Behavioral Psych.

How we learn observable responses through experience and outside influences

Biological Psych.

How the body and the brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experience

Cognitive Psych.

How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information (brain activity)

Evolutionary Psych.

How to natural selection of traits has promoted the survival of genes (involves human survival + genetically predisposed)

Humanistic Psych.

How we achieve personal self-growth & fulfillment

Psychodynamic Psych.

How behavior springs from unconscious drives and childhood experiences “and how to use this information to treat psychological disorders”

Social-Cultural Pscyh.

How situations and culture affect our behavior and thinking (sometimes on each other)

Empiricism

The idea that knowledge comes from experience, and that observation allow a person to develop knowledge (Bacon & Locke)

Structuralism

Understanding the brain’s structure through Introspection (unreliable) (Edward B. Titchener)

Functionalism

How mental processes function and allow humans to survive, adapt and flourish (applies on a mass scale) (William James)

Behaviorism

Psychology should only be about behavior, “you should study stuff that you can measure and observe” (Took over Psych 4 a period) (Watson & Skinner)

Freudian Psychology (Psychoanalytic)

The influence of the unconscious mind; The impact of childhood experiences on a persons behavior (Sigmund Freud)

Humanistic Psychology

Emphasized the potential for human growth (who are you currently, what do you need to grow) (Naslow + Rogers)

Socrates and Plato [PSP]

Knowledge is innate (born within us), the mind continues after the body dies

Aristotle [PSP}

Big on observations. Knowledge is not pre-existing, it grows from our experiences.

Rene Descartes [PSP]

Understood nerve pathways are important, but thought that animal spirits flowed through them!

Francis Bacon [PSP]

The human mind needs to look for patterns even in random events

John Locke [PSP] = Empiricism

The mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa) informed by experiences

Wilhelm Wundt

Established the first psychology laboratory

William James

Wrote the 1st psychology textbook, Principles of Psychology

Big Debate

Nature vs. Nurture

Operational Definition

Carefully worded statements about the procedures used in the study (should allow for the theory to be replicated based on the info)

Case Study (Descriptive Research Method)

examines one individual or group in depth in the hopes of revealing things that are universal about the population

Naturalistic Observation

Records behavior in natural environments/settings, without interfering or controlling by the researchers

Survey

look at many cases in less depth (use a representative random sample)

Random Sample

Each member of the group has an equal chance of participating

Sampling Bias

 when an unrepresentative sample is used which leads to the survey’s results being flawed.

Experiment

Investigator manipulates and isolates the independent variable to see the effect on the dependent variable

Independent Varible

factor that is being manipulated

Dependent Variable

The outcome as a result of the independent variable

Confounding Variable

Another factor that can affect the outcome of the experiment

The Experimental Group

Participants who are exposed to the independent variable

Control Group

Do not get exposed to the variable

Random Assigment

Participants are randomly assigned to the two groups, in order to equalize them

Placebo Effect

Participants’ expectations; given a fake treatment and they end up having a reaction

Double-Blind Procedure

Researchers and participants are ignorant about whether the participants have received the treatment or placebo

Validity

Weather the experiment tested what it was supposed to test

Correlation

The extent to which two variables change each other

Correlation Coefficient

The statistical index of the relationship between two variables (closer to -1.0 to -1.0 mean strong correlation)

Positive Correlation

Two sets of variables rise or fall together /\ This one

Negative Correlation

one variable goes up, the other goes down

/\ This one

Scatter Plots

A graphed cluster of dots used to reveal patterns of correlation

illusory Correlation

We think there is a relationship where none exists.

Descriptive Statistics

 Includes measures of central tendency and measures of variation.

Central Tendency

Single score that represents a whole set.

Mode = most frequently occurring score,

Mean= arithmetic average,

Median= middle score

Measures of Variation

How diverse the data is

Range = gap between the highest and lowest score

Inferential Statistics

Data that allows us to generalize/infer the probability of something being true for a larger population

Statistical Significance

How likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance (If something is statistically significant, it did not occur by chance)

Standard Deviation

Shows how much the scores vary around the average score (forms a normal “bell” curve)