Unit 1 History Of Psychology & Research Method

  • Psychology – the scientific study of the mind and behavior.

  • Basic psychology – research done to expand knowledge of psychological processes (not for immediate practical use).

  • Applied psychology – using psychological principles to solve real-world problems.

  • Goals of psychology – to describe, explain, predict, and control/change behavior.

  • Subfields of psychology – include clinical, counseling, developmental, cognitive, biological, social, industrial-organizational, health, forensic, etc.

  • Empiricism – knowledge comes from observation and experience rather than pure logic or intuition.

  • Psychoanalytic perspective – behavior is driven by unconscious desires and conflicts (Freud).

  • Behavioral perspective – behavior is learned through conditioning and reinforcement (Watson, Skinner).

  • Humanistic perspective – emphasizes personal growth, free will, and reaching one’s potential (Rogers, Maslow).

  • Cognitive perspective – focuses on thinking, memory, problem-solving, and information processing.

  • Evolutionary perspective – behavior and mental processes are shaped by adaptation and survival (Darwin).

  • Natural selection – traits that aid survival and reproduction are passed on.

  • Biological perspective – behavior explained by brain structures, neurotransmitters, genetics, and hormones.

  • Socio-cultural perspective – behavior influenced by social interactions, culture, and environment.

  • Biopsychosocial model – combines biological, psychological, and social factors to explain behavior.

  • Hindsight bias – believing you “knew it all along” after something happens.

  • Overconfidence – thinking you know more than you actually do.

  • False consensus effect – assuming others share your beliefs/behaviors more than they actually do.

  • Confirmation bias – focusing on evidence that supports your beliefs and ignoring what contradicts them.

  • Scientific method – process of forming a hypothesis, collecting data, analyzing results, and drawing conclusions.

  • Qualitative measures – descriptive data (interviews, observations, open-ended responses).

  • Self-report – participants report on themselves (surveys, questionnaires).

  • Social desirability effect – participants give answers they think look good rather than truthful ones.

  • Framing (wording effects) – how a question is worded influences responses.

  • Quantitative measures – numerical data (scores, test results).

  • Likert scale – rating scale (e.g., 1–5 from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”).

  • Peer review – research checked by experts before publication.

  • Naturalistic observation – observing behavior in real-life settings without interference.

  • Hawthorne effect – people change behavior when they know they’re being observed.

  • Laboratory observation – observing behavior in a controlled setting.

  • Case study – in-depth study of one person or small group.

  • Meta-analysis – combining results of many studies to find overall patterns.

  • Scatterplot – graph showing relationship between two variables.

  • Correlation coefficient (r) – number between –1 and +1 showing strength/direction of a relationship.

  • Positive correlation – variables move in the same direction.

  • Negative correlation – variables move in opposite directions.

  • Directionality problem – can’t tell which variable causes the other in correlations.

  • Line of regression – best-fit line showing relationship trend in a scatterplot.

  • Hypothesis – testable prediction.

  • Independent variable (IV) – what the experimenter changes.

  • Dependent variable (DV) – what is measured (outcome).

  • Population – the entire group being studied.

  • Sample – smaller group studied from the population.

  • Representative sample – reflects important characteristics of the population.

  • Sampling bias – when the sample doesn’t represent the population.

  • Random selection – each person in the population has equal chance of being chosen.

  • Convenience sampling – choosing participants who are easiest to reach.

  • Experimental group – receives treatment/IV.

  • Control group – does not receive treatment; used for comparison.

  • Placebo – fake treatment used to test effects of expectation.

  • Random assignment – randomly placing participants in experimental/control groups.

  • Quasi-experimental design – uses existing groups instead of random assignment.

  • Operational definition – specific, measurable definition of variables.

  • Replication – repeating a study to see if results hold.

  • Reliability – consistency of results.

  • Confounding variable – an outside variable that could affect results.

  • Validity – whether a study measures what it’s supposed to.

  • Placebo effect – improvement due to belief in treatment, not the treatment itself.

  • Single-blind study – participants don’t know group assignment.

  • Experimenter bias – researcher unintentionally influences results.

  • Double-blind study – neither participants nor researchers know group assignments.

  • American Psychological Association (APA) – sets ethical guidelines for psychologists.

  • Institutional Review Board (IRB) – approves research for ethical safety.

  • Informed consent – participants agree after being told details.

  • Informed assent – children/minors agree (with parental consent).

  • Debriefing – explaining the study to participants afterward.

  • Research confederates – actors secretly part of the study to influence participants.

  • Histogram – bar graph showing frequency distribution.

  • Measures of central tendency – ways to describe the “center” of data.

    • Mode – most frequent value.

    • Mean – average.

    • Median – middle score.

  • Normal curve – bell-shaped, symmetrical distribution.

  • Positively skewed distribution – tail to the right (high outliers).

  • Negatively skewed distribution – tail to the left (low outliers).

  • Multimodal distribution – more than one peak (bimodal = 2 peaks).

  • Measures of variability – how spread out data is.

    • Range – difference between highest and lowest.

    • Standard deviation – average distance from the mean.

    • Z score – number of standard deviations a score is from the mean.

    • Percentile rank – percentage of scores at or below a given score.

  • Inferential statistics – determine if results can be generalized.

  • p value – probability results are due to chance (p < .05 = significant).

  • Statistical significance – results unlikely due to chance.

  • Regression toward the mean – extreme scores tend to move closer to average on retest.

  • Effect size – strength of the relationship between variables.

  • Wilhelm Wundt – “father of psychology,” opened first psych lab (1879).

  • Sigmund Freud – founder of psychoanalysis; unconscious drives behavior.

  • John B. Watson – founder of behaviorism; “Little Albert” study.

  • Carl Rogers – humanistic psychologist; client-centered therapy.

  • Charles Darwin – theory of evolution; natural selection influences behavior.