Scientific Foundations of Psych (10-14%)

o Structuralism – used INTROSPECTION
(act of looking inward to examine
mental experience) to determine the
underlying STRUCTURES of the mind

o Functionalism – need to analyze the
PURPOSE of behavior

• APPROACHES KEY WORDS
o Psychoanalytic/dynamic – unconscious,
childhood
o Behavioral – learned, reinforced
o Humanistic – free will, choice, ideal,
actualization
o Cognitive – Perceptions, thoughts
o Evolutionary – Genes
o Biological – Brain, NTs
o Sociocultural – society
o Biopsychosocial – combo of above

• PEOPLE:
o Mary Calkins: First Fem. Pres. of APA
o Margaret Floy Washburn–1st fem. PhD
o Charles Darwin: Natural selection &
evolution
o Dorothea Dix: Reformed mental
institutions in U.S.
o Stanley Hall: 1 st pres. of APA1 st journal
o William James: Father of American
Psychology – functionalist
o Wilhelm Wundt: Father of Modern
Psychology – structuralist

• RANDOM TERMS
o Basic research – purpose is to increase
knowledge (rats)
o Applied research – purpose is to help
people
o Psychologist – research or counseling –
MS or PhD
o Psychiatrist – prescribe medications and
diagnose – M.D.
Research Design

• EXPERIMENT :
Adv: researcher controls variables to
establish cause and effect Disadv:
difficult to generalize
o Independent Variable: purposefully
altered by researcher to look for effect
 Experimental Group: received the
treatment (part of the IV); can have
multiple exp, groups
 Control Group: placebo, baseline
(part of the IV); can only have 1
 Placebo Effect: show behaviors
associated with the exp. group when
having received placebo
o Dependent Variable: measured
variable (is DEPENDENT on the
independent variable)
 Double-Blind: Exp. where neither the
participant or the experimenter are
aware of which condition people are
assigned to (drug studies)
 Single-Blind: only participant blind –
used if experimenter can’t be blind
(gender, age, etc)
o Quasi-experimental design –
random assignment to conditions
is impossible (can’t randomly
assign gender)
• Operational Definition: clear, precise,
typically quantifiable definition of your
variables – allows replication
• Confound: error/ flaw in study
• Random Assignment: assigns
participants to either control or
experimental group at random –increase
chance of equal representation among
groups (spreads the lefties across both
groups)
• Random Sample (selection): method for
choosing participants for your study –
everyone has a chance to take part,
increases generalizability
o Assignment and sampling can be
done via names in a hat, computer
generation, etc
• Representative Sample: Sample mimics
the general pop. (ethnic, gender, age)
• Stratified Sampling: if you need to
ensure a rep. sample you can separate
your population before you sample (ex.
make sure get 80% women, 20% men)
• CORRELATION:
Adv: identify relationship between two
variables Disadv: No cause and effect
(CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL
CAUSATION)
o Positive Correlation – variables
increase & decrease together
o Negative Correlation – as one
variable increases the other decreases
o The stronger the # the stronger the
relationship REGARDLESS of the
pos/neg sign. Cannot be < or > than 1.
o Stronger relationships = tighter
clusters on graph
 3 rd variable problem (lurking
variable)– diff. variable is responsible
for relationship (breast implants &
suicide)
 Illusory correlation – belief of
correlation that doesn’t exist (old man
predicts rain from arthritis)
• SURVEYS: usually turned into
correlation. Subject to:
o Social desirability – ppl lie to look
good
o Wording effects – how you frame
the question can impact your
answers (see Loftus in Cognition)

• NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION:
Adv: real world validity (observe people
in their own setting) Disadv: No cause
and effect

• CASE STUDY:
Adv. Studies ONE person (usually) in
great detail – lots of info Disadv: No
cause and effect

• DESCRIPTIVE STATS:shape of the data
o Measures of Central Tendency:
 Mean: Average (use in normal
distribution)
 Median: Middle # (use in skewed
distribution)
 Mode: occurs most often
• Skews – created by outlers
o Neg skew = left skew
o Pos skew = right skew

• INFERENTIAL STATISTICS:
establishes significance (meaningfulness)

• STATISTICAL SIGNIFANCE = results
not due to chance, exp.manipulation
caused the difference in means

• ETHICAL GUIDELINES (IRB
APPROVAL NEEDED FOR PPL)
o Confidentiality: names kept secret
o Informed Consent: must agree to be
part of study
o Debriefing: must be told the true
purpose of the study (done after for
deception)
o Deception must be warranted
o No harm– mental/physical
1870s  Today 2 dads