PSY3213 Exam 1 study guide Anaximander s geocentric theory of the solar system is an example of a model of the world Thales did his work after astronomy was developed in Mesopotamia and Egypt The problem with using intuition to make conclusion about human behavior is that it is easy to draw erroneous conclusions because our biases affect our perceptions People are likely to believe information presented by a speaker who is seen as prestigious trustworthy and credible because of a reliance on authority Which of the following is a goal of science o Predicting behavior o Describing behavior o Determining the cause of behavior Which of the following is not a goal of science o Convincing others that scientists should always be believed A researcher makes the statement Breed of dog and ability to learn guide dog skills are related This statement is called a hypothesis A theory o helps organize and explain specific facts o guides our observations of the world o is used to generate research hypotheses Which section of the research article summarizes the hypothesis the procedure results and discussion usually in 120 words or less Abstract In the Milgram obedience experiment participants were deceived concerning the hypothesis when they were told that the purpose of the experiment was to study memory and learning Most experiments employ some form of deception In a research experiment confidentiality protects information that is revealed by the participants Problems with the use of informed consent is o providing too much information could invalidate the results of the study o sample bias due to differences between participants and refusers o that knowledge of the research will alter participants behavior After debriefing a participant should walk out of the study in a state of mind as close to when he came in as possible One thing IRBs require before permitting deception is immediate debriefing Variables o Gender o Intelligence o Religious affiliation A researcher measured how much violent television children watched at home These children were also observed for their aggressiveness on the playground The researcher found that as the amount of violence watched on TV increased the amount of playground aggressiveness increased The type of relationship found was positive linear Dr Sears walks around a mall taking notes and observes that the more time a person spends in a department store the more purchases they tend to make The research method used in this study can best be described as non experimental A newspaper reports the results of a correlational study suggesting that an increase in the amount of violence watched on TV by children may be responsible for an increase in the amount of playground aggressiveness they display However the parents aggression may actually be responsible for the increase in playground aggression In this example the confounding variable would be the parents aggression When a researcher can make a strong inference that one variable caused another the study is said to have internal validity WILL BE ON EXAM Hypothesis Exercise causes a reduction in stress Which graph shows an example of this relationship answer NEGATIVE LINEAR RELATIONSHIP The experimental method must have been used to test this hypothesis Exercise was the independent variable and stress anxiety was the dependent variable Dr W was interested in the effect of ambient noise level on test scores Subjects took tests while a noise generator in the room was set to either loud or soft Each subject s test grade was recorded o Identify the dependent variable test grade o Identify the independent variable noise volume o What variables were manipulated noise volume A researcher is interested in the relationship between intelligence and college GPA Taking a correlational approach the researcher randomly selects names from a phonebook and calls people to ask various questions The participants were first asked about their college GPA As his operational definition of intelligence the researcher decides to use the brand of television owned by the participant Sony owners were defined as most intelligent followed by Samsung owners followed by LG with Panasonic owners defined as the least intelligent because by his reasoning only an idiot would buy a Panasonic The kind of television you own probably doesn t tell you much about intelligence it would probably have been a better idea to give an IQ test o This study suffers from a lack of construct validity Chapter 1 Overview What is science Navigating the everyday world Common sense Socially obtained knowledge authority based knowledge General approach skepticism empiricism Overview of the research cycle shallow description deep description what is a theory reporting data Applied and basic research Elements of science Questions about the natural world The stars illness what things including the mind are made of The world has an underlying structure that we can t necessarily see Descriptions of the world Measurements of heavenly bodies using instruments Lists of disease symptoms and outcomes Models of the world theories Planetary motion Do planets move around the earth or the sun Do they move in circles or ellipses Causes of illness Humors Bacteria small living things that we can t see Particle physics Stuff is made of atoms Nothing is smaller than an atom and the atoms can t be broken down or can they etc Models of the world There is only one true model the underlying structure of the world never changes EX whatever it is that makes gravity work the way it does was the same yesterday as it will be tomorrow and was 100000 years ago this is an assumption Use of models to make predictions about the world Where in the sky will Venus by 5 days from now next lunar eclipse etc Uses math Testing the predictions using measurement Measure where Venus actually is in the sky 5 days from now Generalization of the model beyond a single domain The same laws that govern planetary motion also govern molecular motion History of science Astronomy and mathematics develop in Mesopotamia and Egypt c 1800 BC Mathematics Mesopotamia Babylon and Egypt c 1800 BC Geometry Algebra including quadratic equations Base 60 number system History of science Astronomy Astronomy starts in Mesopotamia also around 1800 BC Cuneiform tablets list the names of stars Babylonian Egyptian Indian and Chinese astronomers make accurate measurements Predict eclipses stellar and planetary positions develop calendars
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