Psych 325 1st EditionExam # 1 Study Guide Chapters 1 - 2Potential Chapter 1 Multiple Choice Question Topics- Reasons you should care about research methodso It's required!  Essential part of your education  Needed for advanced lab courseso Psychologists are scientists Some more than others Focus on human behavioro Psychologists need research Many of us generate it All of us need to interpret ito Useful skill Generalize to many areas Employers need research- Basic Research & Applied Researcho Basic Research=Basic Principles Reasons WHY Why does operant conditioning occur=example of basic research Neuroscience, brain cells, sadness, angero Applied Research=Helps Others Solutions More clinical (i.e. helping people with depression) Helping people become better- Correlational methods & Experimental methodso Correlational: Measure two variables Are they related? GPA and ACT score, wealth and happinesso Experimental: Manipulate a variable We determine the level Pain rating and amount of medication- Canons of psychology: determinism, empiricism, parsimony, testabilityo Determinism: Chaos does not rule the universe- Universe has order/things happen for meaningful reasons People need to find causes- Unpredictable world is unpleasant Basis of theory development- Explanation of causal relationship- Often abstract terms- Needs empirical support- Useless without determinismo Empiricism We can only understand orderly causes through observation This is the only way to truly understand the world LEAST CONTROVERSIAL CANON Problem: can we empirically study every aspect of behavior?- Love? Wisdom? Religion? May take the fun out of things…o Parsimony Best theory is the simplest theory- Avoid unnecessary concepts- Occam’s razor: the fewer assumptions that are made, the better Why?- Theory more likely to be correct- Less redundancy or inconsistency- Keeps theories understandable Goal of theories is to simplify- Summarize large number of findings- Important to simplify as much as possible- KISS: Keep It Simple Stupido Testability Testability=Falsification  Need to be able to determine if a theory is correct or not Falsifiability- Can support a theory by failing to prove that the theory is wrong Operational definitions- Define terms of a theory in a way that can be observed and tested- i.e. Red Velvet Cake Recipe - Theoryo Science is about theorieso A theory is simply a statement about the causal relation between two or more variableso Typically stated in abstract terms, and usually has some degree of empirical supporto Wouldn’t be very useful in the absence of determinism- Falsifiabilityo Scientists should go a step beyond putting their theories to some kind of test by actively seeking out tests that could prove their theories wrongo Karl Popper: very famous for espousing this idea- Operational definitionso Popularized by E. C. Tolman and Carl Hullo Definitions of theoretical constructs that are stated in terms of concrete, observable procedureso Connect unobservable traits or experiences to things that can be observedo Hunger: hours of food deprivation- Illusory correlation and superstitious conditioningo Illusory correlation: False inference of a connection/correlation between groups We often assume things are related when really they are not; incorrect assumption based on certain results- Examples:o Homeless people are lazy, a bad illness is the product of cold weathero Superstitious conditioning  Connecting neutral, irrelevant things to specific outcomes- Superstitious behavior in pigeons has included quivering wings or other odd behaviors before pecking a disk for reinforcement (food). The pigeon may have quivered its wings prior to pecking for food when it was reinforced.o The wing-quivering behavior is considered superstitious since it has nothing to do with getting reinforcement, however, it has increased in occurrence even so - Makes behavior easier to understandPotential Chapter 2 Multiple Choice Question Topics- Theoryo General statement about the relationship between two or more behaviors or circumstanceso Predicts future events (not perfectly)o Require much more empirical support than hypotheseso Summarizes a lot of observationso General focus is strength since it allows us to test them in many ways- Boundary conditionso Do exceptions invalidate a theory? No—it’s not a law. Behavior is determined by multiple causes i.e. “irritation leads to aggression” is a theory.- Boundary conditions: person has history of aggression, culture says aggression is okay, person has learned aggressive behaviorso Conditions under which a theory is true or not- Hypothesiso A specific statement about the relation between two or more variables that can be tested. Usually worded in terms of a prediction that is relevant to the larger theory Tracks in a clear and consistent way from theories being considered Once carefully studying your theory, you should come up with an educated guess concerning how things work Help support or invalidate theory Determine boundary conditions- Validation approach to hypothesis testingo Trying to gather evidence to support your theoryo Need to establish that theory is correct in some circumstances- Positive test bias & Behavioral confirmationo Positive test bias Tendency for people who are evaluating hypotheses to attempt to confirm rather than to disconfirm these hypotheseso Behavioral confirmation Tendency for social perceivers to elicit behaviors from a person that are consistent with their initial expectancies of the person- Falsification approach to hypothesis testingo Trying to gather evidence that disconfirms theoryo Important part of theory development (Popper)o Most psychologist don’t want to do thiso System promotes falsification Adversarial theory development- Each part of the brain has specific functions vs. any part of the brain can do anything- Competing theorists may try to invalidate theory- Qualification approach to hypothesis testingo Trying to identify boundary conditions for a theoryo Increasingly popular among psychologistso Advantages Validation and falsification Can integrate competing theories Closer to “truth” Best route to psychological lawso Complicated approach Requires advanced theories Sophisticated thinking Complex statistical analyses- Reasons you should care about