Ch. 1 Flashcards
define intuition
an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning
what are the two levels which our thinking, memory and attitudes operate on?
conscious and unconscious
what are the three phenomena that show why we cannot purely relay on intuition and common sense?
hindsight bias
overconfidence
and a tendency to see patterns in random events
what name is the hindsight bias also known as?
the i-knew-it-all-along-phenomena
define hindsight bias
the tendency to believe after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it
(example: how on earth could no one have come up with the theory of natural selection. itmakes so much sense and i feel like i would have thought of it on my own but that is just hindsight bias)
common sense more easily describes _____ _____ _____ than ____ _____ ____.
what has happened
what will happen
define humility
awareness of our own vulnerability to error and an openness to surprises and new perspectives
what 3 attitudes make science so successful?
curiosity, humility and skeptism
define critical thinking
thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions. appraises the source, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence and assesses conclusions
How does our everyday thinking sometimes lead us to a wrong conclusion?
Our everyday thinking can be perilous because of three phenomena: hindsight bias, overconfidence, and a tendency to perceive patterns in random events. Hindsight bias (also called the “I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon”) is the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would have foreseen it. Overconfidence in our judgments results partly from our bias to seek information that confirms them. These tendencies, plus our eagerness to perceive patterns in random events, lead us to overestimate our intuition. Although limited by the testable questions it can address, scientific inquiry can help us overcome our intuition’s biases and shortcomings.
define theory
an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.
define hypotheses
a testable prediction, often implied by a theory
define operational definitions
a carefully worded statement of the exact procedures (operations) used in a research study. For example, human intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures.
define replication
repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances.
what does a good theory do?
It organizes observed facts. 2. It implies hypotheses that offer testable predictions and, sometimes, practical applications. 3. It often stimulates further research.
why is replication important?
Psychologists watch eagerly for new findings, but they also proceed with caution—by awaiting other investigators’ repeating the experiment to see if the finding can be confirmed (the result replicated).
define case study
a descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.
what are the three main ways professional psychologists observe people to draw conclusions?
- cases studies (in-depth analyses of individuals or groups)
- naturalistic obseravtions (watching and recording the natural behavior of many individuals)
- surveys and interviews (asking people questions)
what is the issue with case studies?
they are only done on a small number of people so they are not proper evidence for a discovery
what are cases studies useful for?
they are useful because they show us a possibility of what CAN happen so they often suggest directions for further study
We cannot assume that case studies always reveal general principles that apply to all of us. Why not?
Case studies involve only one individual or group, so we can’t know for sure whether the principles observed would apply to a larger population.
define naturalistic observation
a descriptive technique of observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation
How are naturalistic observations commonly made nowadays?
on social media and other parts of the internet because it provides huge amount of data that can be easy to analyze
naturalistic studies do not ____ behavior, it _____ behavior
explain
describe
define survey
a descriptive technique for obtaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group
what is worse, a small random sample or a large unrepresentative sample?
a large unrepresentative sample
what two things commonly affect the validity and reliability of a survey?
the wording of questions and samples that are to small in size or unrepresentative of the population
What is an unrepresentative sample, and how do researchers avoid it?
An unrepresentative sample is a survey group that does not represent the population being studied. Random sampling helps researchers form a representative sample, because each member of the population has an equal chance of being included.
define correlate
a measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other
define correlation coefficient
statistical index of the relationship between two things (from −1.00 to +1.00)
define scatter plot
a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the two variables. The amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation (little scatter indicates high correlation)
