PSYC 1020H Study Guide - Final Guide: Postsynaptic Potential, Social Desirability Bias, Axon Terminal
3 May 2018
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Psychology
The Evolution of Psychology
●The term psychology comes from two greek words, psyche, meaning soul, and logos,
referring to the study of a subject.
●Not until the early 18th century did the term psychology gain more than rare usage
among scholars.
●Wilhelm Wundt: father of psychology
●According to Wundt, psychology’s primary focus was consciousness the awareness of
immediate experience.
●G. Stanley Hall was a particularly important contributor to the rapid growth of
psychology in the United States. Established America’s first research lab in psychology
at Johns Hopkins University in 1883.
●William James: First educator in USA
●John B. Watson: Established the psychological school of behaviorism
●Structuralism was based on the notion that the task of psychology is to analyze
consciousness into its basic elements and investigate how these elements are related.
●Introspection, the careful, systematic self-observation of one’s own conscious experience.
●Functionalism was based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function or
purpose of consciousness, rather than its structure (William James).
●Natural Selection, heritable characteristics that provide a survival or reproductive
advantage are more likely than alternative characteristics to be passed onto subsequent
generations and thus come to be “selected” over time.
●Behaviourism is a theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology
should study only observable behaviour.
●Behaviour refers to any overt (observable) response or activity by an organism.
●A stimulus is any detectable input from the environment.
●The unconscious contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface
of conscious awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behaviour.
●Psychoanalytic theory attempts to explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders
by focusing on unconscious determinants of behaviour.
●Sigmund Freud: founder of psychoanalysis
●B.F. Skinner: Behaviourist “We can’t afford freedom”
●Carl Rogers; Among the founder of humanistic approach
●Humanism is a theoretical orientation that emphasize the unique qualities of humans,
especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth.
●Applied psychology, the branch of psychology concerned with everyday, practical
problems
●Clinical psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the diagnosis and
treatment of psychological problems and disorders.
●Cognition refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge.
●Positive psychology uses theory and research to better understand the positive, adaptive,
creative, and fulfilling aspects of human existence.
●Psychology is the science that studies behaviour and the physiological and cognitive
processes that underlie it, and it is the profession that accumulated knowledge of this
science to practical problems.
●Psychiatry is a branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of
psychological problems and disorders.
●Empiricism is the premise that knowledge should be acquired through observation.
●A theory is a system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations.
●Culture refers to the widely shared customs, beliefs, values, norms, institutions, and other
products of a community that are transmitted socially across generations.
●Testwiseness is the ability to use the characteristics and format of a cognitive test to
maximise one’s score.
●Critical thinking is the use of cognitive skills and strategies that increase the probability
of a desirable outcome.
The research enterprise in psychology
●A theory is a system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations.
●An operational definition describe the actions or operations that will be used to measure
or control a variable.
●Participants, or subjects, are the persons or animals whose behaviour is systematically
observed in a study.
●Data collection techniques, which are procedures for making empirical observations and
measurements.
●The experiment is a research method in which the investigator manipulates a variable
under carefully controlled conditions and observes whether any changes occur in a
second variable as a result.
●Research methods consists of various, approaches to the observation, measurement,
manipulation, and control of variables in empirical studies.
●An independent variable is a condition or event that an experimenter caries in order to see
its impact on another variable.
●The dependent variable is the variable that is thought to be affected by manipulation of
the independent variable.
●The experimental group consists of the subjects who receive some special treatment in
regard to the independent variable.
●The control group consists of similar subjects who do not receive the special treatment
given to the experimental group.
●Extraneous variables are any variables other than the independent variable that seem
likely to influence variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variable in a
specific study.
●A confounding of variables occurs when two variables are linked together in a way that
makes it difficult to sort out their specific effects.
●Random assignment of subjects occurs when all subjects have an equal chance of being
assigned to any group or condition in the study.
●In natural observation a researcher engages in careful observation of behaviour without
intervening directly with the research subjects or participants.
●Reactivity occurs when a subject’s behaviour is altered by the presence of an observer.
●A case study is an in-depth investigation of an individual subject.
●Survey, researchers use questionnaires or interviews to gather information about specific
aspects of participants’ behaviour.
●Statistic is the use of mathematics to organize, summarize, and interpret numerical data.
●Descriptive statistics are used to organize and summarize data.
●A frequency polygon is a line figure used to present data from a frequency distribution.
●A frequency distribution is an orderly arrangement of scores indicating the frequency of
each score or a group of scores.
●Variability refers to how much the scores in a data set vary from each other and from the
mean.
●The standard deviation is an index of the amount of variability in a set of data.
●The normal distribution is a symmetrical bell-shaped curve that represents the pattern in
which many human characteristics are dispersed in the population.
●A percentile score indicates the percentage of people who score at or below a particular
score.
●A correlation exists when two variables are related to each other.
●The correlation coefficient is a numerical index of the degree of relationship between two
variables.
●Inferential statistics are used to interpret data and draw conclusions.
●Statistical significance is said to exist when the probability that the observed findings are
due to chance is very low.
●The social desirability bias, which is a tendency to give socially approved answers to
questions about oneself.
●A response set is a tendency to respond to questions in a particular way that this unrelated
to the content of the questions.
●Experimenter bias occurs when a researcher’s expectations or preferences about the
outcome of a study influence the result obtained.
Document Summary
The term psychology comes from two greek words, psyche, meaning soul, and logos, referring to the study of a subject. Not until the early 18th century did the term psychology gain more than rare usage among scholars. According to wundt, psychology"s primary focus was consciousness the awareness of immediate experience. G. stanley hall was a particularly important contributor to the rapid growth of psychology in the united states. Established america"s first research lab in psychology at johns hopkins university in 1883. John b. watson: established the psychological school of behaviorism. Structuralism was based on the notion that the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements and investigate how these elements are related. Introspection, the careful, systematic self-observation of one"s own conscious experience. Functionalism was based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness, rather than its structure (william james).
