Unit 1: Intro to Psychology and Research Methods Chapters 1 and 2
Name_______________________________________________________________________________________
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Unit 1 Enduring Understandings
Psychology is a science that emphasizes orderly, systematic, objective methods to study behavior and cognition
Psychologists practice from different perspectives, each approach contributing to the science
Psychologist use various methods to conduct their scientific research, each having benefits and drawbacks
Psychologists study human behavior in an attempt to explain and predict the way people thank and behave
Unit 1 Psych Lingo
You are responsible for the vocabulary listed at the beginning of each chapter. There will be a VOCAB section in every Unit test. If
you complete the packet, take supplemental notes, pay attention, ask questions AND STUDY you have nothing be worried about!
CHAPTER 1
What is Psychology?
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Psychology is the _____________________________study of behavior and __________________________
__________________________is any action that other people can observe or __________________________
FIVE Goals of Psychology:
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Observe
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Explain
Predict
________________________ or ____________________
Psychology as a Science
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Psychology is a ________________________ Science
o Much like __________________________, economics and sociology
o Deals with interactions of ______________________________________________
 Psychology also deals with the _____________________________________Sciences
o Much like Biology and ______________________________________________
o Deals with the ways the ____________________________ helps people interact with the world
Psychological Theories
 ___________________________ are statements that attempt to explain why things are the way they are
o EXAMPLE: when there is an emergency, the more bystanders there are, the LESS likely any of them will help
 ___________________________are rules or laws that are generally accepted by all
o EXAMPLE: If you sleep more, you will be better rested
What Psychologists Do
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2.
______________________ Psychologists
 Largest group
 Treat people with ___________________________________ anxiety, relationships, drug abuse
 Evaluate people through ________________________________and psychological tests
 CANNOT prescribe_____________________________________
Counseling Psychologists
 Treat people with ______________________issues rather than ______________________________
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School Psychologists
 Treat people with peer group issues, ____________________________disorders
__________________________Psychologists
 Study changes _______________________________ a person’s lifetime
i. Physical, emotional, cognitive and _____________________________changes
Personality Psychologists
 Look for and study the development of _________________________________________ traits
 Concerned with aggression, _________________________ roles and anxiety
Social Psychologists
 Concerned with behavior in ___________________________________ situations
 Focus on ___________________________ influences on behavior
Experimental Psychologists
 Conduct __________________________________into the functions of the brain, hormones, etc
 Most likely participate in ____________________________________ or in research that is done for its own sake
with no immediate application
 Their findings are put into ________________________ by other _____________________________
REFLECT: if you decided to become a psychologist, what sub-specialty of psychology would you choose, and why?
History of Psychology
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Roots come from Ancient _________________________
Socrates suggests _____________________________________ (question ourselves)
Aristotle writes of “ ____________________________________” exploring the history of psychological thought
________________________________ suggests that people with disturbed mentalities had brain abnormalities
Birth of Psychology as a Modern Science
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Psychological laboratories were developed in the _______________________ in Europe and U.S.
Historians point to the year_______________________ as the birth of psychology as a lab science
Wilhelm ______________________opened his lab in Germany in this year
Wilhelm Wundt and Structuralism
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Structuralists were concerned with basic elements of __________________ _____________________________
Two categories of conscious experience:
o ____________________________________________________: sight and taste
o ____________________________________________________: emotional response and mental images
Human mind functioned by ___________________________________these two elements
William James and Functionalism
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Harvard professor that ________________________ with Structuralist ideas
Concerned with:________________________________________________________________________
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Adaptive patterns are learned and maintained because they are __________________________________
o EXAMPLE: You study because you get good grades when you do
Successful patterns become automatic __________________________________
John B. Watson and Behaviorism
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He believed it is _____________________________________________ to study consciousness
Consciousness is a ____________________________ event known only to__________________________
If Psychology is to be considered a “real” science it must base itself only on:______________________________
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READ (PAGE 134): Watson, Little Albert and Drama
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The Purpose was __________________________Conditioning of fear. Explain the Little Albert experiment:
B.F. Skinner and Reinforcement
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A behaviorist that added the concept of___________________________________
When an animal is______________________________- for performing an action it is more likely to_____
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Animals are capable of learning ________________________ behavior patterns
The Gestalt School
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Means __________________ or ____________________ in German
The belief that people seek out __________________________ in the sensory data available to them
Believe that learning is _________________________ and purposeful
_______________________is the reorganization of perceptions that help people solve problems
Believe that problem-solving is accomplished by_______________________________________
Sigmund Freud and the School of Psychoanalysis
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Stressed that behavior was a result of unconscious ____________motives and internal___________________
Most of what exists in people’s minds is_______________________ and consists of ____________________ impulses,
urges and wishes
Behavior is aimed at ______________________desires even if some are socially__________________________
People want to see themselves as ___________________, and are unaware of the real ____________________
APPLICATION: Which SCHOOL is it?
