Psycho 104 - Ch. 1 Flashcards
what is basic research? what is applied research?
basic research is research done for own curiosity
applied research is research that is done to possibly benefit society or mankind
what are 7 main themes of psychology?
- psychology is empircal –> knowledge is acquired through observation
- Psychology is theoretically diverse –> driven by theories because theories put observations and ideas together and attempt to explain them
- psychology evolves in a sociohistorical context –> it is influenced by trends, issues and values in society
- behaviour is determined by multiple causes
- behaviour is shaped by cultural heritage –> shaped by our customs, beliefs, values and norms across generations
- Heredity and environment jointly influence behaviour
- people’s experience of the world is highly subjective (based/influenced by personal feelings, tastes and opinions)
What are 4 goals of psychology?
- to describe how peple and other animals behave
- to explain and understand the causes of these behaviors
- to predict how people and animals will behave under certain conditions (MAKING A HYPOTHESIS BEFORE EXPERIMENTING)
- to influence or control behaviour through knowledge and control of its causes to enhance human and animal welfare (AKA PREFORMING EXPERIMENTS ON HUMANS AND ANIMALS WHILE MAKING SURE THAT IT IS ETHICALLY CORRECT)
what is naive realism?
its the belief that we see reality as it is (without bias)
What is conformation Bias?
when our beliefs shape our perception of the world (we have a bias when looking at everything because of our beliefs)
What is scientific theory and why do we choose this approach?
scientific theory is an explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world (for example: why do plants bloom? or why do we get angry?) those are examples of what can be defined scientifically because they occur in the natural world
Advantages of scientific theory:
- minimizes bias
- solves specific practical problems
What is a hypothesis? what are two elements that have to be present to make it a valid hypothesis?
Hypothesis have to be a TESTABLE AND FALSIFIABLE prediction derived from a scientific theory
What is falsifiability?
Theories that are falsifiable mean that they have to be proven wrong or have an opportunity of being proven wrong.
For example, the theory that says “all swans are white” is not only incorrect but its falsifiable because we CAN prove this theory wrong by conducting an experiment or just through observation see a brown coloured swan and prove the theory wrong. This is what science wants.
what are metaphysical claims?
assertions about the world that we cant test
what is pseudoscientific claims?
claims that act like they’re scientific but they’re not valid or have proper evidence of claims
what is apophenia?
when our brain perceives meaningful connections among unrelated and even random phenomena
what is pareidolia?
when we see meaningful images in meaningless visual stimuli
i.e picture of jesus formed in soup
Why does pseudoscience continue to exist?
because its easy to avoid critical thinking and believing that something is too good to be true is actually comforting for some people so they purposely go along with it. This is called terror management theory
what are logical fallacies? and what are the three common logical fallacies?
these are traps in thinking that can lead to mistaken conclusions for example
- emotional reasoning fallacy
- bandwagon fallacy
- not me fallacy
what are the three dangers of pseudoscience?
- opportunity cost
- direct harm
- blocks scientific thinking