PSY 201 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Neuron, Natural Selection, Heart Rate
PSY 201
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Psychology 201
Day 2: 8-23-18
Chapter 1: Psychology
1. Psychology is a Science
a. Def: the scientific study of behavior and metal processes
i. Scientific: 3 major components
1. Explanation
a. Explain why certain things happen
2. Predictions
a. If the explanation is good, we should be able to
predict what will happen
3. Control
a. We can adjust how much of the variables are given
ii. Behavior
1. Overt behaviors
a. Ones you can directly see
2. Covert behaviors
a. Indirect actions (heart rate)
iii. Mental processes:
1. Anything that the brain is doing
2. The mind is what the brain does
b. The Role of Theories
i. Wrong way:
1. Hypothesis: asking a question
2. Evidence
3. Theory
4. Fact
ii. Correct way:
1. Start w Facts
2. Observe if facts are related
3. Guess why facts are related
4. Hypothesis: making a prediction
a. See if it prediction happens or not
i. If does not work, hypothesis fails
5. Support hypothesis if works
6. Theory: explains why facts are connected and supports
hypothesis
2. What Psychologists Do
a. Pure vs Applied Research
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i. Most psychologists engage in pure research
ii. Pure: Study stuff for the sake of knowing
1. Getting information but don’t know how you use it
iii. Applied: Research specifically for how to use it
1. Uses what was found in pure research and learns how to use
it
3. Where Psychology Comes From: A History
a. Stimulus and Response relationship
i. Stimulus: information coming from outside world
ii. Response: how you respond to info
b. Structuralism
i. Focused on the structure of processed thought
1. Periodic Table of Elements – structure
ii. Focus on how we see color – sensation/reception
iii. Elements of consciousness
1. Combinations of description of an experience
c. Functionalism
i. Focused on why we have conscious experiences
ii. Focused on biology: theory of natural selection
1. Why we see color
a. To distinguish what's safe and what's not
i. No color – might eat unsafe food, die, no
babies, no new generation
d. Behaviorism
i. Did not like studying mental processes
1. Focus on physics – what they were jealous of
ii. Can only look at things we can observe – ignored thought
processes
1. Focused only on stimulus and response relationship
e. Gestalt Psychology
i. Compared to structuralists
ii. Have to look at big picture first to see how they relate
f. Psychoanalysis
i. Focused on people’s unconscious experience
4. Contemporary Perspectives in Psychology
a. Eclectic View: many perspectives that are brought together
b. 6 perspectives
i. Biological: explains behavior that results from brain chemistry or
structure of brain itself
ii. Cognitive: behaviors are based on thought process and how you
see the world
iii. Humanistic/existential: behaviors based on free will
iv. Psychodynamic: behaviors based on unconscious processes
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
