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2301 Final Exam Workbook Essay

Decent Essays

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

Objective 1.1

Define psychology.
Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Key Terms

psychology

Exercises

1. Put a check mark by each statement that is true regarding psychology.
___X__ Psychologists study human behavior.
___X__ Psychologists study animal behavior.
___X__ Psychologists study emotions and mental processes.
_____ Psychology and "common sense" lead to the same conclusions about behavior and mental processes.
_____ Psychology is not a science.

Objective 1.2

Define the scientific method, and explain how it is used in psychology.

Key Terms

Scientific method: The orderly, systematic procedures that researchers follow as they identify a …show more content…

3. Why does correlation fail to prove causation?

Objective 1.5

Define representative sample and explain why it is important.

Key Terms

sample population representative sample

Exercises

1. Barry reached into his bag of M&Ms and pulled out three pieces of candy, each of which was red. All of the M&Ms in Barry's bag are the (sample/population) of M&Ms. The three that he took out are the (sample/population).

2. Each bag of M&Ms has candies of several colors. Thus, the three red M&Ms that Barry took out of his bag (are/are not) a representative sample.

3. Why are researchers concerned about the representativeness of the samples in their studies?
a. They don't want to offend anyone.
b. They hope to generalize the findings of their studies to populations of interest.
c. Representative samples are usually large enough to ensure statistical significance.
d. Scientific journals will not publish a study unless the sample is representative.

Objective 1.6

Describe the experimental method, state its advantages and disadvantages, and distinguish between independent and dependent variables.

Key Terms

experimental method causal hypothesis independent variable dependent variable experimental group control group random assignment

Exercises

1. What is the primary advantage of the experimental method?

2. Read the scenario and answer the questions that follow it.

In a laboratory study of sleep deprivation, researchers employed a variety of techniques to keep

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