Introduction
How do you define psychology?
The scientific study of mind and behavior.
Who developed psychoanalysis?
Sigmund Freud
How would you define "mode" ?
The number that appears most often in a data set.
What is the purpose of random assignment?
To control for the influence of extraneous variables.
How many experimental points do you need for this course?
10
Name and define at least 2 cognitive biases.
Unconscious preferences - Preferring something to another choice but not recognizing your preference
Hindsight Bias – Once we learn something, we feel as though we knew it all along.
Confirmation Bias – Listening more closely to information that closely aligns with our initial beliefs.
Halo Effect – We tend to rate more attractive individuals as smarter, kinder, and funnier than less attractive individuals
Describe the nature vs. nurture debate.
•To what extent are our traits predetermined (“Nature”)?
•To what extent do our traits develop as a result of our experience? (“Nurture”)
If people who weigh more have lower IQs, what type of correlation would this be?
Negative correlation.
In what type of study would you be able to say that X causes Y?
Experimental
Fill in the blank and describe what this means:
Correlation does not __________ _____________.
Equal causation
Why can't we perfectly predict behavior? Give an example.
Individual differences.
If someone says hello on the street, you are likely to say hello back. But if you are in a bad mood or are more socially withdrawn, you might ignore him/her.
What branch of psychology does social learning theory fall under?
Behaviorism
What is a curvilinear relationship? Give an example of one.
A correlation that changes in direction.
As you age, you get taller (positive correlation). Then, once you've hit a certain age, you may lose a few inches (negative correlation).
What does it mean to "operationalize a variable"? Give an example of how someone might operationalize "anger"
To operationalize anger, one might measure how many times someone yells in a day, how loud someones' voice is, or how many times they act aggressively toward others.
What is natural selection and what branch of psychology does it fall within?
Those whose behavior and appearance allow them to withstand elements, avoid predators, and mate survive
Evolutionary Psychology
What does it mean when we say that behavior is multiply determined?
There are several different factors that influence our behaviors (e.g. biology, social variables, cognitive factors).
Within humanistic psychology, what is the goal that we are all striving for?
Self-actualization. We want to be the best people that we can be.
What measure of central tendency is most effected by outliers?
Mean
Give an example of a placebo effect.
In an anxiety medication trial, researchers give an active dose and an inactive dose of a medication to different individuals to account for the fact that people probably expect the medication to work. We hope that those who receive the active dose report improvements in their anxiety beyond those reported in the placebo group.
Construct a hypothesis for a study looking at the relationship between anxiety and test scores.
"If I make students more anxious before a test, they will get lower test scores."
Define depression through the 3 levels of explanation.
1. Biological - Depression is the result of chemical imbalances and genetic predispositions.
2. Interpersonal - Individuals who are depressed may socially withdraw from their families and friends.
3. Cultural and Social - Women are more likely to be depressed than men. Our conceptualization of depression has changed throughout the course of history.
Explain both classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Classical Conditioning - Pairing unconditioned stimulus with a conditioned stimulus.
Operant Conditioning - Shaping behavior through reward and punishment.
Give the mean, median, and mode of this data set.
24, 19, 3, 74, 27, 18, 19, 46, 62, 31, 100
3, 18, 19, 19, 24, 27, 31, 46, 62, 74, 100
Mean: 38.45
Median: 27
Mode: 19
Name the 4 attributes of a good theory.
General, falsifiable, parsimonious, and provides ideas for future research
Name the 6 steps of the scientific method.
1. Ask a question
2. Do background research
3. Construct a hypothesis
4. Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment
5. Analyze your data and draw a conclusion.
6. Report your results.