PY 101 Exam 1 Study Guide UAB
How can psychology be defined? What is the goal? - correct answer
✔Psychology goals include describing, explaining, predicting, and control the
behavior and mental processes of others. Psychology is the study of the mind
and behavior
How did early philosophers influence what we know today as psychology? -
correct answer ✔While early philosophers relied on methods such as
observation and logic, today's psychologists utilize scientific methodologies to
study and draw conclusions about human thought and behavior. psychology's
eventual emergence as a scientific discipline.
. Empiricism - correct answer ✔the theory that all knowledge is derived from
sense-experience. Stimulated by the rise of experimental science, it
developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, expounded in particular by John
Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume.
Structuralism/introspection - correct answer ✔The personal observation of
our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
Functionalism - correct answer ✔theory about the nature of mental states.
According to functionalism, mental states are identified by what they do rather
than by what they are made of.
Be able to determine what is experimental and what is correlational research
from examples - correct answer ✔Correlational research is the observation
of two variables to see if there is a relation between them, being positive or
negative. Experimental research is the observation between an introduced
variable--the independent variable--under controlled environments and its
resulting factor--the dependent variable.
, What is a correlation? - correct answer ✔relationship between two variables
How can we determine the strength of a correlation? What makes it strong?
What makes it weak? - correct answer ✔When the r value is closer to +1 or -
1, it indicates that there is a stronger linear relationship between the two
variables. A correlation of -0.97 is a strong negative correlation while a
correlation of 0.10 would be a weak positive correlation.
What is a spurious correlation? - correct answer ✔an apparent but false
relationship between two (or more) variables that is caused by some other
variable.
example: Drownings rise when ice cream sales rise. It may seem that
increased ice cream sales cause more drowning, but in reality, rising heat
may cause more people to swim, as well as buy more ice cream.
Hypothesis - correct answer ✔A testable prediction, often implied by a theory
Independent and Dependent variables - correct answer ✔independent
variable- the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect
is being studied.
dependent variable- the outcome factor; the variable that may change in
response to manipulations of the independent variable.
Occam's Razor - correct answer ✔Occam's razor is the principle that, of two
explanations that account for all the facts, the simpler one is more likely to be
correct. It is applied to a wide range of disciplines, including religion, physics,
and medicine.
How can psychology be defined? What is the goal? - correct answer
✔Psychology goals include describing, explaining, predicting, and control the
behavior and mental processes of others. Psychology is the study of the mind
and behavior
How did early philosophers influence what we know today as psychology? -
correct answer ✔While early philosophers relied on methods such as
observation and logic, today's psychologists utilize scientific methodologies to
study and draw conclusions about human thought and behavior. psychology's
eventual emergence as a scientific discipline.
. Empiricism - correct answer ✔the theory that all knowledge is derived from
sense-experience. Stimulated by the rise of experimental science, it
developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, expounded in particular by John
Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume.
Structuralism/introspection - correct answer ✔The personal observation of
our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
Functionalism - correct answer ✔theory about the nature of mental states.
According to functionalism, mental states are identified by what they do rather
than by what they are made of.
Be able to determine what is experimental and what is correlational research
from examples - correct answer ✔Correlational research is the observation
of two variables to see if there is a relation between them, being positive or
negative. Experimental research is the observation between an introduced
variable--the independent variable--under controlled environments and its
resulting factor--the dependent variable.
, What is a correlation? - correct answer ✔relationship between two variables
How can we determine the strength of a correlation? What makes it strong?
What makes it weak? - correct answer ✔When the r value is closer to +1 or -
1, it indicates that there is a stronger linear relationship between the two
variables. A correlation of -0.97 is a strong negative correlation while a
correlation of 0.10 would be a weak positive correlation.
What is a spurious correlation? - correct answer ✔an apparent but false
relationship between two (or more) variables that is caused by some other
variable.
example: Drownings rise when ice cream sales rise. It may seem that
increased ice cream sales cause more drowning, but in reality, rising heat
may cause more people to swim, as well as buy more ice cream.
Hypothesis - correct answer ✔A testable prediction, often implied by a theory
Independent and Dependent variables - correct answer ✔independent
variable- the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect
is being studied.
dependent variable- the outcome factor; the variable that may change in
response to manipulations of the independent variable.
Occam's Razor - correct answer ✔Occam's razor is the principle that, of two
explanations that account for all the facts, the simpler one is more likely to be
correct. It is applied to a wide range of disciplines, including religion, physics,
and medicine.
