Psychology Chapter 1 Practice Questions & Key PDF

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Psychology chapter 1 practice questions & key for fundamentals of psychology...

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1 Psychology 110, Study Guide, Chapter 1 and statistics Definition of psychology  = The scientific study of behavior and mental processes o Behavior is observable, whereas mental processes are not o Science is based on observations!  “logos” = “science of…” & “psych-” = “psyche” Goals of psychology: 1. Describe 2. Predict 3. Explain d. Control In what sense is “control” being used? Facts and Theories - If you can’t prove something by observation, it’s a theory - Research can serve to 1. Find out more about observations & 2. To solve problems o Theories can also be a source of questions! Ongoing stream of questions o Einstein worked in theories – and drastically benefitted science The diverse discipline of psychology What psychologists do Research -- pure vs. applied - Applied research = Makes our lives better - Pure research = Just to learn more Experimental psychologists-again, diversity Teach Testing and other forms of psychometrics Diagnosis Psychotherapy Counseling Facilitate the learning process Study individual and group behaviors Work with businesses and organizations Study the relationship between physical and mental health Study developmental processes Apply psychological findings and principles to the sport situation Etc, etc, etc. Some questions: What is the difference between clinical psychology and psychiatry? - Clinical psychologists do graduate work with a doctoral dissertation and supervised clinical experience - Psychiatrists are medical doctors, based in biology and medicine

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What is the difference between clinical psychology and counseling psychology? - Counseling covers a wide variety: Career counseling, mental health, etc., in addition to a tendency for lesser severity. Moreso personal problems that do not involve disorders Some comments: The biggest area within psychology, as reflected by the percentage of current doctoral students is clinical. The setting in which the largest number of psychologists is employed is clinical. Women are more likely to get a doctoral degree than men. 75%+ History of Psychology 1. The roots of psychology are clearly in philosophy. Basic questions of psychology What distinguished early psychology from philosophy was methodology, not the questions asked. Early philosophical influences -- *Know names for study guide* Philosophy is the root of psychology *Socrates (300 BC) “Know thyself” To do so, he proposed introspection – First scientist More interested the “knower” than the “knowledge” Aristotle (384-322 BC) Empiricism and science Peri Psyches – “About the mind” Contents similar to table of contents of our book Question: How does our great intellect come to understand how things are? How does the mind itself work? The mind itself is the most important. Observation is important, and the mind uses observations to work. Main difference between philosophy and new psychology: the methodology that the psychologists used, despite asking the questions themselves 2. Developments in physiology also had a big impact on psychology. Ernst Weber – How sensitive is the skin & our perception of weight/stimuli discrimination His method: Asking people to *judge* the weights That’s modern psychology! Asking people to make judgements Theodore Gustav Fechner Elements of Psychophysics, 1860 The classical “schools” of psychology Wilhelm Wundt Founder of experimental psychology Scientific study of human experience First lab (1879, Leipzig) to study the human mind (sensations, emotions) Introspection

3 1. Structuralism (Edward Bradford Titchener; student of Wundt; taught at Cornell; not the same as Wundt’s psychology  Wundt was concerned with how the mind actively organizes the elements of experience into whole perceptions and thoughts.  Titchener was more interested in just discovering the many elements of experience. 2. Functionalism-turn of the century, in the United States William James (Professor of philosophy Harvard  physiology, MD) Course he taught: The Relations Between Physiology and Psychology (First psych course in USA!) Classic book = Principles of Psychology Relationship between conscious experience and behavior  Emphasis on adaptation – very important!!  Impact of Charles Darwin-Adaptation; continuity of the species  Functionalism 3. Behaviorism “Psychology as the behaviorist views it,” Psychological Review, 1911 John B Watson  Emphasis on learning! Stimulus-Response (s-r) approach)  Emphasis on objectivity  Study Overt behavior only – psych is physical!  Reductionism, simplification  The study of animal behavior can reveal important principles of behavior. B. F. Skinner Modern Learning perspectives Social-cognitive approaches, cognitive behavioral approach differs (Learning is cognitive rather than mere s-r associations) We will discuss this in class and give some examples! 4. Gestalt Psychology – originated in Germany  Cognitive emphasis (e.g., cognitive factors in perception and learning)  Studies perception, learning, problem solving Key people (founders)  Max Wertheimer  Wolfgang Kohler  Kurt Koffka Holistic emphasis  Perception, for example, is organized e.g., Wertheimer’s Phi Phenomenon (apparent movement) When an observer looks at two stationary lights blinking min rapid succession, there is a perception of movement (one light that seems to move)  Learning is also highly organized. 5. Psychoanalysis (the Psychodynamic theory of Freud) Freud (1856-1939) – Wasn’t a psychologist, he was a psychiatrist! He couldn’t always see a physical reason for some of his patients’ ailments, so he eventually came to the opinion that sometimes physical ailments/symptoms can be the cause of psychological problems. Emotional disorders!

4 Points of emphasis: Motivation, e.g.,, sexual and aggressive instincts What motivates human behavior? Why do we act the way we do? Role of unconscious factors, underlying factors (“psychodynamics”) determining behavior Mental disorders and psychotherapy (“psychoanalysis”) How are modern psychodynamic views similar and different from Freud?

