AP Psych units 2-3(Psychology's History and Approaches and Research Methods)

Psychology's History and Approaches and Research Methods

psychology

scientific study of behaviors and mental processes of humans and animals

critical thinking

examines assumptions and the source, discerns hidden biases, evaluates evidence, assesses conclusions

two early themes of prescientific psychology

mind-body existence debate and nature vs nurture

what did socrates and plato believe?

mind separate from body (continues after death), knowledge is innate → nature

What did Aristotle believe?

knowledge isn’t preexisting, it grows with experience → nurture

empiricism

knowledge comes from experience; observation, and experimentation enable scientific knowledge

observation and experimentation are essential for gaining scientific knowledge through direct experience

Rene Descartes

nature AND nurture, mind/body exist separately but communicate thru “nerves”, combines philosophy and psychology (dissected animals)

Francis Bacon

importance= common sense and experimenting → using experiments to challenge superstitions

John Locke

everyone born “blank slate”, nurture argument → we are who we are through experiences

phrenology

late 1800s, read personality based on head bumps, early precursor to neuroscience, Franz Joseph Gall

Father of Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt

What did Wilhelm Wundt do

1st psychological lab in germany, 1st psychological experiment (measuring perception of sound), beginning of 1st field structuralism through introspection

4 “old schools”

structuralism

functionalism

gestalt

psychoanalytic

who founded structuralism

Wilhelm Wundt

structuralism

breaking consciousness into parts and naming them *introspection

problem: relies on smart, verbal ppl to say feelings

introspection

process of looking inward to observe one’s own psychological processes

who founded functionalism?

William James

functionalism

consciousness is always changing so hard to break into parts, should look functions of our consciousness

gestalt

whole is different than sum of parts, look at whole and organizational processes of brain

who founded psychoanalytic perspective?

sigmund freud

psychoanalysis

emotional problems and abnormal behavior is a result of unconscious conflicts, emphasis on childhood, unconscious thoughts, defense mechanism, talk therapy, dream analysis

Mary whiton calkins

student of William James, took classes at harvard but couldn’t get degree, American Psychological Associations 1st female president

Margaret Floy Washburn

1st woman to earn PhD in Psych

Psychodynamic perspective

The theory that one’s past traumas and conflicts or past experiences influence their behavior/mental processes

psychodynamic people-thumb

Carl Jung, Alfred Alder, Erik Erikson

behaviorist perspective- middle

the idea that people accumulate experiences and behaviors through learning and through associations or rewards/punishments.

humanistic perspective- ring

The idea that all people are good and unique individuals who strive to be the best version of themselves

cognitive perspective- pointer

The idea that someone’s mental processes and internal feelings affect the way they think, communicate, and behave

biological perspective

The theory that some of one’s behavioral characteristics/mental processes are in their DNA and have been passed down through the genepool

evolutionary perspective- extra

The theory that someone’s behaviors/mental processes were once beneficial to survival and are still present in their genes today because they helped their ancestors survive

socio-cultural perspective- palm

The theory that one’s environment and culture around them heavily influences one’s behavior/mental processes.

basic research vs applied research

basic: increase scientific knowledge (7 perspectives)

applied: solve practical problems + assist people (subfields)

industrial organization subfield

improve life in workplace

human factors subfield

improve life in general

counseling- think mr kittridge

help clients address emotional, social, and physical stressors

clinical psychology

therapist, study of mental disorders

psychiatry

med school, can prescribe meds

confirmation bias- think hair brands

we look for info that supports our beliefs and ignore info that refutes it

anecdotal evidence

Evidence based on personal experiences or observations, lacking scientific testing

empirical evidence

Evidence obtained through direct observation, measurement, or experimentation. based on data not opinions

hindsight bias (I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon)

tendency to believe one would have foreseen it after learning an outcome

overconfidence

tendency to think we know more than we do

perceiving order in random events- think coin toss

tendency to think order isn’t random in events even though it is

inductive reasoning

start w/ observing/research, then come up with theory

deductive reasoning

start w/ theory, then do research

theory

explanation using evidence and principles that organize observations

hypothesis

testable prediction that uses operational definitions of each variable so that you can test the theory

