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AP Psychology. Units 1 & 2. Psychology’s Roots. Prescientific Psychology Is the mind connected to the body or distinct? Are ideas inborn or is the mind a blank slate filled by experience? . Psychology’s Roots. Prescientific Psychology Empiricism Wilhelm Wundt
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AP Psychology Units 1 & 2
Psychology’s Roots Prescientific Psychology • Is the mind connected to the body or distinct? • Are ideas inborn or is the mind a blank slate filled by experience?
Psychology’s Roots • PrescientificPsychology • Empiricism • Wilhelm Wundt • opened the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig (c. 1879) • Structuralism • Functionalism
Psychology’s Roots • Definition of Psychology • The science of behavior and mental processes
Contemporary Psychology • Psychology’s Big Issues • Nature-nurture controversy • the relative contribution that genes and experience make to development of psychological traits and behaviors
Contemporary Psychology • Natural selection
Contemporary Psychology • Psychology’s Subfields • Basic Research • biological • developmental • cognitive • personality • social
Contemporary Psychology • Psychology’s Subfields • Applied Research • Industrial/organizational • Clinical psychologists • Psychiatry • A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders
The Need for Psychological Science Psychologists, like all scientists, use the scientific method to construct theories that organize observations and imply testable hypotheses
The Need for Psychological Science • Hindsight Bias • the “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon • Overconfidence • we tend to think we know more than we do
The Need for Psychological Science • Critical Thinking • thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions The Amazing Randi—Skeptic
The Need for Psychological Science • Theory • Hypothesis • Operational Definition • Replication
Description Psychologists describe behavior using case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation
Description Case Study Is language uniquely human?
Description • Survey • False Consensus Effect • Population • Random Sample
Description • Naturalistic Observation
Correlation • Correlation Coefficient • a statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus how well either factor predicts the other Indicates direction of relationship (positive or negative) Correlation coefficient r = +.37 Indicates strength of relationship (0.00 to 1.00)
Correlation • Scatterplot • a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables Correlation and Scattergram
Perfect positive correlation (+1.00) No relationship (0.00) Perfect negative correlation (-1.00) Correlation Scatterplots, showing patterns of correlations
Experimentation • Experiment • Double-blind Procedure • Placebo effect • Experimental Condition • Control Condition
Experimentation • Random Assignment • Independent Variable • Dependent Variable
Statistical Reasoning • Mode • the most frequently occurring score in a distribution • Mean • the arithmetic average of a distribution • Median • the middle score in a distribution
Statistical Reasoning • Range • the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution • Standard Deviation • a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean • Statistical Significance • a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance
Frequently Asked Questions about Psychology Can laboratory experiments illuminate everyday life?
Frequently Asked Questions about Psychology Does behavior depend on one’s culture? What is culture?
Frequently Asked Questions about Psychology Does behavior vary with gender?
Frequently Asked Questions about Psychology Why do psychologists study animals? Is it ethical to experiment on animals? Is it ethical to experiment on people?
Frequently Asked Questions about Psychology Is psychology free of value judgments?
Frequently Asked Questions about Psychology Is psychology potentially dangerous?