Psychology Modules 1-3 Review PDF

**Modules 1-3 --Information from prior class, interactive review** **Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.** **What are the goals of psychology?** **Response: To accurately measure and describe, explain, predict, and control/alter behavior and mental processes** **...

**Modules 1-3 --Information from prior class, interactive review** **Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.** **What are the goals of psychology?** **Response: To accurately measure and describe, explain, predict, and control/alter behavior and mental processes** **The Story of Psychology:** **[William Wundt]- first person to call himself a psychologist, opened first psych lab in Germany (Univ of Leipzig), called his approach Structuralism. He looked inward on experiences and how they related to one another.** **William James - American, influenced by Darwin, FUNCTIONALISM, interested in the adaptive functions served by behavior and thought, not a question of whether we smell or not, but what it does for us, more practical, also first classroom teacher of psychology (Darwinism- animals and humans have certain traits that are functional or not functional) interested in how the things we do allow us to get along in the world, what's the function of a peacock having a huge tail? Wrote the textbook "Principles of Psychology"** **John Watson- Championed psychology as the science of behavior and demonstrated conditioned responses on a baby, behaviorist (science rooted in observation)** **B.F. Skinner -- Behaviorist, he rejected introspection and studied how consequences shape behavior.** **Sigmund Freud - emphasized the ways emotional responses to childhood experiences and our unconscious thought processes affect our behavior, thus psychology till the 1920's was defined as the "the science of mental life"** **Neuro-biological/Physiological -- behavioral and mental processes are ultimately explained by the activities of the nervous system, especially the brain, and the action of hormones, neurotransmitters and other chemicals  ** **psychodynamic -- how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts.** **\*behavior and mental processes are largely determined by unconscious mental and emotional conflicts. Usually put instincts or desires for sex, aggression, security, and power against environmental obstacles to fulfillment of those desires,** **Names: Horney, Erikson, Freud (psychoanalytic)** **What are the different approaches to psychology and what makes each approach unique?** **Response: Structuralism; where introspection was used to explore the structural elements of the human mind.  Was first formal school of psychology, begun by Willhelm Wundt** **Functionalism; which focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function-how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish.  Begun by American philosopher William James.** **Behaviorism; science should be an objective science and studies behavior without reference to mental processes.** **Neurobiological/Physiological: Behavior and mental processes are ultimately explained by the activities of the nervous system, especially the brain, and the action of hormones, neurotransmitters, and other chemicals.** **Psychodynamic:  Freud and followers.  Behavior and mental processes are largely determined by unconscious mental and emotional conflicts.** **Behavioral: Psychology can be studied scientifically by examining the overt behavior of humans and animals. Behavior is largely shaped by the patterns & punishments that each person has experienced in his/her environment.** **Cognitive: Behavior is determined by how information is encoded, stored, retrieved, or otherwise processed by the brain.** **Humanistic -- historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual's potential for personal growth. Humans make choices by thinking, rather than by simple influence from the environment. [                                                                                                                                        ]** **What is the biopsychosocial model?** **Response: the integrated viewpoint that incorporates various levels of analysis and offers a more complete picture of any given behavior or mental process.** **Thinking Critically:       ** **Critical thinking -- Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, and evaluates search method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independsent variables) to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process (dependent variable)            ** **Hindsight bias --  The feeling that 'I knew it all along' and you feel confident after you hear the results, that you would have been able to foresee it.** **Overconfidence -- Similar to hindsight bias. Once you find out the answer, hindsight makes it seem obvious and you become overconfident.** **Research Methods:** Steps in Scientific Method: Identify a question of interest from experience, the literature, or theory Pose a testable hypothesis (define hypothesis) Conduct a study to test hypothesis **What are the benefits and drawbacks of each of the research methods listed?** **Descriptive Methods (case studies, surveys, naturalistic observation) : Benefits; lets us observe and describe things in everyday life. Drawbacks; can not change factors and data can be misrepresented. Does not explain behavior but describes it. No control of variables.  Can be used to generate hypotheses.** **Correlational: Benefits; helps us figure out how closely two things vary together and helps us predict. Drawback; correlation indicates the possibility of a cause-effect relationship, but it does not prove causation.** **Experimental: Benefits: Can draw cause and effect infererences.  Manipulate one or more factors in the experiment and control other variables.   Must have control group.  Drawbacks; Not ethical to manipulate certain variables, and may not generalize to other contexts.** **Random Assignment -- By random assignment of participants, the experimenter aims to control other relevant factors. Random assignment is the assigning of participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups.  Reduces chances of selection bias** **Control Group -- In an experiment, the group that is NOT exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.** **Independent Variable (IV)-- factor that is manipulated and variable whose effect is being studied.** **Dependent Variable (DV)-- The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to the manipulations of the independent variable** **Correlation -- a measure of the extent to which 2 factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.** **Correlation Coefficient -- a statistical index of the relationship between 2 things (ranges from -1 to +1)** **Absolute value of the number indicates strength of relationship (the closer to 1, the stronger the relationship, a correlation of 0 means there is no relationship) sign of correlation indicates direction of relationship** **Random Sample -- a sample that fairly represents a population.** **Operational Definition -- statement of procedures (operations) used to define research variables, select research method, collect and analyze data, interpret and publish results.** **Experiment -- an organized way to prove or disprove a hypothesis derived from observations. Only method through which causal relationships can be studied. Involves manipulation of one variable** **Be able to identify the independent and dependent variables if presented a study example.** Research ethics: IRB and human subjects Ethical approval, informed consent, weighing potential harms vs. potential benefits of research ; ethical guidelines for animal research