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Psych Unit 1
7 Themes of Psychological Science
Question | Answer |
---|---|
What are the 7 themes? | psychology is an empirical state, nature v. nurture, brain and mind are inseparable, biological revolution is changing research, the mind is adaptive, psychological science crosses levels of analysis, multiple influences on how we think, feel, and act. |
Scientific Method | Objective, systematic procedures used to understand what is being studied. |
Nature | Genetically determined |
Nurture | Shaped by the environment (education, experience, culture) |
Dualism | Mind separate from brain and body |
3 Developments | Brain Chemistry, Human Genome Project, Watching the working brain |
Brain Chemistry | Refers to changes in the amount of chemicals specific to the area of the central nervous system. |
Oxytocin | Bonding/connecting when chemical is released. Nature's anti-depressant and anti-anxiety agent. |
Human Genome Project | International, collaborative research program whose goal was the complete mapping and understanding of all the genes of human beings. |
Biological | Neurochemical and genetic processes |
Individual | Personality differences in the mental processes that effect how people perceive the world. |
Social | Group contexts affect people's ways of interacting and influencing each other. |
Cultural | Different cultures shape thoughts, feelings, and actions of the people in them. |
What are people influenced by? | Subtle factors in their environments, even when they are largely unaware of those influences. |
Scientific method depends on... | Theories, Hypotheses, and research |
Theory | A model of interconnected ideas or concepts that explains what is observed and makes predictions about future events |
Hypothesis | A scientific prediction of what should be observed if a theory is correct. |
Research | A scientific process that involves the systematic and careful collection of data. |
Experiment | A study that tests casual hypotheses by measuring and manipulating variables. |
Replication | Repetition of an experiment to confirm results. |
Independent Variable | The variable that is manipulated by the experimenter to examine its impact on the dependent variable. |
Dependent Variable | The variable that is affected by the manipulation of the independent variable. |
Confound | Anything that affects a dependent variable and may unintentionally vary between conditions of a study. |
Experimental Group | Participants in the study who receives the intervention. |
Control Group | A comparison group, the participants in a study that receive no intervention or receive an intervention that is unrelated to the independent variable being investigated. |
Descriptive Studies | What is going on? What exists? |
Correlation Studies | Is there a relationship/connection between variables? |
Experimental Studies | Does one variable have an effect on another variable? |
Naturalistic Observation (Observer Bias) | Type of descriptive study in which the researcher is a passive observer, making no attempt to change or alter the ongoing behavior. |
Participant Observation (Experimenter Expectancy Effect) | A type of descriptive study in which the researcher is actively involved in the situation. |
Validity | The research must measure what it claims to to measure. |
Reliability | The data must be stable and consistent over time in similar conditions. |
Mean | Average |
Median | Number in the exact middle of the data set when the numbers are in numerical order. |
Mode | Number that occurs most often |
Central Tendency | A measure that represents the typical response or behavior of the group as a whole. Ex: mean, median, mode |
Standard Deviation | Tells us how far away each value is from the mean. |