TEST BANK -- SUMMARY INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY, 8TH EDITION BY PETER O. GRAY (AUTHOR), DAVID BJORKLUND (AUTHOR)PART 1 (PB0014) -- SAMENVATTING INLEIDING TOT DE PSYCHOLOGIE, 8E EDITIE DOOR PETER O. GR...
Introduction to Psychology (Ch.1-16)
Samenvatting Psychology - Introductory Psychology and Brain & Cognition (7201702PXY)
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Introduction to Psychology (6461PS002)
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Intro to Psychology Summary
Summaries chapters 1-4
Chapter 1 Background to the study of psychology
Psychology = the science of behaviour and the mind
● Founding of psychology
- Wilhelm Wundt opened the first university teaching psychology.
- The basis of psychology does not start with Wundt but by philosophers,
physicists and naturalists. The fundamental ideas were all thought of before
psychology but acted as building blocks.
1. Behaviour and mental experiences have physical causes that can be studied
scientifically.
- The idea of dualism, reinforced by the church.
- Descartes ideas, focusing on the body. His ideas were similar to our idea of
reflexes. Complex behaviour is possible without the soul’s involvement,
purely mechanical. Humans are the only ones who can use thought. The
mind-body problem, limiting.
- Hobbes believed that nothing exists but matter and energy. Materialism.
Therefore, human behaviour can be studied, it is just processes in the body.
- Nineteenth-century: Reflexes were better understood, lead to reflexology.
- Understanding of the brain leads to the concept of localization of function in
the brain, phrenology → pseudoscience, that everything can be located in
the brain.
2. The way people behave, think, and feel is modified over time by their experiences in
the environment.
- Empiricism (Brittish), by Locke - Tabua Rasa.
- Association by contiguity, the idea that if two environmental events occur
close in space and time they will be linked together. There is no free will, just
reflections of experiences.
- John Stuart Mill explained this sort of analysis as “mental chemistry”,
meaning that complex ideas are formed from combining elementary ones like
chemical compounds are formed from chemical elements.
- Empiricism opposite is Nativism (German), the formation of human
knowledge is native to the mind, does not have to be acquired from the
environment.
, - Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Immanuel Kant. Kant came up with priori
and a-posteriori knowledge.
3. The body’s machinery, which produces behaviour and mental experiences, is a
product of evolution by natural selection.
- Charles Darwin - Natural selection. Biological ground for psychology.
● Scope of Psychology
- Behaviour can be studied on different levels.
● Biological processes
- Neural - behavioural neuroscience. Focus on the brain. Often using brain
scanning or the effect of brain damage.
- Physiological - Biopsychology. Hormones, chemical functions. How they
affect behaviour.
- Genetic - behavioural genetics. Difference between people due to difference
in genes. Twin studies.
- Evolutionary - Why did certain behaviour evolve, and how did it help
survival?
● Environment, knowledge and development
- Learning - How past experiences affect behaviour. Also called behavioural
psychology.
- Cognitive - Knowledge and beliefs. Cannot be studied directly.
- Social - The influence of others.
- Cultural - The culture that a person develops in, based on customs and
beliefs.
- Developmental - Age-related changes in behaviour.
Chapter 2 - Methods of Psychology
- Observation - an objective that observers believe is true.
- Theory - an idea that explains the observation and predicts new ones.
- Hypothesis - prediction based on the theory
● Lessons about scientific research
1. The value of scepticism (always try to find other explanations to disproof)
2. The value of careful observations under controlled conditions (see so that
there are no extractions)
3. The problem of observer-expectancy effect (always try to stay neutral)
● Types of research strategy
1. Research designs
, ● Experiments → testing a hypothesis of two cause-effect variables.
Independent variable causing the effect, the Dependent variable is being
effected.
- Within-subject experiments: Each subject is tested in the different
conditions of the independent variable.
- Between-groups experiments: different groups for different conditions.
● Correlational studies: no manipulation of variables, just determining
variables and observing how they change. No cause-effect relationship can be
determined.
● Descriptive studies: describing behaviour without assessing relationships of
variables.
2. Research settings
● Field → real-life settings, no control of the environment. Good because it’s
more natural, but not as reliable.
● Laboratory → Specific area, control over variables. Might change
behaviour to less natural
3. Data-collection methods
● Self-report → People rate or describe their own behaviour, usually through
questionnaires. Commonly used by Wundt, but it is highly subjective
since ones own descriptions cannot be proven.
● Observation → observing and recording without self-reports.
- Tests - problems, tasks or situations are presented to subject to see how
they respond.
- Naturalistic observation - No interfering, just observing the behaviour
● Hawthorne effect: Change in behaviour due to observation. Can
be minimized by habituation, when the stimulus is present for
a longer time.
● Statistical Methods in Psychology
1. Descriptive statistics - All numerical methods of summarizing data.
● Describing a set of scores
- Mean - arithmetic average
- Median - centre score, putting all scores in order and taking the middle
- Standard deviation - measuring variability, how much the scores vary
from the mean.
● Describing a correlation
- Correlation coefficient - can be used when both variables are
measured numerically, determines strength and direction. Ranges from
-1.00 to +1.00, indicates strength when 0 is no correlation. When one
variable increases, the other tends to do the same.
- Scatter plots can be used to visualize this
, 2. Inferential statistics - Determines that relationships observed are real and repeatable
and not due to chance.
● Testing of statistical significance
- P-values - Probability values, indicating the probability due to chance.
Must be lower than 5%/0,05. To increase the likelihood that results are
statistically significant a large observed effect, a large number of
observations and a small degree of variability in scores within a group
reduces the chances.
● Minimizing bias in psychological research
- Bias: non-random effects caused by some factor or factors unrelated to the
hypothesis. Different from random variation, which is natural and might just
affect the statistical significance, while bias might lead to the wrong
conclusions.
- Avoiding biased samples: when some members of the intended population are
less likely to be included, and the sample is not a reflection of reality.
- Most research is done with subjects fitting WEIRD - Western, Educated,
Industrialized, Rich and Democratic. This is not a reliable sample for all of
humankind.
● Reliability and Validity of Measurements
● Reliability - measurement error. A measure is reliable if it consistently leads to the
same results under particular conditions (replicability).
- Interobserver reliability - the same behaviour is seen by multiple observers.
- Operational definition - Defining exactly what is measured and how
beforehand.
● Validity - A measurement procedure is valid if it measures or predicts what it
intended to.
- A procedure can be reliable but not valid!
- Lack of validity can be a source of bias.
- Face validity - if measurement procedure measures what it is supposed to.
- Criterion validity: A measure correlating with a more direct way of
measuring the variable.
● Avoiding observer-expectancy and subject-expectancy effects
- Observer expectancy - Researcher has expectations, which can lead to bias.
A way to avoid is through blinding, having someone observe who doesn’t
know the desired behaviour.
- Subject expectancy - Subjects feel like they are supposed to act a certain way.
Can be avoided with a double-blind experiment - e.g. placebos.
● Ethical issues in psychological research
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