PSYCH 101 NOTES

Chapter 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions

Early Psychologists

● Plato (428-347 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC) - Greek philosophers

○ Plato argued on the nature side, believing that certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn
○ Aristotle was more on the nurture side, believing that each child is born as an “empty slate” (in Latin, a
tabula rasa) and that knowledge is primarily acquired through learning and experience.

● René Descartes (1596-1650) - French philosopher & scientist

- considered the issue of free will, arguing in its favour and believing that the mind controls the body
through the pineal gland in the brain (an idea that made some sense at the time but was later proved
incorrect).
- believed in the existence of innate natural abilities.
- addressed the relationship between mind (the mental aspects of life) and body (the physical aspects
of life).
- believed in the principle of dualism: that the mind is fundamentally different from the
mechanical body.

● Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), John Locke (1632-1704), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) - other
European philosophers
- The fundamental problem that these philosophers faced was that they had few methods for settling
their claims. Most philosophers didn’t conduct any research on these questions, in part because they
● didn’t yet know how to do it
● weren’t sure it was even possible to objectively study human experience.

1800s
● Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), - a German research psychologist who developed a psychology laboratory in
Leipzig, Germany
● William James (1842-1910) - American research psychologist who founded a psychology laboratory at
Harvard University

STRUCTURALISM: Introspection and the Awareness of Subjective Experience

Structuralism
- a school of psychology whose goal was to identify the basic elements or structures of psychological
experience
- uses the method of introspection to identify the basic elements or “structures” of psychological experience
- Important contributors: Wilhelm Wundt & Edward B. Titchener

Introspection involves asking research participants to describe exactly what they experience as they work on mental
tasks

● Wilhelm Wundt attempted to understand the nature of consciousness

- discovered that it took people longer to report what sound they had just heard than to simply respond
that they had heard the sound. These studies marked the first time researchers realized that there is a
difference between the sensation of a stimulus and the perception of that stimulus, and the idea of
using reaction times to study mental events has now become a mainstay of cognitive psychology

● Edward Bradford Titchener (1867-1927) - Wundt’s student who came to the United States in the late 1800s
and founded a laboratory at Cornell University
- In his research using introspection, he and his students claimed to have identified more than 40,000
sensations, including those relating to vision, hearing, and taste

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 - The research marked the beginning of psychology as a science, because it demonstrated that mental
events could be quantified

Limitations of introspection:
- The structuralists realized the importance of unconscious processes—that many important aspects of human
psychology occur outside our conscious awareness, and that psychologists cannot expect research
participants to be able to accurately report on all of their experiences.

FUNCTIONALISM and EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY

Functionalism - attempts to understand why animals and humans have developed the particular psychological
aspects that they currently possess
- Important contributor: William James
- the functionalist school of psychology, founded by the American psychologist William James, was influenced
by the work of Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin’s (1809-1882) theory of natural selection, - proposed that the physical characteristics of animals and
humans evolved because they were useful, or functional.
- the functionalists believed that Darwin’s theory applied to psychological characteristics too.
- the human brain, so functionalists thought, must have adapted to serve a particular function in human
experience

Evolutionary psychology - a branch of psychology that applies the Darwinian theory of natural selection to human and
animal behaviour
- many human psychological systems, including memory, emotion, and personality, serve key adaptive
functions
- a key component of the ideas of evolutionary psychology is fitness.
● Fitness refers to the extent to which having a given characteristic helps the individual organism
survive and reproduce at a higher rate than do other members of the species who do not have the
characteristic
- provides logical explanations for why we have many psychological characteristics.

Limitations of evolutionary psychology: many of its predictions are extremely difficult to test

PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOLOGY

Psychodynamic - focuses on the role of our unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories and our early childhood
experiences in determining behaviour
- Important contributors: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Erik Erickson

● Sigmund Freud - developed his theories about behaviour through extensive analysis of the patients that he
treated in his private clinical practice
- believed that many of the problems that his patients experienced, including anxiety, depression, and
sexual dysfunction, were the result of the effects of painful childhood experiences that they could no
longer remember

Psychoanalysis - a talk therapy and dream analysis that aims to explore lost memories
Pyschotheraphy - designed to help patients recover and confront their “lost” memories

BEHAVIOURISM and the Question of Free Will

Behaviourism - based on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study the mind, and therefore that
psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behaviour itself
- Important contributors: John B. Watson & B. F. Skinner

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Behaviourists believe that
a. the human mind is a black box into which stimuli are sent and from which responses are received
b. it is possible to develop laws of learning that can explain all behaviours

● John B. Watson (1878-1958) - American psychologist

- Watson and the other behaviourists began to use these ideas (i.e. that dogs would salivate at the
sound of a tone that had previously been associated with the presentation of food) to explain how
events that people and other organisms experienced in their environment (stimuli) could produce
specific behaviours (responses).

