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Chapter 1 - Intro to Psychology
Psychology - the scientific study of the mind and brain. Largely dependent on processing in the brain.
The 4 Different Schools of Thought
Psychoanalytic - Discusses the idea that our thoughts and actions are influenced by unconscious forces.
Sigmund Freud: worked w/ nervous system disorders. He helped people become more accepting of unconscious mental forces
Cognitive - Investigates mental factors such as thinking, learning, and remembering.
George Miller: learned that understanding mental functions was important for understanding behavior which resulted in Cognitive Neuroscience in 1990.
Humanistic - Also known as positive psychology, investigates how people become happier and live up to their full potential.
Carl Rogers: believed because humans are free to do whatever makes them happy, why not just study that?
Behaviorism - Discusses how environmental factors affect behavior.
John B. Watson: believed instead of looking in the mind, you should look at the stimuli that produce that behavior
Five Steps of the Scientific Method -
Formulate a theory
Develop a hypothesis to test the theory
Select a research method and collect data
Analyze the data
Come up with results and conduct further research
Critical thinking is systematically evaluating information and reaching conclusions based on evidence.
It is important in psychology because it enables one to analyze, evaluate, and restructure thinking, thereby decreasing the risk of acting on or thinking with a false premise.
Theory vs. Hypothesis:
a theory is a principle developed to explain a phenomenon that already has supporting data.
A hypothesis is an assumption made on an idea based on fact or based on a theory to test its reliability. (you can formulate a hypothesis without a theory).
Research Methods
Descriptive Method - provides systematic and objective of what is occurring
Descriptive Method - | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|
Case Study - intensive examination of a person(s) or an organization(s) | Can provide a lot of data | Largely influenced by bias and pre-existing theories, and can not be generalized. |
Self-Reports - asking questions to research participants. Participants respond in whatever way they find suitable to select from fixed options | Surveys can be handed out among a large number of people to gather more data efficiently. And face-to-face questioning helps to develop further questions | People can introduce bias into their answers or they may not be able to recall things properly. |
Observational Studies - Involves observing and classifying behavior with or without the intervention of the observer | Valuable in the early stages of research, to determine whether a phenomenon exists with or without intervention | Errors can occur due to observer bias and an observerās presence can alter the behavior being witnessed, and reactivity. |
Correlational Research Method - establishes a relationship between variables without observer intervention.
Advantages - relies on naturally occurring relationships, keeping them as real as possible
Disadvantages - cannot demonstrate a causal relationship (cause and effect). It cannot show the direction (directionality problem). And there might be an unknown third variable involved (third variable problem).
Experimental Research Method - examines how variable manipulation affects another variable.
Advantages - provide control over the independent variable (manipulated), so it can demonstrate causality, no directionality problem.
Disadvantages - altering something other than the independent variable (confound) can affect the dependent variable (measured) leading to inaccurate conclusions. Usually occurs in an artificial setting.
Dependent vs Independent Variable -
Independent Variable - The variable being manipulated to affect the dependent variable
Dependent Variable - The variable being measured to determine how it was affected by the manipulation of the independent variable.
When scientists want to make an unbiased decision on who to manipulate during the experiment they useā¦
Random Assignment - placing research participants into the conditions of an experiment in a way that all participants have an equal chance of being assigned to any group.
Experimental Group - the group that receives the manipulation of the independent variable
Control Group - a comparison group that doesnāt receive any manipulation
Ethics in Psychological Research
The purpose of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) is to make sure research meets the accepted standards of sciences and provides the emotional and physical well-being of the participants. When being ethical there are four main issues that are addressed.
Privacy - it is ethical to observe people without their knowledge if they are in the public. It is not ethical to observe someoneās private behaviors without their knowledge.
Confidentiality - info on the participants is kept secret and only shared with the examiners who need to know. The participantsā information shouldnāt be linked to the experiment.
Informed Consent - People must be told about the research and they can choose whether they want to participate or not.
Protection From Harm - researchers canāt ask patients to endure an unreasonable amount of discomfort. Sometimes, the research requires discomfort for data collection.
The risk/benefit ratio is an analysis determining whether the research is worth placing someone in discomfort.
Chapter 1 - Intro to Psychology
Psychology - the scientific study of the mind and brain. Largely dependent on processing in the brain.
