Week 1: Foundations of Psychological Science

Question 1

What are the 5 Methods of Knowing?

Answer 1

Intuition, Authority, Rationalism, Empiricism, The Scientific Method

Question 2

What is science?

Answer 2

The systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment

Question 3

What are the 3 features of science?

Answer 3

1. Systematic empiricism
2. Empirical questions
3. Public knowldge

Question 4

Pseudoscience

Answer 4

Activities or beliefs claiming to be scientific but are not

Question 5

How to determine science vs pseudoscience

Answer 5

a) adherents claim or imply that it is scientific but

b) it lacks one or more of the 3 feature of science

Question 6

What does Karl Popper state all scientific claims be?

Answer 6

Falsifiable - the claim is expressed in a way that there are observations that would count as evidence against the claim

Question 7

What are the 3 goals of science?

Answer 7

1. Describe.
2. Predict
3. Explain

Question 8

What are the two types of research?

Answer 8

Basic and applied research

Question 9

Basic Research

Answer 9

Primarily concerned with understanding phenomena in more detail or accuracy

Question 10

Applied research

Answer 10

Research that addresses a practical problem

Question 11

Folk Psychology

Answer 11

Intuitive beliefs about people’s behaviour, thoughts, and feelings.

Not always accurate

Question 12

Heuristics

Answer 12

Mental shortcuts informing and maintaining our beliefs

Question 13

Confirmation Bias

Answer 13

The tendency to focus on confirming evidence and disregarding disconfirming evidence

Question 14

Tolerance for uncertainty

Answer 14

Scientists accept there are many things we do not know

Question 15

Empirically supported treatments

Answer 15

A psychology treatment that has been shown through systematic observation to lead to better outcomes when compared to no-treatment or placebo control groups

Question 16

Intuition

Answer 16

What feels true, can be wrong due to cognitive or motivational biases

Question 17

Authority

Answer 17

Accept knowledge as true due to authority saying so. Can’t always trust authority

Question 18

Rationalism

Answer 18

Logic and reasoning acquire new knowledge.

Question 19

What is the issue with rationalism?

Answer 19

Premise or logic being wrong will lead to an invalid conclusion

Question 20

Empiricism

Answer 20

Observation and experience acquire knowledge.

Question 21

What is the issue with empiricism?

Answer 21

Can’t observe everything ( e.g. white swan issue - black swans exist but are rare).

Question 22

Syllogisms

Answer 22

Sound premise leads to sound conclusion

Question 23

The Scientific Method

Answer 23

Process of systematically collecting and evaluating evidence to test ideas and answer questions

Question 24

What is the issue with the scientific method?

Answer 24

1. Not always feasible due to time resource constraints

2. Can’t be used to answer all questions, only empirical questions