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Research and Science
research methods and types of psychological sciences
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Critical Thinking | Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions, but examines assumptions, appraises the source, discerns hidden biases, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions |
The scientific attitude | curiosity (passion and exploration), skepticism (doubting and questioning), and humility (ability to accept responsibility when wrong) |
Empiricism | the view that knowledge originates in experience & that science should, therefore, rely on observation & experimentation (Francis Bacon) |
Introspection | examining one's inner thoughts and feelings, forcing us to stop and investigate we we do and feel the things we do |
Structuralism | our conscious is broken into objective sensations and subjunctive feelings, and that our mind works by combining both (Edward Titchener) |
Functionalism | consciousness enables us to consider out past adjust to our present circumstances, and plan our future, based off of Darwin's studies, consciousness helps people adapt to their environment (William-James) |
Behaviorism | the study of psychology should be limited to observable behavior, since observing the subconscious would be of mere speculation, and think reinforcement (John B. Watson, B. F. Skinner) |
Humanism | centers on the conscious mind, free will, human dignity, and the capacity of self-actualization |
Nature vs Nurture | debate about the extent to which particular aspects of psychological traits and behavior are a product of either nature (genetic) or are nurtured (learned) characteristics. The ability to modify our behavior allows us to overcome genetic predisposition |
Basic Research | pure knowledge aimed to increase psychology knowledge base |
Applied Research | study that aims to solve practical problems |
Industrial/Organizational psychologists (applied) | study and advise on behavior in the workplace, so like HR, job tests for applicants |
Counseling psychologists (applied) | help people with challenges like jobs and marriage |
Clinical psychologists (applied) | treat mental emotional and behavioral disorders |
Psychiatry (applied) | medical doctors who can prescribe medication (counseling and clinical, but one level farther) |
Consumer psychologists (applied) | study behavior of shoppers to explain and predict behavior |
Forensic psychologists (applied) | work with the justice system to see if someone is stable enough to see if someone stands trial, suicide/hostage threats, hiring police officers |
Health psychologists (applied) | study the link between psychology, society, and biology and our physical health |
School psychologists (applied) | help students with learning problems, also give achievement and intelligence tests |
Environmental psychologists (applied) | study the effects of the environment on behavior |
Personality psychologists (basic) | develop personality tests, investigate traits that explain things, look for personality traits that may contribute to a person’s ethics, likelihood of breaking the law |
Cognitive psychologists (basic) | experiment on how we perceive, think, and solve problems |
Biological psychologists (basic) | explore the link between the physical brain and the mind |
Developmental psychologists (basic) | explore how a person changes throughout their life (from womb to tomb), do longitudinal studies |
Social psychologists (basic) | explore how people influence on another (group behavior, mob behavior) |
Biological approach | behavior and mental processes are largely shaped by the nervous system: brain hormones and genes, so brain might be active while listening to music and not while studying science |
Evolutionary approach | the study of the shifting in behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection. "Survival of the fittest." |
Psychodynamic/psychoanalytical approach | our behaviors come by unconscious drives, usually stemming from childhood, founded by Freud |
Behavioral approach | thoughts and behavior in terms of conditioning (rewards and punishments), focuses on OBSERVABLE behavior, look at environmental causes, no free will, just positive or negative reinforcement (John B. Watson, studied by B. F. Skinner) |
Cognitive approach | ways in which people receive, process, retrieve, and store info, so how we see the world, how we react to different emotionally charged events (happy or sad events) |
Humanistic approach | we choose most of our behaviors and these choices are guided by physiological, emotional, or spiritual needs. individual potential for growth and stress individual choice and free will, so people's choices, and how people seek self-actualization |
Sociocultural approach | focuses on how culture influences the way we think and act, varies by culture (examples are gender, race, and age) |
Wilhelm Wundt | established first psychology experimental lab in 1879, wanted to study introspection in a disciplined and controlled environment, said that observations needed to be made by trained observers rather than through our own minds, also developed Structuralism |
Edward Titchener | developed Structuralism (human mind combines these elements of experience - objective sensations, subjective feelings) |
William James | developed Functionalism (James thought that the function of sensations, ideas and memories was important, his view became known as functionalism), wrote the first book of psychology |
John B. Watson | developed Behaviorism (recognized Freud’s unconscious mind, but it is unobservable, and therefore would prevent psychology from being a science) |
Sigmund Freud | psychiatrist who saw patients with physical problems without physical cause, by talking to them realized their problems began to resolve, used hypnosis to discover stress and memories that his patients were unaware of (like repressed memories) |
B. F. Skinner | introduced the concept of reinforcement (giving rewards) to control and maintain good behavior (good doggy) |
Socrates | "knowledge is born from within us", first to propose Introspection, or self-reflection |
Aristotle | knowledge grows from experiences stored in our memories. |
Plato | "knowledge is born from within us" |
Francis Bacon | developed the scientific method, modern psychology relies on this, and also empiricism |
Gestalt Psychology | consciousness should be observed as a total experience rather than breaking it down, so perspectives are not just the sum of their parts, but the meaning of its parts, rejects the idea of structuralism, so you don’t need to break things down |
Hindsight Bias | "I knew it all along" phenomenon, you've learned the outcome of an event you believe you could have predicted from the beginning |
Theory | an explanation that integrates principles and organizes facts to predict behavior and events |
Hypothesis | a testable question based on a theory, so that the theory can be revised, accepted, or rejected |
Operational Definition | a carefully worded statement that details the process and methods used in an experiment so that it can be replicated exactly |
