| Question | Answer |
| Is psychology Common sense? | sometimes but not always |
| What is Psychology? | The scientific study of human behavior and mental processes |
| Sub fields of psychology | -Behavioral Neuroscience
-Health Psychology
-Experimental
-Personality
-Clinical
-Cognition/Intelligence
-Social |
| Scientific Method
3 main steps | 1. Formulate a hypothesis
2. Design a study to test you hypothesis
3. Collect the data and analyze it |
| Formulating a Hypothesis
What is a hypothesis? | A testable educated guess |
| Where do they (hypothesis) come from? | Prior Knowledge or experience |
| What are the 2 major types of studies? | Correlational studies and Experimental |
| What 3 questions will Correlational studies answer? | 1. Are the two things related?
2. How closely are they related?
3. What is the direction of the relationship? |
| What are the correlation Coefficients? | -1.00......0.00......+1.00 |
| Are the two things related? | Yes as long as the coefficient isn't 0.00 |
| How closely are they related? | Look at the absolute size of the number. |
| What is the direction of the relationship? | A positive Correlation (+) vs. a Negative one (-) |
| Causality?
Does watching violence cause aggression? | -Violence causes aggression
-aggression causes kids to watch violence
-some third factor causes both |
| Correlation is not causation
But some events can only be studied this way? | -Smoking and cancer
-Breakfast cereals and cancer risks
-Ice cream and rioting |
| Experimental studies
(key to the true design) | -Random assignment- of subjects to conditions
-Ensures that all groups are "equal" at the beginning of the study in the terms of factors that might influence the dependent variable. |
| Major disadvantages to experiments? | you can't experiment with every question in which you might have an interest. |
| Replication means what? | More than one study equals certainty in the findings. |
| Collecting data...
Some Issues?
Types of sample- will results generalize? | Gallup Poll Example vs magazine survey
Standardized procedures
double blind experiments
deception |
| Why study the brain and nervous system in a psychology class? | to remember all neural activity is electrical and chemical i.e. electrochemical |
| Types of neurons | Sensory neurons- messages from the enviorment
-external (senses)
-internal(skin muscles organs)
Motor neurons- messages to the muscles glands organs
iterneurons-connectors between input signals (sensory neurons) and signals (motor neurons) |
