Unit 1 Review

OVERVIEW
Module 1- Psychology and Its History
Module 2- Today’s Psychology and Its Approaches
Module 3- Subfields in Psychology
Module 4- The Need for Psychological Science
Module 5- The Scientific Method and Description
Module 6- Correlation and Experimentation
Module 7- Research Design and Ethics in Psychology
Module 8- Statistical Reasoning in Everyday Life

Study Resources

Crash Course

https://youtu.be/vo4pMVb0R6M?si=5touhR6K5lGOcRHz

https://youtu.be/hFV71QPvX2I?si=OVSYYsJRHOVpSmqW

Module 1- Psychology and Its History

The Scientific Attitude

curiosity: Does it work?

skepticism: What do you mean? How do you know?

humility: The rat is always right.

critical thinking: thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and
conclusions.

it examines assumptions, appraises the source, discerns hidden biases,

evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.

Unit 1 Review 1
 empiricism: the idea that knowledge comes from experience, and that
observation and experimentation enable scientific knowledge.

Wilhelm Wundt: father of psychology, established first psychology lab in

Germany, used introspection.

G. Stanley Hall: established first formal U.S psychology lab.

Edward Bradford Titchener: introduced structuralism; aimed to classify and

understand elements of the mind’s structure.

structuralism: used introspection to reveal the structure of the human mind.

Wundt and Titchener

focused on inner sensations, images, and feelings

introspection: the process of looking inward in an attempt to directly observe

one’s own psychological processes.

William James: philosopher-psychologist; functionalist and early U.S.

psychologist; Harvard professor.

Charles Darwin: evolutionary theorist.

functionalism: explored how mental and behavioral processes function—how

they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish.

James and Darwin

introspective examination of the stream of consciousness and of emotion

Mary Whiton Calkins: pioneering memory researcher and the first woman to
be president of the American Psychological Association.

Margaret Floy Washburn: first woman to officially receive a psychology Ph.D.;

synthesized animal behavior research in The Animal Mind; became second
female APA president in 1921.

Psychology

for early pioneers, was defined as “the science of mental life”

later on redefined as “the scientific study of observable behavior”

John B. Watson: championed psychology

Unit 1 Review 2
 B.F Skinner: leading behaviorist that rejected introspection and studied
how consequences shape behavior.

behaviorism: the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that
(2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most
psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2).

Sigmund Freud: father of psychoanalysis; believed that humans can remember

events but not be consciously aware of the memory.

humanistic psychology: a historically significant perspective that emphasized

human growth potential.

Carl Rogers

Abraham Maslow

Module 2- Today’s Psychology and Its

Approaches
cognitive psychology: the study of mental processes, such as occur when we
perceive, learn, remember, think, communicate, and solve problems.

cognitive neuroscience: the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked

with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language).

psychology: the science of behavior (anything an organism does) and mental

processes (the internal, subjective experiences we infer from behavior).

Ivan Pavlov: pioneered the study of learning

Jean Piaget: most influential observer of children

nature-nurture Issue: the longstanding controversy over the relative

contributions that genes and experience make to the development of
psychological traits and behaviors. Today’s science sees traits and behaviors
arising from the interaction of nature and nurture.

natural selection: the principle that inherited traits that better enable an
organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment will (in

Unit 1 Review 3
 competition with other trait variations) most likely be passed on to succeeding
generations.

evolutionary psychology: the study of the evolution of behavior and the mind,
using principles of natural selection.

behavior genetics: the study of the relative power and limits of genetic and
environmental influences on behavior.

culture: the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared
by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

positive psychology: the scientific study of human flourishing, with the goals
of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and
communities to thrive.

biopsychosocial approach: an integrated approach that incorporates

biological, psychological, and social-cultural viewpoints.

behavioral psychology: the scientific study of observable behavior, and its

explanation by principles of learning.

biological psychology: the scientific study of the links between biological

(genetic, neural, hormonal) and psychological processes.

psychodynamic psychology: a branch of psychology that studies how

unconscious drives and conflicts influence behavior and uses that information
to treat people with psychological disorders.

social-cultural psychology: the study of how situations and cultures affect

our behavior and thinking

Perspective Focus

Behavioral How we learn observable responses

How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory
experiences
Biological
How our genes and our environment influence our individual
differences

Cognitive How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information

Evolutionary How the natural selection of traits has promoted the survival of genes

Unit 1 Review 4
 Perspective Focus

Humanistic How we achieve personal growth and self-fulfillment

Psychodynamic How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

Social-cultural How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures

testing effect: enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply

rereading, information.

SQ3R: a study method incorporating five steps—Survey, Question, Read,

Retrieve, Review

Module 3- Subfields in Psychology

Psychometrics: the scientific study of the measurement of human abilities,
attitudes, and traits.

Basic research: pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base.

Biological psychologists

Developmental psychology: a branch of psychology that studies physical,

cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.

Cognitive psychologists

Educational psychology: the study of how psychological processes affect

and can enhance teaching and learning.

Personality psychology: an I/O psychology subfield that helps with job

seeking, and with employee recruitment, selection, placement, training,
appraisal, and development.

