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Title: The%20Story%20of%20Psychology


1
The Story of Psychology
  • Chapter 1

2
Whats in this Chapter?
  • Where did psychology come from anyway?
  • Schools of thought
  • Why do we need psychology?
  • applications of psychological knowledge
  • So whats the big deal?
  • major issues

3
What is Psychology?
  • Psychology
  • The science of behavior (what we do) and mental
    processes (sensations, perceptions, dreams,
    thoughts, beliefs, feelings)

4
4 Broad Divisions of Psychology
  • Physical characteristics
  • Cognitive activities
  • Emotional states
  • Environmental factors

5
Psychological Research
  • Majority of research is performed on animals
  • Animals make useful subjects for the following
    reasons
  • Longer periods of study
  • Shorter life spans
  • The good subject unaware of experiment
  • Cats often used for neurophysiology experiments
  • Unfortunately, they have been used unethically
    (guidelines created to protect)
  • Remarkable similarities in human processes
  • Explains hunger, thirst, reproduction,/ Provides
    info on vision, taste, hearing, and pain
    perception/Understanding of genetic vulnerability
    to drug dependence

6
General Purpose of Psychology
  • To acquire basic knowledge about behavior
  • To apply to specific situations
  • To apply to clinical situations
  • To apply to society at large

7
Psychological Perspectives
  • Biological (neuroscience)
  • Study of the physiological mechanisms in the
    brain and nervous system that organize and
    control behavior
  • Interest in BEHAVIOR distinguishes from many
    other biological sciences
  • Focus may range from individual neurons, areas of
    the brain, or specific fxns like eating, emotion,
    or learning

8
Psychological Perspectives
  • Evolutionary (ethology)
  • The study of animal behavior in the natural
    environment rather than in a lab setting
  • Focuses on how the natural selection of traits
    promotes the perpetuation of ones genes
  • Influenced by Darwin and the emphasis on innate,
    adaptive, behavior patterns
  • European approach to studying behavior founded by
    animal researchers, Lorenz Tinbergen

9
Psychological Perspectives
  • Behavioral Perspective
  • How we learn from observable behavior
  • Involves what comes before behavior
  • What comes after the behavior to reinforce it OR
    punish it
  • Classical conditioning
  • Operant conditioning
  • Observation learning

10
Psychological Perspectives
  • Behavior genetics
  • How much our genes and our environment influence
    our individual difference
  • To what extent are personality traits,
    intelligence, sexual orientation, mental
    disorders, etc. attributable to our genes or
    environment?
  • Nature vs. Nurture field of study!!!!!! ?

11
Psychological Perspectives
  • Psychodynamic (Sigmund Freud)
  • how behavior springs from unconscious drives and
    conflicts
  • Both a method of treatment and a theory of the
    mind
  • Behavior reflects combinations of conscious and
    unconscious influences
  • Drives urges within the unconscious component
    of the mind influence thought and behavior
  • Early childhood experiences shape unconscious
    motivations

12
Psychological Perspectives
  • Cognitive
  • How knowledge is encoded, processed, stored, and
    retrievedand used to guide behavior
  • Influences Include
  • Piaget- studied intellectual development
  • Chomsky- studied language
  • Cybernetics- science of information processing

13
Psychological Perspectives
  • Social-cultural/cross-cultural
  • How behavior and thinking vary across situations
    and cultures
  • Studies differences among people living in
    different cultural groups
  • How are peoples thoughts, feelings and behavior
    influenced by their culture?
  • What are common elements across culture?
  • Uses cross-cultural studies to find cultural
    universals and relativism

14
Psychological Perspectives
  • Humanistic
  • View of behavior based on experience in treating
    patients
  • Humanistic Approach
  • Dev. By Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers
  • Behavior reflects innate needs to be loved, to
    mate, etc.
  • Focus on conscious thinking and self-perception
  • More positive view than Freuds
  • Self-awareness free will are emphasized

15
Discussion
  • Describe the expressed emotion/behavior according
    to each of the current psychological
    perspectives
  • I am depressed.

