Chapter 1 & 2: Psychology and scientific thinking/ Research Methods Flashcards
What is Psychology?
The Scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior. Scientific investigations are systemic and empiricall
Behavior and mental state are ____
complex
What are the levels of analysis?
Social culture influences, Psychological, and Biological.
What are Social Culture Influences
Involves relating to other and personal relationships
What are psychological levels of analysis
involves thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
What are the biological levels of analysis?
Involves molecules and brain structure
Why is behavior difficult to predict?
Multiply determined: produced by many factors.
What are often interrelated in psychology?
Variables.
What is a variable in psychology?
Something that can be changed or altered, such as a characteristic or value.
What is Reciprocal Determinism?
People mutually influence each other’s behavior.
Common sense can be useful but it can also be ____ or ____
Flawed or incorrect.
Popular knowledge and truth do not always ___
Align
What is Naive Realism?
The belief that we see the world precisely as it is
(seeing is believing)
When is naive realism problematic?
In an ambiguous or complex situations (politics)
What is an example of correct common sense?
Happy employees ten to be more productive.
What are heuristics?
Rules-of-thumb that can be applied to guide decision-making.
What are heuristics?
Rules-of-thumb that can be applied to guide decision-making.
Heuristics can be ___
Adaptive
What can a scientific approach help with?
Clarify when common sense is useful and when it is problematic.
What is the meaning of Empirical?
knowledge is acquired through observation.
what is the meaning of Systemic?
Plan for objectively collecting information.
What are misconceptions about Theories?
- An educated guess
- Explains one specific event
Science is a safeguard against ___
Bias.
Who is not always objective and free of biases
scientists
What is confirmation Bias:
Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our belies and deny, dismiss or distort evidence that contradicts them.
What is belief perseverance?:
Tendency to stick to our initial beliefs, even when evidence contradicts them
What are metaphysical claims?
Claims that are not testable
what is an example of a non scientific question?
Is there an afterlife?
does God exist?
What is the moral thing to do?
Scientific knowledge is ___
tentative (not certain or fixed; provisional)
many scientific results fail to be ____
replicated
scientific knowledge is acquired _____
slowly, piece by piece
What is Pseudoscience?
Set of claims that seem scientific but aren’t.
What are examples of popular psychology
internet information, news articles, self-help books, and movies.
What is the issue with popular psychology?
often, untested
What does pseudoscience lack?
safeguards against biases
What are some warnings of Pseudoscience?
“EAT OLÉ”
Exaggerated claims
Anecdotes (Overreliance on)
Talk of “proof” instead of evidence
Overuse of ad hoc immunizing hypotheses
Lack of self-correction
Évidence (Absence of proper)
What is Add Hoc immunizing hypothesis?:
Add explanations and immunize their claims.
A hypothesis is added to a theory in order to save it from being falsified.
why are we drawn to pseudoscience?
we search for order in a complex world. We find comfort in our beliefs.
what is emotional reasoning?
we use emotions as guides to evaluate a claim
what is bandwagon fallacy?
accept a claim because many people believe it
what is not me fallacy?
the belief that we are immune from errors that afflict other people. Known as blind spot bias
What are some dangers of Pseudoscience?
Opportunity cost, direct harm, an inability to think scientifically
What is Opportunity cost?
people are led to forgo opportunities to seek effective care. They resort to other ways of dealing with the problem - usually a more natural remedy
What is direct harm?
Directly harming the individual or making the problem worse, causing other problems. This can cuase psychological and physiological problems and in some cases even death.
Inability to think scientifically
failure to think critically. Important to develop these critical thinking skills.
Inability to think scientifically
failure to think critically. Important to develop these critical thinking skills.
What is scientific skepticism?
Evaluating all claims with an open mind, but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them as true. to refrain from accepting inadequately supported claims.
skepticism is not ___
cynicism
What does it mean to “rule out Rival Hypotheses”?
Scientific thinking principle #1
consider alternative explanations for findings
What is the meaning of “correlation is not causation”?
Scientific thinking principle #2
just because two things are associated - or correlated - does not mean that one causes the other
what is “falsifiability?”
scientific thinking principle #3
Must be possible to disprove a claim. applies to claims, hypotheses, and theories
What is “replicability”?
