Psych 101- General Psychology

Laurie McCabe

Learning Objectives for Chapter 1

The Evolution of Psychology


1. Summarize Wundt's accomplishments and contributions to the evolution of Psychology.

2. Summarize Titchner's accomplishments and contributions. Define introspection.

3. Summarize Watson's views on the appropriate subject matter of psychology, nature versus nurture, and animal research.

4. Describe the psychodynamic approach: Summarize Freud's principle ideas and why they inspired controversy.

5. Summarize Skinner's views and influence.

6. Summarize the contributions of humanistic psychology.

7. Describe two recent trends in research in psychology that reflect a return to psychology's intellectual roots; define cognition.

8. Explain why Western psychology traditionall6y had scant interest in other cultures and why this situation has begun to change.

9. Summarize the basic tenets of evolutionary psychology.

10. Explain four key insights that represent the essence of Darwin's theory of evolutions (pp. 108-114).

11. List and describe seven major research areas in psychology.

12. List and describe four professional specialities in psychology.

13. Explain the key difference between psychology and psychiatry.

14. Discuss the text's three unifying themes relating to psychology's field of study; define empiricism and theory.

15. Discuss the text's four unifying themes relating to psychology's subject matter.

16. Discuss three important considerations in designing a program to promote adequate studying.

17. Describe the SQ3R method and explain what makes it effective.

18. Summarize advice provided on how to get more out of lectures.

19. Summarize advice on improving test-taking skills.

20. Summarize advice on improving reading retention.

21. Discuss women's influence on the field of Psychology.

 

Learning Objectives for Chapter 2

The Research Enterprise of Psychology

1. Explain science's main assumption and describe the goals of the scientific enterprise in psychology; define variable.

2. Describe psychology's relations to other sciences, and outline the steps in a scientific investigation; define hypothesis and operational definition.

3. Discuss the advantages of the scientific approach compared with common sense.

4. Describe the experimental method of research, explaining independent and dependent variables, experimental and control groups, and extraneous variables; explain what is meant by random assignment of subjects and explain why it is important.

5. Describe the Featured Study on the efficacy of subliminal self-help audio tapes.

6. Explain the major advantages and disadvantages of the experimental method.

7. Explain how experimental and descriptive/correlational research are different.

8. Discuss three descriptive research methods: naturalistic observation, case studies, and surveys.

9. Explain the major advantages and disadvantages of descriptive/correlational research.

10. Describe three measures of central tendency and one measure of variability.

11. Distinguish between positive and negative correlations, and explain how the size of the correlation coefficient relates to the strength of an association.

12. Explain how correlation relates to prediction and causation.

13. Explain the logic of hypothesis testing and the meaning of statistical significance.

14. Define sample and population.

15. Explain what makes a sample representative; discuss sampling bias.

16. Explain what placebo effects are and when they are likely to be a problem.

17. Explain what experimenter bias is and discuss techniques for avoiding it.

18. Discuss the pros and cons of deception in research with human subjects.

19. Discuss the historical background of ethics pertaining to research.

20. Explain how this chapter highlighted two of the text's unifying themes.

21. Discuss the roll of the Institutional Review Board as discussed in the "in class" Activity.