16
All Hands on DECK
  • Current Psychological Perspectives
  • Turn to page 11 in your textbook
  • Get your index cards out make flash cards of
    theses terms and use Triggers

17
History of Psychology
  • Stone ages mental illness was caused by evil
    spirits, practice known as Trephining was used to
    treat mental illnesses
  • Ancient World (4000BC-500AD)
  • Greeks Romans believed evil spirits were
  • the cause or the gods were punishing people
  • Hippocrates Father of Modern Science
  • believed mental illness had natural causes
  • Some traits were inherited
  • others by injury to the head

18
History of Psychology
  • The Middle Ages (500-1500 AD)
  • Mental Illness was caused by
  • Demonic possession
  • Witchcraft
  • Heresy
  • Treatment included
  • Imprisonment, torture, death
  • Blood letting, leaching
  • Scientific study was forbidden by the church

19
History of Psychology
  • Scientic Revolution (17th Century)
  • Attempts to find physical causes for
    psychological traits
  • Brought about search for natural causes of
    biological processes
  • The scientific method was born

20
Prescientific Psychology
  • Gave rise to questions such as
  • Is the mind connected to the body or distinct?
  • Are ideas inborn or is the mind a blank slate
    filled with experience?
  • Socrates Plato
  • viewed the mind as separate from the body and
    continuing after death

21
Prescientific Psychology
  • Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
  • Agreed with Socrates Plato
  • Led to this conclusion with his study of animals
    and reflexes
  • However, thought animal spirits were in the
    brain fluid flowing through nervescreating
    movement/reflexes
  • John Locke (1632-1704)
  • Wrote essay stating that the mind is a Tabula
    Rasa
  • blank slate
  • Rejected Descartes and helped form modern
    empiricism, which the idea that knowledge comes
    through experience thru senses science based on
    observation and experimentation

22
Nature Vs. Nurture
  • Nativism elementary idea that ideas are innate
    (nature) inborn, inherited, instinctive
  • Thus, there is a debate between Nativism and
    Empiricism, which in psychology is the age long
    debate of
  • NATURE Vs. NURTURE
  • Hint some blend together in the Behavior
    Genetics perspective
  • Ex. Is intelligence determined by our genes or
    our experiences? personality?

23
Psychology as a Science
  • Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
  • Est. the 1st psychological laboratory in Leipzig,
    Germany
  • Applied lab techniques to study of the mind
  • Study of reaction time to hearing a ball hit a
    platform (sensory stimulation) and pressing a
    telegraph key
  • Wrote the 1st psychology textbook
  • Father of Psychology

24
Psychology as a Science
  • Edward Titchener
  • Wundts student who brought the study of
    psychology to the United States
  • Due to his techniques of studying the mind, he is
    linked to Structuralism the practice of using
    introspection (looking inward) to explore the
    elemental structure of the human mind
  • Charles Darwin
  • -evolutionary theorist whose big idea was natural
    selection or the idea that nature selects those
    organisms best able to survive and reproduce in
    an environment

25
Psychology as a Science
  • William James
  • Thought it was most beneficial to consider the
    evolved functions of thoughts and feelings
  • Philosophical basis in pragmatism- testing the
    truth by practical consequences
  • Associated with functionalism school of
    psychology focused on how mental and behavioral
    processes function- how they enable the organism
    to adapt, survive, and flourish

26
Contemporary Psychology
  • Subfields of Psychology
  • Basic Research pure science aimed to increase
    knowledge base
  • 1. Biological psychologists explore the links
    between brain and mind
  • 2. Developmental psychologists study the changing
    abilities from womb to tomb
  • 3. Cognitive psychologists study how we perceive,
    think, and solve problems
  • 4. Personality psychologists investigate our
    persistent traits
  • 5. Social psychologists explore how we view and
    affect one another

