Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is psychology
- the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behaviour
3 levels of analysis
- social and cultural influences
- psychological
- biological
Social and cultural Influences
- social or behaviour level
- involoves relating to other and personal relationship
psychological
- mental of neurological level
- involves thoughts, feeling, and emotions
Biological
- molecular or neurochemical level
- involves molecules and brain structure
Why is psychology difficult to study
- multiply determined
- rarely independent
- individual differences
- reciprocal determinism
- behaviour is often shaped by culture
Naive realism
- people are prone
- we believe the world is exactly. how we see it
reciprocal determinism
- people often influence each other
Example: stimulus enhancement (not eating unless other people eat)
Emic approach
- study culture from the perspective of someone who grew up in the culture
- allows for a better understanding of the unique characteristics of the culture
Etic approach
- study the culture from the perspective of an outsider
- allows to view culture from a broader approach
Why is common sense not enough
naive realism
Empirical evidence
- gained through experience and observation
- objective
WHY? –> minimize bias
Scientific theory
- is an explanation for a larger number of findings in the natural world. Offers an account that ties multiple factors into one package
- testable
Hypothesis
- specific (directional), testable prediction derived from a scientific theory
Misconceptions of scientific theories
- a theory only explains only specific event
- a theory is an educated guess
Observer bias
- possible to influence the interpretation of results
- can occur even if aware of own bias
Confirmation bias
- tendency to selectively look for information that conforms to our hypotheses and overlook information that argues against it
- Example: Lord, Ross, and Shepard, 1979
Belief preservation
- is the tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even in light of new evidence
- Example: Ross, Lepper, & Hubbard 1975
Metaphysics claims
- are assertions about the world that cannot be tested
- outside the relm of science
Example: belief in god
Pseudoscience
- is a set of claims that seem scientific, but are not
- important in todays digital world
- safeguards against conformation bias and belief preservation
Warning signs of Pseudoscience
- exaggerated claims
- over reliance on anecdotes
- absence of connectivity ot other research
- lack of review by other scholars
- lack of self-correction’
-psychobabble (big words) - evidence
Why are we drawn to pseudoscience
- patternicity
- provides confort (terrormanagement)
antidote against pseudosciene
logical fallacies
Emotional reasoining fallacy
- error of using our emotions for evaluating the validity of a claim
EXAMPLE: “ the idea that daycare might have a negative emotional efffects on children gets me really upset, so I refuse to believe it”
Bandwagon fallacy
- error of assumin gthat a claim is correct because many people believe it
EXAMPLE: “lots of people I know believe in astrology, so there’s got to be something to it”
either-or fallacy
- error of framing a question as though we can answer it in only one of two extreme ways
not me fallacy
- error of believing were immmune to errors in thinking that afflict other people
appeal to authority fallacy
- Error of accepting a claim merely because an authority figure endorses it
genetic fallacy
- error of confusing the correctness of a belief with its origins or genesis
-EXAMPLE “Freud’s views about personality development can’t be right because Freuds thinking was shaped by sexist views popular at the time
Argument from antiquity fallacy
- error of assuming a beleif must be valid just because its been around for a long time
Argument from adverse consequences fallacy
- error of confusing the validity of data with its real-world consequences