1.  Describe some important milestones in psychology’s early development.

1. Psychology was recognized as the science of behavior and mental processes, recognized that psychology can be observed through behavior but not sensations or feelings. Structuralism and functionalism were the first to think about the mind's structure and behavior.

Wilhelm Wundt - German philosopher, established 1st psych lab in Leipzig, Germany in 1879, designed experiment to test how long people press a key after hearing a ball drop

Edward Titchener - British psychologist, aimed to discover mind’s structure

Structuralism - early school of thought promoted by Wundt and Titchener that used introspection to reveal the structure of the human mind

Introspection - examine one’s own emotional states and mental processes

Charles Darwin/ natural selection/ evolution - from among chance variations, nature selects traits that best enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment

William James - psychologist, wanted to consider functions of our thoughts and feelings, linked it to evolution

Functionalism - early school of thought promoted by James that explored mental and behavioral process functions and how they help organisms adapt, structure, and flourish

2.  Describe how psychology continued to develop from the 1920s through today.

2. Watson and Skinner dismissed introspection and said psychology can’t just be focused on mental life if it’s rooted in observation. You can’t observe sensations or feelings but you can observe behavior.

Ivan Pavlov - Russian scientist that used classical conditioning (partnering one thing with another) on dogs (early 1900s)

Sigmund Freud - (influenced psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and dream interpretation) emphasized the ways our unconscious mind and childhood experiences affect our behavior (ego, repression, fixation, sibling rivalry)

John Watson - championed psychology as the scientific study of behavior, worked with Skinner to dismiss introspection

B. F. Skinner - behaviorist, rejected introspection and studied how consequences shape behavior

Behaviorists - psychologists that say psychology should be a science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes

Humanistic psychology - emphasizes human’s potential for growth and the importance of love and acceptance

Cognitive neuroscience - studies brain activity and how we perceive, process, and remember information

Today’s definition of psychology - science of behavior and mental processes

3.  Summarize the nature–nurture debate in psychology.

Nature–nurture issue - nurture works on what nature gives us, controversy over whether or not genes or experience form and affect development of psychological traits and behaviors

4.  Describe psychology’s three main levels of analysis and related perspectives.

Biopsychosocial approach - integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological and social-cultural levels of analysis

biological - genetic traits, mutations, genes, natural selection

psychological - cognitive processes, emotional responses, learned fears and expectations

social-cultural - influences are the presence of others, culture, society, and peer/group influences

neuroscience perspective -  how the body and brain enable memories, emotions, and sensory experiences

evolutionary perspective - how the natural selection of traits has promoted the survival of our genes

behavior genetics perspective - how our genes and our environment influence our individual differences

psychodynamic perspective - how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

behavioral perspective - how we learn observable responses

cognitive perspective  - how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information

social-cultural perspective  - how behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures

Psychology’s main subfields

basic research - all seven perspectives used to test fundamental theories

applied research - applying research directed at a specific set of circumstances

counseling psychology - assists in problems in achieving well-being

clinical psychology - mental health pros who study, assess, and treat people with psych disorders

psychiatry - branch of medicine that have licensed physicians to provide medical treatments for therapy

positive psychology - research human strengths and human flourishing

community psychologists - create social and physical environments that are healthy for all

5.  Explain how hindsight bias, overconfidence, and the tendency to perceive order in random events illustrate why science-based answers are more valid than those based on intuition and common sense

3. Intuition and common sense are just predictions and don’t have factual evidence that something will or won’t happen.

Overconfidence - tendency to think we know more than we do

Hindsight bias - “I-knew-it-all-along-phenomenon”, tendency to believe after learning an outcome, that no one would have foreseen it

Tendency to perceive order in random events - random sequences, patterns and streaks occur more often than people expect

6.  Explain how the three main components of the scientific attitude relate to critical thinking.

4. 3 main components of scientific attitude relate to critical thinking because evidence is used to test intuition, assumptions and biases. Want a clear answer and to challenge our thinking. They can admit to being wrong.

Scientific attitude

Curiosity - explore and understand the world without being fooled by it

Skepticism - scrutinize competing claims

Humility - we may have to reject our own ideas

7.  Describe how theories advance psychological science.

5. Allows scientists to make predictions of what they should observe if a theory is true

Theory - organizes a wide range of observations

Hypotheses - testable prediction of a theory

Operational definitions - statements of the procedure that defines measurable research variables

Replication - trying it again using the same operational definitions of the concepts and procedures, if results differ the original results may have been in error

8.  Describe how psychologists use case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation to observe and describe behavior, and explain the importance of random sampling.

6. Helps with represented information, human behavior, question a particular group and help dismiss bias

Case study - examining one individual in-depth, learn a lot about one person’s behavior, but drawback it’s over-generalization to all people

Naturalistic observation - observing “natural behavior” means just watching/taking notes, can be used to study more than one person which can be applied to a broader population

Survey - gather information from many people based on self-reporting, must be careful about wording effects, lying, bias

Population - all those in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn

Random sample - a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

9.  Describe positive and negative correlations, and explain how correlational measures can aid the process of prediction but not provide evidence of cause-effect relationships.

7. A positive correlation is when two sets of scores rise or fall together. A negative correlation is when two sets of scores relate inversely, one going up and one going down. Enable prediction and variation

Correlation coefficient - a statistical index of the relationship between two things (how close 2 things vary together, how well one predicts the other)

Scatterplots - graphed cluster of dots, each of which represent the values of two variables. slope suggests the direction of the relationship between two variables

10.  Describe the characteristics of experimentation that make it possible to isolate cause and effect.

Experiment - research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process

Randomly assigning - participants are randomly put in either the control (placebo) or experimental group

Experimental group - group exposed to treatment (independent variable)

Control group - group not exposed to treatment (or is given the placebo)

Blind (uninformed) - do not know which treatment, if any, they are receiving (rules out placebo effect)

Double-blind procedure - research assistants also do not know which group the participant is in (rules out bias)

Placebo effect - due to our expectations, just thinking one is receiving treatment can lead to symptom relief

Independent variable - the variable that is actually being manipulated and studied

Dependent variable - the variable that may change in response to the independent variable

Confounding variables - factors other than the independent variable that might produce an effect (ex: sex, religion, income, employment, obesity, smoking)

11.  Describe the three measures of central tendency, and discuss the relative usefulness of the two measures of variation.

8. All three factors summarize data

Mode - the most frequently occurring score in a distribution

Mean - the average score

Median - the middle score in a distribution

Range - the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution

Standard deviation - measure of how spread out numbers are from the mean (better gauges whether scores and packed together or dispersed)

Normal curve - symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data, most scores fall near the mean

Statistical significance - can results predict the future behavior of the broader population?

12.  Explain the value of simplified laboratory conditions in illuminating everyday life.

9. The value of simplified kab conditions is to stimulate and control important features that test theoretical principles in everyday life. Test to see resulting principles–not the specific findings or behaviors.

13. Discuss whether psychological research can be generalized across cultures and genders.

10. Yes because basic human principles and behaviors are similar for all cultures and genders. Although, culture can shape attitudes, values, traditions etc

14.  Explain why psychologists study animals, and describe the ethical guidelines that safeguard human and animal research participants.

11. Psychologists want to know and study how nonhuman species think, learn and behave. Humans and animals share a common biology that helps scientists test diseases and preventions. Ethical guidelines for animals include reasonable living conditions, companions, and healthful conditions. Ethical guidelines for humans include little to no stress/humiliation, blinking lights, harm, pain or discomfort, and make sure to fully explain the research to them afterward. (debrief)

Informed consent - protection from harm, discomfort, confidentiality, debriefing are key to ethical research