Unit 1 Foundations of Psychology (copy)

- father of experimental psychology

- founded the first psych lab

- structuralist

- Wundt's student

- coined the term "structuralism"

- structuralist

studying the mind by trying to look at what it's made up of

- problems with methods used, such as introspection

- wrote the first psychology textbook

- functionalist

- father of AMERICAN psychology

attempt to study what the mind does/its functions

- one examines their own sensations, feelings, thoughts, and perceptions

- often very subjective

- first woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology

- second woman to become president of the APA

"Pattern;" How the brain organizes and structures our perceptions of the world

Only environment molds behavior of animals/humans; John B Watson

Observable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals; Is shaped by rewards and punishments; Looks at observable behaviors, not what's going on in the mind or biological process

Operant conditioning

Classical conditioning

How we process, perceive, store, and recall information (memory)

How people pursue GOALS that give their lives a sense of meaning and purpose; Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow

- focuses on the need for love, acceptance, and self-fulfillment

Study of how situation and cultures affect our behavior and thinking

Our behavior reflects inherited predispositions or tendencies that increased the likelihood of survival of our ancestors

- traits passed down to us

- Darwin's natural selection

Focuses on the unconscious mind; Sigmund Freud

- psychoanalysts looked for impulses or memories pushed into the unconscious mind, often times during childhood, through repression

- First female president of the APA

- "self-psychology" -> field that emphasized introspection

- Created the first mental hospitals across the US and Europe

- Improved existing mental health facilities and opened many new ones

- "Father of Adolescence"

- Coined the term "storm and stress" -> describes the period of adolescence

Clinical psychologists help individuals with psychological disorders

- applied research

Psychiatrists CAN prescribe drugs, psychologists CANNOT prescribe drugs

Looks to help individuals who are going through a difficult time in their lives

- applied research

Studies how structures in the brain and nervous system influence behavior

- basic research

How humans process, perceive, store, and recall information

- basic research

How people change and grow over their lifetimes

- basic research

Deals with researching a broad spectrum of human behaviors, mental processes, disorders, etc..

- basic research

Investigates how people learn and process information

- helps teachers implement the most effective practices of teaching

- applied research

How to maximize employee performance in the work place

- applied research

Examines how personalities affect the ways in which people navigate the world

- applied research

Creation and implementation of tests (SAT, ACT, etc.) that can be used to measure mental attributes, behavior, performance, etc.

- basic research

How things like culture, religion, family, peer groups, income, and the environment shape an individual's beliefs, goals, and behaviors

- basic research

Helps people live their most meaningful and fulfilling lives

- Martin Seligman

- applied research

Research performed in an attempt to solve scientific problems

Increase the scientific knowledge base

- expanding our understanding of why humans do what they do

Most frequently occurring score in a distribution

Arithmetic average of a distribution

- obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores

Middle score in a distribution

- half the scores are above it and half are below

Difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution

Tendency to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself

- to make oneself look good to others

Variable that the experimenter did not account for initially that WILL affect the variables being studied

- extraneous variable whose presence affects the variables being studied so that the results you get do not reflect the actual relationship between the variables being investigated

Experimental design in which the same group of participants is exposed to all the treatments in an experiment

- all participants are exposed to every treatment/condition

Each participant participates in one group

- study in which individuals are assigned to only one treatment or experimental condition and each person provides only one score for data analysis

Research design that examines how individuals develop by studying the same sample over a long period of time

- good for looking at effects/changes over a long period of time, usually as people age

Research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time

Sampling method used when the population is composed of several subgroups that may differ in the behavior or attribute that you are studying

- individual groups are called "strata"

Question, theory, hypothesis

- way of making observation, gathering data, forming theories, testing predictions, and interpreting results

Tentative and testable explanation of the relationship between at least two events or variables

- IF -> THEN statement

Yields consistent results

- results can be replicated by someone else

The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Defines the variable in very specific terms as to how it will be measured, manipulated, or changed

- amount, time/duration, change

The tendency to be more confident that correct; Overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments

Something that has already been tested and researched

- not just an “idea“

Research design involving an in-depth and detailed examination of a single subject

