thinking

The tendency to believe, after seeing an outcome that we would have foreseen it

overconfidence

one of the blocks for critical thinking

the tendency to think we know more than we do

Perceiving patterns in random events

one of the blocks for critical thinking

when things are assumed to be in a pattern even though they are RANDOM

The scientific method

used to support a scientific attitude (uses observation and analysis to evaluate ideas)

theory-hypothsis-research and observation

Theory

It is an explanation using a set of principle's from observations and predicts behaviors or events.

Hypothesis

it is a testable prediction about behavior

Research

used to confirm weather our theory or hypothesis is good to revise or reject

Operational definition

It is a carefully worded statement of the exact procedotes using in a research study

*Basically a very explicit version of a hypothesis that puts all the variable into the study

Descriptive methods

is when you describe what you see

*often used for case studies

Correlation methods

look at how 2 things vary or are the same

experimental methods

show cause and effect

case studies

is when one person is studied deeply to try and reveal universal principles

-doesn't always work because everyone is different
+is very in depth
+shows large amounts of data
-can not determine cause and effect

Naturalistic observation

is a descriptive technique of observing and recording behavior in a natural way. (without changing any variable)

+subjects will behave normally
+doesn't disturb subject
-does not determine cause and effect
-observations can be messed with by outside variables

survey

+quick
+can include many cases
-response bias
-wording may be mis interpreted
-can not determine cause and effect

sampling bias

is caused by only testing one group or one type of people that could potentially change a result.

Representative samples

represent everyone to eliminate a bias that could potentially exist.
*needs to be random
-this is needed to generalize a population.

Random sample

every person participates

intuition

an impression that something might be the case without facts or reasoning

correlational

is when one trait or behavior is related to another

correlation coefficient

can show how closely 2 things vary together

*positive slope (means 2 variable rise and fall together)
*negative slope (means one variable goes up and another goes down)

illusory correlations

are a perceived but non existent correlation
*can be superstitions
*has no evidence except people past experiences and beliefs

experimentation

used to isolate cause and effect
-(experimental group)
-(control group)

*different that correlation because this manipulates a variable to determine its effects whereas correlation just uncovers what was there.

experimental group

when you manipulate the 2 variables of interest

control group

controlling all outside outside variable

double blind procedure

it is used to test psychological therapy

ex. one group will receive a real medication another group recieves a placibo medication and data is collected without participants knowing what they are talking . this is so that people e don't gaslight themselves into thinking something works.

statistical illiteracy

this misinterprets statistics and is then presented incorrectly

descriptive statistics

is used to organize data meaningfully

*graphs

measures of central tendency

used to summarize data
-stuff like median, mean, mode and range
can get screwed up by extreme measures (usually for the mode)

measures of variation

a range of data
-often used for confidence in a amount (ex. 12-17 has a higher chance of 15 than 5-25)
-averages derived from scores w low variability are more reliable than an average with high variability.
-standard deviation is better because it shows if the results are packed together or distributed.

inferential statistics

numerical data that allow one to generalize(to infer form sample data the probability of something being true of a population)

Psychology

the study of the human mind and its functions

nature and nurture

Genetics vs the environment

natural selection

the process of evolution (the best features succeed)

neuroscience

how the nervous system develops its structure and what it does

evolutionary psychology

the idea that our psychology is because of how we have learned to evolve and change in the past

behavior genetics

how out genetics influence our behavior

psychometrics

tests that show our psych (ex.MBTI tests)

rationalist

people whos ideas are based on reasoning and logic and not emotions and beliefs

mind-body dualism

the idea from RENE DESCARTES that the mind and body are 2 seperate functions (both acting in different ways)

physiology

study of how the body works

ethnocentrism

when you use your own idea of religion and cultural knowledge to asses another one

educational psychology

study how people learn and retain stuff

personality psych

examines personality among individuals

social psychology

studies how personality is affected by others

human factor psychology

study how humans interact with technology in order to improve psychology

positive psychology

study how humans have “flourished” or mentally grown over time in positive ways

testing effect

after you take a test you remember stuff good because you just showed what you knew

John Dewey

brought the idea that students learn best by DOING and not just learning what to do

Max Wertheimer

Gestalt psychologist, believed that human thought and behavior should be studied together.

 Kurt Koffka

gestalt psychologist (thought that consoiuness should be viewed as a whole and not organized parts)

Wolfgang Kohler

Found out that apes can apply insight (understood that the intellecual gap between humans and apes was very small)

Ulric Neisser

Studied cognitive psychology

Dorothea Dix

made many hospitals for the mentally ill

 Ivan Pavlov

did the experiment with pavlov’s dog (classical conditioning)