If I believe that the human mind=sensations +feelings then I most likely would believe in______________________
If I ask the question, “how does the mind help people adapt?” I most likely would follow______________________
___________________ believe that psychology can only be a Science if it is based on observable events.
If I believe that insight solves problems I probably agree with_________________________________
If I believe secret desires determined behavior I would be a ______________________________________________
VIDEO: Explain the possible cause of Bluto’s Behavior using the Cognitive, Psychoanalytic and Behavioral Approaches:
Cognitive____________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Psychoanalytic________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Behavioral___________________________________________________________________________________________________
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CHART: Contemporary Perspective of Psychology Complete the chart below of Contemporary Perspectives of Psychology
Perspective
Focus
How the body and brain enables
emotions.
How the natural selection of traits
promotes the perpetuation of genes.
How much our genes and our
environment influence our individual
differences
How behavior springs from unconscious
drives and conflicts
How we learn observable responses
How we encode, process, store, and
retrieve information
How does behavior and thinking vary
across situations and cultures?
Emphasizes ethnicity, gender, culture
and socio-economic status.
Sample Questions
How are messages transmitted by the body?
How is blood chemistry linked with moods and
disorders?
How does evolution influence behavior
tendencies?
To what extent are psychological traits such as
intelligence, sexual orientation, personality and
vulnerability to depression attributable to our
genes or environment?
How can personality be explained in terms of
sexual and aggressive drives or disguised as
unfulfilled wishes?
How do we learn to fear particular objects or
situations?
How do we use information in
memory?...Reasoning?....Problem solving?
How are people from across the globe ALIKE as
members of the “Human Family”?
As products of different environmental
contexts, how do differ?
CHAPTER 2
The Scientific Method
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4.
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Hypothesis
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______________________________ or Draw a conclusion
VIDEO: Identify the Scientific Method
Q-________________________________________________________________________________________________________
H-________________________________________________________________________________________________________
T-_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A-_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Conducting Research
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Psychology is an experimental _______________________________
Forming a research question
o Some come out of
 Example: Fighting Fish
o Some come out of
 Example: Learn from observing others
o Some come out of
 Example: Opposites attract
Forming a Hypothesis
o An ___________________________________ as to what is going to happen
Testing the Hypothesis
o Hypothesis cannot be considered correct until it is ___________________________
Analyzing the Results
o Question what your ______________________________ mean
o Look for ________________________________ and decide which support your hypothesis or not
Drawing Conclusions
o When observations do not support their hypothesis a psychologists must ______________their beliefs or theories
o Have to adjust and have an _________________________________________
Replication
o Findings of a study must be ____________________and repeated to produce the same results as before
o Sometimes psychologists will use different participants and vary their genders, ages, etc.
New Questions
o Experiments will lead to ____________questions regardless of if they agree or disagree with hypothesis
o Experimental process then repeats itself
Surveys, Samples, and Populations
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The ___________________________ Method
o Gathering information or opinions by asking people directly via questionnaires or interviews
o Findings may not be accurate because of:
 Fear of Confidentiality, Aiming to Please, or Dishonesty
Populations and Samples
o Psychologists have to determine what groups they want to examine
o To accurately predict an outcome, psychologists have to study a group that______________________ that target
population
o Almost impossible to interview every member of the target population so psychologists will use a
___________________________ or only part of the target population
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Selecting Samples
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Sample should be as ___________________ as possible to the target population
 Why should the sample for a possible vote on curfew for 18-year-olds not be a high school class?
