PSY 101 Study Guide Unit 1: Introducing Psychology
Learning Objective 1 (pp. 3-6): The World of Psychology: An Overview, Subfields of
Psychology, Biological Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology
1.
Define psychology and explain what psychologists do and what they study.
2.
What is positive psychology and what do positive psychologists focus on?
3.
What is the subfield of biological or physiological psychology? Be able to recognize
examples of the work done by psychologists in this subfield.
4.
What is the subfield of cognitive psychology? Be able to recognize examples of what
cognitive psychologists study.
5.
What is the subfield of engineering psychology? Be able to recognize examples of the work
done by psychologists in this subfield.
6.
What is the subfield of developmental psychology? Be able to recognize examples of the
work done by psychologists in this subfield.
Learning Objective 2 (pp. 6-7): Personality Psychology, Clinical, Counseling,
Community, and Health Psychology
1.
What is the subfield of personality psychology? Be able to recognize examples of the work
done by psychologists in this subfield.
2.
Describe what clinical and counseling psychologists do and study.
3.
What kind of work is done by community psychologists?
4.
What do health psychologists study? How is their research is applied?
5.
What educational backgrounds do clinical, counseling, community, and health
psychologists have? How do these differ from the training required to be a psychiatrist?
Learning Objective 3 (pp. 7-10): Educational and School Psychology, Social Psychology,
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Quantitative Psychology, Other Subfields
1.
What is the subfield of educational psychology? Be able to recognize examples of how this
subfield’s work is applied.
2.
What type of work did school psychologists traditionally do, and what additional activities
do they engage in today?
3.
What is the subfield of social psychology? Be able to recognize examples of the work done
by psychologists in this subfield.
4.
What is the subfield of industrial and organizational psychology? Be able to recognize
examples of the work done by psychologists in this subfield.
5.
What is the subfield of quantitative psychology? Be able to recognize examples of the work
done by psychologists in this subfield.
6.
Recognize the subfields of sport psychology, forensic psychology, and environmental
psychology.
Unit 1: Introducing Psychology Learning Objective 4 (pp. 10-13): A Brief History of Psychology, William James and
Functionalism, John B. Watson and Behaviorism, Psychology Today
1.
What is empiricism? Explain its importance to the field of psychology.
2.
What is a tabula rasa? How does the idea of tabula rasa apply to psychology?
3.
Who opened the first psychology laboratory?
4.
Define consciousness.
5.
What is introspection? Be able to identify examples of someone using this method.
6.
What is functionalism? How would a functionalist approach the study of consciousness?
7.
Explain what John Watson argued that psychology should be based on, and describe the
basic tenets of behaviorism.
8.
How has the idea of information processing influenced psychology?
Learning Objective 5 (pp. 14-16): Approaches to the Science of Psychology, The
Biological Approach, The Evolutionary Approach, The Psychodynamic Approach
1.
What is meant by an approach to psychology? What does it mean to be eclectic?
2.
What is the main assumption of the biological approach? Give examples of what biological
psychologists study.
3.
Explain the idea of natural selection, and the role of genetic adaptations in this theory.
4.
What is the primary assumption of the evolutionary approach to psychology?
5.
Who is the main psychologist associated with psychoanalysis and the psychodynamic
approach?
6.
According to the psychodynamic approach, what are the primary causes of behavior and
mental disorder?
Learning Objective 6 (pp. 16-19): The Behavioral Approach, The Cognitive Approach,
The Humanistic Approach
1.
What are the assumptions of the behavioral approach?
2.
What is the cognitive approach and what mental processes do cognitive psychologists
study?
3.
What fields does cognitive science encompass, and what kinds of topics do cognitive
scientists study?
4.
Describe the humanistic approach to psychology.
Learning Objective 7 (pp. 19-21): Human Diversity and Psychology
1.
What are sociocultural factors, and how can psychology take them into account?
2.
What is culture?
3.
Explain the difference between individualist and collectivist cultures, and identify the
countries and/or parts of the world associated with each type of culture.
4.
What are subcultures? What does multicultural mean?
5.
What is cross-cultural psychology?
PSY 101 Study Guide Learning Objective 8 (pp. 21-24): Research in Psychology, Thinking Critically About
Psychology (or Anything Else)
1.
What is critical thinking?
2.
What types of questions or problems can critical thinking can be applied to?
3.
Which five questions should be asked when applying critical thinking to better understand a
topic?
Learning Objective 9 (pp. 24-25): Critical Thinking and Scientific Research, Hypotheses
and Variables
1.
What is a hypothesis? What are some examples of hypotheses?
2.
What are operational definitions? Be able to recognize examples.
3.
What are research variables? What are some examples of research variables?
4.
Distinguish between variables and the operational definitions that may be used to describe
or study them.
Learning Objective 10 (pp. 25-26): Reliability and Validity of Data
1.
