Psychology Learning Objectives

Psychology Exam 1 Learning Objectives
8/27/12: Chapter 1, p. 2-4 1. What is psychology? Explain why psychology is more than just common sense.

2. Describe how levels of analysis apply to the field/study of psychology.

3. Describe the five challenges for psychology discussed in your textbook. How do these make psychology complicated?

8/29/12: Chapter 1 p. 11-20 & 27-34 1. Define pseudoscience and its warning signs.

2. Identify the major theoretical frameworks of psychology and describe their major contributions to the field.

3. Describe the different types of psychologists and what each of them does.

8/31/12: Chapter 1, p. 5-10 & Chapter 8, p. 305-310 1. Identify methods for achieving cognitive economy.

2. How can heuristics and biases prevent us from thinking scientifically?

3. Describe what factors affect how we make decisions.

4. Describe the common problem solving strategies and challenges described in the text.

9/5/12: Chapter 1 p. 5-10; 20-26 1. Explain the importance of science as a safeguard against biases.

2. Identify the key features of scientific skepticism.

3. Identify and explain the “six principles of scientific thinking”

9/7/12: Chapter 2 p. 49-66

1. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of each of the four discussed research designs.

2. Describe the role of correlational designs and distinguish correlation from causation

3. Identify the components of an experiment and potential pitfalls

9/10/12: Chapter 2 p. 66-69; 70-74 1. Describe the ethical obligations researchers towards their research participants

2. Describe both sides of the debate on the use of animals as research subjects

3. Identify uses of various measures of central tendency and variability

4. Explain how inferential statistics can help us determine whether we can generalize from our sample to the population

5. Explain how statistics can be misused

9/12/12: Chapter 7 p. 242-254 1. Explain how our memories don’t accurately reflect our experiences

2. Explain the function, span, and duration of each of the 3 memory systems

3. Differentiate the subtypes of long-term memory

9/14/12: Chapter 7, p. 254-263 1. Identify methods for connecting new information to existing knowledge

2. Identify the roles that schemas play in memory storage

3. Distinguish ways of measuring memory

4. Describe how the relationship between encoding and retrieval condition influences memory.

9/17/12: Chapter 7 265-269, 271-278 1. Describe the major brain structures involved in memory and what role they play in memory storage

2. Explain the relevance of amnesia to the brain’s storage of memory.

3. Identify factors that influence people’s susceptibility to false memories and memory errors.

4. Describe some of the real world implications of false memories and memory errors.