PSYCH101 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Null Hypothesis, Behavioural Sciences, Dependent And Independent Variables
2 May 2018
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HISTORY AND SCOPE
• Know the general progression for the history of Psychology.
• Father of psychology - William James
• Descartes Dualism
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• What is the difference between Dualism and Substance Dualism (AKA, Descartes’ Dualism)
• Dualism implies that the mind and body are different entities that work
simultaneously and Descartes’ dualism implies that only thought’s are a preview of
the soul.
• What do Kant’s faculties of mind translate into for Hilgard?
• Kant said the 3 irreducible faculties of the mind: knowledge, feeling, desire which
translated into cognition, emotion and motivation for Hilgard.
• The scope of Psychology is very broad. What are psychologists interested in when it comes
to: Basic processes, development, individual differences, pathology and applications?
• Basic processes - how the mind works
• Development - origin of the mind
• Individual Differences - Idiosynatric (individual) organizations of mental life
• Pathology - Disorders of mental life
• Applications - education, therapy, work
• How does Psychology fit into the Behavioural Sciences?
• Behavioural science is the study of the interactions between organisms in the world
and Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and the mind.
• What is the Doctrine of Mentalism (Mental Causation) and how does it apply to Psychology?
• Mental state is to action as cause is to effect - actions are caused by thoughts
• What are the levels of explanation?
• Sociocultural (social reason), Psychological (feels), Biophysical (neurons)
• Can you come up with your own example that is analogous to the Suicide example for the
Psychological level of explanation?
• Dropping out of college
• How do we think about the different levels of explanation from different disciplines?
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• How does Psychology fit into the Social Sciences? Biological Sciences? Physical Sciences?
• Social Sciences - social interaction/personality
• Biological Sciences - neuroscience
• Physical Sciences - brain imaging
• Is Psychology completely independent from other sciences, or does it still overlap?
•Yes
• What are some careers you could have if you pursued Psychology?
• Academic Department
• Clinical departments
• School
• Government/ Private Sector
RESEARCH METHODS
• What are the differences between exploratory research and theory testing?
•Exploratory research uses observations and case studies while theory testing tests
theories about cause effect relationships using variables
• What are the key characteristics of empirical research? How do theories and hypotheses fit
in?
• Theory Testing - must have potential to falsify theory
• Generate Hypothesis - a testable prediction about processes that can be can
observed and measured
• must be 2 hypothesis
• Research hypothesis(evidence for /against theory)/ Null hypothesis (against/
no result)
• What are the differences between correlational and experimental research? What are the
benefits/pitfalls of each?
• Correlational has magnitude and direction while experimental research establishes
whether variable is caused by one or more variables
• Know the terminology: Predictor/Predicted variable and Independent/Dependent variable
• Predictor variable - the variable you think is relevant
• Predicted variable - the variable of interest
• Independent variable - the variable the experimenter manipulates
• Dependent variable - the variable the experimenter measures
• Think about what circumstances might result in only being able to do correlational studies.
• When causation doesn't need to be implied
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• What is the “third variable problem” and what is a confound?
• A confound aka ‘the third variable problem’ is the fact that uncontrolled additional
variables that may correlate with the predictor and effect the outcome in correlational
/experimental research.
• What are the types of designs for experimental research?
• Within subject - same group of people do multiple conditions/ exposed to different
levels
• Between subject - different groups do each condition/ exposed to different levels
• How do we know whether the numerical differences that we see between groups in an
experimental design are meaningful? How do we know whether a correlation we find is
meaningful?
• Look at the experiment well
• What are the three basic aspects of good scientific research?
• Quality Measurement
• Generalizability
• Reduce Bias
• Know the terms associated with quality measurement: objective measurements, variables
vs. constants, operational definitions, reliability, validity. Can you think of examples for all of
these?
• Objective measurements - measurements are within certain margin of error no
matter researcher or instrument used
• Variables vs. constants -
• Operational definitions - statements that describe the procedures and/or measures
used to record observations
• Reliability - measure providing a consistent/stable answer across multiple
observations
• Validity - degree to which an instrument or procedure actually measures what it
claims to measure
• Know how to improve generalizability.
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Document Summary
History and scope: know the general progression for the history of psychology. What are psychologists interested in when it comes to: basic processes, development, individual differences, pathology and applications: basic processes - how the mind works, development - origin of the mind. Physical sciences: social sciences - social interaction/personality, biological sciences - neuroscience, physical sciences - brain imaging. Is psychology completely independent from other sciences, or does it still overlap: yes, what are some careers you could have if you pursued psychology, academic department, clinical departments, school, government/ private sector. Independent variable - the variable the experimenter manipulates: dependent variable - the variable the experimenter measures. Look at the experiment well: what are the three basic aspects of good scienti c research, quality measurement, generalizability, reduce bias, know the terms associated with quality measurement: objective measurements, variables vs. constants, operational de nitions, reliability, validity.
