Unit 1

Psychology

the science of behavior and mental processes

The Scientific Attitude

1. Curiosity

2. Skepticism

3. Humility

Critical Thinking

thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions; examines assumptions, appraises the source, discerns hidden biases, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions

critical thinkers ask questions

History of Psychology

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle (philosophers) all proposed ideas regarding the mind, the heart, and knowledge

John Locke

tabula rosa (blank slate)

Empiricism

idea that what we know comes from experience and experimentation enable scientific knowledge

Wilhelm Wundt

created first psych lab in 1879 in Germany

1883 - Wundt's American student G. Stanley Hall went on to establish the first formal US psych lab at Johns Hopkins University

Structuralism

introduced by Edward Bradford Titchener (Wund't student)

used introspection to reveal the structure of the mind

Introspection

the process of looking inward in an attempt to directly observe one's psychological processes

Functionalism

William James thought it would be better to consider the evolved functions of our thoughts and feelings

James studied down-to-earth emotions, memories, willpower habits, and moment-to-moment streams of consciousness

Mary Whiton Calkins

a distinguished memory researcher

1905 - became the first female president of the American Psychological Association (APA)

American Psychological Association (APA)

a national organization of professional and academic psychologists

Margret Floy Washburn

first official female psychology Ph.D. and was the second female APA President in 1921

Freudian / Psychoanalytic

founded by Sigmund Freud

believed mind was composed of 3 parts

emphasized the ways our unconscious mind and childhood experiences affect our behavior

follow talk therapy so unconscious thoughts become conscious

3 Parts of Psychoanalysis

id: primal urges

ego: deals with reality

superego: ideals, values, morals

Free Association

talking about whatever is on your mind

Behaviorism

John B. Watson nd B.F. Skinner both redefined psychology as "the scientific study of observable behavior"

what you can't observe and measure, you can't scientifically study

suggests that all behavior is explained by environmental causes rather than internal forces

Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov - Pavlov Dog Experiment

learning by association

Operant Conditioning

B.F. Skinner

learning from your consequences

Humanistic Psychology

found both behaviorism and Freudian psychology too limiting

humanistic psychologists focused on our potential for personal growth and set the stage for positive psychology

famous thinkers: Abraham Maslow + Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers

behavior and mental processes are motivated by a need for love and acceptance and a positive self-concept

problems arise when people try to live up to their "ideal self" - an unrealistic perfect version of self

empathy - ability to take the perspective of another person

Cognitive Psychology

how we perceive, process, and remember information and of how thinking and emotion interact in anxiety, depression, and other disorders

the marriage of cognitive psychology (the science of mind) and neuroscience (the science of brain) gave birth to cognitive neuroscience

3 stages of memory

1. encoding

2. storage

3. retrieval

individuals want to have an organized understanding of themselves and the world

schema (concept)

Piaget's theory of Cognitive Development

Evolutionary/Biological Psychology

nature vs. nurture

evolutionary process of natural selection; focus of behavior genetics

genetics and evolution play a role in influencing human behavior

most behavior is inherited (Darwin)

explain behavior in terms of structure of the brain

Sociocultural Psychology

how does culture influence our behavior?

conformity, obedience, authority, roles, prejudice, discrimination

Sociocultural Experiments

Milgram: Shock Experiment

Asch: Conformity Study

Zimbardo: Prison Study

individuals try to modify attitudes and behaviors to meet expectations of external forces

Observational Learning: Albert Bandura

acquires behavior by watching others

developmental psychologists

studying ur changing abilities from womb to tomb

biological psychologists

exploring link between body and mind

cognitive psychologists

experimenting how we perceive, think, and solve problems

educational psychologists

studying influences on teaching and learning

personality psychologists

investigating our persistent traits

social psychologists

exploring how we view and affect one another

Testing Effect

enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading information

SQ3R Study Method

5 steps:

1. survey

2. question

3. read

4. retrieve

5. review

Hindsight Bias

after learning an outcome, the tendency for a person to believe they would have foreseen it

common sense more easily describes what has happened than what will happen

Overconfidence

individuals tend to think they know more than they actually do / overestimate their skills

knowing an answer tends to cause an underestimation of the difficulty of solving a problem

Confirmation Bias

individuals look for evidence that confirms their beliefs and ignores evidence that disputes their beliefs

"everything happens for a reason" - reframing to fit evidence

Scientific Method

self-correcting process for evaluating ideas with observation and analysis

psychologists, like all scientists, use the scientific method to construct theories that organize, summarize, and simplify observations

Theory

a set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events

Steps to Investigate a Theory

Hypothesize

Operationalize

Measure

Evaluate

Replicate / revise / report

Hypothesis

a statement, often prompted by a theory, that makes a clear, testable prediction about how one variable will affect another; must be falsifiable and empirically testable

"if A, then B"

allowing us to accept, reject, or revise the theory

any claim that cannot theoretically be falsified can only be considered a matter of opinion, not a scientific matter of fact

Null Hypothesis

"the independent variable will have no effect on the dependent variable"

in an experiment, you trying to see if you can reject the null hypothesis by gathering data rather than "prove" your hypothesis

Confederate

person in on the experiment

Operational Defintion

statement that explicitly describes the exact procedures (operations) used in a research study; like a recipe

create a recipe or rubric to reduce bias

adds to the generalizability of a theory / hypothesis - research applies to most people; generalizable research is good research

Operational Definition Replication

allows other researchers to repeat parts of the research

3 Types of Research

1. Descriptive

2. Correlational

3. Experimental

Limitations

conditions preventing research from completely and accurately answering a question

