Psych notes chapter 1 - 2

Psychology is the scientific discipline concerned with behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism’s physical state, mental state, and external environment.

Psychological science is based on research and empirical evidence, which is gathered by precise observation, experimentation, and measurement.

Why do people still believe in pseudoscience and psychic abilities? To confirm their beliefs, hear what they want to hear, and believe that there is a reason for why bad things happen. (People want to confirm their bias so they only look for things that confirm it)

Scientific thought has two fundamental beliefs:

▪ Empiricism: philosophical tenet that knowledge comes through experience

▪ Determinism: the belief that all events are governed by lawful, cause-and effect relationships

Zeitgeist: refers to a general set of beliefs of a particular culture at a specific time in history

▪ Delayed the science of psychology

▪ Materialism: the belief that humans, and other living beings, are composed exclusively of physical matter

Sigmund Freud said a lot of dumb shit but he came up with the theory of psychoanalysis and emphasized unconscious causes of psychological problems.

Classical Conditioning (associates an involuntary response and stimulus and Operant Conditioning associates a voluntary behaviour and consequence

Behaviourism is the study of observing behaviour with little or no reference to mental events (39.36) (important thing to remember for exam)

PILLARS OF MODERNS PSYCHOLOGY (BIOLOGICAL, COGNITIVE, DEVELOPMENTAL, SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY, MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH)

Chapter 2 Lecture notes:

Theory: an organized system of assumptions and principles that purports to explain certain phenomena and how they are related.

Hypothesis: a testable prediction about processes that can be observed and measured.

▪ Do NOT prove hypothese

Theories are not the same as opinions, and they’re not all equally plausible

Validity NOT determined by number of people who believe it to be true

Confirmation bias: the tendency to look for or only pay attention to information that confirms one’s beliefs, and to ignore or reject evidence that contradicts our beliefs.

VALIDITY: Accuracy in the Measurement Process (content validity and criterion validity) - listen to audio 33.25 - You can't have a test that's valid that's not reliable (you cant have something that's highly valid with low reliability) - you need to do a test multiple times and have the same outcome for it to be reliable

An operational definition is a specification of precisely how to observe and measure a variable in a hypothesis

Case studies are detailed descriptions of particular individuals being studied or treated.

Observational Studies are a descriptive method, in which the research systematically measures and record behaviour, taking care to avoid intruding on those being observed. (usually with lots of participants)

Naturalistic Observation: is used to find out how animals and people act in their normal environments. (watching people on the street)

Laboratory Observation: observation allows more control and the use of special equipment. (having people in a lab)

Psychological tests

Projective tests can tap unconscious feelings or motives.

Personality tests, achievement tests, vocational aptitude tests are used in industry, education, the military, and other professions.

Surveys are questionnaires or interviews that ask people directly about their experiences, attitudes or opinions. (Good for getting lots of data but have lots of issues)

CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH

This research involves measuring the degree of association between Two Variables

Every correlation has a direction (Positive or negative) and a magnitude between -1.0 to +1.0.

3 types to remember: Listen to audio 51 min for examples

Positive correlation: as one variable increases so does the other variable

Negative correlation: as one variable increases the other variable decreases

No correlation: There is no relationship between the 2 variables

Correlation does not imply causation

Illusory correlations: Relationships that really exist only in the mind rather than in reality. Third variable problem = correlation does not equal causation. (Nicolas cage movies and people that drowned in a year. (random)

Experimental research (day 2, 2nd chapter)

Experimental group (Receives special treatment in regard to the IV)

Control group (Similar subjects who do not receive the special treatment)

Between-subjects design: Participants who are in different groups are compared

▪ A large sample and random assignment makes equal groups likely, but not guaranteed

Within-subjects design: All participants respond to all types of stimuli or experience all experimental conditions

▪ Order effects

▪ Separating measurements in time

▪ Counterbalancing

Advantages of experiments: (Experimental Design)

You can determine causation!!!! (you can't with correlations, case studies, etc) Audio 12 mins)

Used “experimental groups” that receive the same drug as the control, which is called a placebo.

Single-blind and double-blind studies can be used to prevent the results from being affected by:

• the expectations of the participants

• the expectations of the experimenter (experimenter effects)

Limitations / Disadvantages

Participants, often students, may not represent larger population

Researcher has artificial situation; participants may act in ways they wouldn’t otherwise

Field research allows study of behaviour in more natural context, such as school and workplace

Descriptive statistics (are a set of techniques used to organize, summarize, and interpret data)

The types:

Frequency

Central tendency

Variability

FREQUENCY (The number of observations that fall within a certain category or range of scores) Question on exam about knowing the difference between negative skews and positive skews, so make sure u understand this (audio 20 mins)

Central Tendency: a measure of the central point of a distribution (mean, median, mode)

Variability: The degree to which scores are dispersed in a distribution.

STANDARD DEVIATION : 27 mins in audio.. listen

A measure of variability around the mean or the average distance from the mean.

The standard deviation is used as it can turn any unit into a standardize score to be used. E.g, height, weight, memory accuracy, ect.

On exam question along the lines of: 31 mins group of ppl who were tested for IQ, the mean IQ of the group was 105, 1 standard deviation is equal to 15 IQ points, if you're 2 standard deviations away from the mean how many IQ points would you be? … TO SOLVE: standard deviation is 15 and the mean is 105 and its 2 standard deviations away positive, so I need to add 15 to that number? twice and then you get to your IQ

INFERENTIAL STATISTICS

Psychological scientists use inferential statistics to rigorously assess potential differences or relationships in data.

Significance tests (Also hypothesis test) tell the researchers how likely it is that the results of a study occurred merely by chance.

A growing number of psychologists and other researchers use a statistical formula that creates a confidence interval (not on exam or tests - CI)

Hypothesis Testing

Null Hypothesis: Assumes that any differences between groups are due to chance (Control Group). Listen to 42 audio for example (page 36 in slides)

Experimental/Alternative Hypothesis: Assumes any differences are due to a variable controlled by the experimenter. (Experimental group).

We want to find a difference between the groups that is so large, it is virtually impossible for the null to be true. Therefore, we REJECT THE NULL and ACCEPT THE ALTERNATIVE.

The Limits of Statistical Hypothesis Testing

If we have a p-value of 0.05 (a common standard), this means that there is less than 5% chance the difference between the two groups was due to chance… What if conducted 100 tests?

Acceptable p-value is arbitrary

Testing more people, makes significant results more likely, even for meaningless differences

Statistically significant does not necessarily mean practical significance

Effect size as a more nuanced alternative - Audio 49 min

Calculated value indicates the degree of the difference between groups, rather than reducing the significance decision to a yes/no decision

Cross-sectional study: Different groups of people compared at one time

Longitudinal study: Same group of people compared at different times (ex on pg 40)