Ch 1: Psychology and Scientific Thinking Flashcards
Founder of American Psych
William James (1842-1910)
Psychology
The study of the mind, brain, and behavior
Levels of Analysis
(from top to bottom)
1. Culture/environment
2. Social/relationships
3. Behavior
4. Thoughts and feelings
5. Physiology
6. Chemistry/DNA
5 Challenges to Psychology
- human behavior is difficult to predict
- psychological influences are rarely independent of each other
- people are different from each other
- people often influence each other (reciprocal determinism)
- people’s behavior is often shaped by culture
W.E.I.R.D.
W-Western
E-Educated
I-Industrialized
R-Rich
D-Democratic
Naive Realism
“seeing is believing”
Common Sense
- often contradicting
- sometimes wrong
- sometimes right
Scientific Method
- observation (empiricism)
- generate and test hypotheses
- does data confirm hypothesis?
- repeat
Hypothesis
a scientific prediction based on a theory of experience, which can then be tested
Theory
- an organized set of ideas that explain many findings
- explains/predicts behavior, but is NOT truth
- involves rigorous methods, multiple studies and tests, etc
Limits of science
- CAN test observations bout the natural world
- CANNOT test metaphysical claims
- science is testable w/ data (nature)
- religion is not (morals)
Science is imperfect. Why?
- confirmation bias: tendency to favor information that confirms one’s beliefs
- belief perseverance: failing to update your beliefs based on new evidence
Pseudoscience
a set of claims that seems scientific, but isn’t
warning signs:
- ad hoc immunizing hypothesizing (hypothesizing loopholes)
- lack of peer review
- psychobabble
ex: “patternicity” - tendency to detect patterns that do not exist
Why pseudoscience?
Terror Management Theory - when people realize the inevitability of death, they seek symbolic and literal meaning
Logical Fallacies
- emotional reasoning
- bandwagon
- “not me”
- either or
- appeal to authority
- argument from antiquity
Emotional Reasoning
basing your view of situations, yourself, or others, on the way you are feeling
Bandwagon
assuming something is true or right just because many people believe it is
“Not me”
tendency to think that a claim does not apply to yourself or people in your world, but rather to outsiders
Either or
when someone claims there are only two possible options or sides in an argument
Appeal to authority
thinking something is true or untrue just because an authority figure said it was
Argument from antiquity
relies on tradition and customs to justify a pov (rather than logic)
Why is pseudoscience problematic?
- opportunity cost
- direct harm
- inability to think scientifically
scientific thinking is our best bet against human error!
Scientific thinking
involves thinking critically and being skeptical
6 principles of scientific thinking
- ruling out rival hypotheses
- correlation is NOT causation
- falsifiability
- replicability
- extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
- Occam’s razor (or Parsimony)
Occam’s Razor
the simplest explanation is preferable to one that is more complex
Major Historical Frameworks
- Structuralism
- Functionalism
- Psychoanalysis
- Behaviorism
- Cognitivism
Structurlaism
People: E.B. Titchener (and Wundt)
- maps out elements of consciousness
- “what” types of questions
- importance of systematic observation in studying conscious experience
- introspection
Functionalism
People: William James (influenced by Charles Darwin)
- adaptive purposes of thought and behavior
- evolutionary adaptation/natural selection
- “why” questions
Psychoanalysis-
People: Sigmund Freud and Carl Jang
- focuses on internal, hidden/unconscious psychological processes, deep-seated conflicts (and surfacing them)
- id (instinct), ego (reality), superego (morality)
Behaviorism
People: Pavlov, Watson, Skinner
- general laws of learning that explain all behaviors
- purely through observable behaviors
- classical/operant conditioning
Cognitivism
People: Piaget and Neisser
- reaction to behaviorism
- thought affects behavior in powerful ways
Basic Research
understanding the principles of behavior
Applied Research
how to apply the principles to solve important problems
Nature vs Nurture
Genes vs Environment
Free-will Determinism
- do we decide how we behave?
- biological vs. social/institutional constraints
- automaticity (automatic responding)
