Chapter 1 - Psychological Science Flashcards
What is critical thinking?
Evaluating knowledge. More careful than simply using intuition.
The brain is designed for surviving and reproducing, and is not the best for seeing reality clearly - biases.
Analyze information, just don’t accept it. Examine assumptions, look for hidden bias, put aside your own assumptions and biases, and think about how the information was collected. Are there any other possible explanations?
What is the scientific method?
The process of testing our ideas by: setting up tests, making careful observations, and analyzing if the collected data fits with ideas. If not, modify tests.
It helps develop more accurate ways to figure out what makes people do, feel, and think what they do, think, and feel.
What is hindsight bias?
After having learned the results of a finding, you believe you could have predicted the outcome - “hindsight is 20/20.”
What is perceiving order in random events?
Thinking you can make a prediction from a random series of unrelated events.
Ex. a ball on a roulette wheel lands on even 10 times in a row so it must land on odd on the 11th trial.
What are the parts of the scientific method?
Theory: set of principles that explains some phenomenon and predicts future behaviors.
Hypothesis: testable prediction consistent with our theory.
Operational definitions: exactly state how you will test your hypothesis, using numbers and data, not personal opinions.
Replication: trying it again, using the same operational definitions of the concepts and procedures. If your results can’t be replicated by others, the findings are questionable. IMPORTANT FOR ACCURACY.
What is descriptive research and what does it entail?
Systematic objective observation of people to provide a clear accurate picture of people’s behaviors, thoughts, and attributes.
Case study - examining an individual in-depth. Ex. Phineas Gage. Case studies can be unrepresentative of all humans / cases.
What is naturalistic observation and what are some examples?
Just watching and not trying to change anything - outside observations.
What is a survey?
Gathering information through self-report in order to get a representative sample. Many cases, less depth, saves time. The sample is who takes the survey and the population is everyone the researcher is interested in studying.
What is random sampling?
Selection of participants driven only by chance, not characteristics.
What is correlation?
When two traits or attributes are related to each other. A measure of how closely two factors vary together - how well you can predict a change in one from observing a change in the other.
To find correlation, use a scatterplot.
Positive correlation - as one variable goes up, the other goes up. Variables vary together in the same direction.
Negative correlation - as one variable goes up, the other goes down.
What is the correlation coefficient?
A statistical measure of the relationship between two variables.
r = +/- 0.37
The sign indicated the direction of the relationship and the number indicates the strength. The closer the number is to one, the stronger the relationship. Zero means no correlation at all.
If we find a correlation, what conclusions can we draw?
There is a positive correlation between ice cream sales and violent crimes. It does not mean one thing causes another thing to happen. This is explained by the rise in temperature.
So how do we find causation?
By experimentation - manipulating one factor in a situation to determine its effects. Ex. removing sugar from an ADHD child’s diet to see if it makes a difference.
What is an experiment?
Experiments manipulate factors that interest us, while other factors are kept under control.
Experimental group receives treatment and the control group does not. Otherwise, the groups are similar in every way.
What is random sampling?
How you get a pool of research participants that represents the population you’re trying to learn about.