● Burrhus Frederick (B. F.) Skinner (1904 to 1990) - a member of the behaviourist school of psychology
- argued that free will is an illusion and that all behaviour is determined by environmental factors
- used the ideas of stimulus and response, along with the application of rewards or reinforcements, to
train pigeons and other animals.
- used the general principles of behaviourism to develop theories about how best to teach children and
how to create societies that were peaceful and productive
- developed a method for studying thoughts and feelings using the behaviourist approach

Behaviourists perceptions on:

● nature-nurture: they agreed with the nurture approach, believing that we are shaped exclusively by our
environments.
● free-will: argued that there is no free will, but rather that our behaviours are determined by the events that we
have experienced in our past
- although we do not cause our own actions, we nevertheless believe that we do because we don’t realize all the
influences acting on our behaviour

The COGNITIVE Approach and Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive psychology - the study of mental processes, including perception, thinking, memory, and judgments
- Important Contributors:
● Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) - German psychologist who studied the ability of people to
remember lists of words under different conditions,
● Frederic Bartlett (1886-1969) - English psychologist who studied the cognitive and social processes
of remembering
● Jean Piaget (1896-1980) - Swiss psychologist; the idea that our memory is influenced by what we
already know was also a major idea behind the cognitive-developmental stage model of hers

- The War of the Ghosts is a story that was used by Sir Frederic Bartlett to test the influence of prior
expectations on memory.
- Bartlett found that even when his British research participants were allowed to read the story many
times, they still could not remember it well, and he believed this was because it did not fit with their
prior knowledge → did not fit the participants’ expectations about how stories should go

Neuroimaging is the use of various techniques to provide pictures of the structure and function of the living brain

SOCIAL-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

Social-cultural - the study of how the social situations and the cultures in which people find themselves influence
thinking and behaviour
- Important contributors: Fritz Heider, Leon Festinger, Stanley Schachter

● Social-cultural psychologists are particularly concerned with how people perceive themselves and others, and
how people influence each other’s behaviour

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Conformity - a process where we frequently change our beliefs and behaviours to be similar to those of the people we
care about

Social norms - the ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that are shared by group members and perceived by them as
appropriate
- include customs, traditions, standards, and rules, as well as the general values of the group.
- many of the most important social norms are determined by the culture in which we live

Culture represents the common set of social norms, including religious and family values and other moral beliefs,
shared by the people who live in a geographical region
● Individualism - valuing the self and one’s independence from others; Western culture
● Collectivism - oriented toward interdependence; focus on developing harmonious social relationships with
others; East Asia culture
- the predominant norms relate to group togetherness and connectedness, and duty and responsibility
to one’s family and other groups.

The Many Disciplines of Psychology

● Biopsychology and neuroscience
● Clinical and counselling psychology
● Cognitive psychology
● Developmental psychology
● Forensic psychology
● Health psychology
● Industrial-organizational and environmental psychology - Industrial-organizational psychology applies
psychology to the workplace with the goal of improving the performance and well-being of employees.
● Personality psychology - These psychologists study people and the differences among them. The goal is to
develop theories that explain the psychological processes of individuals, and to focus on individual
differences.
● School and educational psychology
● Social and cross-cultural psychology
● Sports psychology

Key Takeaways
● The first psychologists were philosophers, but the field became more empirical and objective as more
sophisticated scientific approaches were developed and employed.
● Some basic questions asked by psychologists include those about nature versus nurture, free will versus
determinism, accuracy versus inaccuracy, and conscious versus unconscious processing.
● The structuralists attempted to analyze the nature of consciousness using introspection.
● The functionalists based their ideas on the work of Darwin, and their approaches led to the field of
evolutionary psychology.
● The behaviourists explained behaviour in terms of stimulus, response, and reinforcement, while denying the
presence of free will.
● Cognitive psychologists study how people perceive, process, and remember information.
● Psychodynamic psychology focuses on unconscious drives and the potential to improve lives through
psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.
● The social-cultural approach focuses on the social situation, including how cultures and social norms
influence our behaviour

