1) Intro to Psychology Flashcards

Chapter 1

1
Q

Describe the levels of analysis

A

Higher levels: Social/cultural influences
(mind and relationships)
Middle levels: Psychological
(thoughts and emotions)
Lower levels: Biological influences
(brain and molecules)

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2
Q

What is the unifying feature of psychology?

A

Quest to understand behavior by using methods of science

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3
Q

What’s the differences between a Clinical psychologist vs Psychiatrist?

A

Clinical
- graduate school
- cannot prescribe medication
- phD or psyD
- cognition & behaviour

Psychiatrist
- medical school
- can prescribe medication
- MD
- biological & neurochemical

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4
Q

What are the four different perspectives that help explain human behaviour?

A

biological
psychological
social
cultural

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5
Q

Why are human actions so difficult to predict?

A

behaviour is multiply determined (many factors)
and psychological influences are dependent on each other

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6
Q

Reciprocal Determinism

A

People mutually influence each other’s behaviour

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7
Q

Emic vs Etic Studies

A

study of people who grew up inside the culture vs outside

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8
Q

What are 4 ways we explain behaviour, unscientifically?

A
  1. common sense & folk wisdom
  2. authorities & experts
  3. intuition
  4. naive realism
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9
Q

Common Sense

A

Gut intuitions about how the social world works
- trust it becuz we are prone to naive realism
- can be handy but also deceiving

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10
Q

Naive Realism

A

Belief that we see the world precisely as it is
- can lead us to draw incorrect conclusions about human nature

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11
Q

Folk Wisdom

A

opposites attract, birds of a feather flock, etc
-> can be contradicting

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12
Q

Most methods to explain behaviour are scientific or unscientific?

A

Unscientific

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13
Q

What are the 3 key characteristics of science?

A
  1. Systematic empiricism
    2.Production of public knowledge
    (peer review, replication)
  2. Search for a solvable problem
    (no god finding)
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14
Q

Science relies on ____ and can only deal with problems that have ____

A
  • empirical observation
  • empirical solutions
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15
Q

What is systematic empiricism?

A

rely on observation that is systematically organized to draw relationships
- can’t study the things we cannot observe
- transparent / public and repeatable

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16
Q

Scientific Theory

A

Explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world (not just an educated guess)

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17
Q

what are two misconceptions about scientific theories?

A

Theory explains one event
Theory is just an educated guess

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18
Q

Hypothesis

A

Testable prediction derived from scientific theory

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19
Q

Metaphysical Claim

A

assertion about the world that is not testabe
i.e. unfalsifiable claim

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20
Q

Confirmation Bias

A

tendency to seek out or overweigh evidence that supports our hypotheses and dismiss or distort evidence that contradicts them
- accounts for how even brilliant scientists can be led astray

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21
Q

Is confirmation bias unintentional or intentional?

A

unintentional, not consciously doing this!

22
Q

Belief Perseverance

A

tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them

23
Q

Patternicity

A

tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli (when there may be no pattern at all)

24
Q

Pseudo Science

A

knowledge, belief, or methodology that claims or appears scientific but does not adhere to scientific methods

  • Lacks safeguards against biases
  • To sell product, services, therapies
  • Common and very resistant to change
25
Q

What are some ways to identify pseudo science?

A
  • exaggerated claims without strong evidence
  • overuse of Ad Hoc Immunizing Hypothesis
  • over-reliance on anecdotal evidence
  • psychobabble and language
    (real ones usually say support instead of prove)
  • no connection to credible research
  • lack of self correction
    (belief perseverance, cherry picking)
26
Q

Ad Hoc Immunizing Hypothesis

A

Escape hatch or loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification

27
Q

psychobabble

A

Words that sound scientific but are used incorrectly or in a misleading manner

  • Ppl believe cuz they have no clue (it sounds complex, so it must be true)
28
Q

Why do people believe in pseudo science?

