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Chapter 1 Psych
For Exam 1
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Psychology | the scientific study of behavior and mental processes |
| behavior | everything we do that can be directly observed |
| Mental Processes | thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be observed directly |
| Critical Thinking | process of thinking deeply and actively, asking questions, and evaluating the evidence |
| empirical method | gaining knowledge by observing events, collecting data, and reasoning logically, meaning you need evidence to know |
| Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) | Freud believed that most of human behavior is caused by dark, even horrific, unconscious impulses pressing for expression. For Freud, even the average person on the street is a mysterious well of unconscious desires. Believed most people were trash. |
| Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) | German philosopher that first started the idea of Psychology through an experiment. Came up with STRUCTURALISM |
| Structuralism | basic elements, or “structures,” of mental processes. This approach was called structuralism because of its focus on identifying the elemental parts or structures of the human mind. |
| William James (1842–1910) | From his perspective, the key question for psychology is not so much what the mind is (i.e., its structures) as what it is for (its purpose or function). James’s view was eventually named functionalism. (He was American) |
| Functionalism | functions or purposes of the mind and behavior in the individual’s adaptation to the environment. human interactions with the outside world to understand the purpose of thoughts |
| natural selection | evolutionary process in which organisms that are best adapted to their environment will survive and produce offspring |
| Charles Darwin | Evolution |
| Biological Approach | focus on the body, especially the brain and nervous system. |
| neuroscience | scientific study of the structure, function, development, genetics, and biochemistry of the nervous system. |
| Behavioral Approach | emphasizes the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their environmental determinants. It focuses on an organism’s visible behaviors, not thoughts or feelings. |
| Psychodynamic Approach | emphasizes unconscious thought, the conflict between biological drives, such as the drive for sex, and society’s demands, and early childhood family experiences. |
| Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) | made the psychodynamic approach |
| Humanistic Approach | emphasizes a person’s positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose one’s destiny. Humanistic psychologists stress that people have the ability to control their lives and are not simply controlled by the environment |
| Cognitive Approach | Cognitive psychologists view the mind as an active and aware problem-solving system. From the cognitive perspective, an individual’s mental processes influence behavior through memories, perceptions, images, and thinking. |
| Evolutionary Approach | evolutionary ideas, such as adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors. Argue that just as evolution molds our physical features, it influences our decision making, aggressiveness, fears, etc |
| Sociocultural Approach | examines the influences of social and cultural environments on behavior. Socioculturalists argue that understanding a person’s behavior requires knowing about the cultural context in which the behavior occurs. |
| biopsychosocial approach | acknowledging that all of these factors can combine and influence one another and behavior. From the biopsychosocial perspective, biological, psychological, and social factors are all significant ingredients in producing behavior. (all 7 perspectives) |
| Sensation | process of receiving stimulus energies from the external environment and transforming those energies into neural energy |
| Perception | the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information so that it makes sense |
| bottom-up processing, | sensory receptors register information about the external environment and send it to the brain for interpretation. Bottom-up processing means taking in information and trying to make sense of it. Bottom-up processing begins with the external world. |
| top-down processing | starts with cognitive processing in the brain. In top-down processing we begin with some sense of what is happening and apply that framework to incoming information from the world. |
| Do psychologists consider sensation and perception as together? | most psychologists consider sensation and perception as a unified information-processing system |
| afferent. | afferent = arrives at the brain |
| Sensory receptors | specialized cells that detect stimulus information and transmit it to sensory (afferent) nerves and the brain |
| What do our sensory neurons know how calm or intense a sensation is? | Remember the frequency of firing communicates intensity for all of our sensory neurons. A loud noise leads to more frequent pulses, too. And a very painful jab from a needle leads to more frequent pulses communicating, OUCH! |
| Photoreception | detection of light, perceived as sight |
| Mechanoreception | detection of pressure, vibration, and movement, perceived as touch, hearing, and equilibrium (or balance) |
| Chemoreception | detection of chemical stimuli, perceived as smell and taste |
| absolute threshold | minimum amount of stimulus energy that a person can detect. Absolute threshold is the dimmest light, the faintest sound, or the softest touch a person can still see, hear, or feel |
| difference threshold | degree of difference that must exist between two stimuli before the difference is detected |
| Weber’s law | discovered by German physiologist E. H. Weber more than 150 years ago, is the principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant proportion to be perceived as different. |
| Subliminal perception | refers to the detection of information below the level of conscious awareness |
| signal detection theory | focuses on decision making about stimuli under conditions of uncertainty. In signal detection theory, detection of sensory stimuli depends on a variety of factors besides the physical intensity of the stimulus and the sensory abilities of the observer. |
| selective attention | involves focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others. A familiar example of selective attention is the ability to focus on one voice among many in a crowded airline terminal or noisy restaurant. cocktail party effect |
| Inattentional blindness | refers to the failure to detect unexpected events when attention is engaged by a task |
| change blindness | the tendency to miss changes that have occurred in a scene |
| 5 steps to scientific method | Observing some phenomenon Formulating hypotheses and predictions Testing through empirical research Drawing conclusions Evaluating conclusions |