operational definition- think examples in class

(distinguishes hypothesis from theory) → statement of exact procedures in research→ makes it testable and shows what they’re measuring

case study

descriptive technique in which one individual/group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles *atypical individual cases→misleading

naturalistic observation

descriptive technique of observing + recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate/control the situation

studying ppl in natural environments

doesn’t explain behavior, describes it

survey

obtaining self-reported attitudes/nehaviors of particular group, usually by questioning or random sample of group

wording effect

changes of wording of questions → major effects

sampling bias

flawed sampling process that produces unrepresentative sample

population

all in group being studied from which samples may be drawn

random sample

sample fairly represents a population bc each member has equal chance of inclusion

*reduces chance of bias or confounding

validity

credibility

things needed in order to not have interferences with experiment

standardization- everyone has same experience, random assignment, control of researcher bias, demand characteristics/participant bias, and confounding variables

researcher bias

tendency for researchers to unknowingly influence results of experiment

Participant bias (demand characteristics)

subjects know they are being watched or recognize what experimenter is investigating

target population

who you want to study

self selected sampling

(volunteer)- can be biased because types of people not representative of everyone

opportunity sampling

convenience- can have underlying bias bc of location and people there

purposive

want specific group you can’t get with random

biased because not entirely representative of population bc not random

stratified

Radom samples of multiple groups

snowball

one person recruits ppl, they recruit others

biased bc not much variation

sampling

when researchers select a group to study

assignment

researchers decide which of their participants will be in each condition

descriptive research methods purpose

observe and record behavior

types of descriptive research methods

Observations, Interviews, Survey, Case Studies

how are descriptive research methods conducted?

case studies, naturalistic observations, surveys (nothing is manipulated)

naturalistic observations

observing ppl in natural only

laboratory observations- think chimps/kids

observations in highly controlled environments, each participant has highly similar experience (downside- not like real life)

reactivity

people know they’re in study so change behavior

covert observations- think “co-cover”

hidden/secret, ppl don’t know they’re being observed (benefit- no reactivity)

overt observations- think “o-open”

ppl know they’re being observed

participant observations- think mr Clarke

affects research could get more info

nonparticipant observations- think mr Woodward

doesn’t affect research, might not get as much info

unstructured interviews

no script, each is different

structured interviews

don’t deviate from script

semi-structured interviews- think dress up

w/ script but ask follow up ?s

focus groups

sparks ideas, efficient’ biased, can change answer to fit group

problems with interviews

reactivity, measuring self reports info, not behavior

longitudinal research

follow same group over time

cross-sectional research

comparisons @ single point in time- not same participants but more efficient

how can you do cause→effect

manipulate IV and have random assignment

field experiment

research method that uses some controlled elements of traditional lab experiments, but takes place in natural, real-world settings

quasi experiment

manipulate IV, NO random assignment

correlational studies- ex) video games/aggressive thinking

measuring relationship between 2 variables

no manipulated variable, no cause/effect, no random assignment

data comes from surveys, psychological tests, archival records, quasi experiments

positive correlation- ex) # of years in school/income

direct relationship → 2 variables increase or decrease together

slope of line is positive

negative correlation- ex) more physical activity, lower blood pressure

inverse relationship- one increases, other decreases

correlational coefficient

statistical measure of relationship, revealing how closely 2 things vary together/how one predicts the other

between -1 and 1

closer to -1 or 1 → stronger, closer to 0 → weaker

measures strength and direction (+ or -)of relationship

why is correlation not causation?

no variable manipulated, don’t know which variable causes other (bidirectional ambiguity), 3rd variable (confounding) problem, illusory correlations

illusory correlations- ex) lucky pencil

perceive there to be relationship but there is not

central tendency

mode, mean, median

identifying estimated “center” of distribution of data

mean

average of data set

median

exact middle of data set

mode

most occurring value in data set

variation

range and sd

allows understanding of variation between data points

range

difference between highest value and lowest

standard deviation

indicates avg. distance from mean for set of scores, tells where each value point is in terms of the mean

higher → less similar score, father from mean

lower—> more similar, closer to mean