Week 1 Flashcards
What are the five primary schools of thought that have shaped modern
psychology
Behaviorism
Cognitivism
Structuralism
Functionalism
Psychoanalysis
What does functionalism focus on and who founded it ?
What the mind does and how behaviour functions William James
What does behaviorism focus on and who created it ?
Focuses on observable behaviour and ways to control it, John B watson & B.F skinner
What does psychodynamic focus on and who created it ?
Focuses on the role of a person’s unconscious on early childhood experiences, sigmund freud
What did B.F skinner study in terms of behaviorism ?
Studied the principles of modifying behavior through reinforcement and punishment which he saw as major factors in driving behavior.
What does cognitivism focus on and who foduned it ?
IT focuses on understanding mental processes underlying thinking,, Thinking affects our behaviour - not about reward or punishment but interpretation. Piaget and Neisser
What is a hypothesis ?
A testable prediction
What is a confirmation bias ?
It is a tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis which could make one neglect or distort contrary evidence .
What is belief perseverance ?
Tendency to stick to our initial belief even when evidence is contradictory.
What is psychological pseudoscience
Set of claims that seem scientific, but lack defenses from bias
What are some warning signs in psychology ?
- Use of psychobabble
- Lack of self-correction
- Overreliance on anecdotal evidence
- Extraordinary claims without extraordinary evidence
Patternicity meaning
Tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli
What is the terror management theory, how do u manage it and how is this theory tested ?
It refers to the feelings of anxiety that we experience because we are aware that death is inevitable but unpredictable.
To manage this anxiety, we seek worldviews that provide meaning,
purpose, and continuity
The theory is tested by manipulating morality salience (the extent to
which death is on our minds)
Name some antidotes for pseudoscience
- Think scientifically
- Separate science from pseudoscience
- Avoid common logical fallacies
What are some common logical fallacies ?
- Emotional reasoning fallacy (using emotions rather than evidence)
- Bandwagon fallacy (Lots of people believe it so it must be true)
- Not me fallacy (Other people have those biases, not me)
What are some dangers of pseudoscience ?
- Opportunity cost ( Investing time, energy, effort into questionable treatment)
- Direct harm ( Sometimes do direct harm to those who receive them )
- Blocks critical thinking ( One domain spills over into other critical issues )
What is critical thinking ?
Set of skills to evaluate claims open-mindedly and carefully
What are the six principles of scientific thinking ?
- Ruling out rival hypotheses
- Correlation isn’t causation
- Falsifiability
- Replicability
- Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
- Occam’s Razor
What does ruling out rival hypotheses include ?
Important alternate explanations should be considered
Ex ; Higher income is associated with lower mortality rates…Because people with money have access to better medical care
What is correlation vs causation ?
A variable is anything that can vary,, Can we be sure variable A causes Variable B
Can we be sure variable A causes variable B
What is falsifiability ?
Can this claim be disproven ? Good theories are sometimes bold and can be proven wrong (risky predictions )
What is replicability
Is it possible to duplicate scientific findings ?
What are extraordinary claims
Is the evidence as convincing as the claims ?
The more a claim contradicts what we already know, the more persuasive the evidence for this claim must be before we should accept it .
What is occam’s razor
Does a simpler explanation for the data equally well?
What is naive realism ?
Seeing is believing, the belief that we see the world around us objectively
What is scientifc theory ?
An explanation for a large number of
findings in the natural world
What is scientific method ?
Approach used by psychologists (and other scientists) to systematically
acquire knowledge and understanding about behaviour & other
phenomena
