Chapter 1 Lilienfeld: Psychology and Scientific Thinking Flashcards
What is psychology?
The scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior
What are the lower levels of analysis in psychology tied to?
Lower rungs of the latter are closely tied to biological influences
What are the higher levels of analysis in psychology tied to?
Higher rungs are tied closely to social and cultural differences
Why is it hard to pin down one cause in psychology?
Because psychological influences are rarely independent of each other
Look at these two phrases:
“actions speak louder than words”
“a pen is mightier than a sword”
do you agree with them?
What do they reveal to us about trusting common sense?
You cannot trust common sense because it can lead us to believing to opposing things (looking closer at the phrases above you can now see they contradict each other)
Naive Realism
when we “see the world as it is”
leads us to believe incorrect conclusions about human nature
Confirmation Bias:
tendency to seek out evidence that supports our beliefs and deny, dismiss, or distort, evidence that contradicts them
Psuedoscience
set of claims that seems scientific but isn’t
what are the 3 crucial warning signs of pseudoscience?
- Overuse of Ad Hoc immunizing hypothesis
- Lack of self correction
- Over reliance on Anecdotes
What is the Ad Hoc Immunizing hypothesis
Loophole that defenders of the theory use to protect their theory from falsification
What is an anecdote?
“I know a person who….” second hand evidence
“I felt less…..” first hand evidence
Pseudosciences rely on _________
Anecdata / anecdotal evidence
Patternicity
The tendency to perceive meaningful patterns even when they are not there
How does Patternicity impact us?
Can cause us to attribute abnormal significance to coincidences that are a result of chance
leads us to believe conspiracy theories
Tends to influence us to see meaningful images in meaningless visual stimuli (ex: clouds as figures)
Why does pseudoscience impact us?
It causes us to feel a sense of control in a world full of unpredictability
Terror management theory:
Theory that
Emotional reasoning Fallacy:
Error of using emotions as guides for evaluating the validity of a claim
Bandwagon Fallacy:
Error of assuming a claim is correct just because many people believe it
Not me Fallacy:
Error of believing that we are immune from error in thinking that affect other people
Bias Blind spot:
Unaware of your own bias but keen to others
Why is Pseudoscience a concern?
- Opportunity costs (seeking ineffective treatment)
- Direct Harm (can cause dreadful harm)
ex: Candace New Maker 10 yr old rebirthing
therapy - Inability to think scientifically as citizens
Scientific skepticism:
Approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasion evidence before accepting them
cynicism:
dismissal of claims before given the chance to be adequately evaluated
Carl sagan 2 claism
