Psychology Basics
What does the word “psychology” literally mean in Greek?
Explanation of life
What system in the body controls automatic things like your heartbeat and breathing?
The autonomic nervous system.
What is an observation?
Watching people to learn about what they do.
What is the Still-Face Paradigm?
A parent stops reacting to their baby to see how the baby responds.
Who did the experiment with dogs and bells?
Ivan Pavlov.
What are two ways psychologists collect information?
By asking people or watching them
What happens in the “fight or flight” response?
Your body gets ready to deal with danger, your heart speeds up, you breathe faster, and your muscles get tense.
What is a case study?
A deep study about one person or a small group.
What does gaze aversion mean?
Looking away or avoiding eye contact.
What did babies do when their parent stopped reacting in the Still-Face study?
They got upset or tried to get the parent’s attention.
What’s the difference between a behavior and a thought?
A behavior is what you do; a thought is in your mind.
What does “stress response” mean?
How your body reacts to something hard or scary.
What is an experiment?
When a researcher changes something to see what happens.
What is one sign a baby is upset?
Crying, fussing, or turning away.
A study follows one child for a year. What kind of study is it?
A case study.
What are some things that can affect our behavior?
Emotions, stress, or what’s happening around us.
What does the parasympathetic nervous system do after you’ve been stressed?
It helps calm your body down and return to normal.
What does a cross-sectional study do?
Looks at different people at one time.
Why is it important for coders to agree on what they see?
So the data is correct and consistent.
A researcher watches students at lunch but doesn’t talk to them. What method is that?
Observational study.
What’s one reason psychologists study babies?
To understand how behavior and emotions develop early on.
How can two people have different physical reactions to the same stress?
Because stress responses can depend on experience, brain activity, or how they’ve learned to cope.
What does a longitudinal study do?
Follows the same people over a long time.
What should coders do if they don’t agree?
Rewatch the video and talk about it to decide together.
A researcher counts how many times a baby smiles in a video. What kind of coding is that?
Frequency coding.