Prologue: The Story of Psychology

Psychologys Roots (pp. 2-8) Objective 1: Define psychology. 1. The author of your text defines psychology as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. 2. In this definition, behavior refers to any action that we can observe and record, and mental processes refers to the internal subjective experiences we infer from behavior. 3. As a science, psychology is less a set of findings than a way of asking and answering questions. Objective 2: Trace psychologys prescientific roots, from early understandings of mind and body to the beginnings of modern science. 4. In the prescientific era, scholars such as Buddha in India and Confucius in China pondered the relationship between mind and body. 5. The Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato viewed mind and body as separable and assumed that knowledge is innate. The Greek philosopher who argued that all knowledge comes from experiences stored in memories is Aristotle. Unlike his teacher, who derived principles from logic, he derived principles from careful observations. 6. In the 1960s, the views of the Greek philosophers were revived by Rene Descartes, who believed some ideas are innate; by Englishman Francis Bacon, who became one of the founders of modern science; and by John Locke, who believed that knowledge originates in experience. This idea, along with the principle that science flourishes through observation and experiment, is called empiricism. Objective 3: Explain how the early psychologists sought to understand the minds structure and functions, and identify some of the leading psychologists who worked in these areas. 7. The first psychological laboratory was founded in 1879 by Wilhelm Wundt. His student, Edward Titchener, introduced the school of structuralism, which explored the basic elements of mind using the method of introspection. This method proved unreliable, and psychologist William James introduced the school of functionalism, which focused on how mental and behavioral processes enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish. 8. The first female president of the American Psychological Association was Mary Calkins. The first woman to receive a Ph.D. in psychology was Margaret Washburn. Objective 4: Describe the evolution of psychology as defined from the 1920s through today. 9. The historical roots of psychology include the fields of philosophy and biology. 10. Some early psychologists included Ivan Pavlov who pioneered the study of learning; the personality theorist Sigmund Freud; and Jean Piaget, who studied children. 11. In its earliest years, psychology was defined as the science of mental life. From the 1920s into the 1960s, psychology in America was redefined as the science of observable behavior. The author of your text defines psychology as the science of behavior and mental processes. 12. As a response to Freudian psychology and to behaviorism, which they considered too mechanistic, pioneers Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow forged Humanistic psychology. This new perspective emphasized the growth potential of healthy people.

13. During the 1960s, psychology underwent a cognitive revolution as it began to recapture interest in processes. The study of the interaction of thought processes and brain function is called cognitive neuroscience. Contemporary Psychology (pp. 8-14) 1. Worldwide, the number of psychologists is increasing. Objective 5: Summarize the nature-nurture debate in psychology, and describe the principle of natural selection. 2. The nature-nurture debate is the controversy over the relative contributions of biology and experience. 3. The Greek philosopher who assumed that character and intelligence are inherited is Plato. The Greek philosopher who argued that all knowledge comes from sensory experience is Aristotle. 4. In the 1600s, the views of the Greek philosophers were revived by John Locke, who believed that most knowledge comes in through the senses, and Rene Descartes, who believed that some ideas are innate. 5. In 1859, naturalist Charles Darwin explained species variation by proposing the process of evolution, which works through the principle of natural selection. Objective 6: Identify the three main levels of analysis in the biopsychosocial approach, and explain why psychologys varied perspectives are complementary. 6. Each person is a complex system that is part of a larger social system and at the same time composed of smaller systems. For this reason, psychologists work from three main levels of analysis biological, psychological, and social-cultural which together form an integrated biopsychosocial approach to the study of behavior and mental processes. 7. Psychologists who study how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences are working from the neuroscience perspective. 8. Psychologists who study how natural selection influences behavior tendencies are working from the evolutionary perspective, whereas those concerned with the relative influences of genes and environment on individual differences are working from the behavior genetics perspective. 9. Psychologists who believe that behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts are working from the psychodynamic perspective. 10. Psychologists who study the mechanisms by which observable responses are acquired and changed are working from the behavioral perspective. 11. The cognitive perspective explores how our minds encode, process, store, and retrieve information. 12. Psychologists who study how thinking and behavior vary in different situations are working form the social-cultural perspective. 13. The different perspectives on the big issues complement one another. Objective 7: Identify some of psychologys subfields and explain the difference between clinical psychology and psychiatry. 14. Psychologists may be involved in conducting basic research, which builds psychologys knowledge base or applied research, which seeks solutions to practical problems. 15. Psychologists who help people cope with problems in living are called Counseling psychologists. Psychologists who study, assess, and treat troubled people are called Clinical psychologists.