Social psychology: the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and
relate to one another.

Applied research: scientific study that aims to solve practical problems

Industrial-organizational (I/O) psychology: the application of psychological

concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces

Human factors psychology: a field of psychology allied with I/O psychology

that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and

Unit 1 Review 5
 physical environments can be made safe and easy to use.

Helping profession

Counseling psychology: a branch of psychology that assists people with

problems in living and in achieving greater well-being.

Clinical psychology: a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and

treats people with psychological disorders.

Psychiatry: a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders;

practiced by physicians who are licensed to provide medical treatments as
well as psychological therapy.

Dorothea Dix: reformer that led the way to humane treatment of those with
psychological disorders.
Community psychology: a branch of psychology that studies how people interact
with their social environments and how social institutions affect individuals and
groups.

Module 4- The Need for Psychological

Science
hindsight bias: the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would
have foreseen it; “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon.

hindsight bias, overconfidence, and our tendency to perceive patterns in

random events tempt us to overestimate the value of commonsense thinking,
Scientific inquiry can help us sift reality from illusion.

Module 5- The Scientific Method and

Description
theory: an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes
observations and predicts behaviors or events.

hypothesis: a testable prediction, often implied by a theory.

Unit 1 Review 6
 operational definitions: a carefully worded statement of the exact procedures
(operations) used in a research study.

replication: repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different

participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding can be
reproduced.

descriptive methods: describe behaviors

case studies

surveys

naturalistic observations

correlational methods: associate different factors or variables

experimental methods: manipulate variables to discover their effects

case study: a descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied

in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.

naturalistic observation: a descriptive technique of observing and recording

behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate or
control the situation.

survey: a descriptive technique for obtaining the self-reported attitudes or

behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative,
random sample of the group.

sampling bias: a flawed sampling process that produces an

unrepresentative sample.

population: all those in a group being studied, from which samples may be
drawn.

random sample: a sample that fairly represents a population because

each member has an equal chance of inclusion.

Module 6- Correlation and Experimentation

correlation: a measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus
of how well either factor predicts the other.

Unit 1 Review 7
 correlation coefficient: a statistical index of the relationship between two
things.

variables: anything that can vary and is feasible and ethical to measure.

scatterplots: a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represent the values of

two variables. The slop of the points suggests the direction of the relationship
between the two variables. The amount of scatter suggests the strength of the
correlation.

illusory correlation: perceiving a relationship where none exists, or perceiving

a stronger-than-actual relationship.

regression toward the mean: the tendency for extreme or unusual scores or
events to fall back (regress) toward the average.

experiment: a research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more

factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process.

experimental group: in an experiment, the group exposed to the treatment,

that is, to one version of the independent variable.

control group: in an experiment, the group not exposed to the treatment;

contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for
evaluating the effect of the treatment.

random assignment: assigning participants to experimental and control

groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between the
different groups.

double blind procedure: an experimental procedure in which both the

research participants and the research staff are ignorant about whether the
research participants have received the treatment or a placebo.

placebo effect: experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect

on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition,
which the recipient assumes is an active agent.

independent variable: in an experiment, the factor that is manipulated; the

variable whose effect is being studied.

confounding variable: a factor other than the factor being studied that might
influence a study’s result.

Unit 1 Review 8
 dependent variable: in an experiment, the outcome that is measure; the
variable that may change when the independent variable is manipulated.

validity: the extent to which a test or experiment measures or predicts what it

is supposed to.

Module 7- Research Design and Ethics in

Psychology
Research Methods

descriptive: to observe and record behavior

no control of variables; single cases may be misleading

correlational: to detect naturally occurring relationships; to assess how well

one variable predicts another

cannot specify cause and effect

experimental: to explore cause and effect

sometimes not feasible; results may not generalize to other contexts; not
ethical to manipulate certain variables

Ethical Guidelines

animals: researches must provide “humane care and healthful conditions” and
that testing should “minimize discomfort.”

humans: (1) obtain potential participants’ informed consent to take part, (2)
protect participants from greater-than-usual harm and discomfort, (3) keep
information about individual participants confidential, and (4) fully debrief
people.

informed consent: giving potential participants enough information about

a study to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate.

debriefing: the post-experimental explanation of a study, including its

purpose and any deceptions, to its participants.

Unit 1 Review 9
 Module 8- Statistical Reasoning in
Everyday Life
descriptive statistics: numerical data used to measure and describe
characteristics of groups. Includes measures of central tendency and measures of
variation.

histogram: a bar graph depicting a frequency distribution.

Measures of central tendency

mode: the mot frequently occurring score(s) 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 distribution; half the scores are above it and
half are below it.

skewed: a representation of scores that lack symmetry around their

average value.

Measures of variation

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 score.

normal curve: (normal distribution) a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that

describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the
mean (about 68 percent fall within one standard deviation of it) and fewer
fewer near the extremes.

inferential statistics: numerical data that allow one to generalize—to infer from
sample data the probability of something being true of a population.

statistical significance: a statistical statement of how likely it is that an

obtained result occurred by chance.

Unit 1 Review 10