Unit 0 Scientific Practices

1.1 Interaction of Heredity and Environment

  • Nature vs Nurture

    • Nature = heredity/ genetics

    • Nurture = environmental factors

  • Interactionist perspective: Nature and Nurture

  • Main perspectives of Psychology

    1. Biological

      • Emphasizes the role of genetics and physiology on behavior

    2. Evolutionary

      • Emphasizes the role of natural selection on behavior

      • Used to justify eugenics

        • arranging reproduction to increase the occurance of desirable traits

    3. Cognitive

      • Emphasizes the role of internal mental processes on behavior

    4. Humainstic

      • Emphasizes a person’s inherent goodness and growth capacity on behavior

    5. Behavioral

      • Emphasizes the role of learned/ observable behaviors on behavior

    6. Sociocultural

      • Emphasizes the role of social and cultural context on behavior

    7. Biopsychosocial

      • Emphasizes the role of biological, psychological and social factors on behavior

    8. Epigentics

      • Emphasizes the role of environment and behavior on gene expression

      • Used in identical twin studies

Vocabulary

  • Psychology: the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

    • Scientific because of the use of empiricism and scientific method

  • Empiricism: the idea that scientific knowledge in developed through observation and experimentation

  • Behavior: any observable and measurable action taken by a person/animal

  • Menatal processes: internal subjective experiences inferred from behavior

  • Basic research: scientific inquiry that aims to increase psychology’s knowledge base

    • Pure science

  • Applied research: scientific inquiry that aims to use psychology to solve practical problems

    • Real world application of science

  • Hindsight bias: the tendency to believe that we could've forseen an event after it happened

  • Overconfidence: the tendency to believe that we know more than we do

  • Correlation ≠ causation: don’t percieve patterns in random events

1.2 Steps to conduct a valid research

  • Theory

    • an explanation based on observation/ prediction

  • Hypothesis

    • a testable prediciton

  • Null hypothesis

    • a statement of “no effect” or “no difference”

  • Operational definition

    • a specifically worded statement of exact procedures used in a study

    • used for replication

  • Research

    • has three types

      • Descriptive research: decribes

        • Case study: one or more person are studies in depth

        • Naturalistic observation: observing things in their natural habitat

          • Participant observation: when the researchers are immersed in the day to day lives of the participants

        • Surveys/ Interview: method of obtaining self-reports

      • Correlational research: variability

        • Correlation is always between 0 and 1

        • Graphed in a scatter plot

      • Experimental research: cause and effect

        • Independent variable: what’s being manipulated

          • Control group: non-manipulated group

          • Experimental group: manipulated group

        • Dependent variable: the outcome of manipulation

        • Confounding variable: a factor other than the independent variable that can influence the results

  • Statistics

    • meausured data that can be interpreted

    • two types

      • Descriptive statistics: numerical data used to describe characteristics

        • Central tendency: marks the center of a distribution

          • Mean: mathematical average

            • Positive skew: when the avg is high because of an outlier

              • mean is to the right of median

            • Negative skew: when the avg is low because of an outlier

              • mean is the the left of median

          • Median: middle number

          • Mode: most frequent number

        • Variability: how much the scores differ in a disribution

          • Variance: how much the scores vary from the mean

          • Range: the difference between the highest and lowest scores

          • Standard deviation: how much the scores deviate from the mean

            • Z is the unit of standard deviation

      • Infarrential statistics: allows for the generalization of the probability of something being true based of the sample data

Vocabulary

  • Population: all the people in a group being studied

  • Random sample: a sample that faily represents a population because each person has an equal chance of getting chosen

  • Representative sample: sample that has the same disribution of demographics as a population

  • Sampling bias: when a sample doesn’t accurately represent the broader population

  • Self desirablility bias: the tendency for people to answer surveys in a way that makes them favorable

  • Self reporting bias: the tendency for people to inaccurately report about themselves in surveys/ interviews

  • Regression to the mean: the tendency for exterme scores to fall back toward the average

  • Directionality problem: the difficulty in determining correlation and cause and effect

  • Third variable problem: a situation where a correlation might be affected by a third variable

  • Meta-analysis: when the researcher combine the results of multiple studies in the same topic to reach a conclusion

    • Leads to better generalizability

  • Subject response bias: when participants in an experiment act in a way that they thin the researchers want them to act

  • Experimenter bias: when the expectations of an experiment influence the result of the research

  • Blind procedure: method used to reduce bias by withdrawing information

    • Single-blind procedure: participants are uninformed about the treatment they’re receiving

    • Double-blind procedure: participants and researchers are uninformed about the treatment they’re giving/receiving

  • Placebo: an inert treatment without any medication inside

  • Placebo effect: the tendency for a participant’s well-being to improve after taking a placebo

  • Statistical significance: statement of how likely a result occured by chance

    • p is the value of statistical significance

    • p has to be less than 0.05 (5% change it occured by chance) for a study to be statistically significant

1.3 APA Ethical Guidelines

  • American psychological association’s ethical guidelines for human and animal research

Animal research

  • Humane care for the animals

  • Acquire animals legally

  • Minimized amount of pain

  • Reasonably natural living condition

  • Have research proposal approved by the animal ethics committee

Human research

  • No coercion

    • participation is voluntary

  • Informed consent

    • participants are given enough information to make a decision

  • Minimal deception

    • if the nature of the study requires deception it shouldn’t be so extreme

  • Right to withdrawal

    • participant has the right to leave at any moment in a study

  • Confidentiality

    • the participant’s privacy is protected and identies aren’t released

  • Protection from harm

    • participants can’t be placed at a significant mental/ physical distress

  • Debriefing

    • participants must be told the purpose of the study after the study and have the right to know the results