Scientific thinking Principle #4
psychological findings must be reproduced. Findings can occur by chance so this is a way to confirm the results
What is the meaning of “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”?
If a claim goes against what we already know, the evidence for the claim must be strong. (alien abductions - not good evidence, only self - reports)
what is “Occams Razor”?
Principle #6
When several explanations account for a phenomenon, the simplest explanation is often the best when the others can’t back anything up.
What are the goals of science
describe, explain, predict and control events
what are variables?
any factor or attribute that can assume two or more values. something in the world that varies
what is description?
identifies and provides an account of some phenomenon of interest, and its characteristics. psychologists describe what humans think and how they behave
importance of explanation
scientists seek to understand why phenomena occur
what are hypotheses
testable explanation derived from a theory
What are theories?
an explanation or a large number of findings in the natural world. a clearly put statement which explains why things are related the way they are
what is prediction?
Use of knowledge about events or variables to predict an outcome of interest
What is control?
influence over research settings, procedures, and application of scientific knowledge
what are the two contexts of control?
Research activities: variables, participants, experimental setting
Application of scientific knowledge
what is internal validity?
Making sure that cause-effect relationship identified in the study is really there and there are no other explanations for the results.
who was Plato?
“Wax tablet”
the analogy of memory - conceptualizing memory as an imperfect yet mailable substance like wax
Who was Aristotle?
Associations between ideas - memory comprised of links between ideas. (something may remind you of something else similar or the opposite)
Who was Descartes?
Dualism: the mind as distinct from matter. Neuroscientists now look at the brain as matter and energy which can be measured
what is introspection?
participants carefully reflect and report on their inner sensations and experiences
What are the theoretical frameworks of Psychology?
broad, theoretical perspectives that guide how people think about psychological phenomena and behavior
structuralism
School of psychology that aimed to identify the basic element of psychological experiences. used introspection as the main method
what are the problems with structuralism?
disagreement among introspectionist
imageless thought
Who is Titchner? (structuralism)
periodic table of psychological elements - wants to make psych more of a real science. interested in structural components of the mind and used introspection to do so
positive of structuralism?
attempted systematic observation
what is functionalism?
Focused on the functions and adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics such as thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. (asked why instead of what)
who was functionalism influenced by?
Darwin/evolution by natural selection
What is behaviorism?
The scientific study of observable behavior. focused on discovering general laws of learning. founded by John Watson
Negative to behaviorism
Went too far by suggesting that everything is learned
positives to behaviorism
clarifies learning principles
brought a focus on the observable verifiable subject matter
what is cognitive psychology?
understanding thinking is central to understanding behavior
what is psychoanalysis?
focuses on internal psychological processes of which we are unaware. unconscious memories and drives cause behavior. founded by Sigmund Freud.
What is nature VS. nurture
the question of whether our behaviors attribute mostly to our genes or to our rearing environments
what is free will?
the idea that we can play an active role and have a choice in how we behave.
What is determinism?
the view that free will is an illusion, and that our behavior is governed by internal or external forces over which we have no control.
what does basic research examine?
Examines the fundamental nature of phenomena
what is applied research?
helps to solve or evaluate a specific real-world problem
why do we need research designs?
avoid biases when evaluating information and attempt to see the world as it really is
what is intuitive thinking (system 1)
quick and reflexive; dekiberate. Requires little mental effort.
what is intuitive thinking? (system 1)
quick and reflexive. requires little mental effort.
what is analytical thinking (system 2)?
slow and reflective; deliberate. requires mental effort
what are the issues with intuitive thinking?
over-reliance leads to errors. research methods can help to avoid the pitfalls of intuitive thinking.
what are conceptual definitions?
How we specify our phenomenon or construct of interest?
what is operational?
what a researcher is measuring. defining a variable in terms of the procedures used to measure or manipulate it.
what is observational research?
different types of non-experimental studies in which behavior is systematically watched and recorded
what is naturalistic observation
watching behavior in real-world settings without trying to manipulate the situation
participant observation
the observer becomes a part of the group or social setting being studied
What structured observation?
researchers configure the setting in which behavior will be observed