Chapter 1 & 3 Flashcards
Ways of Knowing
- Authority
- Use of Reason
- Experience (we are all psychological beings so unassisted experience is not sufficient)
Authority
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
a priori method
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)
empiricism
the process of learning things through direct observation or experience, and reflection on those experiences
belief perseverence
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
confirmation bias
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
availability heuristic
social cognition bias - occurs when we experience unusual or very memorable events and then overestimate how often such events typically occur
science
Pierce believed science to be the most reasonable way to develop a belief, and that its cheif advantage is objectivity
determinism
science assumes determinism - events have causes
discoverability
by using agreed upon scientific methods, causes of events can be determined with some degree of confidence
statistical determinism
also called probablistic determinism - argues that events can be predicted, but only with a probability greater than chance
objectivity
knowledge can be publicly verified - factors such as bias and expectation are eliminated in science
introspection
early method of psychology - a form of precise self report by trained observers
data-driven
attribute of science - researchers are data driven
Empirical questions
asked by science - questions that are answerable and precisely defined
anecdotal evidence
feature of pseudoscience - instances that seem to provide evidece of some phenomenon
effort justification
idea that if people expend significant effort they feel compelled to convince themselves that the effort was worthwhile
Goals of research in Psychology
- description
- prediction
- explanation
- application
Science as a way of knowing
- assumes determinism
- makes systematic observations
- produces public knowledge
- produces data based conclusions
- tentative conclusions
- asks answerable questions
- develops falsifiable theories
Pseudoscience
Popper very interested
- associates with true science
- relies on anecdotal evidence
- sidesteps falsificaton (popper)
- reduces complex phenomena to simplistic concepts
description
identification and classification of regularly ocurring sequences of events, including both stimuli or environmental events and responses or behavioural events
laws
regular and predictable relationships exist for psychological phenomena - strength of these allow predictions to be made with some degree of confidence
explanation
to explain behaviour is to know what caused it
application
the ways of applying principles of behaviour learned through research
basic research
describing, predicting and explaining the fundamental principles of behaviour and mental processes
applied research
research with direct and immediate relevance to the solution of real world problems
mundane realism
Aronson - refers to how closely a study mirrors real life experiences
experimental realism
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”
confederate
someone who appears to be part of the normal environment but is in fact a part of the study
manipulation check
used to be sure the intended manipulation has the desired effect
pilot study
used to test aspects of the procedure to be sure methodology is sound
quantitative research
daa is collected and presented in the form of numbers
qualitative research
results are presented as analytical narratives that summarize the project’s main outcomes
operationism/operational definitions
definition of concepts in terms of a set of operations or procedures to be performed
converging operations
our understanding of some behavioural phenomenon is increased when a series of investigations using slightly different operational definitions converge on the same conclusion
serendipity
discovering something while looking for something else entirely
theory
-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)
construct
a hypothetical factor not observed directly but inferred from certain behaviours and assumes to follow from certain circumstances
deduction
reasoning from a set of general statements toward the prediction of a specific event
induction
logical process of reasoning from specific events (results of research) to the general (the theory)
productivity
good theories advance knowledge by generating research
parsimonious
theories that include a minimum number of constructs and assumptions needed to explain the phenomenon adequately and predict future outcomes
programs of research
series of interrelated studies
replication
a study that duplicates some or all of the procedures from a previous study
extension
resembles a prior study and usually replicates part of it (partial replication) but goes further and adds at least one new feature
creative thinking
process of recognizing meaningful connections between apparently unrelated ideas and seeing those connections as the key to developing the study
positivism
goal is to reduce complexity into generalized laws of behaviour
interpretivism
primary goal isn’t a generalized explanation but a richer description of the particulars (context, meaning, understanding)
Mertonian Norms
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)
Modus Tollens
If A, then B; if not A, then not B
