Psychology 1102 exam review

1)      What is the major guiding theoretical framework for Psychological Science?

Answer for Q1          

Psychological Science considered as a purely objective, experimental branch of natural science with the theoretical goal of predicting and controlling behavior.

2)      Define psychology and provide a rationale for why the answer to question #1 is so important.

Answer for Q2

Psychology is science of mind, of mental state, and processes, and scientific approach is so important because of unpredictable behavior and state of mind.

3)      In 1-2 sentences describe why it’s important to study the brain in psychology.

Answer for Q3

It is important to study the brain because every parts of the brain has functions, and it relates to every behaviors that supported by specific brain activations.

4)      What is the field that presumes it can study the supernatural?

Answer for Q4

Parapsychology

5)      Technically, Psychology is a branch of what other scientific discipline?

Answer for Q5

Cognitive science

6)      What is the difference between a state and a trait? Give an example.

Answer for Q6

a)      Mood state is a temporary way of being.

b)      Trait is a stable or relatively unchanging characteristic.

Example: I am excited today. (Relates my current mood)

7)      Describe the difference between top-down and bottom-up sensory processing. Give an example.

Answer for Q7

a)      Top-down processing:  Sensory information is interpreted in light of existing knowledge.

Example: When we read, we begin to interpret the words and sentences based on our previous knowledge.

b)      Bottom-up processing: The brain takes in individual elements of a particular stimulus, and then combines those elements into a "unified perception".

Example: When we read, our brain takes in each letter individually rather than the entire word. The brain then unifies those letters to obtain the word they're in.

8)      (a) Why is the “need to belong” motivation so strong in humans? (b) What happens to people who do not belong or are excluded from a group? (c) Give an example of an animal for which you would not hypothesize the “need to belong” motivation would exist?

Answer for Section A, Q8

Strong desire: caring, affectionate bonds.

Answer for Section B, Q8

Rude people do not belong to any group

Answer for Section C, Q8

A dog can be an animal which I would not hypothesize, but once I start to belong with, I would be adjusting because of its nature is a so loving.

9)      What is g?

Answer for Q9

General intelligence

10)   What part of the brain drives the fight/flight/freeze response?

Answer for Q10

The limbic system

     

11)   Describe the difference between conscious and unconscious processing.  What did Freud mean by the unconscious? How did Freud think the unconscious affected behavior?

Answer for Q11

Section A, Q11.          Conscious: Knowing and perceiving; and Unconscious: Not knowing and perceiving.

Section B, Q11.          Freud describes the unconscious as the reservoir of all the thoughts that lie outside of awareness.

Section C, Q11.          Freud thinks that the unconscious keeps driving our behavior and experience, even though we are unaware of these basic influences.

12)   Sexual behavior is driven by what underlying process/motivation?

Answer for Q12

In many ways, emotion motivates the sexual behavior. Having sex may be a means of expressing feelings towards a partner as well as a way of deriving emotional satisfaction.

13)  What is a scientific Theory? Rank order the following scientific theories and give a brief description of why you ranked them the way you did:

a.       Gravitational Field Theory

b.      Multiple Intelligences theory

c.       Evolutionary theory

Answer for Q13

A scientific theory is based on careful examination of facts.

1.      Evolutionary theory

2.      Gravitational Field Theory

3.      Multiple Intelligences theory

After began setting up the universal, physics play in our life and every species and human starts the evolution, scientist proved that any two objects, no matter their mass, exert gravitational force toward one another, and finally, multiple intelligences provides a solid foundation upon which to identify, value and develop students' abilities.

14)   List the 6 basic principles of critical thinking.

Answer for Q14

1.      Extraordinary claims

2.      Falsifiability

3.      Occam’s Razor

4.      Replicability

5.      Ruling out Rival Hypotheses

6.      Correlation vs Causation

15)   Describe the difference between naturalistic observation, correlational study, and experiment.

Answer for Q15

Naturalistic observation: carefully observed in natural setting.

Correlational study: measuring the relation between two variables. 

Experiment: a study in which the investigator manipulates at least one variable.

16)   Design an experiment to test social behavior in humans.

Answer for Q16

First of all, we need a controlled environment where outside influences cannot interrupt our test and a soundproof room where we could place a person in the room and introduce something to see the reaction, like food.