27
Contemporary Psychology
  • Subfields of Psychology
  • Applied Research scientific study aimed to solve
    practical problems
  • 1. Industrial/organizational psychologists study
    and advise on behavior in the workplace
  • 2. Clinical psychologists study ,assess, and
    treat people with psychological disorders
  • 3. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who also
    perform psychotherapy and are licensed to
    prescribe drugs with treatment part of branch of
    medicine dealing with psychological disorders

28
Where Are Psychologists Employed
29
Research Areas in Psychology
30
Professional Specialties
31
Themes in Psychology
  • Psychology is
  • Empirical
  • Theoretically Diverse
  • Sociohistorical Context
  • Behavior is
  • Determined by Multiple Causes
  • Shaped by Cultural Heritage
  • Influenced by Heredity Environment
  • Experience is
  • Highly Subjective

32
Practice Test
  • For which of the following is Wilhelm Wundt
    primarily known?
  • The establishment of the first formal laboratory
    for research in psychology
  • The distinction between mind and body as two
    separate entities
  • The discovery of how signals are conducted along
    nerves in the body
  • The development of the first formal program for
    training in psychotherapy

33
Practice Test
  • 2. G. stanley Hall is noteworthy in the history
    of psychology because he
  • a. established the first American research
    laboratory in psychology
  • b. launched Americas first psychological journal
  • c. was the driving force behind the establishment
    of the American Psychological Association
  • d. did all of the above

34
Practice Test
  • 3. Which of the following approaches might
    William James criticize for examining a movie
    frame by frame instead of seeing the motion in
    the motion picture?
  • a. structuralism
  • b. functionalism
  • c. dualism
  • d. humanism

35
Practice Test
  • 4. Which of the following approaches might
    suggest that forgetting to pick his mother up at
    the airport was Henrys unconscious way of saying
    that he did not welcome her visit?
  • a. psychoanalytic
  • b. behavioral
  • c. humanistic
  • d. cognitive

36
Practice Test
  • 5. Fred, a tennis coach, insists that he can make
    any reasonably healthy individual into an
    internationally competitive tennis player. Fred
    is echoing the thoughts of
  • a. Sigmund Freud
  • b. John B. Watson
  • c. Abraham Maslow
  • d. William James

37
Practice Test
  • 6. Which of the following is a statement with
    which Skinners followers would agree?
  • Most behavior is controlled by unconscious forces
  • The goal of behavior is self-actualization
  • Nature is more influential than nurture
  • Free will is an illusion

38
Practice Test
  • 7. Which of the following approaches has the most
    optimistic view of human nature
  • a. humanism
  • b. behaviorism
  • c. psychoanalysis
  • d. structuralism

39
Practice Test
  • 8. Which of the following historical events
    created a demand for clinicians that was far
    greater than the supply?
  • a. World War I
  • b. the Depression
  • c. World War II
  • d. the Korean War

40
Practice Test
  • 9. Which of the following is not an important
    interest of the positive psychology movement?
  • a. positive institutions and communities
  • b. positive symptoms in mental disorders
  • c. positive subjective experiences
  • d. positive individual traits

41
Practice Test
  • 10. The study of the endocrine system and genetic
    mechanisms would most likely be undertaken by a
  • a. clinical psychologist
  • b. physiological psychologist
  • c. social psychologist
  • d. educational psychologist

42
Practice Test
  • 11. The fact that psychologists do not all agree
    about the nature and development of personality
    demonstrates
  • that there are many ways of looking at the same
    phenomenon
  • The fundamental inability of psychologists t work
    together in developing a single theory
  • The failure of psychologists to communicate with
    one another
  • The possibility that personality may simply be
    incomprehensible

43
Practice Test
  • 12. A multifactorial causation approach to
    behavior suggests that
  • a. most behaviors can be explained best by
    single-cause explanations
  • b. Most behavior is governed by a complex network
    of interrelated factors
  • c. Data must be subjected to rigorous statistical
    analysis in order to make sense
  • d. Explanations of behavior tend to build up from
    the simple to the complex in a hierarchical manner

