Chapter 1 PSY Notes
Terms
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- What is psychology?
- The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
- Behavior-
- anything we do; talking, sleeping, blinking, or reading.
- Mental processes-
- Our private, internal experiences--dreams, thoughts, perceptions, feelings, or remembrances.
- Psychology places a high value on:
- empirical evidence
- Empirical evidence:
- information acquired by direct observation and measurement using systematic scientific methods.
- Psychology is a:
- Science
- Critical thinking:
- The process of objectively evaluating, comparing, analyzing, and synthesizing information.
- Psychology's four basic goals:
- To describe, explain, predict, and change behavior and mental processes through the use of scientific methods.
- Description:
- Tells "what" occurred by describing, classifying particular behaviors and by making careful scientific observations.
- Explanation:
- Tells "why" a behavior occurred. Explaining a behavior or mental process depends on discover and understanding its causes.
- Prediction:
- Specifying the conditions under which a behavior or event is likely to occur.
- Change:
- Applying psychological knowledge to prevent unwanted outcomes of bring about desired goals.
- Nature-Nurture Controversy
- Ongoing dispute over the relative contributions of nature (heredity) and nurture (environment) to the development of behavior and mental processes.
- Interaction
- A process in which multiple factors mutually influence one another and the outcome - as in the interaction between heredity and environment.
- Difference between Psychiatrist and a clinical or counseling psychologist?
- The first are medical doctors (M.D.) and the later have M.A., M.S., Ph.D., Psy.D., or Ed.D.
- Module 2
- Basic research
- Research conducted to advance scientific knowledge rather than practical application. Meets the first three goals of psychology: description, explanation, and prediction.
- Applied research.
- Research designed to solve practical problems. Meets the fourth goal of psychology.
- Scientific method.
- Review the literature and informal questions. ; Develop a testable hypothesis (must be operationally defined); Design the study and collect the data; Analyze the data and accept or reject the hypothesis; Publish, replicate, and seek scientific review; build a theory; Then the cycle continues.
- Theory
- An interrelated set of concepts, which explains a body of data.
- Cardinal rule of scientific theory:
- It must make testable predictions about observable behavior.
- Hypothesis
- A specific prediction about how one variable is related to another.
- Variables:
- The factors that can vary or change.
- Operational definition:
- A precise description of how the variables in a sty will be observed and measures (For example, drug abuse might be operationally defined as "the number of missed work days due to excessive use of an addictive substance."
- Data:
- the measurement of behaviors.
- Participants
- the people or nonhuman animals that are systematically observed and tested in a study.
- Statistics:
- Mathematical methods used to organize, summarize, and interpret numerical data.
- Peer review
- Journals that ask other psychologists to critically evaluate material that is submitted for publication.
- Replication
- Where scientist interested in that topic attempt to replicate, or repeat, the study. Increases scientific confidence if the findings are the same.
- Meta-analysis
- Statistical procedure for combining and analyzing data form many studies.
- Circular and cumulative
- Scientific progress is made by repeatedly challenging and revising existing theories.
- Four major types of psychological research
- Experimental, Descriptive, Corelational, and Biological.
- Experimental Research
- Carefully controlled scientific procedure that determines whether variables manipulated by the experimenter have a causal effect on other variables.
- Descriptive Research:
- Naturalistic observation, surveys, case studies. Purpose: Observe, collect, and record data (Meets the descriptive goal of psychology.)
- Correlation Research:
- Statistical analyses of relationships between variables. Purpose: Identify relationships and how well one variable predicts another (Meets the predicitive goal of psychology)
- Biological Research:
- Scientific studies of the brain and other parts of the nervous system.
- Two critical components of an experiment:
- independent and dependent variable.
- Independent variable:
- (IV) Variable that is manipulated to determine its causal effect on the dependent variable.
- Dependent variable:
- (DV) Variable that is measured; it is affected by (or dependent on) the independent variable.
- Experimental group
- Group that receives a treatment in an experiment.
- Control group
- Group that receives no treatment in an experiment.
- Extraneous variables
- Those variables that are not being directly manipulated or measured are held constant.
- Experimenter Bias
- Occurs when researcher influences research results in the expected direction. Solution: Blind observes, single-blind and double-blind studies, placebos.
