Exam 1: Section 3: Introduction and Research Methods

Like psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology included influential theories of personality and a form of psychotherapy.

Introspection was not a good method for psychologists to utilize because this method could not be used to study a variety of complex topics, such as learning, development, mental disorders, and personality.

Cross-cultural psychologists have found that there are no psychological processes that are shared by all humans.

In one natural experiment investigating weight gain during the first year of college, it was found that male students assigned to dormitories with food service reported eating more meals and more snacks, but they did not report gaining weight.

One reason that practice tests enhance retention of material is that they counteract the fluency effect.

A young, dynamic psychologist named John Watson said, "Behaviorism, on the contrary, holds that the subject matter of human psychology is the behavior of the human being. Behaviorism claims that consciousness is neither a definite nor a usable concept. The behaviorist, who has been trained always as an experimentalist, holds, further, that belief in the existence of consciousness goes back to the ancient days of superstition and magic."

Rejecting the study of conscious experience Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were behaviorists who emphasized the importance of observable behaviors.

The case study method is often used to develop a complete profile of a psychotherapy client.

The idea that brain imaging may add little to explanations of psychological processes and are not necessarily more scientific than other approaches psychologists take are two of the limitations listed in Focus on Neuroscience.

The experimental technique in which the researchers, but not the participants, are aware of the critical information about the experiment is called the double-blind technique.

In his research, Dr. Klein explores how people are affected by their social environments. He is particularly interested in helping behavior, conformity, obedience, prejudice, and aggression. Dr. Klein is a social psychologist.

Norms of social behavior are virtually identical in all developed countries.

One advantage offered by survey research is that information can be gathered from a large group of people about the cause and effect of some phenomenon.

Biological psychologists study the relationship between psychological processes and the body's physical systems, including the brain and the rest of the nervous system, the endocrine system, the immune system, and genetics.

Experimental research is a research method used to demonstrate cause-and-effect relationships by purposely manipulating one factor thought to produce change in another factor.

Even if two factors are very strongly correlated, correlation does NOT necessarily indicate causality.

Psychologists have concluded that it is impossible to apply the principle of natural selection to psychological processes.

Biological psychology refers to the application of the principles of evolution to explain psychological processes and phenomena.

Cultural norms are unwritten rules of behavior that are acted on with little thought once they have been internalized.

Descriptive research designs include strategies for observing and describing behavior.