Shared Flashcard Set

Details

Psych Exam 1
review
63
Psychology
Undergraduate 1
09/28/2011

Additional Psychology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term

4 major goals of psychology

Definition

1.     Describe how people and animals behave

2.     Understand and explain the causes of behavior

3.    Predict behaviors/ reactions across situations

4.    Control behavior through understanding its causes and consequences 

Term

Scientific Thinking Principles

Definition

·       Extraordinary claims: the more a claim contradicts what we already know, the more persuasive the evidence for this claim must be before we should accept it

·       Falsifiability: Claims must be capable of being disproved

·       Occam’s Razor: If two hypotheses explain a phenomenon equally well, we should generally select the simpler one

·       Replicability: A finding must be capable of being duplicated by independent researchers following the same “recipe” 

·       Ruling out rival hypotheses: findings consistent with several hypotheses require additional research to eliminate these hypotheses

·       Correlation vs. Causation: the fact that two things are associated with each other doesn’t mean that one causes the other 

Term

Scientific methods of psychology

Psychodynamic:

Definition

o   Behavior is explained in terms of inherited instincts, biological drive and attempts to resolve conflicts

o   Focus is on unconscious 

Term

Scientific methods of psychology

·       Behaviorist:

Definition

o   Primarily concerned with observable behavior that can be objectively recorded

Term

Scientific methods of Psychology:

Humanistic

Definition

o   Emphasizes an individuals inherent capacity for making rational choices and developing to a maximum potential

o   Self- actualization 

Term

Scientific Methods of Psychology:

Cognitive

Definition

o   Human thought and the process of knowing and thinking

o   Behavior occurs because people think 

Term

Scientific Methods of Psychology

     Biological 

Definition

o   Focuses on the functioning of the genes, brain, nervous system and endocrine system


o   Behavior is explained in the terms of underlying physical structures and biochemical processes 

Term

Scientific Methods of Psychology: 

Evolutionary

Definition

o   Importance of behavioral and mental adaptiveness


o    Natural selection: those who solve problems survive 

Term

Scientific Methods of Psychology: 

Sociocultural

Definition

o   Cross-cultural differences in the causes and consequences of behavior 

Term

Theoretical Frameworks of Psychology

Structuralism

Definition
Identify basic elements of psychological experience
Term

Theoretical Frameworks of Psychology

functionalism

Definition
Understand functions of our thoughts, feelings, behaviors. (Darwin)
Term

Theoretical Frameworks of Psychology

Behaviorism

Definition
Uncover principles of learning that explain all behaviors
Term

Theoretical Frameworks of Psychology

cognitivism

Definition
examine mental process role on behaviors (thinking)
Term

Theoretical Frameworks of Psychology

Psychoanalysis: 

Definition
uncover unconscious psychological process and early life experiences in behavior (Freud)
Term
free will-determinism debate
Definition
extent that our behaviors are controlled by us or factors uncontrollable 
Term
basic vs applied research
Definition

Basic: examining how mind works

 

applied: using basic research to solve real-world problems 

Term
Levels of Analysis 
Definition

1.social > personal relationships

2.Behavioral > what you do

3.Mental > thoughts, feelings

4.Neurological > brain structure + fn

5.Neurochemical > neurotransmitters

6.Molecular > genes

Term
Naturalistic observation
Definition

o   watching behavior in “real world” settings

Adv: High in external validity

Disadv: doesnt allow causation inferral

 

Term
Case Studies
Definition

o   research design that examines one person or a small number of people in depth over an extended time 

Adv: can provide existence proofs

disadv: cant generalize to whole pop. Typically anecdotal, no causation inferall

 

Term
Correlational designs
Definition

  research designs that examine the extent to which two variables are associated/ co-relate 

Positivemeans that as the value of one variable goes up, so does the other one

Negative:means that as the value of one variable goes up, the other goes down

zero:means that the variables don’t go together

 

Adv: Help to predict behavior

Disadv: cant infer causation 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Term
Experimental Designs
Definition

o   research design characterized by random assignment of participants to conditions and a manipulation of an independent variable

o   requires 2 things:

1.     random assignment of participants to conditions

2.     manipulation of an independent variable 

Adv: can infer causation/high internal validity

disadv:low in external validity

 

 

Term
Self-report measures
Definition

o   highly unreliable and invalid

o   BUT easy to administer

o   HOWEVER its risky to assume people possess enough insight into their own personality to accurately report and that people will be honest

Term
Random Assignment
Definition

randomly sorting participants into two groups 

Term
Experimental group
Definition

   in an experiment, the group of participants that revives the manipulation

Term
Control Group
Definition

o   in an experiment, the group of participants that doesn’t receive the manipulation 