- Single-blind study:
- Experiment where either the observer or the participant is unaware of which group received the experimental treatment.
- Double-blind study:
- A procedure in which both the researcher and the participants are unaware (blind) of who is in the experimental or control group.
- Placebo
- An inactive substance or fake treatment used as a control technique, usually in drug research, or given by a medical practitioner to patient.
- Ethnocentrism:
- Believing that one's culture is typical of all cultures; also, viewing one's own ethnic group (or culture) as central and "correct" and then judging the rest of the world according to this standard. Solution: Cross cultural sampling.
- Sample bias:
- Occurs when research participants are not representative of the larger population. Solution: Random/representative sampling, random assignment.
- Random/representative sampling
- Proper random sampling will likely produce a representative, unbiased sample.
- Random assignment:
- Participants are assigned to experimental conditions on the basis of change, thus minimizing the possibility of biased or preexisting differences in the groups.
- Participant bias:
- Occurs when participants try to present themselves in a good light (the social desirability response) or deliberately attempt to mislead the researcher. Solution: Anonymity, confidentiality, deception, single-and double-blind studies, placebos.
- Naturalistic Observation
- Observing and recording behavior in the participant's natural state or habitat.
- Surveys
- Research technique that assess behaviors and attitudes of a sample or population.
- Case Study
- An in-depth stud of a single research participant.
- Correlational Research
- Any scientific study win which the researcher observes or measures (without directly manipulating) two or more variables to find relationships between them. This does not prove cause and effect.
- Correlational Coefficient
- A number that indicates the degree and direction of the relationship between the two variables.
- Positive correlation
- One in which the two variables move (or vary) in the same direction--the two factors increase or decrease together.
- Negative correlation
- One in which the tow factors vary in opposite directions-- as one facto increases, the other factor decreases.
- Zero correlation
- One when there is no relationship between two variables.
- Strength of correlation
- The closer the number is to 1.00, either positive or negative, the stronger the correlation between the variables.
- Correlational Caution:
- Correlation does not imply causation.
- Lesioning technique
- Systematically destroying brain tissue to study the effects on behavior and mental processes.
- Three areas of ethical concern:
- Respecting the rights of human participants, Respecting the rights of nonhuman animal participants, & Respecting the rights of psychotherapy clients.
- Respecting the rights of human participants:
- Informed consent and voluntary participation. The use of deception. Confidentiality. Students as research participants.
- Informed consent:
- Participants' agreement to take part in a study after being told what to expect.
- Debriefing
- Informing participants after the research about the purpose of the study, the nature of the anticipated results, and any deceptions used.
- Module 3
- Perspectives in Psychology
- Experimental Psychology
- The study of experience. Prominent figures: Wilhelm Wundt
- Structuralism
- Focuses on the investigation of thought processes and the structure of the mind. Prominent figures: Edward Titchener
- Functionalism
- Stresses the functions of behavior in enabling people and animals to adapt to their environment. Prominent figures William James, John Dewey
- Psychoanalytic
- The mind influences behavior. Freud developed psychoanalytic theory to explain and to provide a basis for a system of therapy known as psychoanalysis. Prominent figures: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney
- Behaviorism
- Objective, observable behavior; stimulus - reponse; and effect of the environment on overt behavior
- Gestalt Psychology
- Assigned an important role to mental activities, which they believed organized sensations into meaningful perceptions. Prominent figures: Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, Kurt Koffka
- Women and Minorities
- Seven major perspectives in psychology
- Biopsychology, neuroscience, cognitive, behavioral, social structural, evolutionary, humanistic, and psychodynamic.
- Biopsychosocial Model
- Views biological processes, psychological factors, social forces as interrelated influences. All three forces affect and are affected by one another--they are inseparable.
- Psychoanalytic, Psychodynamic
- Unconscious determinants of behavior, effect of early life exeriences on later personality development
- Humanisitic psychology
- Self-concept, free will, and human nature as naturally positive and growth-seeking
- Cognitive psychology
- Mental processes, language, and perception
- Neurocience / Biopsychology
- Genetics and physiological processes occurring in the brain and nervous system
- Evolutionary psychology
- Natural selection, adaptation, and evolution of behavior patterns
- Sociocultural psychology
- Social interaction and the cultural determinants of behavior.