[waves of psychology]

• empiricism: knowledge comes from pexperience, obeservation and experimentation enable scientific knowledge

01: introspection

• introspection: process of looking inward to directly observe one’s own psychological process

• wundt: structuralism

  • structuralism: idea that the mind operates by subjective emotions + objective sensations

• wiliam james: published 1st book of psychology; made functionalism by examining wundt’s structures in our lives

  • functionalism: explored how mental and behavioral processes function

• mary whilton calkins: first woman president of APA. pioneer memory researcher

• marageret floy washburn: 1st woman in a pHD in psych. animal behavior research in The Animal Mind

• g. stanely hall: pioneer of childhood dev. & 1st prez of APA & first formal psychological labratory

02: gestalt

• aruged structuralism & functionalism

• observed person’s total experience

• therpaists apply this concept by seeing patients difficulty and context

• structuralsim focuses on the little, while gestalt psychology focuses on the big picture

• max wethiemer: contributor to gestalt psychology

03: psychoanalysis

• freud: made psychoanalytic theory

• emphasized unconscious mind and repression affect our behavior

04: behaviorism

• wanted to make psychology limited to observable phenomena, behavior

• pavlov: operant conditioning

• watson: studied pavlov’s experiements

• b.f. skinner: reinforcement. rejected introspection and studied how consequences shape behavior.

• dominant school of thought in 1920s - 1960s

05: multiple perspectives

humanistic: individual choice and free will

• maslow: made hierarchy of needs to obtain self-actualization

• carl rogers: founder of humanistic theory. made client-centered behavior

• constrasts deterministic behaviorists: “behaviors are caused by conditioning only”

• ex. an introverted person is introverted because they find social needs are satisfied by just close friends instead of a large group

psychoanalytic (psychodynamic): unconscious

• add more info when we get to that unit

• ex. an introverted person avoids social situations because of a repressed memory of trauama in childhood that embarrasses them

biopsychology (neuroscience): biological processes

• genes, hormones, neurotransmitters

• ex. an extraverted person is extraverted because tey inherited it from their parents

evolutionary (darwinian): natural selection

• similar to biopsychology perspecive in some ways

• evolutionary psychologists are also caleld sociobiologists

• behavior genetics: study of relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influence on behavior

• ex. an extraverted person is extraverted because this characteristic impvoved their chances of survival, wchih is passed on to the next generation

behavioral: conditioning

• reward and punishment

• ex. an extraverted person is extraverted because they were awarded when they were outgoing and punished if they weren’t.

cognitive: interpret, process, remember environmental events

• jean piaget: made cognitive devleopment theory.

• cognitive neuroscience: interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linkd with cognition

  • perception, thinking, memory, language

• ex. an extraverted person is extraverted because they interpret being outgoing makes sense to them

sociocultural (social-cultural)

• thoughts and behaviors vary through cultures

• ex. a person is extraverted because in their culture they act outgoing and louder than in another culture

biopsychsocial: biological, psychological, social

• genetics, conditioning, social influence

• modern

• ex. there’s a genetic tendency for extroversion, this person is conditioned for extraverted behavior, social pressures make them extroverted

• electic: claims that no one perspective has all the answers to why we think and behave

• testing effect: enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading information. referred to as retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning

• SQ3R: study method incorporation five steps: survey, question read, retrieve, review

• psychometrics: study of measurement of human abilities, attitudes, and traits

• basic research: pure science that aims to increase scientific knowledge base

• developmental psychology: studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout life span

• educational psychology: study of how psychological processes affect and can enhance teaching and learning

• personality psychology: study of individuals characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting

• social psychology: study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another

• applied research: aims to solve practical problems

• industrial-organizational (i/o) psychology: application of psychological concepts and methods for better human behavior in workspaces

• human factors psychology: field of psychology with i/o that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use

• counseling psychology: basically therapy and counseling

• clinical psychology: treats people with psychological disorders

• psychiatry: the medical part of psychological disorders. only by physicians

• community psychology: studies how people interact with social environments and how social institutions affect individual and group

methods

terms & defs

• hindsight bias: “i knew it all along” phenomenon

• theory: aims to explain some phenomenon

• operational definition: explains the measure of variables. carefully worded statement of the exact procedures (operations) used in a research study

• replication: repeating the essence of a study, usually with different people and environments, to see if a study is consistent (reliable)

• case study: full detailed picture of participant/small group. findings can’t be generalteized to larger population

• naturalistic observation: observing natural environment with participant with no manipulation.