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Chapter 3.2 Moral Foundations of Ethical Research

Ethics - a branch of philosophy that is concerned with morality—what it means to behave morally and how people can
achieve that goal.
- can also refer to a set of principles and practices that provide moral guidance in a particular field

A Framework for Thinking About Research Ethics

“A Framework for Thinking About Ethical Issues in Scientific Research” represent four general moral principles that
apply to scientific research:
1. weighing risks against benefits
2. acting responsibly and with integrity
3. seeking justice
4. respecting people’s rights and dignity

“A Framework for Thinking About Ethical Issues in Scientific Research” represent three groups of people that are
affected by scientific research:
1. the research participants
2. the scientific community
3. society

1. Weighing Risks Against Benefits

- Scientific research in psychology can be ethical only if its risks are outweighed by its benefits.
- Participants:
- Among the risks to research participants are:
● a treatment might fail to help or even be harmful
● a procedure might result in physical or psychological harm
● their right to privacy might be violated
- Among the potential benefits are:
● receiving a helpful treatment
● learning about psychology
● experiencing the satisfaction of contributing to scientific knowledge
● receiving money or course credit for participating
- Scientific research can have risks and benefits to the scientific community and to society
- A risk to science is that if a research question is uninteresting or a study is poorly designed, then the
time, money, and effort spent on that research could have been spent on more productive research.
- A risk to society is that research results could be misunderstood or misapplied with harmful
consequences.
- The benefits of scientific research to science and society are that it advances scientific knowledge
and can contribute to the welfare of society

2. Acting Responsibly and With Integrity

- This means that researchers must carry out their research in a thorough and competent manner, meeting their
professional obligations, and being truthful.
- Participants:
- Acting with integrity is important because it promotes trust, which is an essential element of all
effective human relationships. Participants must be able to trust that researchers are being honest
with them (e.g., about what the study involves), will keep their promises (e.g., to maintain
confidentiality), and will carry out their research in ways that maximize benefits and minimize risk.
- An important issue here is the use of deception. Some research questions (such as Milgram’s) are
difficult or impossible to answer without deceiving research participants. Thus acting with integrity
can conflict with doing research that advances scientific knowledge and benefits society.
- The scientific community and society must also be able to trust that researchers have conducted their
research thoroughly and competently and that they have reported on it honestly

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3. Seeking Justice
- Researchers must conduct their research in a just manner. They should treat their participants fairly, for
example, by giving them adequate compensation for their participation and making sure that benefits and
risks are distributed across all participants
- At a broader societal level, members of some groups have historically faced more than their fair share of the
risks of scientific research, including people who are institutionalized, are disabled, or belong to racial or
ethnic minorities.
Example: Tuskegee syphilis study conducted by the US Public Health Service from 1932 to 1972

4. Respecting People’s Rights and Dignity

- Elements:
1. Respecting their autonomy — their right to make their own choices and take their own actions free
from coercion.
- Of fundamental importance here is the concept of informed consent — researchers obtain
and document people’s agreement to participate in a study after having informed them of
everything that might reasonably be expected to affect their decision
2. Respecting their privacy — their right to decide what information about them is shared with others.
- This means that researchers must maintain confidentiality, which is essentially an agreement
not to disclose participants’ personal information without their consent or some appropriate
legal authorization.
- Even more ideally participants can maintain anonymity, which is when their name and other
personally identifiable information is not collected at all

Unavoidable Ethical Conflict

- ethical conflict in psychological research is unavoidable. Because there is little, if any, psychological research
that is completely risk-free, there will almost always be a conflict between risks and benefits.
- Research that is beneficial to one group (e.g., the scientific community) can be harmful to another
(e.g., the research participants), creating especially difficult tradeoffs.
- many ethical conflicts are fairly easy to resolve but many ethical conflicts are not easy to resolve
- Although it may not be possible to eliminate ethical conflict completely, it is possible to deal with it in
responsible and constructive ways. This means
a. thoroughly and carefully thinking through the ethical issues that are raised
b. minimizing the risks
c. weighing the risks against the benefits
d. being able to explain one’s ethical decisions to others
e. seeking feedback on them
f. ultimately taking responsibility for them

Key Takeaways
● A wide variety of ethical issues arise in psychological research. Thinking them through requires considering
how each of four moral principles (weighing risks against benefits, acting responsibly and with integrity,
seeking justice, and respecting people’s rights and dignity) applies to each of three groups of people (research
participants, science, and society).
● Ethical conflict in psychological research is unavoidable. Researchers must think through the ethical issues
raised by their research, minimize the risks, weigh the risks against the benefits, be able to explain their ethical
decisions, seek feedback about these decisions from others, and ultimately take responsibility for them.

