02 - Thinking Critically

Question 1

On what two levels to our thinking, memory, and attitudes operate?

Answer 1

Conscious and unconscious

Question 2

What to phenomena illustrate why we cannot rely solely on intuition and common sense?

Answer 2

hindsight bias & judgmental over-confidence

Question 3

What is hindsight bias?

Answer 3

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. (knew-it-all-along-phenomena)

Question 4

What is overconfidence?

Answer 4

Tendency to think we know more than we do. (anagrams example)

Question 5

What are the 3 main components of the scientific attitude?

Answer 5

1. a curious eagerness to 2. skeptically scrutinize competing ideas and 3. an open-minded humility before nature. CRITICAL THINKING. HUMILITY. OPENNESS

Question 6

What three attitudes helped make modern science possible?

Answer 6

Curiosity, skepticism, and humility.

Question 7

What is Critical Thinking?

Answer 7

thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions. (ex: cause effect?)

Question 8

Can laboratory experiments illuminate everyday life?

Answer 8

yes. the goal, however, is not to recreate the exact behaviors of every life, but to test theoretical principles.

Question 9

psychologists are less concerned with particular behaviors than with what that explain behaviors?

Answer 9

the general principles that explain behaviors.

Question 10

What is culture?

Answer 10

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared y a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

Question 11

how can psychologists claim to accurately study behaviors cross-culturally?

Answer 11

Even when specific attitudes and behaviors vary by gender and across cultures, the underlying processes are much the same.

Question 12

Why do psychologists study animals, and is it ethical to experiment on animals?

Answer 12

The same processes by which humans operate are also present in rats and monkeys. (see, exhibit emotion, and become obese). Know some of the arguments for and against animal rights.

Question 13

What are 4 Ethical principles (developed by APA and BPS) investigators are urged to follow?

Answer 13

1. obtain informed consent of potential participants
2. protect them from harm and discomfort
3. treat information about individual participants confidentially
4. fully explain the research afterward

Question 14

What is the scientific method?

Answer 14

1. Theories
2. Hypothesis
3. Research and observations

Question 14

How is psychology not “value free”?

Answer 14

our preconceptions can bias our observations and interpretations. Even what we choose to study is biased.
Even goals: manipulations or enlighten? educate or deceive?

Question 15

What is the purpose of the scientific method?

Answer 15

Psychologists like all scientists, use the scientific method to construct theories that organize observations and imply testable hypotheses.

Question 16

What are five major steps in the scientific method?

Answer 16

Hypothesis (testable prediction)
Design study (choose research method)
Results:  collect and analyze data
Conclusion
Replication