| hypothesis | testable prediction that derives logically from a theory. |
| theory | is a broad idea or set of closely related ideas that attempts to explain observations |
| variable | anything that can change. |
| A key characteristic of a scientific theory is that it must be | falsifiable, |
| operational definition | provides an objective description of how a variable is going to be measured and observed in a particular study |
| self-determination theory | This theory states that people are likely to feel fulfilled when their lives meet three important needs: relatedness (warm relations with others), autonomy (independence), and competence (mastering new skills). |
| Descriptive research | involves finding out about the basic dimensions of some variable. (e.g., What is the average level of happiness of people in the United States?). |
| Correlational research | is interested in discovering relationships between variables (e.g., Are married people happier than single people?) |
| Experimental research | concerns establishing causal relationships between variables (e.g., If people smile, are they perceived as more attractive?) |
| case study or case history | an in-depth look at a single individual |
| Descriptive Research kinds | Observation, Surveys and Interviews, Case Studies |
| Correlational Research kinds | Positive, Negative, and Zero |
| third variable problem. (Confounds.) | Sometimes some other variable that has not been measured accounts for the relationship between two others. |
| Positive Correlation | as something goes up or down, something else does the same thing |
| Negative Correlation | as something goes up or down, something else does the opposite. |
| Zero correlation | Kinda self-explanatory |
| longitudinal design | observing and measuring the same variables periodically over time. Longitudinal research can suggest potential causal relationships because if one variable is thought to cause changes in another, it should at least come before that variable in time |
| Random assignment | researchers assign participants to groups by chance. |
| independent variable | manipulated experimental factor. The independent variable is the variable that the experimenter changes to see what its effects are; it is a potential cause |
| confederate | a person who is given a role to play in a study so that the social context can be manipulated. For example, if researchers are interested in reactions to being treated rudely, they might have a confederate treat participants rudely (or not) |
| dependent variable | the outcome—the factor that can change in an experiment in response to changes in the independent variable. As researchers manipulate the independent variable, they measure the dependent variable for any resulting effect. |
| How to remember independent and dependent variables? | Remember that the independent variable is the cause, and the dependent variable is the effect. |
| experimental group | the participants in an experiment who receive the treatment that is of interest to the researcher, or a particular drug under study—that is, the participants who are exposed to the change that the independent variable represents |
| control group | an experiment is as much like the experimental group as possible and is treated in every way like the experimental group except for that change. Provides a comparison against which the researcher can test the effects of the independent variable |
| within-participant design | participants serve as their own control group. In such a design, rather than relying on random assignment to produce equivalent groups, a researcher has the same group of participants experience the various conditions in the study |
| quasi-experimental design | similar to an experiment, but it is not quite the same thing. The key difference is that a quasi-experimental design does not include random assignment of participants to a condition, because such assignment is either impossible or unethical |
| external validity | refers to the degree to which an experimental design really reflects the real-world issues it is supposed to address. |
| internal validity | refers to the degree to which changes in the dependent variable are due to the manipulation of the independent variable. In the case of internal validity, we want to know whether the experimental methods are free from biases and logical errors |
| Demand characteristics | any aspects of a study that communicate to the participants how the experimenter wants them to behave. |
| Experimenter bias | when the experimenter’s expectations influence the outcome of the research. |
| Research participant bias | when the behavior of research participants during the experiment is influenced by how they think they are supposed to behave or their expectations about what is happening to them. |
| placebo effect | when participants’ expectations, rather than the experimental treatment, produce an outcome. |
| double-blind experiment. | neither the experimenter administering the treatment nor the participants are aware of which participants are in the experimental group and which are in the control group until the results are calculated |
| What type of research allows researchers to reach causality? | Experimental |
| How to know level of correlation with numbers? | The value of a correlation always falls between -1.00 and 1.00 The number or magnitude of the correlation tells us about the strength of the relationship. The closer the number is to 1.00 the stronger the relationship. |
| The entire group about which the investigator wants to draw conclusions is the | population |
| The subset of the population chosen by the investigator for study is a | sample |
| random sample | sample that gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected. A representative sample would reflect population factors such as age, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, marital status, geographic location, and religion. |
| Naturalistic observation | observing behavior in a real-world setting |
| Informed consent | All participants must know what their participation will involve and what risks might develop |
| Confidentiality | Researchers are responsible for keeping all of the data they gather on individuals completely confidential and, when possible, completely anonymous. Confidential data are not the same as anonymous. |
| Debriefing | After the study has been completed, the researchers should inform the participants of its purpose and the methods they used. |
| Deception | Researchers who employ deception in their studies must be able to justify lying to participants, because doing so is vital to the scientific merit of their work. |
| vulnerable populations | children, individuals with psychological disorders, incarcerated individuals, and others who may be especially susceptible to coercion |
| The organization that provides ethical guidelines for psychologists is the | American Psychological Association |
Created by:
JoshuaB5