Psych Unit 1

Biological Perspective

Behavior explained by genetics, hormones, neurotransmitters (brain chemicals), brain structure.

Psychodynamic.Psychoanalytic Perspective

Behavior explained by unconscious urges and impulses; repression of early childhood traumas.

Cognitive Perspective

Behavior explained by thinking - Problem solving, decision making, resoning, memory, information processing

Behavioral Perspective

Behavior explained by learning through associations, rewards/punishments, observations/modeling

Humanistic Perspective

-Humans are inherently good

-We strive to reach our potential

-Each person has a unique perception of the world

-We have free will

Sociocultural Perspective

Behavior explained by societal and cultural factors (norms and expectations) from family, peers, media, gender, religion, ethnicity, ect.)

Individualist Culture

The focus is the individual and what the individual wants

Collectivist Culture

Individulas work for the good of the group

Evolutionary Perspective

Behavior explained by the need for survival (eg. survival of the fittest, adaptation, passing on genes)

Eclecticism

Combining more than 1 approach to explain behavior

Institutional Review

aka IRB: An official green light from an ethics committee ensuring that research involving human subjects protects participant safety, privacy, and rights

Informed Consent & Informed Assent

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

Deception

If the participants are deceived in any way about the nature of the study, the deception must not be so extreme as to invalidate the Informed Consent and corrections must be made during debriefing

Confidentiality and Anonymity

Researchers cannot share personal info of participants without permission/Identities and actions of participants must not be revealed

Risk/Harm

Participants cannot be placed at significant mental or physical risk. Requires interpretation by the review board

Debriefing

Participants must be told of the purpose of the study and provided with ways to contact the researcher about the results

Hypothesis

A testable, educated prediction about the relationship between 2 variables

Falsified

Can be tested and proven wrong

Operational Definitions

Defining variables in research in a specific and measurable way; quantifiable

Experimental Research

Goal: to identify and record behavior; to identify naturally occurring relationships; to assess how well one variable predicts another

Non-experimental (correlational) research

Goal: To investigate cause and effect

Quantitative Research/Data

Quantifiable, numerical data

Likert Scale

A rating scale used to measure survey participants opinions, attitudes, motivations, and more

Qualitative Research/Data

Narrative data that cannot be translated into numbers

Naturalistic Observation

Observing behavior in a natural setting without interference, manipulation, or control

Case Study

Intense examination of one person, small group, or unique situation using a variety of methods; non-experimental

Survey

Questionnaire used to learn about participant’s opinions, beliefs, attitudes, general patterns of behavior, ect.

Social desirablility bias

Giving answers most desire/expected by the researcher or society

Self-report bias

People may not be fully truthful in their response (memory or purposeful)

Framing (leading questions)

How questions are worded can impact how people respond

Meta-analysis

A type of statistical analysis where researchers review, combine, and analyze the results of multiple studies. Use ful when there’re many previous studies

Experiment/experimental design

Goal is to establish cause and effect by manipulating one variable and measuring the effect on another variable and uses random assignment. Can explain behavior.

+ Lot of control, replicable, cause-and-effect

- Artificial environment, sampling errors, expensive

Population

Target group of interest for the study from which sample group is drawn

Sample

Members of the population who are chosen to participate in research

Representative sample

When the demographics of the sample are proportional to the demographics of the population. Allows results to be generalized. Eg: same percent gender

Biased Sample

An unresponsive samples; only those represented can be generalized. Eg: diff percentage of gender

Random Sample

Equally likely chance of being chosen to participate in research. A large enough random sample will allow you to generalize

Convenience sample

Participants are chosen because they are the easiest for the researcher to access

Independent variable

The variablel that is being manipulated

Dependent variable

The variable that is being measured

Confounding/extraneous variables

A variable, other than the independent, that may impact the results

Experimental group

Group(s)/condition(s) that does receive the independent variable

Control group

Group(s)/condition(s) that does not receive the independent variable

Random assignment

Every participant has an equal chance of being placed into any of the groups/conditions. Helps reduce confounding variables

Quasi-experiment

Experimental design that does not use random sampling or sandom assignment because either impossible or unethical

Participant bias

Bias caused when participants may unintentionally influence results

Experimenter bias

Bias caused when experimenters may unintentionally influence results to confirm their own beliefs

Single-blind procedure

When participants do not know they are in the experimental group or control group (reduces participant bias)

Double-blind procedure

When neither participants nor the experimenter know who is in the experimental group or control group (reduces experimenter bias)

Placebo effect

Occurs when participant’s expectations cause a change in behavior/the way you feel, when given an inactive treatment

Replication

The process of repeating a study or experiment to validate its findings and ensure results can be reproduced

Reliability

The consistency of the findings or results of a psychology research study

Validity

Does the test/measurement tool actually measure what it’s supposed to

Correlation vs causation

Correlation: there’s a relationship between two variables. Does not mean one variable caused a change in the other

Illusory Correlation

Perceiving a relationship between two variables where none exists, or perceiving a stronger-than-actual relationship

Regression towards the mean

Tendency for extreme or unusual scores or events to fall back (regress) toward the average

Directionality problem

A limitation of correlational research that occurs when it’s unclear which variable influences another. This can make it difficult to establish casual relationships

Third-variable problem

A limitation of correlational research that occurs when a third variable leads to a mistaken casual relationship between two others