Understanding Psychology

1. Understanding Psychology Unit 1 Chapters 1 & 2

2. Behaviorist – psychologist who analyzes how organisms learn or modify their behavior based on their responses to events in the environment • Central tendency – number that describes something about the averaged score of a distribution • Correlation coefficient – statistic that describes the direction and strength of the relationship between two sets of variables • Cognitive – having to do with an organisms thinking and understanding • Case studies – in-depth research method that involves an investigation of one or more objects

3. Frequency distribution – an arrangement of data that indicates how often a particular score or observation occurs • Functionalists – psychologist who studies the function rather than the structure of consciousness • Humanist – a psychologist who believes that each person has freedom in directing their future and achieving personal growth • Median – score that divides a distribution ranking in half • Mode – most frequent score • Naturalistic observation – where the psychologist observes the subject in its natural setting

4. Placebo effect – change in patients behavior or illness that comes from believing the pill will have a better effect than actual treatment • Psychiatry – branch of medicine that deals with mental, emotional and behavioral disorders • Psychoanalyst – psychologist who studies unconscious behavior • Reinforcement – stimulus or event or event that follows a response and increases likelihood that it will be repeated • Structuralists – psychologists who studies the basic elements that make up conscious mental experiences

5. Survey – research method done by asking many people a fixed set of questions • Variance – measure of difference or variance within two distributions • Variable- what is changed by the experimenter • Cognitive Psychology: • Cognitivists- focus on how we process, store, and use information and how this information influences our thinking, language, problem solving, and creativity

6. Inferential Statistics: numerical methods used to determine whether research data support a hypothesis or whether results were due to chance Introspection: a method of self-observation in which participants report their thoughts and feelings Ok Ladies…Its time for a little introspection. Let’s learn more about ourselves! --Helga, The Fat of the Land

7. Goals of Psychology • Description: describe or gather information about the behavior being studied and to present what is known • Explanation: not only state but explain why people or animals behave as they do • Prediction: predict what organisms will do, think or feel in various situations, as a result of the information they’ve discovered • Influence: influence behavior in helpful ways

8. Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment to see whether participants would administer painful shocks to others merely because an authority figure instructed them to. He gathered 2,000 male volunteers and introduced them to a person posing as a “learner. The volunteers were told that the learner had memorized a list of paired words which they would recite and for every mistake the volunteer was told to push a button which would administer a painful shock. The shocks were false but the volunteers didn’t know that, because the “learners” displayed distress and pain, screaming and begging for the shocks to be stopped. Surprisingly, 62% of the volunteers delivered a full range of electric shock to the learners. OUCH!

9. What is the difference between basic and applied science? Give an example for each. Basic science is the pursuit of knowledge about natural phenomena for its own sake. Applied science is discovering ways to accomplish practical ways. So….. Basic science is research and studying material… Applied science is how you use the information you’ve learned about to improve something…like the field of psychology…

10. What steps does a researcher take to answer a question about human behavior? • Ask Research Question: • Form a Hypothesis: • Determine Variables: • Experiment: • Compare Data: • Interpret Results and Draw Conclusions: • Different Methods of Research: • Naturalistic Observation • Case Studies • Surveys • Longitudinal Studies • Cross Sectional Studies • Experiments

11. Why are there so many fields of research within psychology? There are so many different types of psychologist such as clinical psychologists, counseling psychologist, psychiatry, developmental psychology, educational psychology, community psychology, and industrial psychology. All of these different occupations has a different field of study, but all of them are within psychology. Psychology can be applied in just about every occupation if you are dealing with people.

12. J Hope you enjoyed the show! Have a great day! Dani