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1. What is the difference between basic
research & applied research?
 basic: research to expand our knowledge
 applied: use existing research to help others (do
not conduct their own research)
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2. What are the 4 major goals of
psychologists?
 to describe, explain, predict, and influence
behaviors & mental processes
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3. What is behavior genetics? What traits are
more likely to be similar in twins? What do
adopted children share more with their
biological parents? With their adoptive
parents?
 behavior genetics: examine the role of genes in
your behavior
 Twins: intelligence & emotional stability
 biological parents: personality traits
 adoptive parents: intelligence
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4. What are some things that can go wrong in
experiments (overconfidence, confirmation
bias, participant bias, hindsight bias)?
 overconfidence: being more sure of yourself or
your results than you should be
 confirmation bias: looking for results that will
agree with your hypothesis
 participant bias: research subjects acting how
they think you want them to act
 hindsight bias: believing you know the results all
along
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5. What is the difference between the 3
different types of research (descriptive,
correlation, & experimental)?
 descriptive: describing only what you see
 correlational: looking for a relationship between 2
variables
 experimental: manipulating a variable and
analyzing the results
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6. What did the Great Chocolate Experiment
teach us about sampling (i.e. what was wrong
with it)?
 sampling error: sample sizes can be too small to yield
accurate results
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7. Identify the hypothesis, independent variable,
& dependent variable of an experiment (define
them here).
 hypothesis: theory about what will happen
 independent variable: factor you will manipulate
 dependent variable: factor you will measure
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8. Be able to calculate the mean, median, &
mode of a set of data (define them here).
 mean: average
 median: middle number (data must be in
numerical order first)
 mode: number that occurs the most
Structuralism: Theory that conscious experience
could be understood by analyzing the basic
elements of thoughts and sensations.
 Functionalism: Studies consciousness in a way that
might help us adapt to our environment.
 Gestalt psychology: Psychological perspective that
emphasizes our need to integrate pieces into
meaningful wholes.
 Psychoanalysis: Theory that our thoughts and
actions can be attributed to unconscious motives,
actions, and past experiences.
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Behaviorism: Theory that psychology should
only study observable behaviors, not mental
processes.
Social-cultural: Studies how thinking and
behaviors change in groups.
Cognitive: Theory that focuses on how people
think – take in, process store, and retrieve
information.
Biological: Focuses on physical structures and
substances underlying our behaviors and
emotions.
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3. social-cultural: We behave that way bc
that’s how we responds in groups or our
society/culture values those behaviors
Psychoanalysis: something in our
unconscious or childhood experience
motivated us to act that way
Behavioral: we learned the behavior from
watching others
Cognitive: we took in & processed the
information & thought that we should do that