What are six ways of knowing discussed in class?

Common sense or folk wisdom

Revelation or inspiration

Authority

Logic and Reason (Rationalism)

Senses and Experiences (empiricism)

Scientific method

What is common sense?

It is something that is true because it is "self-evident" or because it is widely known

What is folk wisdom?

Something that is loaded with truth

What is hindsight bias?

What is an example of hindsight bias discussed in class?

Multiple choice tests for students becomes difficult when they were sure that they knew the material--its after the fact

What is a revelation or inspiration?

An act of revealing or communicating divine truth or a sudden good idea

What is authority?

What are some problems with authority?

Experts may not always have the expertise with which we credit them

Experts are rarely questioned

It is difficult to see authority.  We only see symbols of authority, and these symbols are easy to counterfeit

What is logic?

It is the basis of reason; it is the ability to draw inferences from premises

What is a premise?

An assertion that is held to be true

What is a hypothesis?

What are the five steps of the scientific method?

1. Select a problem and form a hypothesis as a tentative solution to the problem

2. Design an experiment or study

3. Conduct the experiment and collect data

4. Confront the hypothesis with the data by conducting a statistical test

5. Communicate the research results

What are four goals of science?

Explanation

Prediction

Understanding

Control

What is an assumption of Freudian theory?

The unconcious mind governs behavior to a greater degree than people suspect

What is a theory?

 In everyday use, it means a guess or a hunch

In science, it means a well-substantiated, well-supported, well-documented explanation for observations

What is a theoretical stimulus?

The conceptual variable that stimulates or causes an effect

What is a theoretical response?

The conceptual variable that is affected by the theoretical stimulus

What is an operational definition?

What is an independent variable?

the variable the reasearcher controls; it is independent of the participants' control

What is a dependent variable?

The variable whose value is presumed to depend upon the independent variable

It is when  the researcher cannot control the X-variable or independent variable

What is a criterion or outcome variable?

It is when the researcher cannot control the Y-variable or dependent variable

What makes a theory good?

Falsifiable

Predictive accuracy

Internal consistency

Economy

Fertility

What does falsifiable mean?

It can be tested and rejected

What does predictive accuracy mean?

It can reliably predict behavior

What does internal consistency mean?

It means that there are no logical inconsistencies among the constructs

What does economy mean?

It only contains needed constructs

What does fertility mean?

It spawns other research

What are some characteristics of a theory and a hypothesis...what are their differences?

Theories are general, whereas hypothesis are specific

Hypotheses are derived from theories

Multiple hypotheses can be derived from a single theory

A hypothesis is either accepted or rejected. It is much harder to reject a theory

What is empiricism?

 a philosophical belief that states your knowledge of the world is based on your experiences, particularly your sensory experiences

What are some characteristics of science?

Logical

Deterministic

General

Parsimonious

Specific

Empirically verifiable

Intersubjective

Open to modification

Objective truth

Skepticism

What does logical mean from a social scientist's perspective?

Scientists use inductive and deductive logic to achieve their goals.  Theories must not contain logical inconsistencies

What does deterministic mean from a social science perspective?

Scientists assume that events happen for reasons.  Things do not just happen

What does general mean from a social science perspective?

The aim is to understand overall patterns of events.  The larger the scope that is explained, the more useful the explanation is

What does parsimonious mean from a social science perspective?

The aim is to gain the greatest amount of understanding from the smallest number of variables

What does specific mean in terms from a social science perspective?

Scientists must be specific about the methods of measurement used to investigate a given phenomenon

What does empirically verifiable mean?

Propositions and theories must be testable in the real world

What does intersubjective mean?

Descriptions of observations must be sufficiently detailed that other scientists will be able to replicate their observations

What does open to modification mean?

As time passes, new evidence may be expected to revise existing ways of thinking about a phenomenon

What does objective truth mean?

It's one truth that's the same for all people

What does skeptism mean?

doubt as to the truth of something

What are five methodoligical approaches discussed in class?

Correlational study

Experiment

Longitudinal study

Survey research

Content analysis

What is randomn assignment?

What is random selection?

A sample is randomly selected from a population if each person has an equal chance of being selected

Randomn assignment is not possible for ethical or practical reasons

The researcher cannot manipulate the independent variable

The researcher simply measures the strength of a relationship between the two variables of interest

What are the conditions needed to infer cause in a correlational study?

The presumed cause and effect are correlated

The presume cause precedes the presumed effect in time

Alternative explanations are eliminated

What are the essentials that make a good experiment?

The researcher has control over the procedures, manipulating the variable of interest (independent variable) and holding all other variables constant

participants are randomly assigned to the levels of the independent variable

a longitudinal trial and error model employed to escalate the likelihood of causal impact wherein two factors, both B and A, are measured at two separate times.

What are some types of surveys?

 Face-to-face interviewing

Telephone interviewing

Mailed questionnaires

Internet questionnaires

Fax polls

Text-message polls

What is content analysis?

A quantitative research methodology for studying the content of the communication

What are some strength and weaknesses of margin of error?

Good for assessing public opinion

Sometimes the only method available

 Requires a representative sample

Based on self-reports

Cannot be used to infer causality

 Unobtrustive: no impact on what is being studied

Can study processes over long periods of time

 Cannot establish effects

What are some characteristics of a correlation coefficient?

It ranges from +1.0(a perfect positive correlation) to -1.0( a perfect negative correlation)

A value of 0 indicates that the two variables are not linearly related

The sign on the correlation gives the direction of the relationship

The value of the correlation coefficient indicates the strength of the relationship

What is a standard normal distribution?

a normal distribution with mean 0 and standard deviation 1.

