Ap Psych Unit 1 - History, Approaches & Research Methods

Psychology

Psychology

the scientific study of behavior & mental processes

Nature vs nurture

Mature = genetics (innate) Nurture = environmental influences

Empiricism

knowledge acquired through observation, gathering & analyzing data = evidence to support

Wilhelm Wundt

• Father of psychology

• Opened 1st psych lab (germany)

• 1st topic of study = consciosness

G. Stanley Hall

• opened 1st American psych lab

• founded the APA (American Psychological Association)

Who founded structuralism?

Edward Titchener

Structuralism

examined the elements/pieces of the conscious experience (very descriptive)

primary method of research = introspection

inward-looking; using self reflection

Who founded functionalism?

William James

Functionalism

interested in the purpose/use/value of the conscious experience (asks “why?”)

Gestalt Psychology (gestalt = an organized whole)

Emphasize our tendency to integrate pieces of info into meaningful wholes

Mary Whiton Calkins

• (1863-1930)

• became a memory researcher and first female president of the APA

• studied with William James but was denied a harvard PHD

Margret Floy Washburn

• first female to earn a psychology PHD

• second female APA president

• Author of the Animal Mind

Leta Stetter Hollingworth

• work with exceptional children

• wrote the comprehensive text on the gifted

• taught the first college course ib the gifted

• commenced one of the first systematic studies with IQ above 180

Psychoanalytical Approach (Freud)

unconscious urges/impulses & or repressed memories of early childhood trauma influence behavior

Behavioral Approach

behavior is learned through observation, rewards/punishments & making associations

Important people - behavioral

pavlov, watson, skinner

Humanistic Approach (Phenomenological)

Behavior is explained using the following beliefs: humans are inherently good, we are striving to reach our potential; we each have unique perception & self-concept; we all have free-will

Important people - humanistic

rogers, maslow

Cognitive Approach

Mental processes, such as thoughts memory, decision-making, problem-solving, etc., influence behavior

Biological Approach (Neuroscience)

Brain Chemistry & structure; genetics; hormones; etc. influence behavior

Sociocultural Approach

Societal & cultural factors influence behavior (e.g. norms & expectations from family, peers, media, gender, religion, ethnicity, etc.)

Individualist cultures vs Collectivist cultures

• individuals take care of themselves and their immediate family first

• individuals work for the good of the group and suppress their identity for the benefit of the group

Evolutionary Approach

Adaptive value of behavior (e.g. survival of the fittest; passing on genes) explains behavior

Positive psychology

tries to better understand positive, adaptive, creative, and fulfilling aspects of human nature

Electicism

combining more than 1 approach to explain behavior

Applied psychology

using known psychological theories & principles to solve everyday, practical problems

Clinical Psychology

concerned with diagnosis & treatment of mental illness

Developmental psychology

• looks at human development across the lifespan

• once focused primarily on child development, but today devotes a great deal of research to adolescence, adulthood, and old age

Social psychology

• focuses on interpersonal behavior & the role of social forces in governing behavior

• typical topics include attitude formation/change, prejudice, conformity, attraction, aggression, intimate relationships, and behavior in groups

Educational psychology

• studies how people learn & the best ways to teach them

• examines curriculum design, teacher training, student motivation, classroom diversity, and other health aspects of the educational process

Health psychology

• focusses on how psychological factors relate to the promotion & maintenance of physical health and the causation, prevention, & treatment of illness

Experimental psychology

encompases the traditonal core of topics that psychology focused on heavily in its first half-century as a science: sensation, perception, learning, conditioning, motivation, and emotion

Cognitive psychology

focusses on “higher” mental processes, such as memory, reasoning, information processing, Ian-gauge, problem-solving, decision making, and creativity

psychometrics & quantitative

• concerned with the measurement of behavior & capacities

• usually through the development of psychological tests

• involved with the design of tests to assess personality, intelligence, etc.

personality psychology

• interested in describing & understanding individuals consisting in behavior which represents their personality

• also concerned with the factors that shape their personality and with personality assessment

counseling psychology

• overlaps with clinical psychology in that specialists in both areas engage in similar activities - interviewing, testing, therapy

• usually work with a somewhat different clientele

• provide assistance to people struggling with everyday problems

Industrial/organizational psychology

• performs a wide range of tasks in the world of business & industry

• these tasks include running human resources departments, working to improve staff morale and attitudes, striving to increase job satisfaction

human factors psychology

explores how people & machines interact & how physical environment can be made safe/easy to use

forensic psychology

apply psychological principles to issues arising in the legal system, such as child custody decisions, hearings to stand trial, violence risk assessments, involuntary commitment proceedings, and so forth

informed consent

participants must know that they are involved in research and give their consent/permission

deception

if the participants are deceives in any way about the nature of the study, the deceptions must not be so extreme as to invalidate the informed consent

confidentiality/anonymity

the identities and actions of participants must not be revealed in any way by the researcher

risk/harm

participants cannot be placed at significant mental/physical risk

• requires interpretation by the review board

debreifing

participants must be told of the purpose of the study and provided with ways to contact the researches about the results