• survey: has lots of confounding variables, but convenient. but, the random sample has a low response rate

• sampling bias: researcher’s unconscious bias to pick a group of participants that isn’t accurate to a representative population

• population: those in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn

• random sample: participants picked (sample) in random selection. random meaning that it is pureley by chance; computer, name in hat, random numbers, etc.

• correlation: relationship between two variables not because of a cause

• positive correlation: variable a’s presence means variable b is there too

• negative correlation: variable a’s presence means variable b is absent

• correlation coefficient: measurement of the strength of correlation. ranges from -1 and +1, where -1 is perfect negative correlation and +1 means perfect positive correlation. 0 = no correlation.

• illusory correlation: when people think there’s a correlation involved but actually isn’t or not as strong as they put it as

• regression toward the mean: tendency for extreme or unusual scores or evets to fall back toward the average

• experiment: cause & effect relationships are tested

• field experiment: out in the world, realistic experiments

• lab experiment: highly controlled environment and lots of manipulation for experiment.

• experimental group: group exposed to the treatment, the one version of the independent variable

• control group: group not exposed to treatment. serves as comparison to experimental group

• random assignment: participants are equal chance for any group

• double-blind procedure: neither researcher or participants know which group they’re a part of

• single blind procedure: only participants don’t know which group they’re a part of

• confounding variable: variables that aren’t intended to affect the outcome of the research.

• participant confounding variables: participants aren’t assigned randomly because of participants messing it up

• situation-relavent confounding variable: participants aren’t assigned randomly because of the situation and environment messing it up. this can include experimenter bias.

• validity: accurate data

• reliability: can be replicated and still consistent results

• informed consent: giving potential participants enough information abt study for consent if they wish to participate

• debriefing: tells the purpose of experiment/research after the study

• descriptive statistics: describes set of data

• positive skew: extreme score is high, meaning more data is more low, less high. shifts right

• negative skew: extreme score is low, meaning more data is less low, more high. shifts left

• standard deviation: measure of how much scores vary around the mean score.

• normal curve: bell shaped curve. symmetrical

• inferential statistics: measures whether or not findings can be applied to larger population

• statistical significance: stronger correlation + larger pop. = more statistically sig.

• basic research: pure research, not for immediate real-world applications

• applied research: practical use research

• representative sample: a group of people in a certain population that reprsents it

• stratified sampling: represents population with criteria. ex. a study how diff. racial groups react a certain way. it has criteria

• counterbalancing: using control group also as experimental group

• group matching: assures groups are equivalent on some criterion. splits groups equivalent. ex. half males and half females in each group

• experimenter bias: unconscious tendency for researchers to treat members of the experimental and control groups differently to increase the change of confirming their hypothesis

• social desirability: tendency to try to give answers that reflect well upon them

• participant or response bias: tendency for subjects to behave certain ways

• Hawthorne effect: selecting group affects performance

• z score: measure distance of score from mean in standard deviation units

• sampling error: extent to which sample differs from population

• p value: probability that difference between groups is due to chance. should be 0.5 or less to be statistically significant. means 5% change exists that its because of chance. it can never be 0%, because data isn’t 100% with no chance.

• institutional review board (irb): reviews ethics in research proposals

• coercion: involuntary

• anonymity: no name

• confidentiality: no identity

• demand characteristics: cues that might indicate purpose of study for the participants, causing confounding variables

• central tendency: marks center distrubution

• ex post facto (quasi-experimental) study: research that’s not an experiment that has controlling aspects of variables