1.      Psychology- 

2.      Scientific method- 

• A systematic process used by psychologist for test hypotheses
• Ask a Question
• Do Background Research
• Construct a Hypothesis
• Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
• Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
• Communicate Your Results

 an explanation of why and how a behavior occurs.

 The view that all human mental experience can be understood as the combination of simple events or elements, and that the underlying structure of the human mind can be revealed by analyzing all basic elements of sensation. The study of the how and why of experience, associated with Wilhem Wundt.

     Introspection- 

     - The process of “looking inward” and examining one's self and one's own actions in order to gain insight. This was a central component to the early days of psychology during the Structuralist period. Wundt and other psychologists had people introspect and then report on their feelings, thoughts, etc. Of course, the problem with introspection is, if you are having some feeling and then you have to stop to think about and report on the feeling, you’ve just changed the experience and therefore, the feeling itself.

 The study of “WHAT FUNCTION DOES A BEHAVIOR HAVE?” Functionalism was the psychological school of thought that followed Structuralism and moved away from focusing on the structure of the mind to a concern with how the conscious is related to behavior... How does the mind affect what people do? One of the major proponents of Functionalism was Thorndike (created the ever-popular puzzle box) who studied the primary issue of functionalism...WHAT FUNCTION DOES A BEHAVIOR HAVE. In addition, this school of thought focused on observable events as opposed to unobservable events (like what goes on in

8.      Behaviorism 

A theory suggesting that learning occurs when an environmental stimulus triggers a response or behavior. It is based on the work of John Watson. Based on classical conditioning theory, behaviorism applies to educational practices that reward performance behaviors to encourage repetition of those behaviors. Rote memorization and drill-and-practice instruction are supported by behaviorists’ theory. It also denies the relevance of consciousness for the understanding of human behavior. Education examples include competency-based education and skill development.

 a perspective in psychology, that views every individual as unique and as possessing an inherent capacity for making rational choices, positive growth and ultimately, maximum potential.

- research field in psychology that focuses on mental processes used to acquire, store, retrieve and use knowledge.

- To understand behavior by understanding the biological processes associated with those behaviors. This includes the brain, nervous system, genetics, and more. This is becoming more prominent all the time.

- attempts to explain psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, that is, as the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection.

13.  Cognitive perspective- The Cognitive Perspective is the psychological viewpoint that the focuses on the how people (and other animals) process, store, and retrieve information and how this information is used to reason and solve problems. Obviously, the part about reasoning is generally reserved for humans, although there is some argument concerning the possibility that other animals also reason and engage in problem-solving behaviors.

14.  Psychodynamic perspective- systematized study and theory of the psychological forces that underlie human behavior, emphasizing the interplay between unconscious and conscious motivation. This psychological perspective originated from Freudian psychoanalysis which emphasizes the unconscious components such as conflicts, instinctual energies, etc.

15.  Behavior perspective- A school or system of psychology associated with the name of John B. Watson; it defined psychology as the study of behavior and limited the data of psychology to observable activities. In its classical form it was more restrictive than the contemporary behavioral viewpoint in psychology.The behavioral approach was founded by John B. Watson and originally rejected the study of mental processes in favor of the study of overt behavior (observable behavior) and external factors – study of observable events. The behaviorists believed all behavior was determined by stimuli in the environment. Today, this approach still stresses the importance of the environment on behavior, but also allows for inclusion of cognitive processes and feelings (early behaviorists rejected cognition in the study of behavior).

16.  Sociocultural Perspective- The theory that abnormal behavior is the product of broad social forces and conditions such as poverty, urbanization, and inequality.

17.  Humanistic perspective- This is the psychological perspective popularized by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow (hierarchy of needs) that emphasizes the human capacity for choice and growth. The overriding assumption is that humans have free will and are not simply fated to behave in specific ways or are zombies blindly reacting to their environments. So, the Humanists stated that the subject matter or psychology (what psychology should focus on) is the human subjective experience of the world - how humans experience things, why they experience things, etc.

