PSYC100 Study Guide Midterm 1 5 basic goals of psychology 1 Describe observe and say what was observed very precisely 2 Explain why did the subject do what he she did 3 Predict begin to question what WILL happen 4 Control if we know you tend to do one thing we can try to change that course of action 5 Improve the intention of improving one s life GENERAL THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES Define psychology science of understanding human individuals affect behavior and cognition The ABC of psychology Define the following theories and use each to explain and given behavior o Sociobiological Theory Our thoughts feelings and behavior are founded on patterns that maximized our reproductive potential over thousands of years SURVIVAL AND REPRODUCTION Ex For example newly dominant male lions often will kill cubs in the pride that were not sired by them This behavior is adaptive in evolutionary terms because killing the cubs eliminates competition for their own offspring and causes the nursing females to come into heat faster thus allowing more of his genes to enter into the population o Sociocultural Theory Our thoughts feelings and behavior are influenced by the expectations of others WHAT IS PERCEIVED AS NORMAL Ex The clothes you choose to wear to class are based at least in large part on your desire to fit in with the expectations of those around you e g what s popular attractive appropriate o Learning Theory Our thoughts feelings and behavior are determined by our experience with and or expectations of the potential positive and negative consequences REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT NEVER PLAN AHEAD Ex Boys behave more aggressively than girls because of the way they are treated girls are punished for fighting while boys are often rewarded playing rough sports o Social Cognitive Theory Our thoughts feelings and behavior are functions of our knowledge attitudes abilities and motivations THINKING AHEAD LOGICAL PROCESS Ex When selecting between multiple brands of soda our choice is a function of our knowledge about the brands how positively we feel towards each brand and whether we are more motivated to save money e g store brand or purchase what we believe is the highest quality name brand product RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Formal definitions http quizlet com dz1dh For each research method listed in Appendix A provide the definition and example and explain the advantages and disadvantages of that method Naturalistic Observation A researcher unobtrusively collects information without the participant s awareness Ex Research Psychologists for the National Highway Traffic Administration conduct seat belt observations to determine whether use varies by age sex race geographic location and type of vehicle Structured Observation Researchers can set up a situation and observe the participant s behavior Ex Developmental psychologists create a situation in which a mother leaves her child in a room with a stranger for a few minutes Self Report Participants are asked to provide information or responses to questions on a survey or structure assessment Ex Educational psychologists can ask students to report their grade point average and what if anything they eat for breakfast on an average day Controlled Experiment Researchers create a controlled environment in which they can carefully manipulate one variable to test its effect on another Ex Clinical psychologists can test a new pharmaceutical treatment for depression by giving some patients the new pill and others an already tested one to see which is the more effective treatment Longitudinal Researchers periodically collect data from the same participants over a long period of time Ex Cognitive psychologists could track both those who smoke marijuana and those who do not to determine whether different levels of use are associated with memory problems later in life Cross sectional Researchers can gather participants of different ages and look for differences between the groups Ex Psycholinguistic language psychologists could study groups of 1st through 8th grade students to determine the age at which children begin to use swear words Case Study Research can conduct a detailed analysis of a particular person group business etc Ex A counseling psychologist could track the progress of a patient undergoing a unique approach to therapeutic sessions like cooking therapy Archival Researcher examines data that has already been collected for other purposes Ex Social psychologists have studied temperature data and crime statistics and found that there were more violent crimes on unusually hot nights Baron Bell 1976 Give a clear example of the difference between positive and negative correlations Positive correlation as one goes up the other goes up ex as the boy increases his exercise his happiness goes up ex the more sleep you get the higher the GPA grades negative correlation as one goes up the other goes down ex Identify the independent and dependent variable of an experiment ex the more time you hold a crying baby the less it will cry ex the more sleep you get the lower your anxiety levels Define the term external validity the extent to which the results of a study can be generalized extended to others ex if a drug is used to cure a group of African Americans of heart disease will it be effective on all African Americans Advantages By looking at the results of a study with high external validity on a sample population we can make reasonably accurate predictions about the general population Disadvantages Achieving high external validity is very difficult and time consuming Describe the difference between probability and convenience sampling probability sampling means everybody has equal chance to participate in the study Advantages probability and calculations are more likely to accurately depict the general population Disadvantages Cannot be used if an experimenter wishes to describe a particular group in an exploratory way Ex interviewing 25 people with AIDS PWAs about their experiences with HIV could provide valuable insights about stress and coping even though it would not yield data about the proportion of PWAs in the general population who share those experiences a Ex all of the SONA experiments and how they had time slots and requirements that we haven t participated in a similar study or that we must be 18 a certain major etc Advantages Chosen because of convenience to the researcher they volunteered or because the researcher s personal judgment that they are
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