44
Practice Test
  • 13. Psychologys answer to the question of
    whether we are born or made tends to be
  • a. we are born
  • b. we are made
  • c. we are both born and made
  • d. neither

45
Practice Test
  • 14. In regard to changing answers on
    multiple-choice tests, research indicates that
    _____ changes tend to be more common than other
    types of changes.
  • Wrong to right
  • Right to wrong
  • Wrong to wrong

46
Practice Test
  • 15. Critical thinking skills
  • a. are abstract abilities that cannot be
    identified
  • b. usually develop spontaneously without any
    instruction
  • c. usually develop spontaneously without any
    instruction
  • d. need to be deliberately taught, because they
    often do not develop by themselves with standard
    content instruction

47
Chapter 2 The Research Enterprise of Psychology
48
Example of Hindsight Bias
Psychologists have found that separation
weakens attraction out of sight-out of mind
  • Fact
  • Psychologists have found that separation
    strengthens romantic attraction absence makes
    the heart grow fonder

49
What we strive for is
  • Science A process that combines rationalism and
    empiricism.
  • Rationalism uses existing ideas and the
    principles of logic to develop new valid ideas.
  • How we develop a theory.
  • Empiricism Gaining knowledge by observing
    events. 
  • How we test the validity of the theory.

50
The Need for Psychological Science
  • Critical Thinking
  • thinking that does not blindly accept arguments
    and conclusions
  • examines assumptions
  • discerns hidden values
  • evaluates evidence
  • assesses conclusions

The Amazing RandiSkeptic
51
Steps in a Scientific Investigation
Hypothesis Students who study over a span of 3
weeks before a test perform better than those who
wait until the night before
Data Collection
Report Findings
Method
Analysis
52
  • Theory
  • an explanation using an integrated set of
    principles that organizes and predicts
    observations
  • Hypothesis (Step 1)
  • a testable prediction
  • often implied by a theory
  • gives direction in research

53
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54
  • Operational Definition
  • a statement of procedures (operations) used to
    define research variables
  • Facilitates replication of research
  • Example
  • intelligence may be operationally defined as what
    an intelligence test measures, Some theories of
    intelligence include artistic and musical
    abilities others do not and cover spatial
    reasoning, verbal reasoning, sequencing, etc.
  • Example
  • Classroom rule SHOW RESPECT follow a directive
    within 5 secs say yes maam

55
  • Replication
  • repeating the essence of a research study to see
    whether the basic finding extends to other
    participants and circumstances
  • usually with different participants in different
    situations
  • Meta-analysis
  • Combination of statistical results of many
    studies of the same question, yielding an
    estimate of the size and consistency of a
    variables effects

56
Research Methods (Step 2 3 Design a study
Collect Data)
  • Three types of research methods
  • Research that describes only (descriptive)
  • 2. Research that describes and predicts behavior
    (correlational)
  • 3. Research that describes, predicts and explains
    behavior (experimentation)

57
Descriptive Research
  • Psychologists describe behavior using case
    studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation
  • Example Shawna appeared fatigued. She closed
    her eyes often and only spoke once during the
    entire 50-minute class period.

58
  • Case Study
  • observation technique in which one person is
    studied in depth in the hope of revealing
    universal principals
  • Advantages?
  • Disadvantages?