17)   Give an example of social facilitation that happens in your life.

Answer for Q17

I would love to help people and make them happy.

18)   Describe the features of the Implicit Associations Test and in your own words discuss the importance of this test in studying prejudice and discrimination.

Answer for Q18

Many people who act like genuine, but they are implicitly faking and unable to pure hearted person. I think this test at least increases some genuine behavior or people.

19)   With respect to the bystander effect what is the most parsimonious explanation? (HINT: it does not come from social psychology)

Answer for Q19

Diffuse of bystander, if someone in the street pertaining or real to ill, but no one cares him and this makes me feel so bad.

20)  What is the most interesting thing that you learned in this class?

Answer for Q20

I learned the ideas to see the world in different perspective by feeling of awareness within and sense of activating every parts of brain.

BONUS QUESTION:

Think of a personal experience in your life; describe that experience. Given what you’ve learned about psychology and the brain how would you change the way you approached that experience now?

After learning psychology, I have gained tremendous amount of senses within and gained tricks of controlling of negative and positive emotions. Moreover, learning of dealing with negative emotions, stress, and anxieties put me to the next level of thinking process.

Psychology chapter 3

Chapter 4 Sensation and Perception

Chapter 1 and 2_Psychology

Chapter 1

The parallel between the legal system and psychological science

A)        is inappropriate because different kinds of judgments are made.

B)        is that both legal and scientific decisions can be made with certainty.

C)        is that the quality and extent of evidence in each determines the decisions that are made.

D)        reflects the high degree of subjective decision-making that occurs in each.

2          Before beginning a research project, researchers should search the psychological literature about their topic

A)        in order to develop research hypotheses.

B)        to stop the research if the study or a similar one has already been done.

C)        to demonstrate that no one has had a similar idea.

D)        all of the above.

3          Which of the following statements about the historical context of psychology is true?

A)        The topics and theoretical perspectives have changed very little over the past 100 years of psychological research.

B)        By investigating a wide array of topics over time, psychologists have demonstrated the complexity of human behavior.

C)        Only a few key scientists have contributed important findings to the science of psychology.

D)        The theoretical perspective of behaviorism has dominated the science of psychology since its inception.

4          One aspect of the social and cultural context in which scientists work is that

A)        society’s acceptance of research findings can influence how research findings are applied.

B)        research findings are implemented in society without people’s awareness.

C)        scientists have full control over how society’s resources are used to advance science.

D)        society has little to say about the topics investigated by scientists.

5          Ethnocentrism occurs when

A)        researchers falsify their research findings to benefit a particular group.

B)        psychological research occurs in a historical context.

C)        reports of psychological research are reported incorrectly in the media.

D)        researchers attempt to understand a different culture from their own culture’s framework.

6          One aspect of the moral context of scientific activity concerns the fact that

A)        science is flawed because it is a human activity.

B)        pressures to produce research reports may lead to scientific misconduct.

C)        scientists who employ humans and animals as subjects frequently face ethical dilemmas.

D)        all of the above.

Chapter 2 Research Designs

2        In an independent groups design, a separate group of people serves as the control group. In the repeated measures design,

A)    there is no control.

B)       participants serve as their own controls.

C)        all participants participate in one condition of the experiment.

D)        test-retest reliability is the main goal of the research.

2          Researchers may choose to use a repeated measures design when

A)        they have too many participants who want to participate in the research.

B)        they wish to examine participants’ behavior at one point in time.

C)        the experimental conditions take a long time to implement.

D)        they expect the effect of the independent variable to be small.

3          A sensitive experiment is one that

A)        has several conditions of the independent variable.

B)        examines individual differences variables.

C)        can detect even a small effect of an independent variable.

D)        has a great deal of error variation.

4          The critical difference between a repeated measures design experiment and a longitudinal survey design is that

A)        an independent variable is manipulated in the repeated measures design.

B)        an independent variable is manipulated in the longitudinal survey design.

C)        the research goal of the repeated measures design is to establish test-retest reliability.

D)        a correlation coefficient is the main statistical test in the repeated measures design.

5          The general term to describe changes people undergo with repeated testing in repeated measures designs is

A)        anticipation effects.

B)        counterbalancing.

C)        practice effects.

D)        differential transfer.