Current Perspectives in Psychology 1. Evolutionary perspective Examines the role of heredity in human behavior 2. Biological perspective Studies role of neurophysiological and chemical factors, brain and behavior, endocrine system, in behavior. 3. Cognitive perspective Studies role of mental processes such as perception, learning, memory, intelligence, thinking, problem solving. 4. Cognitive Neuroscience 5. Humanistic-Existential perspective Emphasizes: Man’s capacity for self-fulfillment The importance of subjective experience, particularly experience of self, self-image and its importance in our lives The importance of personal freedom and self-determination 6. Psychodynamic view How are modern psychodynamic views similar and different from Freud? 7. Learning perspectives How do the behavioral and social-cognitive approaches differ in their views of learning? 8. Sociocultural Emphasis on Ethnicity, ________, _____________, and _______________________ on behavior and mental processes. What were the contributions of the following women to psychology? Mary Whiton Calkins - Studied psych at Harvard as a special student under William James, but never got a doctorate because they did not accept women. Became the first woman president of the APA (American Psychological Association) Margaret Floy Washburn - First woman to get a doctorate in psychology at Cornell, mentored by Titchener Helen Bradford Wooley-Thompson - Never got a doctorate or an academic job, worked in child welfare James and Mammie Clark - He got a job, she didn’t. Their research on the self-image of black children was cited in the 1954 supreme court decision to ban school discrimination. What percentage of doctorates awarded in psychology are awarded to women? - More female than male now! What was the impact of the Clarks’ work in psychology?

The nature of Science

5 Facts and theories  A fact is a statement that we can directly verify by observation.  A theoretical statement is one that cannot be directly verified by observation. – Not universally agreed upon  What are the criteria for evaluating a theory?  1. Is it correct?  2. Does it lead to research? (whether or not it proves to be correct) Any theory that generates knowledge is good, whether it is supported or not  What do we do if research disproves a theory? (We modify it or discard it.) New knowledge is all that counts

Methods used by psychologists What is a variable? - Anything that varies (Ex: heights, interests) What were Sir Francis Galton’s contributions to psychological measurement? - Cousin of Charles Darwin What is a research hypothesis?” - An educated guess or prediction about the nature of things based upon a theory - We set out ^ to approve or disprove Where do research hypotheses come from? 1. Observations 2. How do scientists test hypotheses? - Any kind of research is a form of observation - Results have to be measurable, by some sort of observation What is a population? - Consists of all members of an identifiable group from which a sample is drawn - Population is whoever you define it to be/whoever youre interested in – All of them! What is a sample? - A group of subjects who are selected to participate in a given study - A sample = A subset, some of the ppl in a population - It must be representative of the population What is random sampling? - A procedure for selecting a sample of people to study in which everyone in the population has an equal chance of being chosen What is stratified (aka representative) sampling? - Trying to get individuals from an equal variety of groups What does it mean to say that a sample is representative of a population? - It represents different groups of a population, not just a certain group What is sampling error? - When sampling is not random or representative, so it is not reflective of a population In much research, we are interested in making inferences about a population by observing the behavior of people in a sample. We will explain this in class.

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Important research objectives: 1. Generalization from the research situation to “real life” 2. Ability to make predictions 3. Ability to make cause-effect conclusions A very important dimension of observation techniques is control. Benefits and costs of control The relationship between control and naturalness In class, we’ll discuss naturalistic observation, correlation, and experiments. Students will cover case studies and surveys. Naturalistic observation Naturalistic observation – watch things happen as they happen. Done in the subject’s natural environment

Strengths Unbiased observations

Weaknesses Can’t make cause-effect conclusions (Only experiments, which involve control, can give us cause-effect conclusions. Correlation (What is meant by the word “co-relation?”) The relationship between two variables Example-SAT and GPA We can consider correlation as the presence of a Trend, or tendency In a positive correlation, as X goes up, Y goes ____________. In a negative correlation, as X goes up, Y goes ______________. We can also speak of the “strength,” or “magnitude,” or consistency or the correlation. A quantitative index of correlation is computed, which ranges from -1.0 through 0 to +1.0. Trend/tendency Consistency of the trend Graphic representation (Scatter gram aka scatterplot e.g., p. 27) Statistics is about measuring the performance of groups Correlational evidence permits predictions. However, Correlational evidence does not permit _______________conclusions. Why? More to come on correlation later in this study guide. **************************************************************** The experiment A situation in which we vary some things and keep other things the same Independent variable Dependent variable

7 Control variables The simplest experiment: One independent variable, one dependent variable Experiments using an experimental group and a control group More complicated experiments: More than one independent variable Controlling for expectation Placebos (Control for expectations e.g., some subjects take a real vitamin pill; some take a mere sugar pill) Single-blind experiments. The subject does not know the purpose of the study (control for expectations) Double-blind experiments. Neither the subject nor the experimenter knows the purpose of the experiment. (Controls for experimenter expectations too)

Ethical issues ************************************************************ Statistics: Methods for describing group data Frequency distribution Graphs: Bar graph (histogram) Line graph (frequency polygon) Some terms: X Summation N X bar Deviation score (d) = the difference between a score in a distribution and the

mean score of that distribution. Measures of Central tendency (average) Mean – Average Median – 50th percentile Mode – the score that most people happen to get

Measures of Variability Range Standard deviation Can we get an “average deviation?”