Longitudinal Study

studying a group of participants over a number of years

Cross-Sectional Study

studying groups of participants of different ages and comparing them to draw conclusions about age

Types of Research: Descriptive Methods

describes behavior, often by using naturalistic observations, case studies, or surveys

observes and records, does not talk about relationships

Naturalistic Observation

observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate or control the situation

describes behavior, does not explain it

most judgements (referring to emotions and purposes of behavior) will contain bias on the part of the observer

Case Study

intensive study of one or few individuals with the hope of describing the meaning behind observable behavior - like a biography

clinical case study is a form of study in which the therapist investigates a client's concerns

Case Study Limitations

offer much depth (details) but lack breadth (range of responses) to apply findings to everyone

just because something is true of one / few individuals does not mean its necessarily true of everyone

Survey

technique for ascertaining self-reported attitudes, opinions, or behaviors of people

used in descriptive and correlational research / usually done by questioning a representative and random sample of people

cheap and anonymous

Validity

the extent to which a test or experiment measures or predicts what it is supposed to or claims to

Self-Report

people lie or misrepresent themselves due to social desirability bias

Survey Limitations

self-report

demand characteristic

false consensus effect

Demand Characteristic

participants form an interpretation of the research's purpose and subconsciously change their behavior to fit that interpretation

applies to most research

False Consensus Effect

tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors

Representative

sample selected reflects the behavior and attitudes of a population

Random Sample

randomly select a small group (sample) out of all available participants (population)

as sample size grows larger, they will tend to show more uniform results

correlational research

evidence of observational research

correlation does not equal causation

uses scatterplots

Scatterplot

graph comprised of points that are generated by values of two variables

the slope of the points depicts the direction, while the amount of scatter depicts the strength of the relationship

Correlation

when one trait or behavior accompanies another, we say the two correlate; correlation offers suggestions for possible variables to investigate using experiments

be aware of a 3rd variable

correlation is represented by variable "r" - values between 0-1

0.00 means no relationship

*only experiments can determine cause and effect

Direct Correlation

+1.00

perfect positive correlation

positive slope

Inverse Correlation

-1.00

perfect negative correlation

negative slope

Illusory Correlation

the perception of a relationship where no relationship actually exists

when we believe a relationship exists between 2 things, we are likely to notice and recall instances that confirm rather than disconfirm our belief

"it seems like every time x happens, y happens"

Experiments

can isolate cause and affect

done through manipulation of factors of interest (IV); while other factors are controlled or held constant (DV)

Operationalize Variables

provides directions / reduces bias

allows for replication in future experiments

Reliability

test or experiment produces consistent results

Dependent Variable

factor being measured for changes

what is the researcher measuring or looking for in this study?

Independent Variable

factor being manipulated; the hypothesized cause

increased, decreased, given, not given

correlations examine existing, unmanipulated variables

Method / Measure

distinguishing part of an experimental research design

variables are manipulated

correlation is just measured

Control Measures

used to reduce experimenter bias and participant bias and other confounding variables

Confounding Variables

factors that affect the DV that are not the IV

reduce validity

Experimental Group

participants exposed to the hypothesized cause / IV

Control Group

participants not exposed to the hypothesized cause / IV

used as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the IV

Placebo

an inactive substance or condition; given to the control group

Placebo Effect

experimental results caused by an individual's expectations alone

Blind / Double-Blind

blind: uninformed

single-blind: when participant is ignorant about whether they have received placebo / treatment

double-blind: when participant and experimenter are ignorant about whether the participant has received treatment or placebo

Hawthorne Effect

tendency to work harder or perform better when in an experiment

Barnum Effect

tendency to accept certain information as true, even wen the information is so vague as to be worthless

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

a researcher's expectations influence his / her own behavior, and thereby influence the participant's behavior and / or result in a biased assessment of data

happens to individuals as well

Evaluate

evaluate data using descriptive and inferential statistics

Replicate

an evaluation of research informs:

any necessary areas to address in future replications - including adjustments to procedures to reduce confounding variables

revisions to existing theories

reporting of results in scholarly journals

Research Ethics

ethical principles are established to protect research participants from psychological / physical harm

most psychological research is done at universities; most universities have IRB (Institutional Review Board) - an ethics committee that screens any research involving human subjects

1. informed consent

2. minimal risk

3. maintain confidentiality

4. debriefing

Purpose of Research Ethics

to ensure that research is aligned with ethical standards established by professional organizations like the APA

Informed Consent

before any research using human subjects begins

participants must be told enough about the research to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate

Minimal Risk

no risk greater than that encountered in daily life

do no harm

Debriefing

after study is complete

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

Descriptive Statistics

describe, summarize, organize, and simplify sample data

presented visually in graphs and charts

Bar Graphs

used when data is in discrete categories

ex. olympic medal count per country

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data

qualitative research gathers information that is not in numerical form; for example, diary accounts, open-ended questionnaires, unstructured interviews and unstructured observations

qualitative data is typically descriptive data and as such is harder to analyze thanquantitative data

Histogram

shows a frequency distribution of continuous data, like test scores

looks like bar graph, but columns have no gaps

Measures of Central Tendency

single score that summarizes the center of a data set

n: number in the sample / sample size

N: population

Mean

mathematical average

sum of data set / n

most affected by extreme scores; most commonly reported measure of central tendency

Median

middle number in a data set

minimally affected by extreme scores

average of the middle two if there is an even #

Mode

most frequently occurring # in a data set

Normal Distributions

normal bell curve

distribution of data gives us key info

human attributes follow a normal distribution

Range

gap from highest to lowest number

subtract lowest value from highest value

H - L = range