Unit 1: Approaches
to Psychology
Ch 1: Introducing Psychology
Ch 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 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 pandas
End 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
• Structuralism – A structuralist is someone
approaches
who studies the basic elements that make up
to psych
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
• Psychoanalytic – Focuses on the __________
approaches _______. Developed by Sigmund Freud, a
to psych
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 • Psychologists are people who are trained to
profession
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
__________ + 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 3
Ch 2 – Psychological Research
Methods and Statistics
• Pre-research • Researchers must begin by asking a specific ?
decisions
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 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 • Having ____________ about a behavior +
then acting in some way, usually
prophecy
___________, 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.
• A placebo is a substitute for a drug that
• Avoiding a
has no ____________________.
self-fulfilling
• In a single-blind experiment, a psychologist
prophecy
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• P.43-45
experiment • 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 is a # that describes
central
something about the “_______” ____ of a
tendency
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 3