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Chapter 3.3 From Moral Principles to Ethics Codes

Historical Overview
● Nuremberg Code - one of the earliest ethics codes
- a set of 10 principles written in 1947 in conjunction with the trials of Nazi physicians accused of
shockingly cruel research on concentration camp prisoners during World War II. It provided a standard
against which to compare the behavior of the men on trial
- was particularly clear about the importance of carefully weighing risks against benefits and the need
for informed consent
● Declaration of Helsinki is a similar ethics code that was created by the World Medical Council in 1964.
- Among the standards that it added to the Nuremberg Code was that research with human participants
should be based on a written protocol—a detailed description of the research—that is reviewed by an
independent committee.
● Belmont Report - a set of federal guidelines published in 1978 brought by the concerns about the Tuskegee
study and others in the United States
- explicitly recognized the principle of seeking justice, including the importance of conducting research
in a way that distributes risks and benefits fairly across different groups at the societal level.
- also recognized the importance of respect for persons, which translates to the need for informed
consent.
- it recognized the principle of beneficence, which underscores the importance of maximizing the
benefits of research while minimizing harms to participants and society.
- became the basis of a set of laws—the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects—that
apply to research conducted, supported, or regulated by the federal government.
● Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects
- An extremely important part of these regulations is that universities, hospitals, and other institutions
that receive support from the federal government must establish an ethical review board (ERB) or an
institutional review board (IRB)
- ethical review board (ERB) or an institutional review board (IRB) — a committee that is
responsible for reviewing research protocols for potential ethical problems.
- An IRB must consist of at least five people with varying backgrounds, including
members of different professions, scientists and nonscientists, men and women, and
at least one person not otherwise affiliated with the institution.
- The IRB helps to make sure that the risks of the proposed research are minimized, the
benefits outweigh the risks, the research is carried out in a fair manner, and the
informed consent procedure is adequate

Research that poses three levels of risk.

1. Exempt research includes research on the effectiveness of normal educational activities, the use of standard
psychological measures and surveys of a nonsensitive nature that are administered in a way that maintains
confidentiality, and research using existing data from public sources.
- called exempt because the regulations do not apply to it.
2. Minimal risk research exposes participants to risks that are no greater than those encountered by healthy
people in daily life or during routine physical or psychological examinations.
- can receive an expedited review by one member of the IRB or by a separate committee under the
authority of the IRB that can only approve minimal risk research.
3. At-risk research poses greater than minimal risk and must be reviewed by the full board of IRB members

APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (APA Ethics Code)
- first published in 1953 and has been revised several times since then, most recently in 2010.
- includes about 150 specific ethical standards that psychologists and their students are expected to follow.
- Much of the APA Ethics Code concerns the clinical practice of psychology—advertising one’s services, setting
and collecting fees, having personal relationships with clients, and so on.

Standard 8: Research and Publication

● 8.01 Institutional Approval
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 ● 8.02 Informed Consent to Research
● 8.03 Informed Consent for Recording Voices and Images in Research
● 8.04 Client/Patient, Student, and Subordinate Research Participants
● 8.05 Dispensing With Informed Consent for Research
● 8.06 Offering Inducements for Research Participation
● 8.07 Deception in Research
● 8.08 Debriefing
● 8.09 Humane Care and Use of Animals in Research
● 8.10 Reporting Research Results
● 8.11 Plagiarism
● 8.12 Publication Credit
● 8.13 Duplicate Publication of Data
● 8.14 Sharing Research Data for Verification
● 8.15 Reviewers

Informed Consent - standards 8.02 to 8.05 are about informed consent

- this means obtaining and documenting people’s agreement to participate in a study, having informed them of
everything that might reasonably be expected to affect their decision.
- includes details of the procedure, the risks and benefits of the research, the fact that they have the
right to decline to participate or to withdraw from the study, the consequences of doing so, and any
legal limits to confidentiality
- Although the process of obtaining informed consent often involves having participants read and sign a
consent form, it is important to understand that this is not all it is.
- Even with competent adults, therefore, it is good practice to tell participants about the risks and
benefits, demonstrate the procedure, ask them if they have questions, and remind them of their right
to withdraw at any time
- there are situations in which informed consent is not necessary. These include situations in which the research
is not expected to cause any harm and the procedure is straightforward or the study is conducted in the
context of people’s ordinary activities