Is language uniquely human?
59
  • Survey
  • technique for ascertaining
  • the self-reported attitudes
  • or behaviors of people
  • usually by questioning a
  • representative, random
  • sample of people
  • Watch for
  • wording effects- heavy
  • or leading words
  • Social desirability bias- socially
  • approved answers
  • Response set- responding that is not related to
    content
  • Halo effect- overall outside evaluation sways
    ratings

60
Additional Survey Issues
  • False Consensus Effect
  • tendency to overestimate
  • the extent to which others
  • share our beliefs and
  • behaviors

61
  • Population
  • all the cases in a group, from which samples may
    be drawn for a study
  • Random Sample
  • a sample that fairly represents a population
    because each member has an equal chance of
    inclusion in the study

62
Not what We Want
63
Not what We Want
Both show Sampling Bias when the sample is not
representative of the population from which is
was drawn.
64
  • Naturalistic Observation
  • observing and recording behavior in naturally
    occurring situations without trying to manipulate
    and control the situation

65
Naturalistic Observation
  • Advantages
  • Natural real behavior
  • Natural setting real world
  • Disadvantages
  • Unwanted behavior
  • One time occurrence
  • Low reliability and validity
  • Interruption

66
Research that describes and predicts behavior
(Step 4 Analyze Draw Conclusions)
  • The Correlational Research method

67
Correlation
  • Correlation Coefficient
  • a statistical measure of the extent to which two
    factors vary together, and thus how well either
    factor predicts the other

Indicates direction of relationship (positive or
negative)
Correlation coefficient
r .37
Indicates strength of relationship (0.00 to 1.00)
68
Correlation
  • Scatterplot
  • a graphed cluster of dots, each of which
    represents the values of two variables
  • the slope of the points suggests the direction of
    the relationship
  • the amount of scatter suggests the strength of
    the correlation
  • little scatter indicates high correlation
  • also called a scattergram or scatter diagram

69
  • Correlation quantifies the tendency for one
    measure to covary with another measure.
  • When two measures increase or decrease together,
    they are said to have a positive correlation.
  • When one measure increases and the other measure
    decreases, they are said to have a negative
    correlation.
  • If two measures do not covary consistently, they
    are said to have a zero correlation.

70
Correlation
Shows both the DIRECTION STRENGTH of how two
variable are related
Scatterplots, showing patterns of correlations
71
Correlation
72
Correlation
55 60 65 70 75
80 85
  • Scatterplot of Height and Temperament

73
Correlation
  • Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships

could cause
(1) Low self-esteem
Depression
or
(2) Depression
Low self-esteem
could cause
or
Low self-esteem
(3) Distressing events or biological predispositio
n
could cause
and
Depression
74
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75
Illusory Correlation
  • Illusory Correlation
  • the perception of a relationship where none
    exists
  • Prevented by statistical measurement

76
Research that describes, predicts and explains
(Step 4 Analyze Draw Conclusions)
  • The Experiment
  • an investigator manipulates one or more factors
    (independent variables) to observe their effect
    on some behavior or mental process (the dependent
    variable)
  • by random assignment of participants into the
    experimental and the control groups controls
    other relevant factors that may interfere with
    the results

77
Experimental Elements
  • Double-blind Procedure
  • Helps neutralize experimenter bias
  • both the research participants and the research
    staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the
    research participants have received the treatment
    or a placebo
  • commonly used in drug-evaluation studies
  • Placebo effect
  • experimental results caused by expectations alone
  • any effect on behavior caused by administration
    of an inert substance or condition, which is
    assumed to be an active agent

78
Experimental Elements
  • Experimental Condition
  • the condition of an experiment that exposes
    participants to the treatment, that is, to one
    version of the independent variable
  • Control Condition
  • the condition of an experiment that contrasts
    with the experimental treatment
  • serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect
    of the treatment/eliminates confounding variables
  • The experimental treatment is absent

79
Experimental Elements
  • Random Assignment
  • assigning participants to experimental and
    control conditions by chance
  • minimizes pre-existing differences between those
    assigned to the different groups

80
Experimental Elements
  • Independent Variable
  • the experimental factor that is manipulated
  • the variable whose effect is being studied
  • Dependent Variable
  • the experimental factor that may change in
    response to manipulations of the independent
    variable
  • in psychology it is usually a behavior or mental
    process
  • Confounding of variables
  • When two variables are linked together in a way
    that makes it difficult to sort out their
    specific effects
  • Happens as a result of extraneous variables that
    seem like they influence the dependent variable
    (so dont know if it is the independent variable
    causing the change)

81
Research methods
82
An Experiment FIGHTING INSOMNIA
  • We want to determine if people who have trouble
    sleeping (insomnia) can be helped by taking a
    sleeping pill before going to bed.

