Unit 1: Approaches to

PsychologyCh 1: Introducing PsychologyCh 2: Psychological Research

Methods and Statistics

Ch 1 – Introducing Psychology• Psychology • Scientific study of _________ + _______

processes.• Covers everything people ____, ___, +

__.• Learning about psych can help you gain

a better understanding of your own ______, the behavior of other humans + ______, + give practical applications for enriching your life.

• People who study psych believe the study of behavior must be _________. In other words, you can’t just look at a small part of something, but must examine _________.

– Elephant Story

• The goals of psych

• People who study psych have 4 goals:1. ________ – need to describe or gain

info about the behavior being studied + present _______________

2. _________ – want to know why• A hypothesis is an educated

________• A theory is a complex

explanation based on findings from a large # of __________

3. _______ – the behavior, thoughts, + feelings of humans or just the behavior of _________

4. Influence – try to ____________ in beneficial ways

• Psych as a science

• Basic science is research – studying something simply to __________________.

• Applied science involves using research to solve problems or _______________.

• Physiological – having to do w/ an organism’s __________ processes

• Ex: Eating or sleeping• Cognitive – having to do w/ an organism’s

___________ + understanding• To conduct an accurate psych experiment,

the scientific method is used. It’s an approach to science requiring ___________________ for gathering + testing ideas

1. Start w/ problem or ? from an ____________2. Form a ___________ (assumption)3. Test hypothesis in an ____________4. Analyze data to reach a ___________

Is it basic science or applied Is it basic science or applied science?science?

_________ 1. Studying why some people snore

_________ 2. Comparing test results of girls and boys

_________ 3. Going through a 12 step program

_________ 4. Researching why cats purr

_________ 5. Counseling a victim of sexual abuse

_________ 6. Training a dog to come when a whistle blows

_________ 7. Studying the effects of violent movies on kids

_________ 8. Examining the mating habits of pandasEnd Section 1

• Origins of psych

• During the 1600s, philosophers promoted the idea of dualism (belief that _____ + _____ are separate + distinct).

• Rene Descartes disagreed + said that a ______ existed b/w them. He reasoned that the mind ________ the body’s movements, sensations, + perceptions.

• Believed that to understand human _______, you had to study how the mind + body influence each other to create a person’s _____________.

• Phrenology (the practice of ____________ on a person’s skull to determine that person’s intellect + _________________) became an important practice in the US in the mid 1800s.

• Although it has since been __________, it’s important b/c it encouraged study of the role of the ____ in influencing human behavior instead of the _______.

• Historical approaches to psych

• Structuralism – A structuralist is someone who studies the basic elements that make up conscious ________________. It involves introspection which is a method of _______ ____________ in which participants report their thoughts + feelings.

• Wilhelm Wundt is acknowledged as establishing modern psych as a separate, ___________ of study. He was very interested in the human mind + used a ________________ to study human behavior. He was a structuralist.

• Functionalism – A functionalist studies how animals + people ____ to their environments.

• William James (the “father of psychology”) speculated that thinking, feeling, learning, + remembering, serve one major function – to help us ______ as a species.

• Inheritable Traits – heredity refers to the ___________________ of characteristics from parents to their offspring. Sir Francis Galton noticed that ________ tended to run in families. He concluded genius is therefore a hereditary trait.

• He failed to take into account __________ such as the ____________ (for ex, wealthy people can often provide better educational opportunities for their children).

• His writings raised the ? of whether behavior is determined by _____________.

• Gestalt Psych – this belief states that perception is more than the sum of its parts; it involves the ________________________________.

• They study how sensations are assembled into _____________________.

• Modern approaches to psych

• Psychoanalytic – Focuses on the __________ _______. Developed by Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalyst (a psychologist who studies how unconscious _______ + ________ determine human behavior). He believed that beneath our conscious surface are _______________ ______ that conflict w/ the requirements of society + these urges are responsible for most human behavior.

• He developed a technique for studying the unconscious known as free association, in which the patient said everything that came to mind w/o any __________.

