Psych 1000 Ludlam Review Sheet 1 Topics History and Current Perspectives on Psychology Research Methods and Biological Bases Neuron structure TOPIC 1 HISTORY AND CURRENT PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGY Definition of Psychology or Psychological Science the study of mind brain and behavior Mind mental activity Behavior wide variety of verbal actions Critical Thinking systematically evaluating information to reach reasonable conclusion Mind Body Problem are the mind and body separate and distinct or is the mind simply the physical brains subjective experience Astonishing Hypothesis Francis Crick Youre basically no more than a bag of neurons Dualism Descartes the mind and body are separate yet intertwined Monism Introspection Wundt A systematic examination of subjective mental experiences that requires people to inspect and report on the content of their thoughts Structuralism Titchener Idea that conscious experience can be broken down into its basic underlying compnenets Functionalism James Concerned with the adaptive purpose or function of mind and behavior Evolutionary Theory Darwin Views history of a species in terms of the inherited adaptive value of physical characteristics of mental activity and of behavior Gestalt Theory Wertheimer Kohler Idea that the whole of personal experience is different from simply the sum of its constituent elements 1 Psych 1000 Ludlam Contemporary Perspectives in Psychology from lecture slides and incorporate information from textbook as well 1 Psychoanalytic theory 2 behaviorism 3 social 4 cultural 5 cognitive 6 Humanistic 7 Evolutionary Biological Individual Social Cultural Psychology now tries to explain behavior using several levels of analysis Study of mind by looking at brain focuses on how bodily events affect behavior feelings and thoughts how ppl act in groups how social cultural forces shape every aspect of human behavior Floyd Allport Stanley Milgram Kurt Lewin 2 Psych 1000 Ludlam TOPIC 2 RESEARCH METHODS General Terms 1 Scientific Method empirical method 2 Theory vs Hypothesis Inquiry based on the systematic gathering of observable measurable evidence theory is a explanation or model of how a phenomenon works hypothesis is a specific testable prediction about the outcome that would be best support the theory scientific process that involves the systematic and careful collection of data 3 Research 4 Data 5 Replication 6 Variable objective observations or measurements repetition of an experiment to confirm the results 7 Operational definitions measurable definition of a construct 8 Population Sample something in the world that can vary and that a researcher can measure Population is group researcher wants to know about sample partial collection of the population a Representative Sample Convenience Sample matches population on important characteristics like age sex ect Convenience sample is whatever is easiest 3 Psych 1000 Ludlam b Random Sample everyone has equal chance of being selected Three Main Types of Psychological Studies 1 Descriptive Studies observational goal is to observe and describe experiment attempts to be objective a Naturalistic vs participant observation 2 Correlational Studies goal is to identify relationships a Correlation does not equal causation b Directionality problem if experimenter is naturalistic he is uninvolved if he is involved he is a participant observer problem with correlational studies the researches find a relationship between two variables but they can not determine which variable may have caused changes in the other variable c Third Variable Problem problem occurs when researches cannot be confident that another unmeasured variable is the actual cause of differences in the variables of interest d Ethical reasons for using correlational designs some experiments are un ethical to perform on humans therefor correlational studies have to be used 3 Experimental Research a Goal b Experiment 4 Psych 1000 Ludlam c Experimental Control Groups d Independent Variable e Dependent Variable f Control and confounds g Selection bias h Random Assignment unintended differences between the participants in different groups placing research participants into the condition of an experiment in such a away that each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any level of independent variable Reliability Validity and Accuracy in Experimental Studies data must be meaningful and measurements reliable 1 Reliability 2 Accuracy measurements must be accurate 3 External Validity the extent to which the study s findings can be generalized beyond the sample 4 Internal Validity extent to which the data collected address the research hypothesis Usually a trade off between the two types of validity Generally one study cannot be high in both internal and external validity Bias in Experimental Studies 1 Observer Bias 5 Psych 1000 Ludlam systematic errors in observation that occur because of an observers expectations a Experimenter Expectancies Rosenthal s two studies b How do we control for or protect against Experimenter Expectancy effects participant knowing theyre being observed influences their behavior double blind studies 2 Research Participant Bias a Reactivity b Hawthorne effect 1 Longitudinal studies 2 Cross sectional studies 3 Case studies Other Research Methodologies to Know These appear in different places in your chapter Know basic definitions research method that studies the same participants multiple times over a period of time research method that compares participants multiple times over a period of time research method that involves the intensive examination of unusual people or orginizations 4 Surveys and self report methods basic definitions methods of data collection in which people are asked to provide information about themselves i Self report bias 6 Psych 1000 Ludlam 5 Response performance and reaction times research method in which researches quantify perceptual or cognitive processes in response to a specific stimulus Data Analysis 1 Descriptive Statistics summarize the data measures of central tendency measures of variability 2 Three measures of Central Tendency and when to use mean vs median describe the data as a whole 1 mean average 2 median hallway point 3 Mode mosy frequent 3 Variability most common measure of this is the Standard Deviation how dispersed the numbers are standard deviation a measure of how far each number is from each other 4 Correlation Coefficient and possible values coefficient