PSYCH 110 1st Edition Lecture 3Outline of Last Lecture  What is Psychology? Levels of Psychological Analysis Challenges of Psychology Psychology as a Science Science as a Safeguard Against Bias Pseudoscience Warning Signs of PseudoscienceOutline of Current Lecture I. Goals of PsychologyII. How We Can Be FooledIII. The Scientific MethodIV. Naturalistic ObservationV. Case StudiesVI. Self Report Measures and SurveysVII. Evaluating MeasuresCurrent LectureGoals of Psychology Describe Behavior Predict Behavior Explain Behavior Control or Change BehaviorThe Need for Good Research Design Facilitated Communicationo 1990's autism treatmento Based on the idea that autism was actually a motor disorder.o A facilitator woud help an autistic patient type out their thoughts and feelings on a keyboard by holding the patient's hand so he or she could typeo Tests were done, and showed that the facilitator was unknowingly guiding the patients Prefrontal LabotomyThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.o Surgical procedure consisting of cutting and scraping away most of the prefrontal cortexo Patients appeared calmer, but the clinical reports were subjectiveo In many cases, it created more problemsHow We Can Be Fooled Heuristics: mental shortcuts that streamline thinkingo Pro: Evolutionary value Heuristics help humans to deal with the world around them by processinginformation quicklyo Con: Can oversimplify reality ex: A person who enjoys New Age music, aromatherapy, et. may be assumed to be a holistic healer over a teacher, but there are many more teachers than holistic healers, so she is more likely to be a teacher. Cognitive Biases: systematic errors in thinkingo Hindsight bias: tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictions "I knew it all along"o Overconfidence: tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictionsThe Scientific Method Define and Describe the issue to be studied Develop a testable hypothesis Choose an appropriate research strategy Conduct the study Analyze the resultso Develop another hypothesis, oro Define and describe another issue to study Hypotheses should be:o Definableo Testableo ReplicableNaturalistic Observation Naturalistic Observation: watching behavior in real world settings without interfering High degree of external validity: the extent to which we can generalize findings to real world settings Low degree of internal validity: the extent to which we can draw cause and effect interences from a studyCase Studies Case Study: Studying 1 person or a small group of people over an extended periodo Common with rare types of brain damage or disorders Very in-depth and detailed Help provide existence proofso Shows that a disorder existso Can be misleading or anecdotalSelf Report Measures and Surveys Often used to ask people about themselves or otherso Self report measure: asseses characteristics such as personality or illness Pros: Easy, inexpensive, direct self assessment Cons: Skewed accuracy for some, potential for dishonesty, lack of insightChoosing Participants Population: Everyoneo Population of interest Sample: a group of the population of interest - Representative sample:represents the population well to reduce skewed resultso Random Sample: random people chosen from the representative sampleEvaluating Measures Reliability: consistency of measurement Validity: the extent to which a measure assesses what it is supposed