Expe Psych & Scientific Mind Flashcards
It is the research about the psychological processes underlying behavior.
Psychological Science
What is Psychological Science?
It is the research about the psychological processes underlying behavior.
What are the two meanings of the word science in today’s world?
content and process
the scientific technique used to collect and evaluate psychological data
Methodology
What is common sense psychology?
It is a non-scientific data gathering that shapes our expectations and beliefs and directs our behavior towards others.
2 very important factors that restrain common sense psych
- Sources of psychological info
- Inferential strategies
Where are common sense beliefs derived from?
Data from experiences and what we learn from others (vicarious learning)
Does common sense psychology help us know which one and how to predict behavior in any single instance? Why?
No, it does not because the inferential strategies we use to process data are too simple to be completely accurate.
What are some non-scientific sources of data ?
Sources that seem credible and trustworthy (eg. Friends, relatives, authority, people we admire, media, books we read)
What is confirmation bias ?
It is the tendency to overlook instances that might disconfirm our beliefs and, instead, seek confirmatory instances that support our beliefs on behavior.
All common sense psychologists are ___
Trait theorists
One of the first and most important kinds of data we collect about others.
TRAITS we assign to them
What are other types of problems from non-scientific inference?
- Stereotyping
- Probabilities (gambler’s fallacy)
- Confirmation bias
- overconfidence bias
What is overconfidence bias?
It is the tendency to feel that our predictions and guesses are correct more than they actually are, and the more data we have available, the more confidence we have in our judgement.
What is the scientific method?
It is the steps scientists take to
gather and verify information,
answer questions,
explain relationships, and
communicate the info to others.
What is the simple but important assumption of psychologists on behavior prediction?
Behavior must follow a natural order and therefore, can be predicted. (Scientific mentality)
Scientific mentality is based upon what philosophical school of thought?
Determinism
Or the belief that all events are determined completely by previous existing causes. (This is where our antecedent situations come in on experimental psychology.)
Data that is observable and experienced, and can be disproved or verified through investigation.
Empirical data
It is commonly called “theory”
Interim explanation
Testable prediction
Hypothesis