83
HYPOTHESIS
  • X amount of sleeping pills helps the otherwise
    healthy person with insomnia to sleep better.

84
SUBJECTS
  • The subjects of the experiment are two groups of
    people in similar physical health, within the
    same age range, and with similar sleep problems.

85
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
  • This is the variable that the experimenter
    changes.
  • The experimenter regulates the medicine, with
    one group receiving genuine sleeping pill while
    the other receives a placebo.

86
DEPENDENT VARIABLES
  • This is what results from the experimenters
    varying or changing the independent variable.
  • The results can vary among better sleep, worse
    sleep, and about the same amount of sleep.

87
CONTROL
  • This is the removal of factors other than the
    independent variable that might cause the
    results.
  • The experimenter will not use people who are
    sick, people with severe allergies, or people who
    are very old.
  • Any one of these factors could alter the real
    effects of the medicine in the average person
    with insomnia.

88
CONTROL GROUP
  • This group consists of subjects who are like
    those in the experimental group except that they
    do not participate in the crucial part of the
    study.
  • The control group in this study consists of those
    subjects who receive a placebo, thinking it is a
    sleeping pill.

89
EXPERIMENTAL GROUP
  • These are the people who participate in the
    crucial part of the study.
  • The experimental group consists of those subjects
    who get X amount of sleeping pills.

90
RESULTS
  • Hypothesis is incorrect.
  • We reject the hypothesis that those who receive
    the sleeping pill will sleep better.
  • Subjects taking the sleeping pill over a period
    of days will still have insomnia, only worse.
  • And the sleep they do get is less restful than
    the sleep the control group gets.

91
WHY?
92
Dreamland..
Because, most tranquilizers and sleeping pills
interfere with dreams. They cause the person to
feel worse because without dreams, sleep loses
much of its curative effect.
93
Step 5 Report the Findings
94
Statistical Reasoning
95
Statistical Reasoning
96
Measures of Central Tendency
  • Mode
  • the most frequently occurring score in a
    distribution
  • Mean
  • the arithmetic average of a distribution
  • obtained by adding the scores and then dividing
    by the number of scores
  • Median
  • the middle score in a chronological distribution
  • half the scores are above it and half are below it

97
Statistical Reasoning
  • Skewed Distribution

98
Measures of Variance
  • Range
  • the difference between the highest and lowest
    scores in a distribution
  • Standard Deviation
  • a computed measure of how much scores vary around
    the mean
  • Statistical Significance
  • a statistical statement of how likely it is that
    an obtained result occurred by chance
  • IF IT IS STATISTICALLY SIG. IT IS NOT DO TO
    CHANCE
  • .05 Significance Level, which means there is a
    less than 5 in 100 chances that the result found
    is due to chance

99
Ethics in Experimentation
  • American Psychological Association
  • Obtain INFORMED CONSENT
  • PROTECT from harm and discomfort
  • DEBRIEF Fully explain research afterwards
  • CONFIDENTIALITY of participant information
  • Procedures with animals must minimize harm
  • Host institutions for research must give prior
    approval
  • Additional concerns include beneficence maximize
    potential benefits

100
Peer Review Scientific Articles
  • Reading Group Discussion concerning NEW ethics
    articles

101
Secret of the Wild Child
  • Were the experiments performed on Genie worth the
    risk? ie already suffered abuse, should she
    suffer further confinement/used as a test
    subject/long hours in laboratory setting?
  • What were the problems with the experiment with
    regards to research design, funding,
    documentation, personal attachments or lack of?
  • Important contribution development of language
  • Noam Chomsky (nature) and Eric Linenberg
    (natures window), BF Skinner Language is
    learned (nurture) imitation/observation

