•Exam
1 will cover Chapters 1 – 3 and information discussed in lecture and films. The exam
will consist of approximately 30-40 multiple-choice questions and 2-3 short
answer questions. This review guide is only intended to help you focus on
specific material. Some information
that does not appear on this sheet may still appear on the exam! In
preparation for the exam you need to review the text, homework assignments,
and your lecture notes.
•The main topics that you
should review for the exam are listed below:
•What is the definition of
psychology?
•Why is the scientific approach
important in the study of psychology?
James Randi, Uri Geller, Peter Popoff
The relationship between Creative, Intelligent Thinking and Psychic
Phenomena
What are the steps of the scientific method?
Scientific and nonscientific methods of answering questions (e.g., tenacity,
intuition, etc.) and their limitations
•
•
•What are the goals of
scientific research?
•What is the difference between
basic and applied research?
The research process
Getting started (e.g., choosing a topic, sources of research topics,
mistakes in choosing a topic)
Finding and using background literature
What is the difference between primary and secondary sources?
Conducting a literature search
Using the internet
•What is a hypothesis?
•What is a theory?
What is a variable?
What is a construct?
What is an operational definition and what are the main criteria of an
operational definition.
Using multiple measures
Reliability
Validity
Scales of Measurement (e.g., nominal, etc.)
Handling reactivity and experimenter bias
Sections of a research paper (e.g., abstract, introduction, etc.)