Replication | repeating an experiment to determine if similar results are found, important |
Case Study | an in-depth study of one individual with the hopes of determining universal principles of behavior, very prone to bias, good for rare phenomena |
Naturalistic Observation | subjects are observed in their natural environment, not aware they are being watched, so it reduces participant bias |
Survey | method that relies on self-report, uses surveys, questionnaires, and interviews |
Sampling Bias | when some members of a population are systematically more likely to be selected in a sample than others |
Population | the total large group being studied from which a sample is drawn from to study |
Random Sample | unbiased selection of sample to be studied, prevents bias (helps generalize to a larger population) |
Correlation | study which determines to what extent/degree two variables are related, not the cause and effect, so no why, no manipulated variable |
Correlation Coefficient | -1 to 1, the numbers that depict whether a correlation is positive or negative |
Variable | something that can be changed or altered in an experiment or observation |
Scatterplot | used to depict correlations, line of best fit shows whether it is positive or negative |
Illusory correlation | the perception of a relationship between two variables when there isn't one, explains superstitions (sugar is related to kid's hyperactivity) |
Regression towards the mean | a statistical phenomenon that occurs when repeated measurements are made on the same subject or unit of observation |
Experiment | demonstrates cause and effects through manipulated, controlled, and dependent variables, has a manipulated variable as opposed to correlational and descriptive |
Experimental group | a test sample or a group that receives or is the subject of the procedure done in the experiment, exposed to manipulated variable |
Control group | a group that is not exposed to the manipulated variable, results of experimental group are compared to this group |
Random assignment | assigning participant subjects to either experimental or control group by chance, reducing bias (controls extraneous influence, helps infer cause and effect) |
Single-blind procedure | research participants are blind to the actual outcome of the experiment, reduces expectation effect |
Double-blind procedure | research participants AND researcher are blind to the actual outcome of the experiment, reduces expectation effect |
Placebo | a non-active manipulated variable given to the control group, deals with expectations of an outcome in an experiment to reduce confounding variables, so a dummy |
Independent variable | the experimental variable which causes something to happen, changes the dependent variable |
Dependent variable | the experimental variable which is affected by the independent variable, the result of the experiment (the variable measured in psychology is usually behavior or a mental process) |
Confounding variable | any extraneous difference between the experimental group and the control group that could effect the outcome of en experiment |
Validity | the extent to what something means to what it claims to mean |
Informed Consent | a patient must be informed beforehand of the nature of the research they are about to contribute to or any potential of risk, and have the right to refuse participation at any time |
Debriefing | a complete explanation of the research, why you did what you did, extremely important if research involves deception |
Four rules of consent | Informed consent, right to be protected from harm or discomfort, right to confidentiality, right to debriefing, |
Descriptive statistics | summarize or organize characteristics and/or observed info in a data set or a population (case studies, natural observation, surveys), nothing manipulated, no control of variables so single cases may be misleading |
Histogram | representation of numerical data vertically with big rectangles |
Mode | the value that appears most in a set of data |
Mean | average of variables/values |
Median | the value that separates the higher values of data from the lower values, the middle number in a set of values |
Skewed distribution | in a histogram, if info is skewed positively (larger to the left), negatively (larger to the left), or normal distribution (all big in the middle) |
Range | the difference between the smallest and largest value in a set of values (subtract those two), a measure of variation |
Standard deviation | a measure of variation, to see how far away other numbers are from the average score. Low standard deviation = numbers aren't far apart and vice versa, the set 2, 5, 6, 8 has a lower deviation that set 3, 7, 18, 22 because the numbers are more spread out. |
Normal curve | all measures of central tendency occur at the highest point of a curve, so a bell-shaped curve on a histogram, normal distribution |
Inferential statistics | to infer from a sample of data the probability of something being true for a population |
Statistical significance | the claim that a set of observed data is not the result of chance (which would be a null hypothesis) but can be attributed to a specific cause, P value is small |
Type I Error | Deciding the variable has an effect when it does not, a false positive |
Type II Error | Deciding the variable does not have an effect when it does, a false negative |
Correct positive | Deciding the variable has an effect and it does |
Correct negative | Deciding the variable does not have an effect when it does not |
Researcher bias | the researcher's tendency to notice evidence that supports one particular point of view or hypothesis, reduced by relying less on the researcher's opinion |
Participant bias | the research participant's tendency to respond in certain ways because they know they are being observed, so behaving in ways the researcher wants them to behave, can be reduced by naturalistic observation |
Hawthorne Effect | when human subjects change their behavior because they know they are being studied, one of the hardest inbuilt biases to eliminate, no way to perfectly eliminate bias, minimizing its effects produces a reliable result |
Positive distribution/skew | A long tail in the positive (right) direction of a histogram, making the mean higher, scores make mean increase |
Negative distribution/skew | A long tail in the negative (left) direction of a histogram, making the mean lower, scores make mean decrease |
Expectation effect | Any changes in an experiment's outcome due to the subject or researcher anticipating certain outcomes to the experiment |
Null Hypothesis | the opposite of your hypothesis |
Longitudinal Studies | type of correlational research in which researchers observe and collect data on a number of variables without trying to influence those variables. |
P value | tells you how certain you are that changes are due to variables and not happenstance, the lower the P value, the stronger the relationship between two variables |
Ex Post Facto method | useful for studying topics where experiment would be unethical, only describes behavior |