What does meta-analysis mean?

What does replication mean?

The same result is observed over and over again by different researchers

What does triangulation mean?

Employing different methodologies in order to examine a given phenomenon

What does learning mean?

A relatively permanent change in thought or behavior as a result of practice or experience

What does conditioning mean?

The ways in which events, stiumuli, and behavior become associated with one another

What is classical conditioning?

a learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired; a response that is at first elicited by the second stimulus is eventually elicited by the first stimulus alone

Who was ivan pavlo?

He won a Nobel Prize for his research on the role of saliva in digestion

What is an unconditioned stimulus?

A stimulus that elicits an unconditioned response; for example, food is an unconditioned stimulus for a hungry animal

What is an unconditioned response?

responses that are completely natural and occur without an organism going through any prior learning

What is a conditioned stimulus?

What is a conditioned response?

the response made by a person or animal after learning to associate an experience with a neutral or arbitrary stimulus.

Give some examples of classical conditioning in advertising?

Advertisers try to associate their products with positive stimuli

Advertisers do not want their products to be associated with negative stimuli

What does stimulus generalization mean?

Learned response to stimuli that are similar to the orginal conditioned stimuli

What does stimulus discrimination mean?

Learned response to a specific stimulus, but not to other, similar stimuli

What is operant conditioning?

the organism’s response is active and voluntary; in classical conditioning it is passive and involuntary

What is reinforcement?

when someone strengthens a response and makes it more likely to occur

What is punishment?

weakens a response and makes it less likely to occur.

Who was B. F. Skinner and why was he important?

What is shaping?

 Used to get an organism to perform a behavior that is rarely or never performed. One gradually trains an organism to perform a specific response by reinforcing any responses that come close to the desired response.

What are positive reinforcers?

Adding a stimulus that strengthens a response and makes it more likely to occur (ex. praise)

Negative reinforcement

taking away a stimulus that strengthens a response and makes it more likely to recur (e.g., headache removed after taking an aspirin)

Positive punishment

adding a stimulus that weakens a response and makes it less likely to recur (Ex shouting)

Negative punishment

Taking away a stimulus that weakens a response and makes it less likely to recur

What is observational learning theory

In observational learning theory, individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior if?

the model is similar to the observer

What is vicarious reinforcement?

our tendency to repeat or duplicate behaviors for which others are being rewarded.

What are four observational learning processes?

Attention

Retention

Reproduction

Motivation

What is attention?

To learn through observation, you must pay attention to another person's behavior and its consequences.

What is retention?

In order for an observed behavior to be used again, you must be able to store it in memory (through rehearsal).

What is reproduction?

To imitate a model, you must have physical abilities and skills to reproduce the observed action.

What is motivation?

You are unlikely to reproduce an observed response unless you are motivated to do so. Your motivation depends on whether you get benefits from responding to that action.

What is self-efficacy?

The belief that one is capable of performing the behavior to achieve a goal or an outcome

What does inside the black box refer to?

Processes occur inside the organism and are reflected in measures of overt behavior.

What does Mediator (intervening) variables refer to?

Generative mechanism through which the stimulus (independent variable) influences the response (dependent variable).

What is Bandura known for?

In his book about Social Cognitive Theory, Bandura assigned cognition a central role in human behavior.

Humans have several distinct cognitive capacities that influence observational learning.

What is social cognitive theory?

What are some cognitive capacities?

Symbolizing capacity

What is Symbolizing capacity?

Symbols (e.g., words) allow people to store and process information

What is self-refective capacity?

It allows people to adapt to many different circumstances, rules, and demands

What is vicarious capacity?

People learn by observing others (without directly experiencing it).

What does the triadic reciprocal causation model look like?

What is an inhibitory effect?

Cause people to refrain from antisocial behaviors

What is a disinhibitory effect?

Lift restraints on antisocial behaviors

What are some forms of self-exoneration?

Moral justification

What does self-exoneration mean?

To free oneself from a responsibility, obligation, or task.

What does moral justification mean and what are some examples?

People believe their otherwise deplorable actions are justifiable because they serve a “higher purpose.”

What is advantageous comparison and what is an example?

By comparing their own deplorable acts with even more serious acts of others, people make their own acts look trivial by comparison.

Terrorists, or freedom fighters, see their acts as ones of selfless martyrdom, when compared against the cruel inhumanities perpetrated by their victims.

What is euphamestic labeling?

Using a mild term to hide the actual harmfulness of our deplorable acts.

What does displacement of responsibility mean and what is an example?

Is a mechanism by which the person lessens the responsibility of the self in causing harm. The person acknowledges that he or she may have caused harm, but denies that it was intended or denies responsibility.

For example, in Nazi Germany, the commandants and officers of the death camps said they were only following orders from higher ups.

What does diffusion of responsibility mean and name an example?

the tendency for each group member to dilute personal responsibility by spreading it among all other group members.

After people engage in deplorable acts, they can ease their conscience by ignoring or distorting the harm caused by their conduct.

What is dehumanization?

Victims are made out to be subhuman and therefore not worthy of humane treatment.

Often accomplished using labels like “savages,” “gooks,” “animals,” etc. Hitler called the Jews “vermin” and “rats.

What does attribution of blame mean and name an example?

Blaming the victim or the situation.

"If you hadn't been such a jerk, I wouldn't have hit you."