• He also believed _____ are expressions of primitive urges + used dream analysis.

• His view of the importance of the unconscious mind _________________.

• Behavioral – behaviorists stress investigating observable behavior. They believe that psychology should only concern itself w/ the ________________________________________________________.

• Ivan Pavlov pioneered behavioral psych in his famous ________________ ____________.

• B.F. Skinner introduced the concept of reinforcement (a response to a behavior that the likelihood that the behavior ___________________).

• Humanistic – humanists believe that each person has __________ in directing his/her future + achieving ______________.

• Believe that humans aren’t controlled by the environment or the unconscious.

• Also believe that ________________.

• Cognitive – cognitivists focus on how we process, store, + use info + how the info ____________________, language, problem solving, + creativity.

• Believe behavior is more than a simple response to a stimulus – it’s influenced by a variety of __________________.

• Biological – psychobiologists study how the brain, nervous system, hormones, + genetics influence _______________.

• Emphasize _________ (duh!)• Sociocultural – involves studying the

influence of cultural + _____ similarities + differences on behavior.

• Study the attitudes, values, beliefs, + social norms of different __________.

• Believes that _______ + ___________ status impact our behavior + mental processes.

End Section 2

• Psych as a profession

• Psychologists are people who are trained to observe, analyze, + ___________________.

• A psychiatrist is a person who has completed ____________ + continues into psychiatric medicine – they can treat people w/ behavior disorders + ___________________ + operate on patients. Psychiatry is a branch of Psychiatry is a branch of __________ + NOT of psych!__________ + NOT of psych!

• Clinical psychologists diagnose + treat people w/ __________ disturbances.

• Counseling psychologists advise + assist people w/ the problems of everyday life + help people adjust to ___________.

• Developmental psychologists study physical, emotional, cognitive, + social changes that occur as an individual __________.

• Educational psychologists are concerned w/ helping _______________ by focusing on intelligence, memory, problem solving + motivation.

• Community psychologists work w/ mental health or _________________ agencies.

• Industrial/organizational psychologists study ways to boost production, improve ______________, place applicants in jobs, train people, + reduce accidents.

• Experimental psychologists study sensation, perception, learning, motivation, + emotion in carefully controlled ____________ conditions.

• The American Psychological Association (APA) is a scientific + professional society of psychologists. It works to advance the science + profession of psych + to promote __________________.End Section

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Ch 2 – Psychological Research Methods and Statistics

• Pre-research decisions

• Researchers must begin by asking a specific ? about a limited topic or _____________.

• Next they must ________________. B/c they can’t study an entire population, they must select a sample (a relatively small group out of the ___________________ under study).

• A sample must _______________ of the population under study. There are 2 ways to ensure the sample is representative of the population:

1. Take a purely _______ sample (like drawing names from a hat).2. ____________ pick individuals who represent all of the various subgroups in the population being studied.

• Methods of research

• Naturalistic observation: research method in which the psychologist observes the subject in a ___________________ w/o interfering.

• Researcher must _______________ the people or animals under study b/c they may change their habits if they are _________ of the researcher.

• Case studies: research method that involves an ________________________ of one or more participants.

• B/c only a few people are studied, a single case study doesn’t ___________. However, they can generate new hypotheses that researchers can test.

• Surveys: research method in which information is obtained by asking many individuals a ______ _______ of ?’s.

• May consist of interviews +/or questionnaires.

• Longitudinal studies: research method in which data is collected about a group of participants over a # of years to assess how __________________ change or not during development.

• Time-consuming + participants _______ the study.

• __________ to examine consistencies + inconsistencies of behavior over time.

• Cross-sectional studies: research method in which data is collected from groups of participants of ___________ + compared so conclusions can be drawn about differences due to age.

• ___________ then longitudinal studies + the amount of time needed for the study.

• Correlations • Sometimes, instead of looking for cause + effect, researchers look for correlations (measures of a _____________ b/w 2 variables or sets of data). ONE DOES __________ THE ONE DOES __________ THE OTHER TO CHANGE.OTHER TO CHANGE.

