Ch. 1: The Science of Psychology (Critical Thinking Activity = 15 pts.

Use the crossword puzzle to fill in the blanks on the next page(s). (You do NOT
need to actually write your answers in the boxes here).

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 Ch. 1: The Science of Psychology (Critical Thinking Activity = 15 pts.)

Part 1—Knowing Key Terms (3 points):

Fill in the blanks from the crossword puzzle above using key terms from the
textbook and/or lecture notes.

Across
4. the phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can influence
their behavior.- Placebo effect
5. the theory and therapy based on the work of Sigmund Freud.- Psychoanalysis
7. tendency of observers to see what they expect to see.- Observer bias
10. process of assigning subjects to the experimental or control groups randomly, so
that each subject has an equal chance of being in either group.- Random
assignment
11. the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.- Psychology
12. tentative explanation of a phenomenon based on observations.- Hypothesis
14. a professional with an academic degree and specialized training in one or more
areas of psychology.- Psychologist
15. early perspective in psychology associated with Wilhelm Wundt and Edward
Titchener, in which the focus of study is the structure or basic elements of the mind.-
Structuralism
16. in research, repeating a study or experiment to see if the same results will be
obtained in an effort to demonstrate reliability of results.- Replicate
17. the entire group of people or animals in which the researcher is interested.-
Population
18. a deliberate manipulation of a variable to see if corresponding changes in behavior
result, allowing the determination of cause and effect relationships.- Experiment

Down
1. a measure of the relationship between two variables.- Correlation
2. thinking and making reasoned judgments about claims.- Critical thinking
3. early perspective in psychology associated with William James, in which the focus of
study is how the mind allows people to adapt, live, work, and play.- Functionalism
6. the process of examining and measuring one’s own thoughts and mental activities.-
Introspection
8. method system of gathering data so that bias and error in measurement are
reduced.- Scientific Method.
9. a medical doctor who has specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological
disorders.- psychiatrist
13. perspective that focuses on the relationship between social behavior and culture.-
sociocultural perspective

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 Ch. 1: The Science of Psychology (Critical Thinking Activity = 15 pts.)

Part 2—Understanding and Analyzing Concepts (3 points):

Inference or Observation? Decide whether each statement is objective or whether
it includes an inference or interpretation made by the observer by writing
“objective” or “inference/interpretation” below .

1. Marvin coughed three times before resuming his monologue on the feats he
performed on the football team when he was in high school.
objective

2. The noise from outside caught the rat’s attention and it hesitated before deciding
which alley to take in the maze.
inference/interpretation

3. As she began to talk about her mother’s death, her grief manifested itself in tears.
inference/interpretation

4. He had his notebook open on the desk in front of him but he took no notes and
during the lecture he looked at his watch 23 times.
objective

5. After Sandra left to go to class, John continued to sit under the tree daydreaming.
inference/interpretation

6. Sammy indicated his preference for his father by approaching him whenever he
wanted to be reassured.
inference/interpretation

7. When the group therapy session was over, she was so anxious to get away from
the others that she forgot her purse and umbrella.
inference/interpretation

8. Sue ate her hamburger and salad rapidly, and entered the conversation at the
table only once during the meal.
objective

9. Billy became more frightened of Prissy every time she tried to hug and kiss him.
inference/interpretation

10. While Allison told the therapist about her affair with Ted, she looked at her feet
and held the arms of the chair tightly.
objective

11. He knocked, then he rang the doorbell and waited for 87 seconds before he
finally decided that there was no one home.
inference/interpretation
12. Kenny was too shy to join the other children in the sand pile, but I could tell that

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 Ch. 1: The Science of Psychology (Critical Thinking Activity = 15 pts.)

just watching them was a pleasant experience for him.

inference/interpretation

13. The man on the other side of the street fell after the third shot was fired by the
woman standing in front of the bakery.
objective

14. The child looked from the stick to the bread several times before she picked up
the stick and used it to bring the bread within her reach.
objective

Part 3—Comprehending and Applying Concepts (3 points):

Understanding Experimental Research: Read each scenario and fill in the blanks
with the correct answer.

Example #1
A researcher was interested in examining the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral
therapy for depression. 50 depressed patients were randomly assigned to 1 of 2
conditions (1=cognitive-behavioral therapy for 10 weeks; 2=wait list). Patients’
Patients’ level of
depression was measured at the beginning and end of the 10 weeks and compared.

1. What is the independent variable?

Favorable treatment type
2. What is the dependent variable?
Degree of improvement
3. What is the experimental group?
cognitive-behavioral therapy for 10 weeks
4. What is the control group?
wait list

Example #2
A researcher was interested in examining the claim that physically releasing one’
one’s
anger helps to alleviate it. 20 people with anger management problems were randomly
assigned to 1 of 2 groups. In group 1, they were instructed to punch a pillow when
angry. In group 2, they were instructed to journal their thoughts. Their anger was
measured with the Anger Expression Inventory.

1. What is the independent variable?

instructed to punch a pillow when angry
2. What is the dependent variable?
instructed to journal their thoughts
3. How is the dependent variable operationalized?
Their anger was measured with the Anger Expression Inventory.
4. What is the experimental group?
group 1 and 2
Part 4—Comprehending and Applying Concepts (3 points):

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 Ch. 1: The Science of Psychology (Critical Thinking Activity = 15 pts.)

