CAS PS 101
General Psychology
Midterm Exam
2024
● Most common disorders: anxiety (ptsd, etc)
○ Disability- prevents one from doing what would be otherwise
healthy orbeneficial to him or her (relationships, jobs, etc)
○ Distress- upset
● Research methods
○ Psychological claims should be about facts and thus must be
determined empirically using accepted scientific methods
● Definitions - I
○ Psychology- the scientific study of human and animal behavior
○ Behavior- stimulus → respOnse, anything that an organism does
involving actionand response to stimulation
■ Understanding behavior: biolOgical → psychOlOgical → basic sOcial
interactions (ex: number of neurons is correlated to number of
members in social group → larger sOcial grOup → culture)
○ Theory- the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another
○ Hypothesis- a testable question with a yes or no answer
■ Null hypothesis- “No” answer to question
■ Research articles and grant proposals should state the hypothesis
that they are testing
■ Double blind study- neither the experimenter nor the subject
knows the hypothesis being tested (ex: placebo pills for
depression)
○ Empirical- based on or characterized by observation and experiment
rather than theory
○ Data- factual information (as measurements or statistics) used as a
basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation
○ independent variable- something the researcher decides/chooses
○ dependent variable (/measure)- something you are measuring
Definitions Cont. and Statistics
● Terms
○ Data- factual information (as measurements or statistics) used as a
basis forreasoning, discussion, or calculation
○ independent variable- something the researcher decides
○ dependent variable- something you are measuring
○ positive reinforcer- presence of stimulus that increases the
probability of response
, ■ ex: paycheck
■ medical community defines positive as presents of a
symptom and negative as the absence of a symptom
○ negative reinforcer- absence of a stimulus increases the probability of a
behavior
General Psychology
Midterm Exam
2024
● Most common disorders: anxiety (ptsd, etc)
○ Disability- prevents one from doing what would be otherwise
healthy orbeneficial to him or her (relationships, jobs, etc)
○ Distress- upset
● Research methods
○ Psychological claims should be about facts and thus must be
determined empirically using accepted scientific methods
● Definitions - I
○ Psychology- the scientific study of human and animal behavior
○ Behavior- stimulus → respOnse, anything that an organism does
involving actionand response to stimulation
■ Understanding behavior: biolOgical → psychOlOgical → basic sOcial
interactions (ex: number of neurons is correlated to number of
members in social group → larger sOcial grOup → culture)
○ Theory- the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another
○ Hypothesis- a testable question with a yes or no answer
■ Null hypothesis- “No” answer to question
■ Research articles and grant proposals should state the hypothesis
that they are testing
■ Double blind study- neither the experimenter nor the subject
knows the hypothesis being tested (ex: placebo pills for
depression)
○ Empirical- based on or characterized by observation and experiment
rather than theory
○ Data- factual information (as measurements or statistics) used as a
basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation
○ independent variable- something the researcher decides/chooses
○ dependent variable (/measure)- something you are measuring
Definitions Cont. and Statistics
● Terms
○ Data- factual information (as measurements or statistics) used as a
basis forreasoning, discussion, or calculation
○ independent variable- something the researcher decides
○ dependent variable- something you are measuring
○ positive reinforcer- presence of stimulus that increases the
probability of response
, ■ ex: paycheck
■ medical community defines positive as presents of a
symptom and negative as the absence of a symptom
○ negative reinforcer- absence of a stimulus increases the probability of a
behavior