18.  Eclectic approach- An approach to looking at topics within psychology using multiple psychological perspectives.

19.  Basic Research- As opposed to applied research, basic research is conducted with the intent of increasing the scientific knowledge base, and to find theoretical truth and understanding (not specifically to solve practical problems). For example, someone conducting basic research on cheating behavior may design a study examining whether students from divorced families cheat more often than students not from divorced families. Notice that the research is not done to reduce cheating, help people who cheat, or any other "applied" aspect, but to increase the understanding of cheating behavior.

20.  Applied Research- As opposed to basic research, applied research is the type of research which is conducted to solve practical problems, find cures to illnesses, develop therapies with the purpose of helping people, and other similar types of practical problem-solving research.

21.  Prediction- The second objective of the scientific method: the ability to predict the relationship between events

22.  Hypothesis- A testable prediction about the relationship between at least two events, characteristics, or variables. [image]

23.  Predictive Hypothesis - a hypothesis that predicts the nature of a relationship among the variables to be studied

24.   Casual hypothesis-

25.  Population of interest-

26.  Sample- When conducting research there are lots of factors to consider. Psychologists may want to study, for example, the effect of some new test on all college students in the world (which would be considered the "popuation"), but this is obviously not possible. Instead, what they do is test a smaller group of college students, known as a sample. In this example, everyone who could possibly be a participant in the study (meaning, all college students) is part of the population. Thus, a sample is a relatively small number of participants drawn from an entire population.

27.  Naturalistic observation- Researchers use all sorts of techniques to collect data, ranging from very controlled lab experiments to natural observation. With naturalistic observation the researcher allows behavior to occur without interference or intervention at all. We all do this type of research when we do things like people watch. This is a great way to study behavior in "real settings" and to see behavior occur in its most natural state. The problem is that it's often difficult to study the behaviors you're most interested in without being intrusive.

28.  Case Study- A case study is one type of observational data collection technique in which one individual is studied in-depth in order to identify behavioral, emotional, and/or cognitive qualities that are universally true, on average, of others. Case studies often include face-to-face interviews, paper and pencil tests, and more.

29.  Generalizability- Generalizing or Generalizability is another way of saying "ecological validity". Essentially this is the extent to which findings (from a study) can be generalized (or extended) to the those in natural settings (i.e., outside the lab). In virtually all studies there is a trade-off between experimental control and generalizability, but obviously you want to have both. The more control psychologists exert in a study the less they may be able to generalize. For example, when we take people out of their natural environment and study them in the lab, we are exerting some control over them and, as a result, possibly limiting how much we can generalize the findings to all people in natural settings.

30.  Correlation-A correlation is a statistical index used to represent the strength of a relationship between two factors, how much and in what way those factors vary, and how well one factor can predict the other. Using correlations does NOT (I repeat, does not) provide you with cause and effect information; it will not tell you if one factor causes or is caused by the other. This fact was an important component in the court cases against the tobacco companies that occurred in the late 1990's. The studies conducted previously on the effects of smoking indicated a positive correlation between smoking and cancer. This means that the studies found that as the rate of smoking increased, so did the occurrence of cancer; smoking goes up, presence of cancer goes up. BUT, this does not demonstrate that smoking causes cancer (does anyone disagree that it does?), only that there is a relationship between the two factors.

31.  Positive correlation- An average association between two variables in which, as one variable increases in value, the other variable tends to increase in value; and as one variable decreases in value, the other variable tends to decrease in value. Example
The speed at which a car travels is positively correlated with the probability of the car being involved in an accident: the faster the car travels, the greater the probability that the car will be involved in an accident.

32.  Negative correlation- An average association between two variables in which, as one variable increases in value, the other variable tends to decrease in value, and vice versa.

33.  Experiment- The strongest test of hypotheses about cause and effect in which an investigator carefully controls conditions and takes measurements to discover the causal relationships among variables.

34.  Independent variable- A variable that is independent of what the participant does.

35.  Dependent variable-A variable that is hypothesized to depend on the value of the independent variable.

36.  Confounded variables- Variables that are mixed together to such an extent that it is impossible to distinguish their independent effects on another variable.