• Advantages: allows researchers to gather and document information about rare conditions or cases; may provide new evidence to support psychological theories; help researchers develop a hypothesis that could be useful in future studies

• Disadvantages: what is true of one person may not be true of everyone; can’t generalize

Technique used for ascertaining the self-reporting attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by QUESTIONING a representative, random sample of the group

• Advantage: great way to collect a LARGE amount of data

• Disadvantages: social desirability bias; volunteer bias (people who chose to vote aren’t representative of the whole population)

• You need a large enough sample to represent your population; if your population isn’t large enough, you CAN’T make generalizations from your study about the entire population

The ENTIRE GROUP you want to study

In which every person in the population has an equal chance of participation

Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to measure and control the situation

• Describes behavior, doesn’t explain it

• Advantages: flexibility; external validity; suitability for topics that can’t be studied in a lab setting

• Disadvantages: lack of scientific control; ethical considerations; potential for bias from observers and subjects

Shows relationships between two or more variables

Both variables increase OR decrease

One variable increases and one decreases (opposite directions)

Reveals the strength of the relationship between two things

The further away R is from zero, the stronger the relationship is between two things

• measures the amount of variation in the data that is explained by the model

Experiments

• Important: Correlation does NOT imply causation

The PERCEPTION of a relationship where NONE exists

• ex. superstition

Research method in which an experimenter can determine cause and effect through manipulation of (independent) variables

• only research method that can prove cause and effect

The variable which is manipulated by the researcher

What’s being measured

Variable not being investigated that MAY affect the outcome

• ONLY applies to correlational studies

• for AP exam→need to explain how it affects BOTH variables

The group receiving or reacting to the independent variable in an experiment

The group that does not receive the independent variable in an experiment

• used to COMPARE

Fake treatment with no known medical effects, but possibly mental ones

When someone/a group of people behave as if they have received the real treatment, when they have actually been given a placebo

Looking at things as a whole; gestalt psychologists argued against diving human thought and behavior into discrete structures

• Max Wertheimer

Participants don’t know which group they’re in

• prevents participant bias

When each participant has an EQUAL chance of being placed into the experimental or control group

• goal: make groups identical so that a COMPARISON can be made between the experimental and control groups

• reduces the possibility that participant/subject variables (eg. gender, age, weight, etc.) may bias the results

• limits the effects of confounding/lurking variables

• in experiments

Both the researcher and participants don’t know who is in which group

• prevents researcher AND participant bias

When the group of subjects in your experiment accurately depicts the whole population

• typically in surveys

• everyone in the population has an equal chance of becoming the representatives of the populaiton

• can make generalizations about the population as a whole after collecting data from the sample

1. Manipulate variables

2. Control the setting (ie random assignment)

Experiments can be too artificial and don’t always replicate the real world

When participants are NOT randomly assigned

“I knew it all along“ effect

Theorized that all behaviors are caused by past conditioning

Approximate distribution of scores expected when a sample is taken from a large population

Data that has a long tail extending toward the right

• lots in the left

Data that has a long tail extending left

• lots to the right

Range, interquartile range, variance, and standard deviation

Term used to indicate whether or not the difference between groups can be attributed to chance or if the difference is likely the result of experimental influence

• if something is statistically significant, it did not occur by chance

When researchers influence the results of an experiment to portray a certain outcome

Indicates the percentage of scores that fall below a particular score

• -3 = 0.13%

• -2 = 2.28%

• -1 = 15.87%

• 0 = 50%

• 1 = 84.12%

• 2 = 97.72%

• 3 = 99.87%

When a person unknowingly causes a prediction to come true, due to the simple fact that they expect it to come true

• an expectation about a certain subject can sometimes affect the outcome of said subject

Applies the scientific method to experimentally examine an occurrence in the real world (or in naturally-occurring environments) rather than in the laboratory

People will work harder when they believe they are being watched

Graphical display that shows the correlation or relationship between two sets of data (or co-variables) by plotting dots to represent each pair of scores

Normal distribution - mean

Skewed graphs - median

A bar graph depicting a frequency distribution

Innate biological factors that influence development and personality

External and environmental factors, including learning, that influence development and personality

Plotting how often certain phenomena occur

Arrangement of data values that cluster around the middle