Term
Independent Variable
Definition

variable that experimenter manipulates 

Term
Dependent Variable 
Definition

variable that an experimenter measures to see whether the manipulation has an effect

Term
Confounding Variable 
Definition

o   any difference between the experimental and control groups other than the independent variable 

Term
Random Selection
Definition

o   procedure that ensures every person in a population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate

KEY TO GENERALIZABILITY

 

Term
External Validity
Definition

o   extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings 

threats: 

 

 

Term
Internal Validity
Definition

o   extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences from a study

threats: 

 

Term
Placebo Effect
Definition

o   improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement 

Term
Hawthorne Effect
Definition

o   Phenomenon in which participants knowledge that they’re being studied can effect their behavior

Term
Demand Charicteristics 
Definition

cues that participants pick up from a study that allow them to generate guesses regarding the researchers hypothesis 

Term
Experimenter-Expectancy Effect
Definition

o   phenomenon in which researchers hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome of a study

-solve by using double bline

-both experimenter and participant dont know

 

Term
Informed Consent
Definition

informing participants of what is involved in a study

Term
Debriefing
Definition

o   after a study to tell participants what happened

Term
Descriptive Statistics
Definition

numerical characterizations that describe data 

Term
Inferential Statistics
Definition

allow us to determine whether we can generalize finding from our sample to the population 

Term
Statistical Significance
Definition

·       happens less then 1 in 20 (.05)and it means its believable, applies to real world 

Term
Practical Significance
Definition

a finding that may be statistically significant yet has to importance, no real world value 

Term
Meta Analysis 
Definition

investigation of the consistency of patters of results across large numbers of studies conducted in different laboratories 

Term
Reliability
Definition

consistency of measurement

 

test-retest: high reliability if both tests have same results

Interrator reliability: high if both experimenters have same results

Term
Validity
Definition

·       extent to which a measure assess what it purports to measure

·       Reliability leads to validity (not the other way around) 

Term
Tuskegee Study
Definition

·       399 African American men with syphilis

·       Wanted to learn about the natural course of syphilis

·       Researchers didn’t tell them they had syphilis, nor that there was a treatment for it

·       By the end of the study 28 men died from syphilis, 100 died from complications from syphilis   

 

 

Term
5 challenges
Definition

1. actions are multiply determined; produced by many factors

2.psychological influences are rarely independent of eachother

3. individual differences

4. ppl influence eachother (reciprocal determinsm)

5.behavior shaped by culture

Term
emic vs. etic
Definition

emic: study cultural behavior from "native" perspective

etic: study behavior from outsider perspective

Term
naive realism
Definition
belief that we see the world precisely as it is
Term
apophenia 
Definition
search for meaningful connections
Term
pareidolia
Definition

tendency to perceive meaningful images in meaningless visual stimuli

Term
Confirmation Bias
Definition

tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis 

Term
Belief Preservance 
Definition

Stick to initial beliefs even when evidence says otherwise

Term
Pseudoscience
Definition

seemingly scientific claims: 

ad-hoc immunizing hypothesis: defenders of theory use loophole to prevent falsification

lack of self-correction

exaggerated claims

overreliance on anecdotes

absence of connectivity to other research

lack of scholarly review

talk of proof instead of evidence

 

 

Term
existence proof
Definition
demonstration that a given psychological phenomenon can occur
Term
Psych in Media
Definition
Newspaper titles infer that correlation proves causation even when it doesnt due to confounds
Term
illusory correlation
Definition

the perception of a statistical association btwn 2 variables where none exists

-superstition

-people dont remember "non-events"

Term
blind
Definition
Dont know if in experimental or control group
Term
Nocebo effect
Definition
harm resulting from the mere expectation of harm
Term
Introspection
Definition

method where trained observers reflect and report mental experiences

Term
Pseudoscience Examples
Definition

terror management theory: fear of death causes adoption of paranormal or religious beliefs

Emotional reasoning fallacy: refusing to believe somehting because it makes you upset

bandwagon fallacy:believe something because everyone does

Not me fallacy:believing you are objective and have no biases 

Scientific Skepticisim:approach of evaluating open mindedly but insisting on persuasive evidence before acceptance occurs. 

Term
heuristic
Definition

mental shortcut that streamlines our thinking and helps us make sense of the world. 

 

representative heuristic:judge probability of event by superficial similarity to prototype

-like goes with like 

-must always consider the base rate

availability heuristic: "off the top of my head" 

Term
base rate
Definition
how common a characteristic or behavior is in the general population
Term
cognitive biases
Definition

systematic errors in thinking. 

 

ex: hindsight biases

overconfidence

Supporting users have an ad free experience!