py101 exam 1
Define psychology - correct answer ✔the scientific study of mind and behavior
What are the goals of psychology? - correct answer ✔understand why people behave
the way they do
How did early philosophers influence what we know today as psychology? - correct
answer ✔Plato developed nativism(knowledge was innate)
Aristotle developed philosophical empiricism(blank slate)
Descartes devloped dualism-mind and body were separate
John Locke continued blank slate
Empiricism - correct answer ✔knowledge comes from the senses and mind is
essentially blank slate at birth
Structuralism - correct answer ✔an early school of psychology that used introspection
to explore the elemental structure of the human mind; separate mind into most basic
elements
experimental research - correct answer ✔studies that seek clues to cause-effect
relationships by manipulating one or more factors (independent variables) while
controlling others (holding them constant)
correlational research - correct answer ✔research that seeks to identify whether an
association or relationship between two factors exists
Functionalism - correct answer ✔A school of psychology that focused on how our
mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable us to adapt, survive, and
flourish.
What is correlation? - correct answer ✔a mutual relationship or connection between
two or more things
spurious correlation - correct answer ✔the appearance of causation produced by an
intervening variable
hypothesis - correct answer ✔A testable prediction, often implied by a theory
independent variables - correct answer ✔A variable that a scientist changes to find out
how this change affects other variables in the experiment.
dependent variables - correct answer ✔a variable changed by other variables
, Occam's Razor - correct answer ✔The philosophy that the simplest explanation is
usually the correct one
Why did it appear that Clever Hans could do math? - correct answer ✔Hans would
correctly tap out the answer to a math question he was asked, when in reality it was
more likely that he picked up on some other clue from his owner
Why is random assignment useful for experimental research? - correct answer
✔random assignment helps avoid having the two groups be different before you have
had the chance to make any of the manipulations you want to make
populations - correct answer ✔the entire set of individuals we want to understand
sample - correct answer ✔subset of the population selected for a study
mean - correct answer ✔the average of a group
median - correct answer ✔the middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above
it and half are below it
mode - correct answer ✔the most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution
when is the mode most useful - correct answer ✔when you want to know what the
most common score was on anything.
normal distribution - correct answer ✔A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve, with a majority
of the scores falling in the middle of the possible range and few scores appearing
toward the extremes of the range.
negatively skewed distributions - correct answer ✔Lots of high scores and few low
scores
*-median and mode are above the mean*
positively skewed distributions - correct answer ✔1. Contains a preponderance of
scores on the low end of the scale.
2. The mean will be higher than the median.
What information does standard deviation provide - correct answer ✔average distance
between the mean of the entire distribution and each individual score
reliability - correct answer ✔the degree to which your measurement tool produces
consistent, repeatable results
validity - correct answer ✔the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is
supposed to
Define psychology - correct answer ✔the scientific study of mind and behavior
What are the goals of psychology? - correct answer ✔understand why people behave
the way they do
How did early philosophers influence what we know today as psychology? - correct
answer ✔Plato developed nativism(knowledge was innate)
Aristotle developed philosophical empiricism(blank slate)
Descartes devloped dualism-mind and body were separate
John Locke continued blank slate
Empiricism - correct answer ✔knowledge comes from the senses and mind is
essentially blank slate at birth
Structuralism - correct answer ✔an early school of psychology that used introspection
to explore the elemental structure of the human mind; separate mind into most basic
elements
experimental research - correct answer ✔studies that seek clues to cause-effect
relationships by manipulating one or more factors (independent variables) while
controlling others (holding them constant)
correlational research - correct answer ✔research that seeks to identify whether an
association or relationship between two factors exists
Functionalism - correct answer ✔A school of psychology that focused on how our
mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable us to adapt, survive, and
flourish.
What is correlation? - correct answer ✔a mutual relationship or connection between
two or more things
spurious correlation - correct answer ✔the appearance of causation produced by an
intervening variable
hypothesis - correct answer ✔A testable prediction, often implied by a theory
independent variables - correct answer ✔A variable that a scientist changes to find out
how this change affects other variables in the experiment.
dependent variables - correct answer ✔a variable changed by other variables
, Occam's Razor - correct answer ✔The philosophy that the simplest explanation is
usually the correct one
Why did it appear that Clever Hans could do math? - correct answer ✔Hans would
correctly tap out the answer to a math question he was asked, when in reality it was
more likely that he picked up on some other clue from his owner
Why is random assignment useful for experimental research? - correct answer
✔random assignment helps avoid having the two groups be different before you have
had the chance to make any of the manipulations you want to make
populations - correct answer ✔the entire set of individuals we want to understand
sample - correct answer ✔subset of the population selected for a study
mean - correct answer ✔the average of a group
median - correct answer ✔the middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above
it and half are below it
mode - correct answer ✔the most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution
when is the mode most useful - correct answer ✔when you want to know what the
most common score was on anything.
normal distribution - correct answer ✔A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve, with a majority
of the scores falling in the middle of the possible range and few scores appearing
toward the extremes of the range.
negatively skewed distributions - correct answer ✔Lots of high scores and few low
scores
*-median and mode are above the mean*
positively skewed distributions - correct answer ✔1. Contains a preponderance of
scores on the low end of the scale.
2. The mean will be higher than the median.
What information does standard deviation provide - correct answer ✔average distance
between the mean of the entire distribution and each individual score
reliability - correct answer ✔the degree to which your measurement tool produces
consistent, repeatable results
validity - correct answer ✔the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is
supposed to