Describe data, and be able to recognize examples of data.
2.
What is statistical reliability? Be able to recognize examples of reliable data.
3.
What is statistical validity? Be able to recognize examples of valid data.
4.
What is replication, and what role does it play in assessing statistical reliability?
Learning Objective 11 (pp. 26-27): The Role of Theories, The Goals of Science
1.
Define theory.
2.
Explain the relationship between theories, hypotheses, and research.
3.
What is the law of parsimony, and how do psychologists use it?
4.
What are the four main goals psychologists strive to achieve in their research? Be able to
recognize examples of each of these goals.
Learning Objective 12 (pp. 27-31): Research Methods in Psychology, Observational
Methods: Watching Behavior, Case Studies: Taking a Closer Look, Surveys: Looking at
the Big Picture
1.
Describe the observational method of naturalistic observation.
2.
When is naturalistic observation a valuable research technique to use? Be able to recognize
examples.
3.
What are some of the problems with naturalistic observation? Are there ways around
some of these problems?
4.
Describe the research method of case studies. Be able to recognize examples of case study
research.
5.
What are the limitations of case studies?
6.
What are surveys?
7.
What are some limitations of surveys? What are the strengths of survey research?
Unit 1: Introducing Psychology Learning Objective 13 (pp. 31-32): Correlational Studies: Looking for Relationships
1.
What are correlational studies used to examine? What are some examples of correlations?
2.
What are the three ways of explaining the possible causes underlying a correlation?
3.
Why is it impossible for correlational research to identify the specific cause of a relationship
between variables?
Learning Objective 14 (pp. 32-33): Experiments: Exploring Cause and Effect
1.
What is an experiment? What is a cause-and-effect relationship between variables?
2.
What is the experimental group in an experiment, and what kind of treatment does it
receive?
3.
What is the control group in an experiment, and what is its purpose?
4.
What is the independent variable in an experiment, and why is it called “independent”?
Recognize examples of independent variables.
5.
What is the dependent variable in an experiment, and why is it called “dependent”?
Recognize examples of dependent variables.
6.
What are confounds, and what impact do they have on experiments? What are some
examples of confounds?
Learning Objective 15 (pp. 34-35): Random Variables, Participants’ Expectations: The
Placebo Effect, Experimenter Bias
1.
What are random variables?
2.
How does random assignment help experimenters control for the potential confounding
effects of random variables?
3.
What is the placebo effect?
4.
How do experimenters control for the potential confounding effects of placebos?
5.
What is experimenter bias? What are potential effects of experimenter bias?
6.
What is a double-blind design? How does it help experimenters control for the potential
confounding effects of experimenter bias?
Learning Objective 16 (pp. 35-37): Selecting Human Participants for Research
1.
What is sampling? Why is it important?
2.
What is representative sampling, and how can it be achieved?
3.
What is random sampling?
4.
What is biased sampling?
5.
What are convenience samples? Why are they often used?
6.
What cautions must psychologists take when using convenience samples?
Learning Objective 17 (pp. 37-41):
Genetics
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
PSY 101 Study Guide Psychological Research Methods and Behavioral
What is meant by nature?
What is meant by nurture?
Describe the field of behavioral genetics and some of the topics behavioral geneticists are
interested in.
What are family studies, and how are they conducted?
Why is it difficult to draw conclusions about the relative influence of nature and nature
from family studies alone?
What are twin studies and how are they conducted?
What are adoption studies, and how are they conducted?
How is behavioral genetics limited in determining the relative contributions of nature and
nurture to an individual’s traits?
What is the Human Genome Project?
Define epigenetics. How does epigenetic change take place?
Learning Objective 18 (pp. 41-42): Statistical Analysis of Research Results, Correlation
and Correlation Coefficients
1.
Define inferential statistics. How do descriptive statistics differ from inferential statistics?
2.
What is a correlation?
3.
What does a positive correlation mean?
4.
What does a negative correlation mean?
5.
What is the correlation coefficient? Within what range can it vary?
6.
How can you tell how strong a correlation is?
7.
What does the strength of the correlation mean?
Learning Objective 19 (pp. 42-44): Inferential Statistics,
as Tools in Critical Thinking
1.
How are inferential statistics used by psychologists?
2.
What is statistical significance?
Statistics and Research Methods
Learning Objective 20 (pp. 44-45): Ethical Guidelines for Psychologists
1.
Describe the ethical guideline of protection from harm.
2.
When and why is deception warranted in psychological research?
3.
What do psychologists have to do after they have deceived participants about the nature of
a research study?
4.
What is the role of an Institutional Review Board or IRB?
5.
Why are animals sometimes used in psychological research? What precautions are taken
when animals are used in psychological research?
6.
Describe psychologists’ ethical responsibility to protect and promote the welfare of society
in general and of the people with whom they work. In practical terms, what does this mean?