MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY-
WHISENHUNT QUESTIONS &
ANSWERS!!
Psychology - ANSWERScientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Early Perspectives - ANSWERGestalt Psychology-focusing on studying whole
patterns rather than small pieces.
Research Ethics - ANSWERPsychological scientist primary goal of protecting health
and welfare of their animals and human participants.
Social influence - ANSWERConformity- changing one's own behavior to more
closely match the actions of others.
Compliance- persons changing their behavior due to another person or group asking
or directing them to change, often in the absence of any real authority or power.
Obedience- Changing one's behavior at the direct order of an authority figure.
Social influence techniques - ANSWERFoot-in-the-door: a smaller request is
followed by larger request.
Door-in-the-face: larger request first usually refused met with second more
reasonable request.
Low-ball: once cost of commitment is made, cost of commitment increases.
Psychoanalysis- basis of much modern psychotherapy, Process in which a trained
psychological professional helps a person gain insight into and change his or her
behavior.
Behaviorism- focus on scientific inquiry and ignore the whole "consciousness" issue
and focus only on observable behavior.
Current Perspectives - ANSWERSociocultural Perspective-actually combines 2
areas of study: social psychology and cultural psychology .
Cognitive Perspective- Focuses on how people think, remember, store and use
information.
Humanistic-focuses on human potential, free will, and possibility of self actualization.
, Psychodynamic- focuses on the roles of the unconscious mind and its influence on
conscious behavior, early childhood experiences, development of sense of self, and
other motivations.
Biopsychological- focuses on influence of hormones, brain structures and chemicals,
disease, etc; human and animal behavior seen as direct result of events in the body.
Evolutionary- Focuses on biological bases for universal mental characteristics, such
as why we lie, how attractiveness influences mate selection, the universality of fear,
and why we enjoy thing like music and dance.
Scientific Method - ANSWERPerceiving the question
Forming a hypothesis
Testing the hypothesis by collecting data
Drawing a conclusion
Reporting results
Different techniques of SM - ANSWERNaturalistic observation: observe things in
natural habitat.
Laboratory observation: observe things in lab setting.
Case studies: individual is studied in greater detail, learn everything they can about
individual
Survey: questionnaire.
Correlation coefficient - ANSWERMeasure of relationship between two or more
variables, Represent both direction and strength of relationship
Experimental hazards - ANSWERPlacebo effect: belief or expectations about a study
can influence their behavior
Experimenter effect: experimenter's biases can affect or influence participants'
behavior.
Can be controlled through single-blind (participant "blind to treatment/condition) and
double-blind studies where experimenter measuring the dependent variable does not
know the treatment/condition associated with the data.
Independent Variable and Dependent Variable - ANSWERIndependent Variable: the
variable that is manipulated.
Dependent Variable: is the measure used to evaluate the manipulation of the
independent variable.
Milgram studies - ANSWERClassic study by Milgram indicated that 65% of
"teachers" went all the way through shock levels despite protest from "learners"