Unit - 1

2marks
51.BIO PSYCHOLOGY
Ans: bio psychology explores how our biology influences our behavior. While biological
psychology is a broad field , many biological psychologists want to understand how the
structure and function of the nervous system is related to behavior.
The research interests of biological psychologists span a number of domains , including but
not limited to, sensory and motor systems , sleep, drug use and abuse , ingestive behavior ,
reproductive behavior, neurodevelopment , Plasticity of the nervous system, biological
correlates of psychological disorders.
52. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Ans: The primary focus of social psychology is on understanding how individuals are
affected by other people. This focus covers a wide range of possible interests.
Similarly, it involves concerted efforts to understand the determaints of interpersonal
influence and of attitude change.
Thus, social psychologists might study how perceptual stereotypes affect interactions or how
the decisions of a commitee member are influenced by what others on the committee do or
say.
53. CONFIRMATION BIAS

Ans: confirmation bias is a psychological term for the human tendency to only seek out
information that supports one position or idea. This cause you to have a bias towards your
original position because if you only seek out information that supports one idea, you will
only find information that supports that idea.
Confirmation bias is often restricted to the act of selecting information according to
preexisting beliefs , while ignoring or rejecting information supporting contrary beliefs.
54. AVAILABILITY HEURISTICS

Ans: An availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that
come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept , method , or
decisions. As follows, people tend to use a readily available fact to base their beliefs on a
comparably distant concept.
The availability heuristic exists because some memories and facts are spontaneously
Reterived, whereas others take effort and reflection to be recalled .
Certai memories are automatically recalled for two main reasons:they appear to happen
often or they leave a lasting imprint on our minds.
55. MOOD EFFECTS

Ans: In psychology , a mood is an affective state. In contrasts to emotions or feelings ,
moods are less specific, less intense and less likely to be provoked or Instanitated by a
particular stimulus or event. moods are typically described as having either a positive or
negative valence .
*positive mood
Positive mood can be caused by many different aspects of life as well as have certain effects
on people as a whole. Good mood is usually considered a state without an identified
cause;people cannot pinpoint exactly why there in a good mood.
*negative mood
Like positive moods, negative moods have implications for human mental and physical
wellbeing. Moods are basic psychological states that can occurs as a reaction to an event or
can surface for no apparent external cause.
10 mark
10) SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF PSYCHOLOGY

Ans:
Scientists are engaged in explaining and understanding how the world around them works,
and they are able to do so by coming up with theories that generate hypotheses that are
testable and falsifiable. Theories that stand up to their tests are retained and refined, while
those that do not are discarded or modified. In this way, research enables scientists to
separate fact from simple opinion. Having good information generated from research aids in
making wise decisions both in public policy and in our personal lives. In this section, you’ll
see how psychologists use the scientific method to study and understand behavior.
The process of scientific research
Scientific knowledge is advanced through a process known as the scientific method.

Basically, ideas (in the form of theories and hypotheses) are tested against the real world (in
the form of empirical observations), and those empirical observations lead to more ideas that
are tested against the real world, and so on.
The basic steps in the scientific method are:
Observe a natural phenomenon and define a question about it

Make a hypothesis, or potential solution to the question
Test the hypothesis
If the hypothesis is true, find more evidence or find counter-evidence
If the hypothesis is false, create a new hypothesis or try again
Draw conclusions and repeat–the scientific method is never-ending, and no result is ever
considered perfect
The Basic Principles of the Scientific Method
Two key concepts in the scientific approach are theory and hypothesis. A theory is a
well-developed set of ideas that propose an explanation for observed phenomena that can
be used to make predictions about future observations. A hypothesis is a testable prediction
that is arrived at logically from a theory. It is often worded as an if-then statement (e.g., if I
study all night, I will get a passing grade on the test). The hypothesis is extremely important
because it bridges the gap between the realm of ideas and the real world. As specific
hypotheses are tested, theories are modified and refined to reflect and incorporate the result
of these tests
bility, and fairness. Verifiability means that an experiment must be replicable by another
researcher. To achieve verifiability, researchers must make sure to document their methods
and clearly explain how their experiment is structured and why it produces certain results.
Predictability in a scientific theory implies that the theory should enable us to make
predictions about future events. The precision of these predictions is a measure of the
strength of the theory.
Falsifiability refers to whether a hypothesis can be disproved. For a hypothesis to be