16. Medical doctors who provide psychotherapy and treat physical causes of psychological disorders are called psychiatrists. Close-Up: Your Study of Psychology (pp. 15-16) Objective 8: State five effective study techniques. 1. In order to master any subject, you must actively process it. 2. The SQ3R study method incorporates five steps: a. Survey, b. Question, c. Read, d. Review, and e. Reflect. List five additional study tips identified in the text. a. b. c. d. e. Distribute your study time. In class, listen actively. Overlearn. Focus on the big ideas. Be a smart test-taker.

Progress Test 1
Multiple-Choice Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. A C D A D C A D C C x incorrect A D A C A D C

Matching Items 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. F B K J I x incorrect O A x incorrect E E x incorrect A G

9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

M C O x incorrect I L D N H

Progress Test 2
Multiple-Choice Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. A D x incorrect A B D A C B D C D C A x incorrect C C x incorrect A A A A

True-False Items 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. F T x incorrect F T F x incorrect T F F T F T T

Psychology Applied
Multiple-Choice Questions 1. C x incorrect B 2. C 3. C x incorrect D

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

C B B B D B x incorrect E C A C x incorrect A C C D D

Essay Question

Chapter 1: Thinking Critically With Psychological Science

The Need for Psychological Science (pp. 19-26) Objective 1: Define hindsight bias, and explain how it can make research findings seem like mere common sense 1. The tendency to perceive an outcome that has occurred as being obvious and predictable is called the knew-it-all-along phenomenon. This phenomenon is common in both children and adults. 2. Because it is after the fact, this tendency makes research findings seem like mere common sense. Objective 2: Describe how overconfidence contaminates our everyday judgments. 3. Our everyday thinking is also limited by overconfidence in what we think we know, which occurs because of our tendency to seek information that confirms our judgments. 4. Most people are equally wrong in predicting their social behavior. Objective 3: Explain how the scientific attitude encourages critical thinking. 5. The scientific approach is characterized by the attitudes of curiosity, skepticism, and humility. 6. Scientific inquiry thus encourages reasoning that examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions, which is called critical thinking. Objective 4: Describe how psychological theories guide scientific research. 7. Psychologists use the scientific method to guide their study of behavior and mental processes. They make observations and form theories, which are refined based on new observations. 8. An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts behaviors or events is a theory. Testable predictions that allow a scientist to evaluate a theory are called hypotheses. These predictions give direction to research.

9. In order to prevent theoretical biases from influencing scientific observations, research must be reported precisely using clear operational definitions of all concepts so that others can duplicate the findings. 10. The test of a useful theory is the extent to which it effectively organizes observations and implies clear predictions. 11. Psychologists conduct research using ______ methods, _________, and ________ methods. Description (pp. 26-30) Objective 5: Identify an advantage and a disadvantage of using case studies to study behavior. 1. The research strategy in which one or more individuals is studies in depth in order to reveal universal principles of behavior is the case study. 2. Although case studies can suggest hypotheses for further study, a potential problem with this method is that any given individual may be atypical. Objective 6: Identify the advantages and disadvantages of using surveys to study behavior and mental processes, and explain the importance of wording effects and random sampling. 3. The method in which a group of people is questioned about their attitudes or behavior is the survey. 4. An important factor in the validity of survey research is the wording of questions. 5. The tendency to overestimate others agreement with us is the false consensus effect. 6. Surveys try to obtain a random sample, one that will be representative of the population being studied. In such a sample, every person does have a chance of being included. 7. Large, representative examples are better than small ones. 8. We are more likely to overgeneralize from select samples that are especially ______. Objective 7: Identify an advantage and a disadvantage of using naturalistic observation to study behavior. 9. The research method in which people or animals are directly observed in their natural environments is called naturalistic observation. 10. Case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observations do not explain behavior; they simply describe it. 11. Using naturalistic observation, researchers have found that people are more likely to laugh in social situations than in solitary situations. Also, using observations of walking speed and the accuracy of public clocks, researchers have concluded that the pace of life vary from one culture to another. Correlation (pp. 30-36) Objective 8: Describe positive and negative correlations, and explain how correlational measures can aid the process of prediction. 1. When changes in one factor are accompanied by changes in another, the two factors are said to be correlated, and one is thus able to predict the other. The mathematical expression of this relationship is called a correlation coefficient. 2. Graphs called scatterplots are often used to depict the relationship between two sets of scores.