37.  Random Assignment- Random assignment of participants to experimental conditions is a commonly used experimental technique to help ensure that the treatment group and the control group are the same before treatment. For example, let us assume that we're curious to know the effects of eating an apple a day on your health (measured by blood pressure). One way of designing the study would be to select a sample of people and divide them into a control group (i.e., those who don't have an apple a day) and a treatment group (i.e., those who do have an apple a day). How do you decide to divide your subjects? The best way is to do it randomly in order to cancel out the idiosyncrasies of your subject pool. Imagine if you decided to choose the groups based on cholesterol intake. You decide to have the low cholesterol group in the control group and the high cholesterol group in the treatment group. Would this bias the results of your study? Yes. Since cholesterol affects blood pressure, you as an experimenter would not know if the changes in health were due to the apple a day or the amount of cholesterol intake.

38.  Quasi-experiment- an experimental design whereby the experimenter does not directly influence participant allocation to different conditions, but instead utilises existing groupings.

39.  Institutional Review Board (IRB)- institutional review board (IRB), also known as anindependent ethics committee (IEC) or ethical review board (ERB), is a committee that has been formally designated to approve, monitor, and review biomedical and behavioral research involving humans with the aim to protect the rights and welfare of the research subjects.

40.  Informed Consent- A process by which a potential participant is told about all aspects of the research study that are relevant to the subject’s decision to participate, including possible physical or psychological harms that may result from his or her participation. After being informed of these aspects, the potential participant either agrees or refuses to participate in the research study.

41.   Confidentiality- ?

42.  When a study or experiment ends, researchers are required to "debrief" participants. In a "debriefing" a researcher explains the purpose of the study, explains the use of deception (if any was used), encourages the participant to ask questions about the study, and allows the researcher to address any harm to the participant that may have resulted from their participation in the study. Debriefing is important to make sure the participant does not feel harmed from the

15.  Behavior perspective- 

A school or system of psychology associated with the name of John B. Watson; it defined psychology as the study of behavior and limited the data of psychology to observable activities. In its classical form it was more restrictive than the contemporary behavioral viewpoint in psychology.The behavioral approach was founded by John B. Watson and originally rejected the study of mental processes in favor of the study of overt behavior (observable behavior) and external factors – study of observable events. The behaviorists believed all behavior was determined by stimuli in the environment. Today, this approach still stresses the importance of the environment on behavior, but also allows for inclusion of cognitive processes and feelings (early behaviorists rejected cognition in the study of behavior).

16.  Sociocultural Perspective- 

The theory that abnormal behavior is the product of broad social forces and conditions such as poverty, urbanization, and inequality.

17.  Humanistic perspective- 

This is the psychological perspective popularized by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow (hierarchy of needs) that emphasizes the human capacity for choice and growth. The overriding assumption is that humans have free will and are not simply fated to behave in specific ways or are zombies blindly reacting to their environments. So, the Humanists stated that the subject matter or psychology (what psychology should focus on) is the human subjective experience of the world - how humans experience things, why they experience things, etc.

 An approach to looking at topics within psychology using multiple psychological perspectives.

 As opposed to applied research, basic research is conducted with the intent of increasing the scientific knowledge base, and to find theoretical truth and understanding (not specifically to solve practical problems). For example, someone conducting basic research on cheating behavior may design a study examining whether students from divorced families cheat more often than students not from divorced families. Notice that the research is not done to reduce cheating, help people who cheat, or any other "applied" aspect, but to increase the understanding of cheating behavior.

As opposed to basic research, applied research is the type of research which is conducted to solve practical problems, find cures to illnesses, develop therapies with the purpose of helping people, and other similar types of practical problem-solving research.

- The second objective of the scientific method: the ability to predict the relationship between events

A testable prediction about the relationship between at least two events, characteristics, or variables. [image]

 - a hypothesis that predicts the nature of a relationship among the variables to be studied

24.   Casual hypothesis-

 When conducting research there are lots of factors to consider. Psychologists may want to study, for example, the effect of some new test on all college students in the world (which would be considered the "popuation"), but this is obviously not possible. Instead, what they do is test a smaller group of college students, known as a sample. In this example, everyone who could possibly be a participant in the study (meaning, all college students) is part of the population. Thus, a sample is a relatively small number of participants drawn from an entire population.

