Intro to Psych Chapter 1

Psychology

The study of behavior and mental processes

Replication

Repeating a study usually with different participants to see if the outcome changes

Hypothesis

A testable prediction about the relationship of two or more variables; Not yet proven

Theory

An explanation for mental processes and behavior that organizes observations and predicts future outcomes; Proven

Critical Thinking

Curiosity + Skepticism + Humility

Biological influences

genetic predispositions, mutations, natural selection, genes responding to environment

Psychological influences

learned fears and expectations, emotional responses, cognitive processing and perceptual interpretations

Social influences

presence of others, cultural, societal and family expectations, peer influences, compelling models (such as media)

Neuroscience approach

How the body and brain enable emotions, memories and sensory experiences

Evolutionary approach

How the natural selection of traits has promoted the survival of genes

Behavior genetics approach

How genes and environments influence our individual differences

Psychodynamic approach

How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

Behavioral approach

How we learn observable responses

Cognitive approach

How we encode, process, store and retrieve information

Social-cultural approach

How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures

Operational Definition

Carefully worded statements of exact procedures used in a research study

Preregistration

Publicly communicating study design, hypotheses, data collection and analyses

Case Study

Examines on individual in depth and cannot be used to generalize conclusions

Naturalistic Observation

Records behavior in natural environment and describes but doesn’t explain behavior

Survey and Interview

Examine many cases in less depth; Wording effects (changing the wording can have different outcomes based on interpretation of reader)

Random sampling

Uses a random sample of the population

Examples of Wording Effects

“gun safety laws” vs. “gun control laws” ; “undocumented workers” vs. “illegal aliens”

Correlation

A relationship between data

Correlation Coefficient

Statistical index of the direction and strength of the relationship between two things (from -1.00 to +1.00)

Positive Correlation

Two things increase or decrease together; above 0 to +1.00

Negative Correlation

Inverse relationship (one increases, one decreases); below 0 to -1.00

Double-blind Procedure

Neither the participants or researcher know who is receiving the treatment and who is not; eliminates bias

Placebo Effect

Treatments actual effects can be separated from potential placebo effect; Expectation cause “results”

Independent Variable

Factor being manipulated and effect is being studied

Dependent Variable

Factor is being measured and may change based on manipulated variable

Confounding Variable

Factor other than the independent variable that may be producing an effect

Descriptive Research Method

To observe and record behavior; case studies, naturalistic observations or surveys

Correlational Research Method

To detect naturally occurring relationships; collection data on two or more variables with no manipulation

Experimental Research Method

To explore cause and effects; Manipulate one or more factors; use random assignment

Mode

Most frequently occurring score(s)

Median

Middle score; half below it, half above

Mean

Average; adding all scores and dividing them by number of scores

Normal Curve

Bell curve; shows all data including outliers

Inferential Statistics

Principals to decide when it is safe to infer a population difference from a sample difference including: representative samples are better than biased, big samples are better than small and more estimates are better than fewer; generalizations based on small biased samples are unreliable