Psych 1: Methods/models of psychology

History and Models of Psychology

Terms

• Empiricism: theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience, John Locke
• Behaviorism: theory that human behavior can be explained by conditioning, not     thought/feeling
• Humanism: focus on the individual and the idea that humans can fulfill their potential
• Psychoanalytic theory: the role of the unconscious mind, the id ego and superego, freud
• Social psychology: study of how behavior is influenced by presence/behavior of others
• Psychometrics: study of the theory and technique of measurement, testing, assessment
• The unconscious: The part of our mind that is uncontrollable, things happening without our conscious awareness in the brain
• Natural selection: the process by which organisms adapt to their environment to survive
• Cognitive psychology: the study of thinking and perception, inner mental processes
• Biological psychology: the study of the role of our genetics in shaping who we are
• Evolutionary psychology: the study of evolution as shaping human behavior
• Biopsychosocial psychology: the study of how we are shaped by nature and nurture
• Applied psychology: direct face to face care to patients in mental health settings
• Research psychology: studies human behavior through experiments
• Clinical psychology: treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders
• Counseling psychology: help people cope with everyday problems
• Psychiatry: a medical doctor specializing in mental health, can perscribe medicine for mental issues
• industrial/organizational psychologists: focuses on employee behavior in the workplace
• educational/school psychologists: supports student’s ability to learn, and teacher’s ability to teach in schools
• Wilhelm Wundt: “the father of psychology” first to experiment with psych in a lab
• Sigmund Freud: founded psychoanalysis, the unconscious mind, id ego superego
• Carl Rogers: one founder of the humanistic approach
• B.F. Skinner: founder of behaviorism
• John B. Watson: popularized behaviorism and made a psychological school for it
• Charles Darwin: evolutionary view, theorized natural selection
• Case Study: an in-depth examination of a theory, researches complex issues to better understand human behavior
• Correlation: a relationship or commonality between two variables
• Naturalistic observation: research method involving observing subjects in their natural environment, no intervention
• Extraneous variables: the uncontrolled variables that can affect outcome of research
• Survey: gathers data by asking a group of people their thoughts, reactions, or opinions
• Experiment: procedure to test theories about human behavior
• Independent variable: what is changed in the experiment
• Dependent variable: what is affected by the independent variable, what is being measured
• Control group: the baseline for the experiment, independent variable not used
• Experimental group: a group that is affected by the independent variable
• Experimenter bias: the tendency of the researcher to introduce bias into an experiment
• Double-blind procedure: an experiment where neither the researcher nor the participants know who is being affected by the independent variable until after the results are given, helps to avoid bias
• Hypothesis: a proposed explanation based on limited knowledge to be tested
• operational definition: the specific measurement of the dependent variable
• Self-report distortion: misleading or false information based on individuals providing their own thoughts
• Placebo: the sugar pill, seems real but isn’t
• Placebo effect: if a person expects to be affected by the pill, their body can create effects similar to what medication could cause
• Sample: a group of people participating in an experiment
• Random sampling: the chosen from the larger population are randomly selected
• Random assignment: the participants are randomly selected for control or experimental group
• Scatterplots: shows relationship between 2 variables, dotted graph
• Samping bias: when people selected for an experiment in a way that the groups will produce the intended results
• Subjects: participants in an experiment
• Confederate: research actors that secretly participate alongside subjects in an experiment
• Variability: lack of consistency in pattern
• Validity: being trustworthy, correct results
• Test-retest reliability: reliability based on 2 tests over a longer period of time producing the same results
• Inter-rater reliability: measures the agreement between subjective ratings from multiple raters
• Variables: changing factors in an experiment
• Positive correlation: variable relationship where they increase or decrease together
• Negative correlation: variable relationship where when one increases the other decreases
• Institutional Review Boards: reviews/ moniters research on human subjects according to FDA regulations
• Debriefing: after an experiment explaining and understanding what happened
• Informed consent: subjects must have a full understanding of what they are about to do and must agree
• Histograms: bar graph recording and representing data
• Statistical significance: quantifies whether or not the data is greatly affected by the changed variable
• Stanley Milgram: psychologist who conducted controversial obedience experiments