Ap Psychology Chapter 2 Summary

FALL
2011
Psychology 100
Final Exam Notes
Greta Epstein

Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
What is Scientific Inquiry? * A way of finding answers to empirical questions- questions that are answered by observing and measuring * 4 basic goals: * Describing what happens * Predicting when it happens * Controlling what causes it to happen * Explaining why it happens * Researchers use a general approach known as the scientific method * Scientific method reflects a dynamic interaction of 3 essential elements: 1. A theory - an explanation or model of how something
It should represent the population. The best way for this to happen is by random sampling (= taken at random from the population- e.g. selecting students from every school in your country) * Most of the time a researcher will use a convenience sample-- taken at random from an available subgroup- people who are conveniently available for the study. (E.g. students at your school) * Selection bias is a condition when the groups aren’t equivalent because the participants differ between conditions in unexpected ways * To make the groups in an experiment as equivalent as possible, random assignment is used. This means that participants are assigned at random to the control group or the experiment group so that each participant of the experiment as an equal chance of being assigned to any level of the independent variable. Random assignment balances out known and unknown factors * Meta-analysis is “a study of studies”. It combines the findings of multiple studies to arrive at a conclusion. (A study of multiple analyses) * Cultural sensitive research are studies that take into account the ways that culture would affect ones thoughts, feelings, and
* The various communication systems are integrated and promote behavior that is adaptive to the environment
How Does The Brain Change? * Although neural connections are intricate and precise, they are flexible. * Plasticity is a property of the brain that allows it to change as a result of experience, drugs, or injury. * The human genome, the blueprint for normal development, is affected by environmental factors, such as injury, sensory stimulation, sensory deprivation, and life experiences. * During development and throughout our lifetimes of learning, the circuitry is reworked and updated * Culture, as context for experience, affects the organization and structure of the brain * The brain can reorganize after a brain injury, though children’s recovery is far greater than adults’. * An understanding of genetic transmission and of brain organization, along with the knowledge that the brain regions are specialized for different perceptions, has allowed researches to unravel the puzzle of synthesia * Females’ and males’ brains differ in several ways, although similarities are more