102
Practice Test
  • A tentative prediction about the relationship
    between two variables is
  • A confounding of variables
  • An operational definition
  • A theory
  • A hypthesis

103
Practice Test
  • 2. Researchers must describe the actions that
    will be taken to measure or control each variable
    in their studies. In order words, they must
  • a. provide operational definitions of their
    variables
  • b. decide if their studies will be experimental
    or correlational
  • c. use statistics to summarize their findings
  • d. decide how many subjects should participate
    in their studies

104
Practice Test
  • 3. A researcher found that clients who were
    randomly assigned to same sex groups participated
    more in group therapy sessions than clients who
    were randomly assigned to coed groups. In this
    experiment, the independent variable was
  • The amount of participation in the group therapy
    session
  • Whether or not the group was coed
  • The clients attitudes toward group therapy
  • How much the clients mental health improved

105
Practice Test
  • 4. A researcher wants to see whether a
    protein-enriched diet will enhance the
    maze-running performance of rats. One group of
    rats are fed the high-protein diet for the
    duration of the study the other group continues
    to receive ordinary rat chow. In the experiment,
    the diet fed to the two groups of rats is the
    _________ variable.
  • a. correlated
  • b. control
  • c. dependent
  • d. independent

106
Practice Test
  • 5. In a study of the effect of a new teaching
    technique on students achievement test scores,
    an important extraneous variable would be the
    students
  • a. hair color
  • b. athletic skills
  • c. IQ scores
  • d. Sociability

107
Practice Test
  • 6. Whenever you have a cold, you rest in bed,
    take aspirin, and drink plenty of fluids. You
    cant determine which remedy is most effective
    because of which of the following problems?
  • Sampling bias
  • Distorted self-report data
  • Confounding of variables
  • Experimenter bias

108
Practice Test
  • 7. A psychologist monitors a group of
    nursery-school children, recording each instance
    of helping behavior as it occurs. The
    psychologist is using
  • a. the experimental method
  • b. naturalistic observation
  • c. case studies
  • d. the survey method

109
Practice Test
  • 8. Among the advantages of descriptive/correlation
    al research is (are)
  • It allows investigators to isolate cause and
    effect
  • It permits researchers to study variables that
    would be impossible to manipulate
  • It can demonstrate conclusively that two
    variables are causally related
  • Both a and b

110
Practice Test
  • 9. Which of the following correlation
    coefficients would indicate the strongest
    relationship between two variables?
  • .58
  • .19
  • -.97
  • -.05

111
Practice Test
  • 10. When psychologists say that their results are
    statistically significant, they mean that the
    results
  • Have important practical application
  • The sample is not representative of the
    population
  • Two variables are confounded
  • The effect of the independent variable cant be
    isolated

112
Practice Test
  • 11. Sampling bias exists when
  • The sample is representative of the population
  • The sample is not representative of the
    population
  • Two variables are confounded
  • The effect of the independent variable cant be
    isolated

113
Practice Test
  • 12. The problem of experimenter bias can be
    avoided by
  • not informing participants of the hypothesis of
    the experiment
  • Telling the subjects that there are no right or
    wrong answers
  • Using a research strategy in which neither
    subjects nor experimenter know which participants
    are in the experimental and control groups
  • Having the experimenter use only nonverbal
    signals when communicating with the participants

114
Practice Test
  • 13. Critics of deception in research have assumed
    that deceptive studies are harmful to
    participants. The empirical data on the issue
    suggest that
  • Many deceptive studies do produce significant
    distress for subjects who were not forewarned
    about the possibility of deception
  • Most participants in deceptive studies report
    that they enjoyed the experience and didnt mind
    being misled
  • Deceptive research seriously undermines subjects
    trust in others
  • Both a and c are the case