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Computing the standard deviation Write in the formula. Change from

original study guide!!

Statistics Scenario: We have a group of people each of whom has a score on one variable. X = a person’s score N = the number of scores X bar = the mean for the group x (or d) = the difference between a person’s score and the mean (deviation score); (X – X) bar The standard deviation is “sort of” an average deviation from the mean. Formula =

In words, “the square root of the average squared deviation score Computing the standard deviation 1. Compute the mean. 2. Subtract the mean from each score each score to get deviation scores. 3. Square each deviation score. 4. Get the sum of the squared deviation scores. 5. Divide the sum of the squared deviation scores by N. This gives the average squared deviation score. (It is also known as the “variance.”) 6. Take the square root of the average squared deviation score. Interpretation of the standard deviation: It’s a measure of the amount of variability among the scores in the group. Of course, the more heterogeneous the group is, the greater will be the variability among their scores. So, the larger a number the standard deviation is, the greater the heterogeneity among the people in the group. Example: X Subtract X bar x (or d) 10 8 6 4 2 Compute the mean: (It = 6). 6 Compute the standard deviation The sum of the deviation scores will always be 0 Standard score: A person’s score expressed in standard deviation units Formula: z = (X - X bar) / SD; this type of standard score is the z-score. Scenario: Jimmy gets a score of 80; mean of the distribution (X bar) is 60; standard deviation is 10

9 Jimmy’s standard score (z-score) = 80 – 60 / 10 = +2 The normal curve: See figure 8-6, page 354; also, read page. 354. Jimmy’s score places him at the ________ % Types of standard scores z scores mean = 0, SD = 1 IQ scores mean = 100, SD = 15 SAT scores mean = 500, SD = 100 Standard Score (Score represented in terms of standard deviations) e.g., z = X – XBAR /SD

Graphically presenting data Frequency distribution

Form of a distribution of scores Symmetrical vs. skewed distributions Skewed = some extreme scores in one direction (e.g., a lot of college alumni donate $50$300 to their alma mater. One person donates 2 million. This is a skewed distribution. In such a distribution, the mean would be thrown off, so use the median. To make cause-effect conclusions, you need to have a controlled experiment The normal distribution (“normal curve”) See page 354. Standard score: A person’s score expressed in standard deviation units A score that expresses an individual’s raw score and in standard deviation units is a _______ sco

Formula: z = (X - X bar) / SD; this type of standard score is the z-score. Scenario: Jimmy gets a score of 80; mean of the distribution (X bar) is 60; standard deviation is 10 Jimmy’s standard score (z-score) = 80 – 60 / 10 = +2

Assume that when graphed, the data follow the normal curve: Jimmy’s score places him at the ________ % The normal curve: See figure 8-6, page 354; also, read page. 354. Jimmy’s score places him at the ________ %

Types of standard scores z scores mean = 0, SD = 1  z = 1, SD = 2 IQ scores mean = 100, SD = 15

10 SAT scores mean = 500, SD = 100

*************************************************************** Correlation

Change from original study guide! See pp. 26, 27, and 28. Also, pp. 353-357. Relationship between two variables Type (direction) of correlation Positive vs. negative Magnitude of correlation (strength of the correlation, consistency of the relationship or tendency) Graphing correlational data (scatter plot) Draw a scatter plot showing a positive correlation.

Draw a scatter plot showing a negative correlation.

The correlation coefficient ranges from –1.00 1.00 is a perfect positive correlation. Graph a perfect positive correlation

to

+1.00

Graph a perfect negative correlation.

Research and Statistical Significance Descriptive and inferential statistics

The goal: Inference or conclusion about a whole population Select a sample or samples Must be representative of the population. If not, we say that “sampling error” has occurred. Example: “Book experiment” (Book A vs. Book B for 3rd-grade math) Randomly select two samples of kids Keep other variables equal: Time of Day the classes meet Sizes of the classes Teachers (equally good teachers, same teaching styles, etc.) Etc., etc. Independent variable: “What book is used-A or B” Dependent variable: Scores on a math test.

11 Calculate mean score for each group. Suppose these results: Mean for group that used Book A = 90 Mean for group who used Book B = 60 There is a difference of 30 points between the sample means. The key question: Is the difference of 30 points between the sample means a real difference or is it due to chance sampling error? (i.e., one group might have been more intelligent, just due to chance sampling error). We evaluate that question. Specifically, we do a “test of statistical significance” which evaluates this question: What is the probability that the results obtained (the difference between the sample means) is due to chance sampling error? If that probability is “sufficiently small (low) then the researcher concludes that the difference is REAL, not due to chance. What is “sufficiently small?” .05 Implications: If significant, buy Statement: “There is no final truth in psychology!” A test of statistical significance = Evaluates the probability that our results (difference between the means) are due to chance sampling error...