falsifiable, it must be logically possible to make an observation or do a physical experiment
that would show that there is no support for the hypothesis. Even when a hypothesis cannot
be shown to be false, that does not necessarily mean it is not valid. Future testing may
disprove the hypothesis. This does not mean that a hypothesis has to be shown to be false,
just that it can be tested.
To determine whether a hypothesis is supported or not supported, psychological researchers

must conduct hypothesis testing using statistics. Hypothesis testing is a type of statistics that
determines the probability of a hypothesis being true or false. If hypothesis testing reveals
that results were “statistically significant,” this means that there was support for the
hypothesis and that the researchers can be reasonably confident that their result was not
due to random chance. If the results are not statistically significant, this means that the
researchers’ hypothesis was not supported.
Fairness implies that all data must be considered when evaluating a hypothesis. A
researcher cannot pick and choose what data to keep and what to discard or focus
specifically on data that support or do not support a particular hypothesis. All data must be
accounted for, even if they invalidate the hypothesis.
Why the Scientific Method Is Important for Psychology

The use of the scientific method is one of the main features that separates modern
psychology from earlier philosophical inquiries about the mind. Compared to chemistry,
physics, and other “natural sciences,” psychology has long been considered one of the
“social sciences” because of the subjective nature of the things it seeks to study. Many of the
concepts that psychologists are interested in—such as aspects of the human mind, behavior,
and emotions—are subjective and cannot be directly measured. Psychologists often rely
instead on behavioral observations and self-reported data, which are considered by some to
be illegitimate or lacking in methodological rigor. Applying the scientific method to
psychology, therefore, helps to standardize the approach to understanding its very different
types of information.
The scientific method allows psychological data to be replicated and confirmed in many
instances, under different circumstances, and by a variety of researchers. Through
replication of experiments, new generations of psychologists can reduce errors and broaden
the applicability of theories. It also allows theories to be tested and validated instead of
simply being conjectures that could never be verified or falsified. All of this allows
psychologists to gain a stronger understanding of how the human mind works.
Scientific articles published in journals and psychology papers written in the style of the
American Psychological Association (i.e., in “APA style”) are structured around the scientific
method. These papers include an Introduction, which introduces the background information
and outlines the hypotheses; a Methods section, which outlines the specifics of how the
experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis; a Results section, which includes the
statistics that tested the hypothesis and state whether it was supported or not supported,
and a Discussion and Conclusion, which state the implications of finding support for, or no
support for, the hypothesis. Writing articles and papers that adhere to the scientific method
makes it easy for future researchers to repeat the study and attempt to replicate the results.
Today, scientists agree that good research is ethical in nature and is guided by a basic
respect for human dignity and safety. However, as you will read in the Tuskegee Syphilis
Study, this has not always been the case. Modern researchers must demonstrate that the
research they perform is ethically sound. This section presents how ethical considerations
affect the design and implementation of research conducted today.

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2marks

52. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

53. CONFIRMATION BIAS

54. AVAILABILITY HEURISTICS

55. MOOD EFFECTS

10) SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF PSYCHOLOGY

The process of scientific research

Scientific knowledge is advanced through a process known as the scientific method.

The basic steps in the scientific method are:

Observe a natural phenomenon and define a question about it

Falsifiability refers to whether a hypothesis can be disproved. For a hypothesis to be

To determine whether a hypothesis is supported or not supported, psychological researchers

Why the Scientific Method Is Important for Psychology

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