115
Practice Test
  • 14. PschINFO is
  • A new journal that recently replaces
    Psychological Abstract
  • A computerized database containing abstracts of
    articles, chapters, and books reporting
    psychological research
  • A reference book that explains the format and
    techniques for writing journal articles
  • A computerized database containing information
    about studies that have not yet been published

116
Practice Test
  • 15. Anecdotal evidence
  • Is often concrete, vivid, and memorable
  • Ends to influence people
  • Is fundamentally flawed and unreliable
  • Is all of the above

117
Homework Review
118
  • 1. In an experiment, which of the following
    variables refer to the outcome that is measured
    by the experimenter?
  • (a) independent
  • (b) dependent
  • (c) control
  • (d) random
  • (e) Stimulus
  • 2. Drawing a random sample of people from a town
    for an interview study of social attitudes
    ensures that
  • (a) each person in town has the same probability
    of being chosen for the study
  • (b) an equal number of males and females are
    selected for interviews
  • (c) the study includes at least some respondents
    from every social class in town
  • (d) the study will uncover widely differing
    social attitudes among the respondents
  • (e) the sample will be large enough even though
    some people may refuse to be
  •      interviewed
  •   

119
  • 3. A researcher asks elementary, junior high,
    senior high, and college students to define the
    term cheating, and analyzes differences in
    their definitions across age groups.  This is an
    example of which type of study?
  • (a) longitudinal
  • (b) sequential
  • (c) cross-sectional
  • (d) case study
  • (e) observational
  • 4.Which of the following research methods is
    being used if the same subjects are tested at
    two, four, and six years of age?
  • (a) Cross-cultural
  • (b) Longitudinal
  • (c) Cross-sectional
  • (d) Correlation
  • (e)  Projective

120
  • 5.The most distinctive characteristic of the
    experimental method is that it
  • (a) studies a few people in the great depth
  • (b) studies subject in their natural environment
  • (c) is an efficient way to discover how people
    feel
  • (d) seeks to establish cause-effect
    relationships.
  • (e) provides a chronological basis for reaching
    conclusions.
  • 6. In Experimental psychology, a significant
    difference refers to a
  • (a) difference not likely due to chance
  • (b) difference not likely due to faulty design
  • (c) result that indicates a correlation equal to
    1.0
  • (d) result that departs from previous findings

121
  • 7. A double-blind control is essential for which
    of the following?
  • (a) a study comparing the IQ test scores of
    children from different educational systems
  • (b) a study of relationships among family members
  • (c) an experiment to determine the effect of a
    food reward on the bar-pressing rate of a rat
  • (d) assessment of treatment designed to reduce
    schizophrenic symptoms
  • (e) a survey of drug use among teenagers
  • 8. A psychologist using the method of
    naturalistic observation would
  • a. carefully design controlled situations in
    which to observe behavior.
  • b. rely on observations of subjects' responses to
    questionnaires.
  • c. observe behavior as it happens outside the
    laboratory or clinic.
  • d. make records of the behavior of clients
    treated in therapy.

122
  • 9. A teacher believes that one group of children
    is very bright and that a second is below average
    in ability. Actually, the groups are identical,
    but the first group progresses more rapidly than
    the second. This demonstrates
  • a. the self-fulfilling prophecy.
  • b. the placebo effect in a natural experiment.
  • c. observer bias in naturalistic observation.
  • d. the ethical problems of field experiments.
  • 10. Subjects are said to be assigned randomly
    when
  • a. they are assigned to experimental and control
    groups from a sample which is representative of
    the larger population.
  • b. they each have an equal chance of being
    assigned to either the experimental or control
    group.
  • c. they are assigned to experimental and control
    groups so that the groups differ on some critical
    variable before the experiment begins.
  • d. neither the experimenter nor the subject knows
    whether the subject is in the experimental or
    control group.
  •  
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