History of Psychology (Lecture #2)

1. What is psychology? How can psychology be studied from different levels of analyses?

   1. Psychology is the study of the mind, the brain, and behavior.

   2. Psychology can be studied from different levels of analyses by looking at certain aspects and determining their effect on psychology.

2. What are some of the current debates in the field?

   1. Nature vs. Nurture: whether our genetics determines our behavior, or if it was the environment that we were surrounded by and grew up in.

   2. Free Will: Whether we are truly making our own decisions, or if they have all been predetermined by our brain and by our neurons.

3. What discipline did Psychology come from?

   1. Psychology stemmed from Philosophy.

4. What are the aims of the different theoretical perspectives that have shaped psychology?

   1. Structuralism: aimed to identify most basic elements or “structures” of psychological experiences through introspection.

      Behaviorism: aimed to uncover how animals learn behaviors through environmental experiences, and why people behave differently under different conditions.

      Functionalism: aimed to understand adaptive purposes of thought and behavior.

      Cognitive: aimed to demonstrate how mental processes shape our behavior.

      Psychoanalysis: aimed to uncover mental processes that may be operating below conscious awareness.

      Humanistic and Positive Psychology: aimed at understanding how individuals find meaning and meet their full potential

5. What type of education do you need to become a psychologist?

   1. A Ph.d

6. What are the different types (e.g., clinical) of psychologists?

   1. Clinical, Counseling, School, Forensic, & Industrial Organizational

Research Methods # 1 (Lecture #3) *Note, these questions might be updated slightly during the lecture.

1. How do psychologists study behavior?

   1. Psychologists study behavior using the scientific method.

2. What are the characteristics of psychologists and the scientific method?

   1. Skeptical: examine evidence behind claims

   2. Open-minded: willing to consider new ideas, but won’t accept those ideas unless evidence supports it

   3. Understanding: realize they can be fooled and design research that protects against it

3. Characteristics of Scientific Method:

4. 1. Empiricism: objective observations of the world

   2. Replication: demonstrating and observing a phenomenon more than once

   3. Publication: making observations available to everyone so that others can evaluate the claims

5. What are ways we get fooled into believing what is true?

   1. Repetition of false information, desire for easy answers and quick fixes, selective perception & memory, inferring causation from correlation, & exaggeration of a truth

6. What are the goals of the scientific study of behavior?

   1. To describe, predict, identify causes of behavior in hopes to control/change behavior, & explain behavior

7. What is observational, experimental, and correlational research?

8. Observational: objectively observe and record behavior

   1. Correlational: measure 2 variables, determine if relationship exists

   2. Experimental: control/manipulate 1 variable, determine if changing IV causes changes in another variable

9. What is a scientific theory? What is a hypothesis? How does support for hypotheses impact our use of theories?

   1. Scientific Theory: systematic body of ideas that organizes what’s known about a topic from past observations and makes predictions about future observations.

   2. Hypothesis: prediction about outcome of our research

   3. Support for hypotheses impact our theories because we then have evidence of correctness of that particular theory

10. What are variables?

    1. Variables: a quality or characteristic that can take on different values for different observations

11. What is the difference between a manipulated and measured variable?

    1. A measured variable DOES NOT change throughout the entirety of the experiment, whereas the manipulated variable is the one that IS changed throughout the experiment

12. What are operational definitions?

    1. Operational definition: definitions of variables that are used to define them in the term of the operations performed to measure them.

Research Methods # 2 (Lecture #4) *Note, these questions might be updated slightly during the lecture.

1. What is a sample? What is a population?

   1. Sample: small group of the population that we measure

   2. Population: a large group of interest for a survey

2. How do naturalistic observational studies work?

   1. Naturalistic observational studies work by making observations of people/animals in their natural environment, while the researcher remains concealed. Then, the researcher uses a coding scheme to describe behaviors, which then produces descriptions of behavior in natural conditions.

3. What is the case study approach?

   1. The case study approach is using detailed observations of a single individual and providing a description of its condition and its development based on those observations

4. How can we use correlational research to predict behavior?

   1. We can use correlational research to predict behavior by knowing the value of one variable, and predicting the value of the other variable based on that research.

5. What are correlation coefficients?

   1. Correlation Coefficients: a number that is produced that tells us how strongly two variables are related, and the form of that relationship

6. How can we interpret the strength of a correlation?

   1. By how linear a line that is produced by the graph

7. What is meant by correlation is not causation?

   1. Changes in two variables can be caused by each other or an added 3rd variable, however the two variables may also be related by coincidence.

Research Methods # 3 (Lecture #5)

1. What does experimental research allow researchers to do?

   1. Experimental research allows researchers to identify causal-r=[ relationships between variables.

2. What are the differences between experimental and correlational research?

   1. Experimental research manipulates one variable, & measures the other; correlational research utilizes 2 measured variables.

3. What is an independent variable? What is a dependent variable?

   1. Independent: Manipulated variable, the one researchers change throughout the experiment

   2. Dependent variable: measured variable, the variable that is/cannot be changed by researchers

4. What is random assignment?

   1. Random assignment is when researchers create 2 equivalent groups by randomly assigning people to one group or the other

5. How is random assignment different from random sampling?

   1. Random assignment differs from random sampling because sampling uses a group (sample) that is similar to the population they are trying to measure. Random assignment picks equivalent, random groups, regardless of of population or sample

6. What is a confound?

   1. Confound: Any factor that covaries perfectly with the independent variable

7. What is validity?

   1. Validity: Correctness/truthfulness/accuracy

8. What is external validity? What is internal validity?

   1. External Validity: Can we generalize the results of our experiment to the population from which our sample was drawn? Do the results apply to everyone?

   2. Internal Validity: Can we draw correct conclusions about the causal relationship between the IV and DV? Is our experimental design free of confounds that provide plausible alternative explanations of the results?

9. What is a construct?

   1. Construct: an abstract psychological concept that we cannot observe or measure directly.

10. What is construct validity?

    1. Construct Validity: Is our operational definition of a construct a good way to measure the construct? When we measure the construct operationally, are we really measuring the underlying construct of interest?

11. Why do we need statistics in behavioral research?

    1. We need statistics in behavioral research in order to determine whether the difference between groups is just a chance difference due to variability, or if there is a real difference representing an effect of the IV.

12. What is a p-value?

    1. P-Value:  the probability that you would obtain the difference that you obtained just by chance (if the IV really had no effect)

13. What is meant by statistical significance?

    1. Statistical Significance means that the difference obtained between the two groups is a real effect of the IV.

Textbook Questions

1. What are measures of central tendency?

   1. Measures of central tendency are mean, median, and mode.

2. What are descriptive statistics?

   1. Descriptive statistics: statistics that summarize participants’ differing responses in terms of what was most typical and how much people’s responses varied from the average.

3. What are inferential statistics?

   1. Inferential Statistics: Statistics that use sample results to infer what is true about the broader population.

4. What is reliability? How is that different from validity?

   1. Reliability: the degree to which a measure yields consistent results each time it is administered.

   2. Reliability is different from validity because reliability measures how consistent the results are, whereas validity measures the correctness of those results.

5. What are the core ethical principles of research with humans?

   1. Autonomy, benefiance & justice.