Chapter 1 & 3

Question 1

Ways of Knowing

Answer 1

• Authority
• Use of Reason
• Experience (we are all psychological beings so unassisted experience is not sufficient)

Question 2

Authority

Answer 2

Whenever we accept the validity of information from a source we judge to be expert, we are relying on authority as a source of our knowledge

Question 3

a priori method

Answer 3

Peirce - method for acquiring knowledge - use of reason and a developing consensus among those debating the merits of one belief over another (a belief forms as a result of logical argument before direct experience with the phenomenon at hand)

Question 4

empiricism

Answer 4

the process of learning things through direct observation or experience, and reflection on those experiences

Question 5

belief perseverence

Answer 5

social cognition bias - motivated by a desire to be certain about one’s knowledge, it is a tendency to hold on dogedly to a belief even in the face of evidence that would convince most people the belief is false

Question 6

confirmation bias

Answer 6

social cognition bias - a tendency to search out and pay special attention to information that supports one’s beliefs while ignoring information that contradicts a belief

Question 7

availability heuristic

Answer 7

social cognition bias - occurs when we experience unusual or very memorable events and then overestimate how often such events typically occur

Question 8

science

Answer 8

Pierce believed science to be the most reasonable way to develop a belief, and that its cheif advantage is objectivity

Question 9

determinism

Answer 9

science assumes determinism - events have causes

Question 10

discoverability

Answer 10

by using agreed upon scientific methods, causes of events can be determined with some degree of confidence

Question 11

statistical determinism

Answer 11

also called probablistic determinism - argues that events can be predicted, but only with a probability greater than chance

Question 12

objectivity

Answer 12

knowledge can be publicly verified - factors such as bias and expectation are eliminated in science

Question 13

introspection

Answer 13

early method of psychology - a form of precise self report by trained observers

Question 14

data-driven

Answer 14

attribute of science - researchers are data driven

Question 15

Empirical questions

Answer 15

asked by science - questions that are answerable and precisely defined

Question 16

anecdotal evidence

Answer 16

feature of pseudoscience - instances that seem to provide evidece of some phenomenon

Question 17

effort justification

Answer 17

idea that if people expend significant effort they feel compelled to convince themselves that the effort was worthwhile

Question 18

Goals of research in Psychology

Answer 18

• description
• prediction
• explanation
• application

Question 19

Science as a way of knowing

Answer 19

• assumes determinism
• makes systematic observations
• produces public knowledge
• produces data based conclusions
• tentative conclusions
• asks answerable questions
• develops falsifiable theories

Question 20

Pseudoscience

Answer 20

Popper very interested

• associates with true science
• relies on anecdotal evidence
• sidesteps falsificaton (popper)
• reduces complex phenomena to simplistic concepts

Question 21

description

Answer 21

identification and classification of regularly ocurring sequences of events, including both stimuli or environmental events and responses or behavioural events

Question 22

laws

Answer 22

regular and predictable relationships exist for psychological phenomena - strength of these allow predictions to be made with some degree of confidence

Question 23

explanation

Answer 23

to explain behaviour is to know what caused it

Question 24

application

Answer 24

the ways of applying principles of behaviour learned through research

Question 25

basic research

Answer 25

describing, predicting and explaining the fundamental principles of behaviour and mental processes

Question 26

applied research

Answer 26

research with direct and immediate relevance to the solution of real world problems

Question 27

mundane realism

Answer 27

Aronson - refers to how closely a study mirrors real life experiences

Question 28

experimental realism

Answer 28

Aronson - concerns the extent to which a research study “has an impact on the subjects, forces them to take the matter seriously, and involves them in the procedure”

Question 29

confederate

Answer 29

someone who appears to be part of the normal environment but is in fact a part of the study

Question 30

manipulation check

Answer 30

used to be sure the intended manipulation has the desired effect

Question 31

pilot study

Answer 31

used to test aspects of the procedure to be sure methodology is sound

Question 32

quantitative research

Answer 32

daa is collected and presented in the form of numbers

Question 33

qualitative research

Answer 33

results are presented as analytical narratives that summarize the project’s main outcomes

Question 34

operationism/operational definitions

Answer 34

definition of concepts in terms of a set of operations or procedures to be performed

Question 35

converging operations

Answer 35

our understanding of some behavioural phenomenon is increased when a series of investigations using slightly different operational definitions converge on the same conclusion

Question 36

serendipity

Answer 36

discovering something while looking for something else entirely

Question 37

theory

Answer 37

-summarizes existing empirical knowledge
-organizes this into stmts about relationships between variables
-proposes an explanation
-serves as the basis for making predictions
(productive, precise enough for falsification, parsimonious)

Question 38

construct

Answer 38

a hypothetical factor not observed directly but inferred from certain behaviours and assumes to follow from certain circumstances

Question 39

deduction

Answer 39

reasoning from a set of general statements toward the prediction of a specific event

Question 40

induction

Answer 40

logical process of reasoning from specific events (results of research) to the general (the theory)

Question 41

productivity

Answer 41

good theories advance knowledge by generating research

Question 42

parsimonious

Answer 42

theories that include a minimum number of constructs and assumptions needed to explain the phenomenon adequately and predict future outcomes

Question 43

programs of research

Answer 43

series of interrelated studies

Question 44

replication

Answer 44

a study that duplicates some or all of the procedures from a previous study

Question 45

extension

Answer 45

resembles a prior study and usually replicates part of it (partial replication) but goes further and adds at least one new feature

Question 46

creative thinking

Answer 46

process of recognizing meaningful connections between apparently unrelated ideas and seeing those connections as the key to developing the study

Question 47

positivism

Answer 47

goal is to reduce complexity into generalized laws of behaviour

Question 48

interpretivism

Answer 48

primary goal isn’t a generalized explanation but a richer description of the particulars (context, meaning, understanding)

Question 49

Mertonian Norms

Answer 49

Communalism (science is a public social activity, shared knowledge);
Universalism (science applies everywhere, everyone should participate);
Disinterestedness (ideal of selflessness, not for gain);
Organized Skepticism (subject every claim to critical skepticism)

Question 50

Modus Tollens

Answer 50

If A, then B; if not A, then not B