6          A researcher compares students’ performance using a new learning strategy to their performance using the old strategy. Students’ performance is first tested with the old strategy, followed by the new strategy. The results indicate that students perform better with the new strategy. These results

A)        indicate that teachers should use the new strategy.

B)        are uninterpretable due to the confounding with practice effects.

C)        the order of the two learning strategies does not matter.

D)        all of the above

7          In the complete repeated measures design individuals participate in each condition of the experiment _________ once, and in the incomplete repeated measures design individuals participate in each condition __________ once.

A)        more than, only

B)        only, more than

C)        more than, more than

D)        only, only

8          Which of the following counterbalancing techniques should be used when participants experience all eight brief conditions of an independent variable 10 times each?

A)        ABBA counterbalancing

B)        all possible orders

C)        selected orders (e.g., Latin Square)

D)        block randomization

9          Suppose a researcher uses the following selected orders in an incomplete repeated measures design with four experimental conditions (A, B, C, D). Which counterbalancing strategy has the researcher selected?

1st       2nd      3rd       4th

B         A         C         D

A         D         B         C                     

D         C         A         B

C         B         D         A

A)        all possible orders

B)        Latin Square                

C)        ABBA counterbalancing

D)        block randomization

10        The most serious problem in any repeated measures design is

A)        nonlinear practice effects.

B)        error variation.

C)        individual differences among participants.

D)        differential transfer.

Psychology 1102: Chapter 2 Research Methods

Lecture Preview

n  What is good research design?

n  Explore the scientific method

n  Discuss the ethics of experimentation

n  Review statistics

n  Peer review

Facilitated Communication: A Cautionary Tale

n  Facilitated communication was a “revolutionary” treatment for autism (extraordinary claims)

n  Biklen (1990) thought that autism was primarily a motor disorder

n  Experimenter sat next to nonverbal child with autism and guided the child’s hand over a keyboard

n  Students seemed to make stunning progress in communication

                                 

Facilitated Communication: A Cautionary Tale

n  Students began making allegations of brutal sexual abuse

n  Dozens of controlled studies examined the phenomenon and found that the words came solely from the minds of the facilitators (much like a Ouija board)

n  It is still difficult for proper research findings to get into the mainstream psyche; some people still practice facilitated communication

The Beauty and Necessity of Good Research Design

n  But I know it works!

n  Often our impressions are wrong

n  Prefrontal lobotomy - example of what happens when we rely on our subjective impressions

n  Egaz Moniz won the Nobel prize for this procedure

n  Controlled studies showed it didn’t work

Prefrontal Lobotomy:  Psychosurgery and Reliance on Subjective Impressions

Heuristics and Biases:  How We Can Be Fooled

n  Heuristics - mental shortcuts or rules of thumb

n  Reduce the cognitive energy required to solve problems

n  We tend to oversimplify reality

n  Imagine yourself driving from Reno, Nevada, to San Diego, California - what compass direction would you take?

Common Heuristics Studied by Kahneman and Tversky

n  Representativeness - “like goes with like”

n  Base rate - how common a characteristic or behavior is in the general population

n  Base rate fallacy

n  Availability - “off the top of my head”

n  Estimating the likelihood of an occurrence based on the ease with which it comes to our minds

Cognitive Biases:  Systematic Errors in Thinking

n  Hindsight bias (“I knew it all along”) - tendency to overestimate how well we could have successfully forecasted known outcomes
(e.g., “I knew they were the perfect couple”)

n  Overconfidence - tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictions

n  These errors can lead to confidence in false conclusions

Scientific Method: A Toolbox of Skills

n  Allows us to test specific hypotheses derived from  broader theories of how things work

n  Theories are never “proven,” but hypotheses can be disconfirmed

n  Naturalistic Observation - watching behavior in real-world settings with

n  High degree of external validity - extent to which we can generalize our findings to the real world

n  Low degree of internal validity - extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences

n  Case study designs

n  Depth is traded for breadth

n  Common with rare types of brain damage

n  Helpful in providing existence proofs, but can be misleading and anecdotal

n  Correlational designs

n  Correlation can vary from –1 to +1

n  0 means no relationship

n  Depicted in a scatterplot - each dot represents a single person’s data

n  Illusory Correlation - perception of a statistical association where none exists (e.g., crime and the full moon)

n  Correlation cannot determine causation - merely shows things are related or associated

