PSY 202: Developmental Psychology Comprehensive Exam
Empiricism: - answers✔✔the belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through
observation
We learn through observation
Scientific method: - answers✔✔a set of principles about the appropriate relationship between
ideas and evidence
Theory: - answers✔✔a hypothetical explanation of a natural phenomena
Rule of parsimony
Hypothesis: - answers✔✔a falsifiable prediction made by a theory
(should statement)
Four Main Goals of Psych experiments - answers✔✔1) Description (what happens):
2) Prediction (when it happens): correlational research
3) Causal Control (what causes it to happen):
4) Explanation (why it happens):
Empirical Process Depends on
3 things - answers✔✔Theories, Hypotheses, and Research
Common Research Methods in Psychology - answers✔✔1. Descriptive Research Methods
,2. Correlational Methods
3. Experimental Methods
Descriptive Research Methods: - answers✔✔Observe and classify
Descriptive Research Methods: - answers✔✔Looking at things and finding relations
Experimental Methods: - answers✔✔Taking control of an environment/experience and
manipulating it
Descriptive research methods (3) - answers✔✔1. Case Studies
2. Naturalistic Observation
3. Surveys
case studies - answers✔✔Careful Description based on repeated observations: Freud, Sacks,
Clinical studies, individual studies of people
Naturalistic Observation and its benefit - answers✔✔People go into the environment and study
(Ethnology Researchers)
Benefit: "Ecological Validity"
The environment is real helps show how people behave in this specific place
Descriptive Research Data Collection Methods (4) - answers✔✔1. Observing
2. Asking (surveys, interviews)
3. Case studies examine individual lives
4. Observing what we cannot ask or observe directly
, Problem with case studies - answers✔✔Cannot always generalize
So we must go beyond these studies
Example of Naturalistic observation from text - answers✔✔Example of research: how do
different people in different cultures respond to people falling down?
Result of people falling down observation study - answers✔✔People respond based on how
others respond
Will be less likely to help if other people are not helping
Responses are different based on culture, environment, ect
Demand characteristics - answers✔✔Those aspects of an observational setting that cause
people to behave as they think they should
(Guests invited over to your home)
Naturalistic observation - answers✔✔A technique for gathering scientific information by
unobtrusively observing people in their natural environments
(Jane Goodall)
Observer bias - answers✔✔Expectations can influence observations and influence perceptions
of reality
OBSERVING CAN BE OBTRUSIVE
The Hawthorne Effect history - answers✔✔Wanted to find out if different light levels effected
employee productivity? The bosses watched and that was more influential than the lights and
caused the workers to work faster regardless of light.
Hawthorne Effect - answers✔✔People behave differently when they know they are being
observed
Empiricism: - answers✔✔the belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through
observation
We learn through observation
Scientific method: - answers✔✔a set of principles about the appropriate relationship between
ideas and evidence
Theory: - answers✔✔a hypothetical explanation of a natural phenomena
Rule of parsimony
Hypothesis: - answers✔✔a falsifiable prediction made by a theory
(should statement)
Four Main Goals of Psych experiments - answers✔✔1) Description (what happens):
2) Prediction (when it happens): correlational research
3) Causal Control (what causes it to happen):
4) Explanation (why it happens):
Empirical Process Depends on
3 things - answers✔✔Theories, Hypotheses, and Research
Common Research Methods in Psychology - answers✔✔1. Descriptive Research Methods
,2. Correlational Methods
3. Experimental Methods
Descriptive Research Methods: - answers✔✔Observe and classify
Descriptive Research Methods: - answers✔✔Looking at things and finding relations
Experimental Methods: - answers✔✔Taking control of an environment/experience and
manipulating it
Descriptive research methods (3) - answers✔✔1. Case Studies
2. Naturalistic Observation
3. Surveys
case studies - answers✔✔Careful Description based on repeated observations: Freud, Sacks,
Clinical studies, individual studies of people
Naturalistic Observation and its benefit - answers✔✔People go into the environment and study
(Ethnology Researchers)
Benefit: "Ecological Validity"
The environment is real helps show how people behave in this specific place
Descriptive Research Data Collection Methods (4) - answers✔✔1. Observing
2. Asking (surveys, interviews)
3. Case studies examine individual lives
4. Observing what we cannot ask or observe directly
, Problem with case studies - answers✔✔Cannot always generalize
So we must go beyond these studies
Example of Naturalistic observation from text - answers✔✔Example of research: how do
different people in different cultures respond to people falling down?
Result of people falling down observation study - answers✔✔People respond based on how
others respond
Will be less likely to help if other people are not helping
Responses are different based on culture, environment, ect
Demand characteristics - answers✔✔Those aspects of an observational setting that cause
people to behave as they think they should
(Guests invited over to your home)
Naturalistic observation - answers✔✔A technique for gathering scientific information by
unobtrusively observing people in their natural environments
(Jane Goodall)
Observer bias - answers✔✔Expectations can influence observations and influence perceptions
of reality
OBSERVING CAN BE OBTRUSIVE
The Hawthorne Effect history - answers✔✔Wanted to find out if different light levels effected
employee productivity? The bosses watched and that was more influential than the lights and
caused the workers to work faster regardless of light.
Hawthorne Effect - answers✔✔People behave differently when they know they are being
observed
