Psyc 001 -- Exam 1 study sheet

General Points:

• Bring scantron sheet #4521 (the large blue one), number 2 pencil, and something like a clipboard to write on to the exam.

• Make sure you have obtained all the class notes.

• Questions will be true/false and multiple choice..

• I like to ask questions that connect material from the different sections we've covered. Don't just study to memorize definitions, make sure you see how all the information we've covered is related. The questions I ask require that you have a solid understanding of the material. If you feel that you only have a surface level understanding of the concepts, then you should work to deepen your understanding. We'll be building on this information through the semester, so plan on remembering it after the exam is over.

• The exam will cover material from the first day through lecture on Tuesday, Sept 20th.

Study Tips:

• Reorganize your lecture notes into tables that connect the different concepts.

• Make additional notes from your lecture notes.

• Study with a friend: make up exam questions to quiz each other.

• Cover information with your hand and see if you can write it out (and understand what you are writing!)

• Apply it to your own life; make up your own examples

• Refer back to and memorize the examples that particularly helped you understand a concept.

• Put things in your own words

• To do well on exams you have to overlearn the material: really know it, and know it at the level of detail at which it is presented in lectures!!

Exam Tips:

• Make sure you answer each question (even if you have to guess on one).

• On true/false questions make sure that you read each one carefully. Don't overlook one word that would change the truthfulness of the statement.

• On the multiple choice questions, make sure you read through each answer thoroughly, and understand exactly what the question is asking. Eliminate answers you know are wrong.

• Don't dwell on questions that confuse you. Come back to them at the end.

• Read all possible choices for each multiple choice question, even if you think you found the correct answer right away.

Overall concepts covered on the exam: (These headings are to guide your studying and directly relate to the lecture notes presented in class. They do not contain all the information. You should make sure you thoroughly understand the material related to each of these topics.).

• What Psychology studies and what topics the different subareas within Psychology focus upon (i.e. what do social psychologists generally study, vs cognitive, vs learning, etc.). How would they each approach examining the same situation (such as the casino example). Think up another situation and think how they would evaluate it.
  
• General types of research (applied vs basic) and types of professions (research based vs professional fields). Understand which fields tend to be more basic research and which are more applied. Which applied fields are influenced by the research in which basic research fields?
  
• The importance of experimental research. Why is experimentation necessary?
  
• Philosophical Roots of Psychology (nativism, rationalism, empiricism). Which philsophers were associated with each of these areas? What were their general views on acquiring knowledge about the world? Understand how the three outlooks on knowledge acquisition relate to one another. Which ones could work together and which ones could not?
  
• Renaissance era (Rene Descartes, Francis Bacon, John Locke, Immanuel Kant) What were their views on knowledge and research? What viewpoint did they each have?
  
• Scientific Roots of Psychology (What are the views and approaches of each of the following areas? Who was associated with each and what are they known for?)
  • Psychophysics
  • Structuralism (methods--introspection & problems with it, Wundt & Titchener, etc.)
  • Functionalism (William James)
  • Psychodynamic theory (Sigmund Freud & problems with the theory)
  • Behaviorism (John B. Watson & B.F. Skinner)
  • Gestalt (Max Wertheimer)
    
• Contemporary Psychological Perspectives (What are the main features and characteristics of these approaches? How would they each view different situations?)
  • Humanistic Perspective
  • Cognitive Perspective
  • Social/Cultural Perspective
    
• Assumptions of Science (determinism, skepticism)
  
• Steps in the scientific method (How is a research study started and conducted to its conclusion? What happens at each step? What is the order of research steps?)
  
• Descriptive Research (what makes these all classified as "descriptive research"? How does each one approach data collection? )
  • naturalistic observations
  • case studies
  • surveys
  • psychological tests (understand how reliability and validity influence the accuracy of a test--understand how a test can be reliable and either valid or not valid, but if it is not reliable it cannot be valid)
    • reliability
    • validity
      
• Correlational Research (understand both direction and strength when discussing a correlation--think of examples of variables that are both positively and negatively related)
  • Positive correlations
  • Negative correlations
  • strength of correlations
  • coefficient -1 to +1 and graphs
  • predicting from correlations
  • correlation does not imply causation (why can't we determine causality?)
    
• Experimental Research (how does an experiment differ from a correlational study? why can we determine causality? how to the IV and DV differ?)
  • Independent Variables (IV)
    • experimental condition
    • control condition
  • Dependent Variables (DV)
  • Confounding Variables (confounds)
  • Between vs within subject designs

• Ethics in Psychological Research
  
• Statistics
  • Descriptive vs Inferential & types