Deception
- Deception of participants in psychological research can take a variety of forms:
● misinforming participants about the purpose of a study
● using confederates
● using phony equipment
● presenting participants with false feedback about their performance
● not informing participants of the full design or true purpose of the research even if they are not
actively misinformed
- Some researchers have argued that deception of research participants is rarely if ever ethically justified.
- the APA Ethics Code takes a more moderate approach—allowing deception when
● the benefits of the study outweigh the risks
● participants cannot reasonably be expected to be harmed
● the research question cannot be answered without the use of deception
● participants are informed about the deception as soon as possible

Debriefing - Standard 8.08

- the process of informing research participants as soon as possible of the purpose of the study, revealing any
deception, and correcting any other misconceptions they might have as a result of participating.
- also involves minimizing harm that might have occurred

Nonhuman Animal Subjects - Standard 8.09 is about the humane treatment and care of nonhuman animal subjects
● As with deception, the APA acknowledges that the benefits of research on nonhuman animals can outweigh
the costs, in which case it is ethically acceptable. However, researchers must use alternative methods when
they can. When they cannot, they must acquire and care for their subjects humanely and minimize the harm to
them.
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Scholarly Integrity - Standards 8.10 to 8.15
- include the obvious points that researchers must not fabricate data or plagiarize.
● Plagiarism means using others’ words or ideas without proper acknowledgment.
● Proper acknowledgment generally means indicating direct quotations with quotation marks and
providing a citation to the source of any quotation or idea used.
- Researchers should not publish the same data a second time as though it were new, they should share their
data with other researchers, and as peer reviewers they should keep the unpublished research they review
confidential.
- the authors’ names on published research—and the order in which those names appear—should
reflect the importance of each person’s contribution to the research

Key Takeaways
● There are several written ethics codes for research with human participants that provide specific guidance on
the ethical issues that arise most frequently. These codes include the Nuremberg Code, the Declaration of
Helsinki, the Belmont Report, and the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects.
● The APA Ethics Code is the most important ethics code for researchers in psychology. It includes many
standards that are relevant mainly to clinical practice, but Standard 8 concerns informed consent, deception,
debriefing, the use of nonhuman animal subjects, and scholarly integrity in research.
● Research conducted at universities, hospitals, and other institutions that receive support from the federal
government must be reviewed by an institutional review board (IRB)—a committee at the institution that
reviews research protocols to make sure they conform to ethical standards.
● Informed consent is the process of obtaining and documenting people’s agreement to participate in a study,
having informed them of everything that might reasonably be expected to affect their decision. Although it
often involves having them read and sign a consent form, it is not equivalent to reading and signing a consent
form.
● Although some researchers argue that deception of research participants is never ethically justified, the APA
Ethics Code allows for its use when the benefits of using it outweigh the risks, participants cannot reasonably
be expected to be harmed, there is no way to conduct the study without deception, and participants are
informed of the deception as soon as possible.

Chapter 3.5 Psychologists Use Descriptive, Correlational, and Experimental Research Designs to Understand
Behaviour

Research Design - the specific method a researcher uses to collect, analyze, and interpret data.
- Major types
1. Descriptive research is research designed to provide a snapshot of the current state of affairs.
2. Correlational research is research designed to discover relationships among variables and to allow
the prediction of future events from present knowledge.
3. Experimental research is research in which initial equivalence among research participants in more
than one group is created, followed by a manipulation of a given experience for these groups and a
measurement of the influence of the manipulation

Characteristics of the Three Research Designs

Research design Goal Advantages Disadvantages

Descriptive To create a snapshot of the Provides a relatively Does not assess

current state of affairs complete picture of what is relationships among
occurring at a given time. variables.
Allows the development of May be unethical if
questions for further study. participants do not know
they are being observed.

Correlational To assess the relationships Allows testing of expected Cannot be used to draw
between and among two or relationships between and inferences about the causal
more variables among variables and the relationships between and
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 making of predictions. Can among the variables
assess these relationships
in everyday life events.