A
  1. trust authorities and experts
  2. placebo effect or natural progression of ailment
  3. confirmation bias
  4. salience of testimonials / anecdotes
29
Q

Placebo effect

A

beneficial effect in a patient following a particular treatment that arises from the patients expectations concerning the treatment rather than from the treatment itself

30
Q

Natural progression of ailment

A

naturally get better when sick

31
Q

Why people believe in pseudo: salience of testimonials

A
  1. gambler’s fallacy
  2. failing to use probabilistic info in decision making
32
Q

gambler’s fallacy

A

tendency for people to see links between past and future events at times when past events are completely independent from future ones

33
Q

Explain why people fail to use probabilistic info in decision making

A
  • our brain pays little attention to non events
  • we tend to pay attention to unusual stories
  • we fail to realize that one story doesn’t mean the truth for everyone!
34
Q

Describe the harm of pseudo science

A
  1. opportunity cost
    - miss out on effective treatment
    - time, and money
  2. Direct harm
    - not scientifically tested, can be unsafe
  3. inability to think scientifically
    - needed skill for educated decision making
35
Q

Why are we drawn to pseudo science?

A
  • find comfort in our beliefs, offer sense of control and motivation
  • see patterns that don’t exist
  • terror management theory
36
Q

Terror management theory

A

our awareness of our own inevitable death leaves us with terror, so we cope by adopting reassuring cultural views that our lives have a purpose

  • Theory suggests we’re likely to hold paranormal beliefs regardless of correctness
37
Q

What are the three important fallacies that help us separate science from pseudo science?

A
  1. Emotional Reasoning Fallacy
  2. Bandwagon Fallacy
  3. Not Me Fallacy
38
Q

Emotional Reasoning Fallacy

A

Using emotions as guides for evaluating validity of a claim

  • cuz findings that challenge pre-existing beliefs often make us uncomfy
39
Q

Bandwagon Fallacy

A

Assume claim is correct cuz many ppl believe it

  • Popular opinion isn’t a dependable guide to accuracy of claim
40
Q

Not Me Fallacy

A

Error of believing we’re immune from errors in thinking that affect others

  • Makes us think we don’t need safeguards of scientific method
  • Pseudoscientists fall into trap when they’re certain their claims are right so they don’t bother testing
41
Q

Bias Blind Spot

A

Most ppl are unaware of their own biases but keenly aware of them in others

  • nothing makes us immune to this
42
Q

What is our best safeguard against human error and biases?

A

scientific thinking

43
Q

Falsifiability

A

characteristic of useful, testable, scientific ideas
- can be proven false by data if it is false

44
Q

Unfalsifiable Claim

A

A claim for which NO evidence an be provided to prove the claim false, even if it is

45
Q

Scientific Skepticism

A

approach of evaluating claims:

  1. Keep an open mind to all claims
  2. Accept only claims that have been tested properly & in diff ways
  3. Re-evaluate claims when presented with new evidence
46
Q

What is the hallmark of scientific skepticism?

A

critical thinking
- do not accept based on authority

47
Q

What is scientific thinking?

A

aka critical thinking

  • Set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open-minded and careful fashion
  • Helps overcome biases like confirmation bias and belief perseverance
48
Q

What are the 6 principles of scientific thinking?

A
  1. Ruling out rival hypotheses
    - Have important alternative explanations been excluded?
  2. Correlation vs Causation
    - Can we be sure that A causes B?
  3. Falsifiability
    - Can the claim be disproved by evidence?
  4. Replicability
    - Can the results be duplicated in other studies?
  5. Extraordinary Claims
    - Is the evidence as strong as the claim?
  6. Parsimony / Occam’s Razor
    - Does a simpler explanation fit the data just as well?
49
Q

variable

A

anything that can vary

50
Q

correlation - causation fallacy

A

error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another, it must cause the other

3 explanations:
- A cause B
- B cause A
- Smt else caused A and B

51
Q

What are the four different perspectives that help explain human behaviour?

A

biological
psychological
social
cultural