Big Q 1

What is empirical data?

• information from the American Psychological Assoc.

• information acquired by scientists through experimentation and observation

• historical evidence

what is the biological perspective?

• Social and cultural contexts, Social rules and roles, groups, relationships

• Environment and experience

• Thinking, memory, language, problem solving, perceptions

• The nervous system, hormones, brain chemistry, heredity, evolutionary influences

What is the falsifiability principle?

• the hypothesis must be capable of being accepted as true

• the hypothesis must be capable of being tested and proven wrong

Answer explanation

the hypothesis that “all swans are white” can be falsified by observing a black swan

a theory is..?

• a set of rules that govern behavior

• a set of facts accepted as true

•  An organized set of assumptions that tries to explain some phenomenon.

A psychologist using this approach would focus on the chemical makeup of the brain

• Biological

• Humanistic

what is a case study?

Answer explanation

intensive study about a person, a group of people or a unit, which is aimed to generalize 

what is an operational definition

• the variable the experimenter controls

• how the independent variable impacts the dependent variable

• how a variable is measured

Answer explanation

ex: measuring intelligence w an SAT test

If Professor Holland is checking if there are similar scores on different versions of her test this would be called..?

• alternate forms reliability

• test-retest reliability

• standardization

Answer explanation

 are scores similar on different versions of the test?

what is standardization?

• evaluates how well test scores reflect what they're supposed to measure.

• test is uniform/ set to specific standard

• consistency of the findings or results of a psychology research study

What are the major differences between laboratory observation and naturalistic observation?

Answer explanation

Laboratory:  more control, not very natural 

Naturalistic: at home, on playgrounds, schools = more natural response