Experimental To assess the causal Allows drawing of Cannot experimentally

impact of one or more conclusions about the manipulate many important
experimental manipulations causal relationships among variables. May be expensive
on a dependent variable variables. and time consuming.

1. Descriptive research types:

a. Case studies - descriptive records of one or more individual’s experiences and behaviour; sometimes involve
ordinary individuals
- conducted on individuals who have unusual or abnormal experiences or characteristics or who find
themselves in particularly difficult or stressful situations.
- Assumption: by carefully studying individuals who are socially marginal, who are experiencing unusual
situations, or who are going through a difficult phase in their lives, we can learn something about
human nature
Sigmund Freud - a master of using the psychological difficulties of individuals to draw conclusions about
basic psychological processes
Examples:
● Freud’s description of “Little Hans,” a child whose fear of horses the psychoanalyst interpreted in
terms of repressed sexual impulses and the Oedipus complex
●
b. Surveys
c. Naturalistic observation

2. Correlational
3. Experimental

February 28, 2023, F2F meeting notes

Pyschology began with the philosophers who began thinking and questioning those around them

STRUCTURALISM
● William Wundt - father of psychology
● introspection - a method employed in structuralism
- can be broken down to specific elements
- has specific guidelines on how to conduct the introspection
- debunked but has a significant contribution:
1. first to realize that sensation and perception are different
- sensation is just hearing something; processing is stronger
- perception is knowing what you heard
2. response time - implicit measure; processing times tends to be different to different situations

FUNCTIONALISM - influenced by evolutionary theory; assume and believe that psychological stuff that made it to that
particular time has certain function; has now become BIOPSYCHOLOGY
- if it ceases to be relevant, it will be lost
- failed to adopt = fail → means that we need to adopt, need to respond
● William James

PYSCHODYNAMIC
- Freud's major contribution: idea of the unconscious
- ego, superego, id
● id - we are born with this; animalistic; unconscious

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 ● supergo - semi conscious memory of all the rules that we have to learn; conscience, what is
right and what is wrong
● ego - consciounsess
- unconsciousness affects you unconsciously

Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development

1. oral stage - sucking is a reflex; unconscious > id
2. anal stage
- first to control is waste expulsion
- ang battle nag focus sa potty training >> feeding and expulsion
- pressure from adults leads to rebellion which can be expulsive & retentive
- anal fixated: expulsive (burara), retentive (retaining poop)

BEHAVIOURISM
- the mind is unseen
- when it comes to studying persons, look at the behavior, not the mind
● Skinner
- Reinforcement
- something positive happens = desirable behavior = more likely to happen again
- application in business: incentives or rewards in kind
- Limitations:
● delay in gratification - we persist in doing something even if we are not rewarded for it anymore
because we are anticipating for a bigger reward in the future
- it only has to be valuable for you, regardless if it is bad to others
Example of delay in gratification: investing

● Social learning - learning from the others which urge you to behave in a desirable way
For example, brother going out as gay > gikulata sa dad > the sibling who happens to be a gay also decided
not to go out, not until college

COGNITIVE
- focus on the mind and the consciousness
- how we represent the real worlds in our mind
- attention - when we focus, it's the mind that's working
- still done in the present
- belief systems shapes you

SOCIO-CULTURAL
- a person is affected by the presence around them - can be implied or imagined presence
- studying Social Science is cognitive in nature - value whats inside your heads

METHODS
1. DESCRIPTIVE - not establishing relationships between the variables
a. natural observation - usually used in kids
b. case studies
c. surveys

2. CORRELATIONAL - studies the relationships between the variables; establishing causation employs a deep
studying which is where experimental comes in; correlation is not causal
a. positive correlation - increase value of a = increase value of b
b. negative correlation - increase = decrease; when one rises, the other drops

3. EXPERIMENTAL - controlled environment -> results may not be helpful or useful in the real world
● independent variables - manipulated variables e.g. light while studying
● dependent variable = outcome variable; measure after the manipulation
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RESEARCH ETHICS FOUNDATIONS
1. Weighing Risks Against Benefits
2. Acting responsibly and with integrity - do not deceive your respondents; in social psychology, deception can be
justified
3. Seeking justice
- Example: syphilis experiments
4. Respecting people’s rights and dignity
- withdrawal of participation; right not to use the data is always in the hand of the participant

ETHICAL CODES
1. informed consent
2. deception is just satisfied
3. debriefing
4. Nonhuman Animal Subjects
5. scholarly integrity

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