Chapter 1 - Psychology and Scientific Thinking

Question 1

What is psychology?

Answer 1

The scientific study of the mind, brain, and behaviour.

Question 2

What are five challenges of psychology?

Answer 2

CRIMM:
Multiply determined
Multicollinearity
Individual differences
Reciprocal determinism
Cultural differences

Question 3

Challenge: multiply-determined

Answer 3

Most things studied in psychology are not the result of just one cause.

Question 4

Challenge: multicollinearity

Answer 4

Multiple factors are themselves related to each other.

Question 5

Challenge: individual differences

Answer 5

Make it hard to find universal explanations.

Question 6

Challenge: reciprocal determinism

Answer 6

“Feedback”

We influence each other’s behaviour.

Question 7

Challenge: cultural differences

Answer 7

Another limit on broad generalizations that can be made about human nature.

Question 8

Earliest origins if psychology?

Answer 8

Ancient Greece:

Plato and Aristotle

Question 9

Rene Descartes

Answer 9

Enlightenment philosopher
Cogito ergo sum
Mind-body (“Cartesian”) dualism
Argued that the mind and body interact at the pineal gland, the “seat of the soul”.

Question 10

John Locke

Answer 10

Enlightenment philosopher
Emphasized nurture rather than nature
Saw the mind as a “Tabula rasa” (blank slate)

Question 11

Philosophers vs psychologists

Answer 11

Philosophers rely on logic and reason

Psychologists rely on the method of inquiry

Question 12

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 12

Structuralism
Developed first real psych lab
Used reaction time equipment
Introspection

Question 13

Functionalism

Answer 13

• William James and influenced by Charles Darwin
• Aimed to understand adaptive purposed to psy characteristics
• Absorbed into mainstream; still influences today

Question 14

Structuralism

Answer 14

• Edward Titchener (student of Wundt)
• Aimed to identify and map basic structures/elements of the mind
• Introspection and systematic observation
• Psychologists became too fascinated with psychics, so psychology moved away from spiritualism
• Instead started asking how people can fool themselves

Question 15

What are the dominant theoretical frameworks in the 20th century?

Answer 15

San Francisco + BC = Pacific:

• Structuralism
• Functionalism
• Behaviourism
• Cognitivism
• Psychoanalysis

Question 16

Behaviourism

Answer 16

• John Watson and B.F. Skinner
• “Black box psychology”
• Looking at observable behaviours to uncover the general laws of learning
• Thought this would help psy become hard science

Question 17

Cognitivism

Answer 17

• Piaget; Neisser
• Proposes that thinking is central to understanding behaviour
• Interpretation of rewards and punishments is important, not just behaviour

Question 18

Psychoanalysis

Answer 18

• Freud; Jung
• Focuses on internal processes of which we’re unaware
• Emphasis on childhood experiences
• Decoding symbolic meanings of dreams

Question 19

Cognitive neuroscience

Answer 19

• Branch of cognitivism

- Relationship between brain functioning and thought

Question 20

Clinical psychologist

Answer 20

• Research OR Therapy

- Don’t need Ph.D

Question 21

Counselling Psychologist

Answer 21

• Work with typical people experiencing everyday problems

- Marital, career, family problems

Question 22

School Psychologist

Answer 22

• Work with students, parents, teachers

- NOT educational psychology

Question 23

Developmental Psychologist

Answer 23

• Study how and why people change over time
• Mostly study children, but sometimes adults and elderly
• Spend most time in lab

Question 24

Experimental Psychologists

Answer 24

• Typically refers to researchers interested in cognition

- Use research methods to study memory, language, thinking, social behaviour

Question 25

Biopsychologists

Answer 25

-Research biological basis of behaviour

Question 26

Forensic psychologist

Answer 26

• Work in prisons, jails, to diagnose and treat inmates
• Conduct research on police techniques and courtroom issues
• FBI “profiler” is a small and controversial sub specialty

Question 27

Industrial-Organizational (I/O) Psychologists

Answer 27

• Work with companies to help select and evaluate employees

- Design safe and efficient equipment

Question 28

Five components of a Scientific approach:

Answer 28

CHORE:
Communalism-Sharing findings with peers
Hypothesis testing-Testing whether predictions happen
Objectivity/Disinterestedness-Don’t apply personal subjectivity
Replicability-Other scientists repeat results
Empirical evidence-Knowledge initially acquired through observation

Question 29

Biases

Answer 29

NBC (ie. news=biased?):

Naive realism- “seeing is believing”
Belief perseverance- hanging on to beliefs in face of contrary evidence
Confirmation bias- only seeking out information that supports our beliefs

Question 30

Six Principles of Critical Thinking:

Answer 30

R/C FREO (radio controlling something amorphous):

Replicability
Correlation is not Causation
Falsifiability (Popper)
Rival Hypotheses (rule out)
Extraordinary Claims (Hume)
Occam’s Razor

Question 31

Pseudoscience

Answer 31

• Claims that seem scientific and take advantage of that fact, but aren’t
• Lacks safeguards against bias

Question 32

Why should we care about pseudoscience?

Answer 32

O, SAD!

• Opportunity cost
• Direct harm
• Slippery slope
• Animal deaths

Question 33

Driving factors of Pseudoscientific belief

Answer 33

1. Scientific illiteracy and anti-intellectualism
2. Emotional Factors (fallacies):
3. Motivational factors (feels good to believe)
4. Cognitive Factors (Make order out of disorder; pareidolia; apophenia)

Question 34

Pareidolia

Answer 34

P for Picture

Tendency to perceive specific/meaningful images (Pictures) in random or ambiguous patterns

Question 35

Apophenia

Answer 35

A for Abstract

Tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated phenomena