The 4 Different Schools of Thought
Psychoanalytic - Discusses the idea that our thoughts and actions are influenced by unconscious forces.
Sigmund Freud: worked w/ nervous system disorders. He helped people become more accepting of unconscious mental forces
Cognitive - Investigates mental factors such as thinking, learning, and remembering.
George Miller: learned that understanding mental functions was important for understanding behavior which resulted in Cognitive Neuroscience in 1990.
Humanistic - Also known as positive psychology, investigates how people become happier and live up to their full potential.
Carl Rogers: believed because humans are free to do whatever makes them happy, why not just study that?
Behaviorism - Discusses how environmental factors affect behavior.
John B. Watson: believed instead of looking in the mind, you should look at the stimuli that produce that behavior
Five Steps of the Scientific Method -
Formulate a theory
Develop a hypothesis to test the theory
Select a research method and collect data
Analyze the data
Come up with results and conduct further research
Critical thinking is systematically evaluating information and reaching conclusions based on evidence.
It is important in psychology because it enables one to analyze, evaluate, and restructure thinking, thereby decreasing the risk of acting on or thinking with a false premise.
Theory vs. Hypothesis:
a theory is a principle developed to explain a phenomenon that already has supporting data.
A hypothesis is an assumption made on an idea based on fact or based on a theory to test its reliability. (you can formulate a hypothesis without a theory).
Research Methods
Descriptive Method - provides systematic and objective of what is occurring
Descriptive Method - | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|
Case Study - intensive examination of a person(s) or an organization(s) | Can provide a lot of data | Largely influenced by bias and pre-existing theories, and can not be generalized. |
Self-Reports - asking questions to research participants. Participants respond in whatever way they find suitable to select from fixed options | Surveys can be handed out among a large number of people to gather more data efficiently. And face-to-face questioning helps to develop further questions | People can introduce bias into their answers or they may not be able to recall things properly. |
Observational Studies - Involves observing and classifying behavior with or without the intervention of the observer | Valuable in the early stages of research, to determine whether a phenomenon exists with or without intervention | Errors can occur due to observer bias and an observerās presence can alter the behavior being witnessed, and reactivity. |
Correlational Research Method - establishes a relationship between variables without observer intervention.
Advantages - relies on naturally occurring relationships, keeping them as real as possible
Disadvantages - cannot demonstrate a causal relationship (cause and effect). It cannot show the direction (directionality problem). And there might be an unknown third variable involved (third variable problem).
Experimental Research Method - examines how variable manipulation affects another variable.
Advantages - provide control over the independent variable (manipulated), so it can demonstrate causality, no directionality problem.
Disadvantages - altering something other than the independent variable (confound) can affect the dependent variable (measured) leading to inaccurate conclusions. Usually occurs in an artificial setting.
Dependent vs Independent Variable -
Independent Variable - The variable being manipulated to affect the dependent variable
Dependent Variable - The variable being measured to determine how it was affected by the manipulation of the independent variable.
When scientists want to make an unbiased decision on who to manipulate during the experiment they useā¦
Random Assignment - placing research participants into the conditions of an experiment in a way that all participants have an equal chance of being assigned to any group.
Experimental Group - the group that receives the manipulation of the independent variable
Control Group - a comparison group that doesnāt receive any manipulation
Ethics in Psychological Research
The purpose of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) is to make sure research meets the accepted standards of sciences and provides the emotional and physical well-being of the participants. When being ethical there are four main issues that are addressed.
Privacy - it is ethical to observe people without their knowledge if they are in the public. It is not ethical to observe someoneās private behaviors without their knowledge.
Confidentiality - info on the participants is kept secret and only shared with the examiners who need to know. The participantsā information shouldnāt be linked to the experiment.
Informed Consent - People must be told about the research and they can choose whether they want to participate or not.
Protection From Harm - researchers canāt ask patients to endure an unreasonable amount of discomfort. Sometimes, the research requires discomfort for data collection.
The risk/benefit ratio is an analysis determining whether the research is worth placing someone in discomfort.
NoteStudied by 27 peopleNoteStudied by 1 personNoteStudied by 16 peopleNoteStudied by 28 peopleNoteStudied by 4 peopleNoteStudied by 24 people