Perspectives in Psych
Key Contributors
Descriptive Research Methods
Experiments
Surprise Me
100

A psychologist working from this perspective might attribute a child's behavior to the influence of family, community, and the culture in which they've been raised. 

What is the sociocultural perspective?

100

He conditioned dogs to salivate not for food, as they naturally would, but at the sound of a bell, a form of learning psychologists now call classical conditioning. 

Who is Ivan Pavlov?

100

Descriptive research methods seek to describe behavior already happening in the world, which is different from experiments which seek to prove this...

What is cause-and-effect OR a cause of the behavior

100

In an experiment studying how time spent on social media may cause depressive tendencies, this would be the independent variable.

What is time spent on social media?

100

Psychological perspective developed by Rogers and Maslow that focuses on human free will, possibility, and self-actualization. 

What is humanistic?

200

A psychologist working from this perspective might seek to measure the heart rate, body chemistry, or neural activity in the brain to understand a person's behavior. 

What is the biological perspective?

200

Wilhelm Wundt, who started one of the earliest psychology labs, and his student Edward Titchener, developed this early approach that focused on the structures of the mind and introspection. 

What is structuralism?

200

In this descriptive research method, the researcher or observer could have 'observer bias,' or a particular opinion of what they expect to see as they observe people's behaviors in their ordinary day-to-day settings. 

What is naturalistic observation?

200

In an experiment, this group is exposed to the independent variable. 

What is the experimental group?

200

In a normal distribution (normal curve) of SAT scores, the middle 68% of test-takers scored this many standard deviations from the mean. 

What is 1 standard deviation from the mean?

300

A psychologist who studies thought patterns, memory, intelligence, problem-solving, and creativity is working primarily from this perspective. 

What is the cognitive perspective?

300

The first woman president of the American Psychological Association, she was a pioneering researcher in human memory and psychology of the self.

Who is Mary Whiton Calkins. 

300

Freud used this method of detailed study of one or a few individuals which he used as the basis for his psychoanalytic theories. 

What is the case study method?

300

Participants in an experiment must be divided between the control group and experimental group using this method, to reduce the influence of confounding variables on the outcome. 

What is random assignment?

300
In researching people's happiness throughout their lifespan, a longitudinal study over many years would follow the same cohort of people at different life stages, while this kind of study would look at different cohorts of people, a cohort at each life stage but sampled at the same moment in time. 

What is a cross-sectional study?

400

Sigmund Freud sought to study the unconscious wishes and desires that influence our conscious behaviors, and in doing so invented this psychological approach. 

What is the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic perspective. 

400

These two psychologists studied the negative effects of segregated U.S. schools on Black children's sense of themselves, leading to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. 

Who is Kenneth and Mamie Clark?

400

Surveys can gather data from many people in a population, but researchers seek this kind of sample to take the survey, so that the survey results will represent the entire population. 

What is a representative sample?

400

When neither the experiment participants nor the researchers know which group (control or experimental) the participants are in.

What is a double-blind (or double-mask) study?

400

Researchers are seeking experimental results which are _____ _____, meaning that the probability is less than 5% (p < .05) that the outcome was due to chance, and making it over 95% probable that the independent variable in the experiment caused the result. 

What is statistically significant?

500

Psychologists who explain behavior from this perspective often focus on how natural selection and 'survival' instincts have caused humans to develop certain common characteristics. 

What is the evolutionary perspective?

500

The 'father of behaviorism,' he wanted psychology to focus on scientific inquiry through observable behavior. He famously performed the Little Albert experiment, conditioning a baby to fear a fuzzy animal by pairing it with a loud scary sound. 

Who is John B. Watson?

500

This kind of study finds statistical patterns and relationships between variables, but does NOT establish causation. 

What is a correlational study?

500

A variable other than the independent variable which might be affecting the results of the experiment.

What is confounding variable?

500

This is a group of psychologists or other professionals who look over each proposed research study and experiment on people to judge its safety and adherence to ethical guidelines. 

What is IRB (Institutional Review Board)?