Exam 1: Section 3: Introduction and Research Methods

More than 2,000 years ago the Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote extensively about psychological topics such as sleep, dreams, the senses, and memory.

Apes and monkeys are, by far, the most commonly used nonhuman animals in psychological research in the United States.

School psychologists apply psychological principles and findings in primary and secondary schools.

The basic goal of naturalistic observation is to do an in-depth study of a single individual's behavior.

Random assignment helps ensure that potential differences among participants are spread out evenly across all experimental conditions.

Nonhuman animal participants are used in the vast majority of psychological studies conducted each year in this country.

Although the biological perspective was important when psychology was first founded, it is of little interest in contemporary psychology.

Today psychology is formally defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Both G. Stanley Hall and Mary Whiton Calkins were psychologists who were originally students of Wilhelm Wundt.

A placebo is a fake substance, procedure, or treatment that has no known direct effects.

In striving to identify and understand consistent patterns of behavior, psychologists are open-minded. That is, they are willing to consider new or alternative explanations of behavior and mental processes.

Counseling psychology helps people adjust, adapt, and cope with personal and interpersonal problems; improves well-being; alleviates distress and maladjustment; and resolves crises.

Educational psychology is a specialty area in psychology that applies psychological principles and theories to methods of learning.

The behavioral perspective of psychology focuses on how behavior is acquired through unconscious influences and early childhood experiences.

Participants in the control group receive none of the experimental conditions except the independent variable or treatment variable.

Mary Whiton Calkins was the first woman president of the American Psychological Association and the author of a comprehensive textbook on psychology.

In a research study, subtle cues or signals expressed by the researcher that communicate the kind of response or behavior that is expected from the participant are referred to as practice effects.

The four basic goals of psychology are to (1) describe, (2) explain, (3) predict, and (4) control or influence behavior and mental processes.

In an experiment, the independent variable is the purposely manipulated factor thought to produce change in an experiement.

The established science MOST responsible for the emergence of psychology as a scientific discipline was physiology.