3. If two factors increase of decrease together, they are positive correlations. If, however, one decreases as the other increases, they are negative correlations. Another way to state the latter is that the two variables relate inversely. If your level of test anxiety goes down as your time spent studying for the exam goes up, would you say these events are positively nor negatively correlated? Explain your reasoning. These events are negatively correlated because the events relate inversely. If both events increase or decrease together, then they would be positively correlated. Objective 9: Explain why correlational research fails to provide evidence of cause-effect relationships. 4. A negative correlation between two variables does not indicate the cause or effect of the relationship. Nor does correlation prove causation; rather, it merely indicates the possibility of a cause-effect relationship. 5. A correlation between two events or behaviors means only that one event can be ___ from the other. 6. Because two events may both be caused by some other ___ , a correlation does not mean that one ____ the other. For this reason, correlation thus does not enable ___. Objective 10: Describe how people form illusory correlations. 7. A perceived correlation that does not really exist is an illusory correlation. 8. People are more likely to notice and recall events that confirm their beliefs. This error in thinking helps explain many superstitious beliefs. Objective 11: Explain the human tendency to perceive order in random sequences. 9. Another common tendency is to perceive order in random sequences. 10. Patterns and streaks in random sequences occur more than people expect, and they do not appear random. Experimentation (pp. 36-39) Objective 12: Explain how experiments help researchers isolate cause and effect. 1. To isolate cause and effect, researchers statistically control for other factors. 2. Research studies have found that breast-fed infants do grow up with higher intelligence scores than those of infants who are bottle-fed with cows milk. To study cause-effect relationships, psychologists conduct experiments. Using this method, a researcher manipulates the factor of interest, while holding constant other factors. 3. If a behavior changes when an experimental factor is varied, the researcher knows the factor is having an effect. Objective 13: Explain why the double-blind procedure and random assignment build confidence in research findings. 4. Researchers sometimes give certain participants a pseudotreatment, called a placebo, and compare their behavior with that of participants who receive the actual treatment. When merely thinking that one is receiving a treatment produced results, a placebo effect is said to occur.

5. When neither the subjects nor the person collecting the data knows which condition a subject is in, the researcher is making use of the double-blind procedure. 6. An experiment must involve at least two conditions: the experimental condition , in which the experimental treatment is present, and the control condition, in which it is absent. 7. Experimenters rely on the random assignment of individuals to the experimental conditions. Objective 14: Explain the difference between and independent and a dependent variable. 8. The factor that is being manipulated in an experiment is called the independent variable. The measurable factor that may change as a result of these manipulations is called the dependent variable. 9. The aim of the experiment is to manipulate an independent variable, measure the dependent variable, and control all other variables. Explain at least one advantage of the experiment as a research method. The conduction of experiments is the most practical and effective research method. An advantage of this research method is the ability to be able to replicate the experiment, in order to gain more information. Another advantage of this research method is the precise control of variables, in order to gain accurate information. Statistical Reasoning (pp. 39-44) Objective 15: Explain the importance of statistical principles, and give an example of their use in everyday life. 1. Researchers use reasoning to help them see and interpret their observations. Objective 16: Explain how bar graphs can misinterpret data. 2. Once researchers have gathered their data, they must organize them. One simple way of visually representing data is to use a statistical graph. It is important to read the scale labels and note the range to avoid being misled by misrepresented data. Objective 17: Describe the three measures of central tendency, and tell which is most affected by extreme scores. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. The three measures of central tendency are the mode, the mean, and the range. The most frequently occurring score in a distribution is called the mode. The mean is computed as the total sum of all scores divided by the number of scores. The median is the score at the 50th percentile. When a distribution is lopsided, or skewed, the mean can be biased by a few extreme scores.

Objective 18: Describe two measures of variation. 8. Averages derived from scores with low variability are more reliable than those with high variability. 9. The measures of variation include the range and the standard deviation. 10. The range is computed as the gap between the lowest and highest scores. 11. The range provides a crude estimate of variation because it is influenced by extreme scores.

12. The standard deviation is a more accurate measure of variation than the range. Unlike the range, the standard deviation takes into consideration information from each score in the distribution. Objective 19: Identify these principles of making generalizations from samples. 13. It is safer to generalize from a representative sample than from a memorable sample. 14. Averages are more reliable when they are based on scores with low variability. 15. Small samples provide a less reliable basis for generalizing than large samples. Objective 20: Explain how psychologists decide whether differences are meaningful. 16. Tests of statistical significance are used to estimate whether observed differences are real that is, to make sure that they are not simply the result of chance variation. 17. Statistical significance does not necessarily indicate the importance or practical significance of a difference or result. Frequently Asked Questions About Psychology (pp. 44-50) Objective 21: Explain the value of simplified laboratory conditions in discovering general principles of behavior. 1. In laboratory experiments, psychologists concern is not with specific behaviors but with the underlying theoretical principles. As an example, researchers have found that people who flexibly cope with laboratory stresses also cope flexibly with stress in their marriages. 2. Psychologists conduct experiments on simplified behaviors in a laboratory environment in order to gain