PSYCH 100 FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDEUNIT 1 Be familiar with the various modern viewpoints in psychology1. Biological: how the body influences behavior, thoughts, feelings. (nervous system, brain chemicals, hormones, genetics, evolutionary psychology (how our adaptive evolution affects us today)2. Learning/Behaviorism: how environment and experience affect behavior, thoughts, feelings (behaviorism: what we can see, reinforcement and punishment, behavior modification)3. Cognitive: how thoughts affect behavior, feelings (reasoning, memory, intelligence, beliefs/thoughts)4. Sociocultural: how social and cultural influences affect thoughts, feelings, behavior (most underestimate the power of culture and society)5. Psychodynamic: how unconscious conflicts, inner forces affect behavior, thoughts, feelings (Freud, family of origin/childhood issues)6. Humanistic: how to create a fulfilled life (free will/choices, be all that you can be/be your best, “positive psychology”/ happiness)Specialty Areas in Psychology-Basic Psychology: research, publish-Applied Psychology: finding practical uses for the research Distinguish between structuralism and functionalism-Structuralists: (Wundt and Titchener) analyzed sensations, images, and feelings into basic elements.-Introspection: looking inward to describe experiences.-Functionalists: (James and Calkins) analyzed the function or purpose of behavior. (Darwin influenced) Be familiar with the various types of psychologists (including the difference btw a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist)-Experimental Psychologist: focus on laboratory studies of various topics.-Educational Psychologist: research ways to improve educational systems.-Developmental Psychologist: how we grow and change throughout the lifespan.-Industrial/Organizational Psychologist: behavior in the workplace, effective business practices.-Psychometric Psychologists: design and evaluate tests (interest, personality, IQ)-School Psychologist: work with parents, teachers, students to solve problems.-Clinical Psychologist: focus on understanding and treating emotional problems, abnormal or dysfunctional behavior.-Counseling Psychologist: focus on helping people with adjustment problems and helping people make career choices.-Clinical Psychologist: Ph.D prepared (5-7 years beyond the bachelors degree) cannot prescribe medication because did not attend med school.-Psychiatrist- attended med school and completed special rotations in psychiatry. Can prescribe medication to treat mental disorders. Understand what it means to operationally define a variableOperational definition: how what is in question will be measured. Defining a term from the hypothesis in a measurable way. Ex. Operationalize media, drug use, aggression, define bad driving…gets tricky! Distinguish among case studies, observational studies etc. 1- Case Study: detailed account of an individual being studied. (ex. Very rare disease not seen before than case study could be done in case someone else gets it, [genie])- Observational Study: 1) Naturalistic observation (Jane Goodall) observing chimpanzees in naturalhabitat. 2) Laboratory observation (observing a marital discussion in a laboratory) Understand how both correlational research and experimental research is conducted (understand all the key terms related to both…i.e., IV, DV, correlation coefficient etc.)Correlation ( a descriptive method): looks for a consistent relationship between two things.Positive correlation: when the variables move in the same direction (ex. When one variable goes up, the other goes up, OR when one variable does down, the other goes down) (ex. The better relationship a child has with his/her parents, the better the child does in school)Negative correlation: when the variables are moving in opposite directions. (ex. When one goes up, the other goes down) (ex. The more a married couple argues, the worse their marital satisfaction is)Cautions about correlations- a relationship (correlation does not tell us what caused what) As variable A goes up, so does variable B…but this does not mean that variable A caused variable B to go up.Experiment: the researcher manipulates one variable to study its effects on another variable.Independent Variable(IV): the variable that is controlled or manipulated.Dependent Variable(DV): the variable that is being measured (to see what effect the IV has had.Experimental group: the group that receives the IV>Control Group: the group that is not exposed to the IV (used to compare the experimental group.Random assignment: putting research participants into control and experimental groups randomly.Placebo: a fake treatment or inactive substance (sugar pill) (usually works all in the mind)Experimenter effects: when a researcher unintentionally effects the results.Double-blind study: neither the researcher nor the participants know who is in the experimental group and who is in the control group. Understand how to interpret a correlation coefficient Correlation coefficient: a number that describes the strength and direction of a relationship between two variables. (tells you strength and direction)Correlation coefficient can range from -1.0 to +1.0A correlation coefficient of zero means there is NO relationshipStrong relationship at -1.0 and +1.0 Understand and distinguish between the different measures of central tendencyA measure of central tendency is a single value that attempts to describe a set of data by identifying the central position within that set of data. As such, measures of central tendency are sometimes called measures of central location. (central value or typical value for a probability distribution) Occasionally called an average or the center of the distribution. (mean, median, and mode) Know the parts of the neuron and what each part doesNeuron: a specialized cell that conducts impulses through the nervous system and contains three major parts--Cell body-Dendrites- receives messages-Axon- sends messages, the terminal button is the nub at the end of an axon. Understand the process of neural communication2Neural communication is the transferring of chemical messages known as neurotransmitters from neuronto neuron. This is important because information has to be passed on in the body system and its done by the process called neural communication. Be familiar with various neurotransmitters and what functions they impactNeurotransmitters are the chemicals that run
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