Experimental Design:  What Makes a Study an Experiment?

n  Random assignment of participants to conditions

n  Experimental Group - receives the manipulation

n  Control Group - does not receive the manipulation

n  Independent Variable - experimenter manipulates

n  Dependent Variable - experimenter measures to see whether manipulation had an effect

n  Confounds - any difference between the experimental and control groups, other than the independent variable; makes independent variable effects uninterpretable

n  Cause and effect - possible to infer, with random assignment and manipulation of independent variable

Pitfalls of Experimental Design

n  Placebo effect - improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement

•      Subjects must be blind - unaware of whether they are in the experimental or control group

•      Placebos show many of the same characteristics as real drugs

n  Nocebo effect - harm resulting from the mere expectation of harm (e.g., voodoo doll phenomenon)

n  Experimenter expectancy effect - phenomenon in which researchers’ hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias a study outcome

n  Clever Hans, the mathematical horse

n  Rosenthal’s undergrads and maze-bright, maze-dull rats

n  Double-blind design - neither researchers nor subjects know who is in the experimental or control group

n  Hawthorne effect - phenomenon in which participants’ knowledge that they’re being studied can affect their behavior

n  Demand characteristics - cues that participants pick up from a study that allow them to generate guesses regarding the researcher’s hypotheses

n  To minimize Hawthorne effects:

•      Covert observation

•      Participant observation

Asking People About Themselves and Others

n  Random selection - key to generalizability; ensures every person in a population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate

n  Evaluating Measures:

n  Reliability - consistency of measurement

n  Validity - extent to which a measure assesses what it claims to measure

n  A test must be reliable to be valid, but a reliable test can still be completely invalid

Self-Report Measures and Surveys

n  Self-report measures - questionnaires assessing a variety of characteristics (e.g., interests, traits)

n  Surveys - measure opinions, attitudes

n  Question phraseology is crucial

n  Pros

n  Easy to administer

n  Direct (self) assessment of person’s state

n  Cons

n  Accuracy is skewed for certain groups (narcissists)

n  Potential for dishonesty

n Response sets - tendencies of research subjects to distort their responses

n Positive impression management

n Malingering

Ratings Data:  How Do They Rate?

n  Halo effect - tendency of ratings of one positive characteristic to spill over to influence the ratings of other positive characteristics

n  Leniency effect - tendency of raters to provide ratings that are overly generous

n  Error of central tendency - an unwillingness to provide extreme ratings (low or high)

Ethical Issues in Research Design

n  Tuskegee Study (1932 to 1972)

n  African American men living in rural Alabama diagnosed with syphilis

n  U.S. Public Health Service never informed, or treated, the men

n  Merely studied the course of the disease: 28 men died of syphilis, 100 of related complications, 40 wives were infected,
19 children were born with it

n  In 1997, President Clinton offered a formal apology

Modern Ethical Guidelines

n  Institutional Review Board (IRB)

n  Informed Consent

n  Justification of deception

•      Milgram’s obedience study

n  Debriefing of subjects afterward

n  Animal Research

n  Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

n  About 8% of psychological research uses animals

Statistics: The Language of Psychological Research

n  Descriptive statistics - numerical characteristics of the nature of the data set

n  Central tendency - where the group tends to cluster

•      Mean - average of all scores

•      Median - middle score in the data set

•      Mode - most frequent score in the data set

n  Dispersion - sense of how loosely or tightly bunched scores are

•      Range - difference between the highest and lowest scores

•      Standard deviation - measure of dispersion that takes into account how far each data point is from the mean

Statistics: The Language of Psychological Research

n  Inferential statistics - mathematical methods that allow us to determine whether we can generalize findings from our sample to the population

n  Statistical significance - finding would have occurred by chance less than 1 in 20 times

n  Practical significance - real-world importance

n  Statistical deceptions

n  Example:  Truncated line graphs

Evaluating Psychology in the Media

n  Most reporters are not scientists, so

n  Consider the source - tabloid vs. Discover

n  Beware of

•      Sharpening - exaggerating the central message of the study

•      Leveling - minimizing the less-central details

•      Pseudosymmetry - appearance of scientific controversy where none exists while purporting to provide “balanced coverage”

•       Example: Four paragraphs supporting ESP, four paragraphs against it