Ch 1: Psychology and Scientific Thinking

Question 1

Psychology

Answer 1

The scientific study of the mind, brain, and behaviour

Question 2

Naive Realism

Answer 2

The error of believing that we see the world precisely as it is

Question 3

Confirmation Bias

Answer 3

The tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that doesn’t

Question 4

Belief Perseverance

Answer 4

The tendency to cling to our beliefs despite contrary evidence

Question 5

Scientific Methodology

Answer 5

Consists of a set of safeguards against belief perseverance and confirmation bias

Question 6

Pseudoscience

Answer 6

Claims appear scientific but don’t play by the rules of science; lacks the safeguards against confirmation bias and belief perseverance

Drawn to it due to the human mind tending to perceive sense in nonsense

Claims can result in opportunity costs and direct harm as a result of dangerous treatments; can also lead us to think less scientifically about daily life

Question 7

Scientific Skepticism

Answer 7

Requires us to evaluate all claims with an open mind but to insist on compelling evidence before accepting them

Question 8

First Scientific Thinking Principle

Answer 8

Ruling out rival hypotheses: Whenever evaluating a psychological claim, ask whether we’ve excluded other plausible explanations for it

Question 9

Second Scientific Thinking Principle

Answer 9

Correlation vs causation: Remember that a correlational between two things doesn’t demonstrate a causal connection between them

Question 10

Third Scientific Thinking Principle

Answer 10

Falsifiability: Whenever evaluating a psychological claim, ask whether one could in principle disprove it or whether it’s consistent with any conceivable body of evidence

Question 11

Fourth Scientific Thinking Principle

Answer 11

Replicability: Ask whether independent investigators have replicated the findings that support this claim; otherwise, the findings might be a one-time-only fluke

Question 12

Fifth Scientific Thinking Principle

Answer 12

Extraordinary claims: Ask ourselves whether this claim runs counter to many things we know already and, if it does, whether the evidence is as extraordinary as the claim

Question 13

Sixth Scientific Thinking Principle

Answer 13

Occam’s Razor: Ask ourselves whether the explanation offered is the simplest explanation that accounts for the data or whether simpler explanations can account for the data equally well

Question 14

First Major Theoretical Framework

Answer 14

Structuralism: Titchener

Uses introspection to identify basic elements or “structures” of experience

Question 15

Second Major Theoretical Framework

Answer 15

Functionalism: James

To understand the functions or adaptive purposes of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours

Question 16

Third Major Theoretical Framework

Answer 16

Behaviourism: Watson & Skinner

To uncover the general principles of learning that explain all behaviours; focus is largely on observable behaviour

Question 17

Fourth Major Theoretical Framework

Answer 17

Cognitivism: Piaget & Neisser

To examine the role of mental processes on behaviour

Question 18

Fifth Major Theoretical Framework

Answer 18

Psychoanalysis: Freud

To uncover the role of unconscious psychological processes and early life experiences in behaviour

Question 19

Types of Psychologists

Answer 19

Clinical and counselling

School

Industrial/organizational

Forensic

Developmental

Experimental

Biological

Question 20

Nature-Nurture Debate

Answer 20

Are our behaviours attributable mostly to our genes (nature) or to our rearing environments (nurture) ?

Question 21

Free Will-Determinism Debate

Answer 21

To what extent are our behaviours freely selected rather than caused by factors outside of our control

Question 22

The Mind

Answer 22

An emergent property (function) of the brain

Part of the person that thinks and feels, along with the behaviours produced

Question 23

The Brain

Answer 23

A biological substrate of the mind

Question 24

Risky Prediction

Answer 24

Forecast that stands a good chance of being wrong

Question 25

Patternicity

Answer 25

The tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli

Question 26

Cognitive Neuroscience

Answer 26

Relatively new field of psychology that examines the relation between brain functioning and thinking

Question 27

Scientific Theory

Answer 27

Explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world

Question 28

Natural Selection

Answer 28

Principle that organisms that posses adaptions survive and reproduce at a higher rate than other organisms

Question 29

Cognitive Psychology

Answer 29

School of psychology that proposes that thinking is central to understanding behaviour

Question 30

Critical Thinking

Answer 30

Set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open-minded and careful fashion

Question 31

Introspection

Answer 31

Method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental experiences

Question 32

Terror Management Theory

Answer 32

Theory proposing that our awareness of our death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror we cope with by adopting reassuring cultural world views

Question 33

Applied Research

Answer 33

Examining how we can use basic research to solve real-world problems

Question 34

Basic Research

Answer 34

Research examining how the mind works

Question 35

Multiply Determined

Answer 35

Caused by many factors

Question 36

Hypothesis

Answer 36

Testable prediction derived from a scientific theory

Question 37

Levels of Analysis

Answer 37

Rungs on a ladder of analysis, with lower levels tied more closely to biological influences and higher levels tied most closely to social influences

Question 38

Ad Hoc Immunizing Hypothesis

Answer 38

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

Question 39

Evolutionary Psychology

Answer 39

Discipline that applies Darwin’s theory of natural selection to human and animal behaviour

Question 40

Metaphysical Claim

Answer 40

Assertion about the real world that is not testable

Question 41

Individual Differences

Answer 41

Variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behaviour

Question 42

Emotional Reasoning Fallacy

Answer 42

Using emotions as evidence

Question 43

Reciprocal Determinism

Answer 43

The mutual influence on one another’s behaviour

Question 44

Logical Fallacies

Answer 44

Ways of thinking that make intuitive senes but are actually traps that lead to mistaken conclusions