Introduction to Psychology Chapter 1 Be familiar with the goals of Psychology and 3 levels of analysis 3 levels of analysis biological brain processes genetic influence chemical part of body and brain psychological thoughts feelings and motives and how they affect behavior how certain motives and personality traits influence behavior cognitive perspective process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought experience and the senses environmental exposed and how they shape our behavior thoughts and feelings past and current physical and social environments to which we are Goals 1 Describe 2 Understand 3 Predict Influence 4 5 Apply how people and other species behave the causes of behaviors actions of people and animals under certain conditions behavior via control of causes psych knowledge to enhance human welfare Be familiar with different psychological perspectives and specialty areas within psychology Rationalism Renee Des Carte Build on true statements therefore future statements true ie Math Some theories so clear and distinct they can t possibly be wrong Can t use life experience bc may be flawed you can t know based on sensory info bc unsure if it is true reality Can t compare theory to life experience If you re thinking you may be wrong but it means you exist I think therefore I am Empiricism ideas and knowledge gained empirically through the senses Observation not reason to obtain knowledge rather than theory or pure logic mind and body are one role of external environment in governing actions free will personal growth and attempt to find meaning in one s examines nature of human mind and how mental processes influence social enviro and cultural learning influence our behavior thoughts brain processes and other bodily functions regulate behavior Science and Psychology Chapter 2 How long has psychology been around as a scientific discipline 1800s What is the difference between rationalism and empiricism Empiricism claims that sense experience is the ultimate source of all of our concepts and knowledge whereas Rationalism claims that concepts and knowledge are gained independent of sense experience Monism Behavioral Humanistic existence Cognitive behavior Socio cultural and feelings Biological Why do we generate theories Theory lays out the relationship between A and B Purpose is to understand world around us What is a hypothesis and what is its significance Model or idea see theory What are the processes involved in Scientific Method See notes What is an independent variable What is a dependent variable causal factor manipulated in experiment Independent variable what you manipulate with Observed result of the independent variable being manipulated what subject does what is measured Dependent variable What are the potential biases that could discredit an experiment Confounding variables Placebo effect Confounding Variable Definition other factors affecting dependent giving same results as would manipulation aka nuisance or extraneous variables Problems False positives False correlation not sure if manipulation or confounding variable caused dependent Internal validity degree to which an experiment supports clear causal conclusions High when no confounding variables Examples music volume in textbook example Ways of controlling them Eliminate it not always possible Variable equally distributed among all participants Randomization chance of being in groups randomly assign subjects to groups so each person has equal Doesn t guarantee equalization but evens out playing field BEST AND MOST EFFECTIVE METHOD especially when you don t know about confounding or no way to control it CRITICAL to results Correlational Research Correlational vs experimental Experimental research allows you to draw causal conclusions A B Stronger than correlational research Not everything can be examined this way Correlational research measures relationship between A and B DOES NOT PROVE CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP Allows us to establish whether relations found in the laboratory generalize to the outside world Naturalistic observation correlational research can be conducted before experiments to discover associations that can then be studied under controlled laboratory conditions some questions cannot be studied with experiments but can be examined correlationally setting and attempts to avoid influencing that behavior usually used when studying nonhumans does not permit clear conclusions or causal relations the researcher observes behavior as it occurs in a natural may be biased need to avoid influencing subjects being studied Positive and negative correlation Positive correlation Example height and weight Negative correlation opposite directions one variable increases the other variable increases one variable decreases the other variable increases Example alcohol and coordination indicates direction pos or neg and strength of relationship Correlation coefficients between variables 0 no correlation at all 1 perfect correlation virtually NEVER achieved usually get between 0 and 1 3 rd variable correlation nothing to do with A and B s effect on one another problem where X causes both A and B to change but has Other related terminology from Chapter 2 Case study in depth analysis of an individual group or event Survey research information about a topic is obtained by administering questionnaires or interviews to many people Sample subset of individuals drawn from the larger population o Representative sample that reflects the important characteristics of the population o Random every member of the population has an equal probability of being chosen to participate in the survey used to obtain a representative sample Scatter plots graphs that show the correlation between 2 variables Counterbalancing method of avoiding confounding among variables o procedure in which the order of conditions is varied so that no condition has an overall advantage relative to the others Placebo effect people receiving a treatment show a change in behavior because of their expectations not because the treatment itself had any specific benefit Experimenter expectancy effects subtle and unintentional ways researchers influence their participants to respond in a manner that is consistent with the researcher s hypothesis Replication process of repeating a study to determine whether the original findings can be duplicated External validity degree to which the results of a study can be generalized to other populations settings
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