A ____________________________sample occurs when individuals are selected by chance
 Larger sample means better representation of the target population
A _____________________________sample occurs when subgroups are represented proportionally to the target
population
 Example: 12% African-Americans are in the US, so 12% African-Americans in your sample
Generalizing Results
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Cannot make generalizations if the sample did not study it
o Ex: Cannot claim that all people love red cars when only men were surveyed
QUESTIONS:
1. Why are surveys in magazines like Seventeen, Glamour, Cosmo, etc. NOT representative of the US population?
2. What are some issues at CBS that you could survey? WHO would be your target population?
Closure
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Why should psychologists be wary of Generalizing Results?
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Why is replication important?
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What is the importance of Random and Stratified sampling?
Methods of Observation
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The _____________________________Method
o Through Intelligence, _____________________ ,and Personality tests we can sometimes learn about
______________________ ______________________.
o _____________________________ tests can help diagnose problems such as anxiety and depression
The _______________________-______________________ Method
o In-depth investigation of a group or people
o Some focus on rare events, such as the case of Genie.
VIDEO: Describe the “Genie Study”
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Naturalistic _____________________________ Method
o Also called field study
o Study people in their natural environment
Laboratory ______________________________ Method
o An example is the Skinner- Box.
VIDEO: Explain the Skinner Box and its results
Analyzing Observations
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__________________________________- is a measure of how closely one thing is related to another
o The _____________________________ the correlation, the more closely related things are
Explain Positive Correlation – Give an example
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Explain Negative Correlation – Give an example
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Correlations describe relationships NOT ____________________ and _______________________.
The Experiment Method
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Participants receive a ________________________ such as a change in temperature or a pil
o Conditions may _________________ accurately reflect conditions in real life
Variables are factors that can vary or change
o __________________________________
_____________________________
 The factor or thing manipulated so researchers can determine its effect
o _________________________________
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Is DEPENDENT on the independent variable!!!
 Action brought about by a change
Ideal experiments use an experimental and a control group
o ________________________________ group receives the treatment
o ________________________________ group does NOT receive the treatment
Makes it possible for psychologists to conclude that the results were caused by the __________________ and NOT
something else
A ___________________________________ experiment happens when there is both an experimental and a control group
The Placebo Effect
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A ________________________ is a substance or treatment that has no effect apart from a person’s belief in it
o Explain Single-Blind studies
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Explain Double-Blind studies
Ethical Issues in Psychology
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____________________are standards for proper and responsible behavior
Specific guidelines have been established by the
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Research with People
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Confidentiality is important
Records must be sealed and _______________________________
Very rare circumstances, such as a person plans to harm someone, can allow psychologists to disregard confidentiality. This
is very rare.
________________________________________ is when people agree and are made aware of what the experiment will
mean for them in terms of physical, mental health, etc.
________________________________________ (or not giving the whole truth) is sometimes necessary to gain accurate
findings
APA states the deception may only be used when psychologists:
o Believe that the benefits of the research outweighs its _____________________________________________
o Believe that individuals would ________________________________________ anyway knowing the deception
o When participants receive an ________________________________________of the study after it has occurred
Research with Animals
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Psychologists use animals only when there is no__________________________________method and when they believe
that the __________________________________________ outweigh the harm
Animals used to be in experiments that are now deemed _________________________________________________
o Example: monkeys separated from their mothers at birth are no longer done to prove attachment theories
VIDEO: Describe the outdated animal research from the video. WHAT aspects of the testing do you believe makes it Unethical?
Ethics in Using Data
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Researchers need to be as____________________ as possible in planning their study and in collecting and analyzing data
Researchers must be willing to change opinions and research in light of unsupportive evidence
Unit 1 Assignments
Individual Assignments (BE PREPARED TO PRESENT AND DISCUSS!!!)
1. Completed note packet/10 point (Classwork/Quiz)
DUE DATE:_______________
2. Note Packet articles/10 points each article (Homework)
DUE DATE________________
Choose TWO of the brief articles and write a paragraph for each that summarizes the article, relates it to
something we have learned in class, and includes your OPINION or REACTION, i.e. what do you think about it?
3. Current Event Article/10 points (Homework)
DUE DATE________________
Find a current event article that somehow relates to what we have been learning in class, summary and reaction
4. Unit 1 Test/60 points (Test/Project)
DUE DATE________________
Group Assignment
1. Unethical Experiment Presentation/50 points (Test/Project)
DUE DATE_________________
Research one of the experiments and present to class, per assignment requirements