HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
What year is generally considered the birth of modern scientific psychology?
1879
What is an explanation that organizes observations and helps predict behavior or events.
A theory
What research method involves studying one person or case in great detail?
Case study
What does correlation tell us?
Whether two variables are related.
You hear that a basketball player made the winning shot and immediately think, “I knew she was going to make it!” even though you had no idea beforehand. What is this called?
Hindsight bias
What psychological perspective is associated to B.F. Skinner?
Behaviorism
A testable prediction is a ________
hypothesis
What research method involves asking people questions and collecting their responses?
Survey
If students who study more tend to get higher grades, what type of correlation is this? Postive or negative?
Positive correlation
A student predicts that they will get a 95% on a test because they are “really good at psychology,” but they haven't studied and usually score around 70%. What thinking error is this?
Overconfidence
Who is often called the father of modern psychology? Why?
Wilhelm Wundt because he established the first psychology lab.
A (a) is a broader explanation; a (b) is a specific, testable prediction based on a (a).
a. theory
b. hypothesis
What research method involves observing behavior in a natural environment without interfering?
Naturalistic observation
If the more time teenagers spend on social media, the less time they spend sleeping, what type of correlation is this? Positive or negative?
Negative correlation
A person sees a series of random numbers: 7, 14, 21, 28. They believe there must be a meaningful pattern and that the next number has to be 35. What tendency does this illustrate?
Perceiving order in random events
What approach did Wundt's work help establish that focused on identifying the basic elements of conscious experience?
Structuralism
A psychologist has a theory that sleep helps memory. They predict that students who sleep more will remember more vocabulary words. What is this prediction called?
A hypothesis
What is one major strength of a case study?
It provides detailed, in-depth information about a person or case.
Which correlation is stronger: +0.85 or +0.25?
+0.85
A coin lands on heads six times in a row. Your friend says, “There's no way the next one can be heads again!” What is wrong with your friend's reasoning?
They are perceiving a pattern/order in a random event. Each coin toss is still independent.
What school of psychology became associated with Freud and focused on unconscious thoughts, conflicts, and past experiences?
Psychoanalysis / psychodynamic approach
A researcher says, “For this study, stress will be measured by the score students receive on a 10-question stress questionnaire.” What concept is this an example of?
Operational definition
Give ONE limitation of a case study, survey, OR naturalistic observation.
Case study: findings from one person may not generalize to everyone.
Survey: people may give inaccurate or biased self-reports.
Naturalistic observation: researchers can observe behavior but cannot control the situation or determine cause and effect.
A correlation of -0.90 is a:
a. strong positive correlation
b. strong negative correlation
c. weak positive correlation
d. weak negative correlation
b. strong negative correlation
A student takes a very difficult exam. Before seeing the results, they say, “I think I did okay.” After receiving a 95%, they say, “Honestly, I knew I was going to get a really high grade.” Which thinking error is most clearly demonstrated, and why?
Hindsight bias — they are remembering their past prediction as being more certain than it actually was.