Hypothesis

a testable, educated prediction about the relationship between 2 variables

theory

a tentative explanation of behavior/phenomenon (after research)

Operational definitions

defining variables in a specific, measurable way for scientific testing

Correlational Research

investigating the relationship between variables (not cause-effect)

naturalistic observation

observing behavior in a natural setting without interference

reactivity (hawthorne effect/observer effect)

subjects alter their behavior because they know they are being observed

demand characteristics

acting in wa way we think the research expects/wants us to act

screw-you effect

acting the opposite of what we think the researcher expects/wants

observer bias

subjectivity: how the researcher interprets what they see

case studies

intense examination of one person, small group, or unique situation using a variety of methods (e.g. surveys, interviews, observations, archival records, psychological tests, etc.)

• allows us to investigate rare behaviors/occurrences and topics that are impossible/unethical to test in other ways

case studies good/bad

• good: rare and in depth

• bad: can’t generalize, subjective, time consuming

Surveys

questionnaire used to learn about participants opinions, beliefs, attitudes, general patterns of behavior, etc.

surveys good/bad

• good: large, inexpensive, etc.

• bad: biases, framing

Social desirability bias

giving answers most desired/expected by the researcher

framing

how questions are worded can affect repsonses

experimental design

• goal is to establish cause and effect

• controlled setting

• trying to explain behavior

population

target group of interest for study

sample

members of the population who are chosen to participate in research (smaller than the population)

random sample

every member of the population has an equally likely chance of being chosen to participate in research

representative sample (goal of random sampling)

when the demographics of the sample are proportional to the demographics of the population

• allows results to be generalized to the population

sampling bias

when sampling is not representative of the target population

Independent variable

manipulated or controlled by the experimenter

dependent variable

measured/observed to see if the IV had an effect

experimental group

groups/conditions that do receive the IV

control group

groups/conditions that do not receive the IV

extraneous/confounding variables

• any variables other than the IV that may influence the DV

• third variable: variables that are directly linked to both the IV and DV

• ex. personality, intelligence, time of day, weather, etc.

random assignment

every participant has an equal chance of being placed into any of the groups.conditions (experimental vs control)

• helps to reduce to subject variables that cannot be controlled for

Quasi-experiment

experimental design that does not use random sampling/random assignment because either impossible or unethical

replication

repetition of a study; helps to determine whether results are reliable (consistent)

meta-analysis

statistical methods for combining multiple studies on a topic (to compare/contrast what has been found thus far by many researchers)

placebo effect

occurs when participants’ expectations cause a change in behavior/the way you feel, when given an inactive treatment

regression towards the mean

the tendency for initial extremely high or low scores to become more moderate (closer to the mean) over time

• we think there is a relationship between IV and DV, but it’s just that behavior becomes more average over time

response set

tendency to respond to questions in a particular way that is unrelated to the content of the ?s

Halo effect

when someone’s overall evaluation of a person (or object or situation) influences more specific ratings

Single blind design

participants don’t know which group/condition they are assigned to; helps reduce participant biases

experimenter bias

the influence of an experimenter’s expectations on results (where intentional or not)

double-blind design

when neither the researcher nor the participants know which group participants are assigned to; helps reduce experimenter bias

measures of central tendency

mean, median, mode

mean

average (sum of scores/total # of scores)

median

middle # when data is put in numerical order

mode

most frequent score

measures of dispersion/spread

range & standard deviation

range

highest score - lowest score

standard deviation

average distance score and the mean of the data set

correlations

determining relationship between 2 variables

positive correlation

the 2 variables head in the same direction

• as one increases, other increases

• as one decreases, other decreases

negative correlation

the 2 variables head in the opposite direction

• as one increases, the other decreases

• as one decreases, the other increases

illusory correlation

seeing a relationship between 2 variables when no such relationship exists

correlation coefficient (r)

• statistical # that measures the relationship between the two variables

• combines the direction of the relationship, positive (+) or negative (-), with the strength of the relationship (0 → 1.0)

correlation vs causation

correlation DOES NOT imply causation

statistical significance

• how likely is it that changes to the DV where due to the IV vs. just due to chance

• statistically significant = confident that IV caused change in DV

• p < .05 for social sciences (means we are 95% confident)