 Researchers use all sorts of techniques to collect data, ranging from very controlled lab experiments to natural observation. With naturalistic observation the researcher allows behavior to occur without interference or intervention at all. We all do this type of research when we do things like people watch. This is a great way to study behavior in "real settings" and to see behavior occur in its most natural state. The problem is that it's often difficult to study the behaviors you're most interested in without being intrusive.

- A case study is one type of observational data collection technique in which one individual is studied in-depth in order to identify behavioral, emotional, and/or cognitive qualities that are universally true, on average, of others. Case studies often include face-to-face interviews, paper and pencil tests, and more.

 Generalizing or Generalizability is another way of saying "ecological validity". Essentially this is the extent to which findings (from a study) can be generalized (or extended) to the those in natural settings (i.e., outside the lab). In virtually all studies there is a trade-off between experimental control and generalizability, but obviously you want to have both. The more control psychologists exert in a study the less they may be able to generalize. For example, when we take people out of their natural environment and study them in the lab, we are exerting some control over them and, as a result, possibly limiting how much we can generalize the findings to all people in natural settings.

A correlation is a statistical index used to represent the strength of a relationship between two factors, how much and in what way those factors vary, and how well one factor can predict the other. Using correlations does NOT (I repeat, does not) provide you with cause and effect information; it will not tell you if one factor causes or is caused by the other. This fact was an important component in the court cases against the tobacco companies that occurred in the late 1990's. The studies conducted previously on the effects of smoking indicated a positive correlation between smoking and cancer. This means that the studies found that as the rate of smoking increased, so did the occurrence of cancer; smoking goes up, presence of cancer goes up. BUT, this does not demonstrate that smoking causes cancer (does anyone disagree that it does?), only that there is a relationship between the two factors.

- An average association between two variables in which, as one variable increases in value, the other variable tends to increase in value; and as one variable decreases in value, the other variable tends to decrease in value. Example
The speed at which a car travels is positively correlated with the probability of the car being involved in an accident: the faster the car travels, the greater the probability that the car will be involved in an accident.

- An average association between two variables in which, as one variable increases in value, the other variable tends to decrease in value, and vice versa.

- The strongest test of hypotheses about cause and effect in which an investigator carefully controls conditions and takes measurements to discover the causal relationships among variables.

 A variable that is independent of what the participant does.

A variable that is hypothesized to depend on the value of the independent variable.

- Variables that are mixed together to such an extent that it is impossible to distinguish their independent effects on another variable.

- Random assignment of participants to experimental conditions is a commonly used experimental technique to help ensure that the treatment group and the control group are the same before treatment. For example, let us assume that we're curious to know the effects of eating an apple a day on your health (measured by blood pressure). One way of designing the study would be to select a sample of people and divide them into a control group (i.e., those who don't have an apple a day) and a treatment group (i.e., those who do have an apple a day). How do you decide to divide your subjects? The best way is to do it randomly in order to cancel out the idiosyncrasies of your subject pool. Imagine if you decided to choose the groups based on cholesterol intake. You decide to have the low cholesterol group in the control group and the high cholesterol group in the treatment group. Would this bias the results of your study? Yes. Since cholesterol affects blood pressure, you as an experimenter would not know if the changes in health were due to the apple a day or the amount of cholesterol intake.

 an experimental design whereby the experimenter does not directly influence participant allocation to different conditions, but instead utilises existing groupings.

-also known as an independent ethics committee (IEC) or ethical review board (ERB), is a committee that has been formally designated to approve, monitor, and review biomedical and behavioral research involving humans with the aim to protect the rights and welfare of the research subjects.

 A process by which a potential participant is told about all aspects of the research study that are relevant to the subject’s decision to participate, including possible physical or psychological harms that may result from his or her participation. After being informed of these aspects, the potential participant either agrees or refuses to participate in the research study.

41.   Confidentiality- ?