• A ______ correlation would occur if both variables or .

• Ex: Grades + IQ • A _______ correlation would be if

one variable + the other .• Ex: Grades + absences.

• Experiments: this research method allows the researcher to _________ _________ the situation + eliminate (or at least limit) unwanted variables from ______________________.

• Every experiment has a ________ which specifies the important variables in the study.

• Variables are conditions + behaviors that are ______________. There are 2 types:

1. Independent variables are variables a _________________ so they can observe its effects.

2. Dependent variables are variables that change b/c of a change in the _____________________.

• Participants exposed to the ___________ variable are in the experimental group. Participants not exposed to the independent variable, but otherwise __________________ are in the control group.

• Results must be able to be replicated repeatedly in order to be ___________________.

• Ethical issues• Ethics are the methods for conduct or standards for proper + ________________.

• The APA published a set of ethical principles including the following:

Psychologists must:• plan research to minimize the

possibility of __________________.• be responsible for the welfare +

dignity of the ____________.• obey all laws + __________________.• only use __________ if no better

alternative is available. NO deception about __________ aspects EVER.

• One common ethical debate is over the use of _________ in research. Some oppose it as cruelty to animals while others support it for the knowledge gained that reduces _______ __________.

End Section 1

• Self-fulfilling prophecy

• Having ____________ about a behavior + then acting in some way, usually ___________, to carry out that behavior.

• It can lead a researcher to influence the experiment in such a way as to alter the participants’ behavior + thus __________________ of the experiment.

• Might only be a nod or a frown.• B/c good research must be _________,

researchers have developed ways of trying to ____ creating a self-fulfilling prophecy in experiments.

• Avoiding a self-fulfilling prophecy

• A placebo is a substitute for a drug that has no ____________________.

• In a single-blind experiment, a psychologist would give the control group a placebo + the experimental group a drug + ___________ would know who got the drug + who didn’t.

• The ____________ are “blind”.• In a double-blind experiment, the

control group would be given a placebo + the experimental group a drug + ___________ NOR the _________ would know which got the drug.

• The __________ + the __________ are “blind”.

• The researcher can remain _______.• Read p.46 “The Case of Clever

Hans”

• The Milgram experiment

• P.43-45• During 1960s, Stanley Milgram wanted to

determine whether participants would administer ___________ to others just b/c an authority figure told them to.

• It was a study on people’s ______________________________.

• Almost 1,000 male participants were told the study was on how ______________________.

• Participants, the “teachers”, were told to administer an electric shock to the “learners” when they ______________________.

• ______________ – but learners acted as if in severe pain.

• ____% of the “teachers” administered the full shock possible b/c they were told to.

• The experiment has been repeated w/ ______ _________.

• The placebo effect

• A change in a patient’s illness or physical state that results solely from the patient’s knowledge + __________________________.

• So medically speaking, there is _________ for the patient to get better. But b/c the patient believes they are given medicine, they sometimes report feeling better after receiving a ___________.

• They __________________ themselves better.

End Section 2

• Statistics • A branch of __________ that enables researchers to organize + evaluate data they collect.

• Can be used to _______________ (ex. p.47) or to validly support a hypothesis.

• Descriptive statistics is the listing + summarizing of data in a practical, ______________.

• ______ + _____ are examples of descriptive statistics created by experimenters after collecting the data.

• Frequency distribution is a way of arranging data so we know ________ a particular observation occurs.

• A normal curve is a graph of frequency distribution shaped like a symmetrical, ________________; a graph of normal distribution.

• These curves are ____________ if a large population is used..

• Ex. Height, weight, IQ, etc…

• Measures of central tendency

• Central tendency is a # that describes something about the “_______” ____ of a distribution.

• There are 3 types:• Mean: mathematical _________• Median: ________ score• Mode: most _________ score

• Given the follow set of #’s, determine the mean, median + mode: 36,45,63,70,72,77,77,82,85,85,85,90,95

• Mean: ______

• Median: ______

• Mode: ______ End Section

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