Name That Research Method: Read each scenario presented below and decide
which research method from the following list is being demonstrated or should
be used. (Disclaimer: I use these scenarios in my Psychology of Sexuality Class,
so all of them deal with sexual research).

 Case Study
 Naturalistic Observation
 Laboratory Observation
 Survey
 Experiment
 Quasi-Experiment
 Correlation

1. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, William Masters and Virginia Johnson conducted
extensive research on the physiology of human sexual responding. They were
interested in the physiological response of the human body during sexual arousal
and sexual behavior. Hundreds of men and women came into their laboratory and
engaged in sexual activities, while their blood pressure, heart rate, body
temperature, and other bodily responses were precisely monitored and measured.
Laboratory Observation

2. Dr. Dre is investigating the efficacy of a new drug, like Viagra, that is supposed to
enhance sexual arousal among women. Four-hundred women of various ages and
backgrounds participated in the study. Two-hundred women were randomly
assigned to a group that received the new drug, while the other two-hundred
women received a placebo. Sexual arousal was measured and compared between
both groups.
 Experiment

3. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, Alfred Kinsey shocked the nation by conducting
revolutionary research on the nature and prevalence of various sexual behaviors.
Thousands of men and women participated in extensive interviews in which they
answered numerous questions about their sexual behaviors, such as “How old
were you when you first maturbated?”. The data from this research helped to
introduce a new way of thinking and talking about sexuality in American (and world)
culture.
 Survey

4. Peter is an undergraduate psychology major. For his senior thesis he is

investigating the nature of the audience for pornography. This afternoon he is
sitting in his car across the street from one of the pornographic bookstores in the
area. He is taking notes on the sex, approximate age, and ethnicity of the patrons
as they enter and leave the store.
 Naturalistic Observation

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 Ch. 1: The Science of Psychology (Critical Thinking Activity = 15 pts.)

5. In their research studies, Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues conducted extensive
research with a particular individual who claimed to have numerous sexual
experiences with 17 of his own family members and several hundred children.
Intrigued by this aberrant, if not perverse, sexual history, Kinsey and his colleagues
used this data to shed some light on the sexual responsiveness of children—
information which could not have been gained otherwise due to obvious ethical
constraints.
 Case Study

6. Betsy was interested in the differential effects of a sexually transmitted disease

education program on men’s and women’s sexual attitudes. One-hundred men
and women participated in the program, which involved four weekly, one-hour
didactic workshops. The participants’ sexual attitudes were measured before and
after completing the program. At the end of the program, the men’s and women’s
sexual attitudes were compared to see whose attitudes changed most.
 Quasi-Experiment

7. Richard was interested in the factors that might be associated with someone’s
decision to engage in casual sex. He distributed questionnaires to 300 college
students on his campus measuring a number of different variables. After analyzing
the data, Richard found that people with lower self-esteem had a greater number of
casual sexual encounters.
 Correlation

Part 5—Synthesizing and Evaluating Concepts (3 points):

Using your knowledge from the textbook and/or lecture notes, answer each
question by typing your response in the space provided below. For each question,
your answer should be one or more healthy paragraphs (Your total answer
should be at least 50 words or more).

1. Compare and contrast two early perspectives of psychology. Be sure to include

comparisons of founders, methods, and philosophies.

Two early views of psychology are structuralism and Cornell Functionalis. The
founders of structuralism are Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener. The idea of
structuralism is that the structure or basic elements of the mind disappear. The
founder of Cornell Functionalis is William James. The philosophy is that the focus
of learning is how the mind makes people adapt to life, work, and entertainment.

2. Using an example of a study you might conduct, go through all of the steps of the
scientific method.

The steps of the scientific method are divided into five. First of all, I need to
choose a topic for research. The topic I choose is "Impression Evaluation of
Different Types of Network Nicknames". Second, I need to raise a research
question. The question I asked is "Are all the elderly who use classic idioms as

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 Ch. 1: The Science of Psychology (Critical Thinking Activity = 15 pts.)

nicknames?" Third, I need to collect data based on my assumptions and add

some people who use classic idioms as nicknames. In the fourth step, I need to
summarize the data and get the result. Finally, I need to write an experiment
report to tell others about my experiment.

3. What does the statement “Correlation does not necessarily prove causation
mean?” Provide at least 3 examples to demonstrate your point.

I think this sentence means that two related things are not necessarily causal,
they may have nothing to do with each other. For example, if a person has two
cats, the two cats always go out to play together and then come back together.
Later, a cat came back early because he was tired and hungry. This shows that it
was not because the two of them went out together and came back together.
Maybe they came back because they were hungry. For another example, when
people think independently, it always takes a long time, but when they think
independently, the problem is often complicated, so the reason for the long
thinking time is actually the complicated problem rather than the time when one
person. In the last example, some toys will be marked as needing to be
accompanied by a parent to play, but in fact, if the parents teach the child a
certain cognitive ability, it will not be a problem without the parent, so it is not
because the child is young but because the child Parents are required to be
accompanied by no cognitive ability.

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