Psychology 100HExam 1 Study GuideChapter 1What is Psychology?Focusing on all levels of analysisConfirmation Bias we seek out information that supports our hypotheses and neglect or distort contradicting evidenceBelief Perseverance we stick to what we believe no matter what evidence shows*good scientists realize that they might be wrongNaïve realism believe that we see the world precisely as it is in truth (the earth seems flat and we seem to be standing still yet the earth is round and is moving)Theories vs. HypothesesTheories explain a large number of findings in the world, they have to be modifiableHypotheses specific prediction based on a theory that can be testedPseudosciencepseudoscience claims that are presented scientifically that are not scientific, lacks safeguards against confirmation biasWarning Signs: apophenia look for connections where there really aren’t (Abe and JFK), pareidolia seeing meaningful images in meaningless visual stimuli- we believe what we want to believe- Terror Management Theory- these beliefs help counter our fear of death- Emotional Reasoning Fallacy- using emotions rather than evidence as the guide- Bandwagon Fallacy- lots of people believe it, so it must be true- “Not Me” Fallacy- other people may have those biases, but not meWorry because: opportunity cost, direct harm, and inability to think scientificallySkepticism- does not mean being closed-minded- evaluate claims with an open mind, but insist on evidence by thinking critically and overcoming biaseso ruling out rival hypotheseso correlation isn’t causationo falsifiabilityo replicabilityo extraordinaty claims require extraordinary evidenceo Occam’s razor does a simpler explanation fit the data just as well? Parsimony = logical simplicity Ask questions, define your terms, examine evidence, analyze assumption and biases, avoid emotional reasoning, consider other interpretations, tolerate uncertaintyTheoretical Frameworks1. Structuralism: Wundt and Titchener, aimed to identify the most basic elements of the psychological experience2. Functionalism: James, understand adaptive purposes of thought and behavior3. Behaviorism: Watson and Skinner, uncovering the general laws of learning by looking outside the organism4. Cognitivism: Piaget, focuses on the mental processes involved in different ways of thinking5. Psychoanalysis: Freud and Jung, internal psychological processes of which we’re unawareTypes of Psychologists- Clinical work with people with mental disorders, have different degrees- Counseling work with people experiencing temporary or self-contained problems like marital difficulties- School assess and develop intervention programs- Developmental study why and how people change over time, work with infants and children- Experimental use sophisticated research methods to study memory, language, or thinking- Biopsychologists examine physiological bases of behavior, work in research settings- Forensic assess, diagnose and assist with rehabilitation and treatment of prison inmatesChapter 2Two modes of thinkingSystem 1 intuitive thinking which is quick, reflexive, almost automatic andrelies on heuristics for example thinking that airplanes are more dangerous than cars because we always hear about violent plane crashesSystem 2 analytical thinking that is slow, reflexive, effortful, and more scientificHeuristics- mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that reduce cognitive energy required to solve problemso representative judging probability of an event by its superficial similarity to a prototype, must take into account base rates which are how common a behavior or characteristic is but the fallacy is when we ignore them and go with a preconceived notiono availability judging probability of an event by the ease with which it comes to mind5 research designs1. Naturalistic Observations: watching behavior unfold in a natural setting, no interaction or intervention by researcher, great for animal researcha. Maximizes external validity generalizability in the real worldb. Low in internal validity can’t infer cause & effectc. We can state associations but cannot say why2. Case Studies: studying one person or a few intensively over time, useful for rare or unusual phenomena like diseases or disordersa. Existence proofs: example that something only happens in femalesbut you prove one time that it happens in a maleb. Generally can’t draw cause & effect conclusions except in ABA or ABAB designs (graph with child and ADHD)3. Self-Reports and Surveys: the most frequently used, need to be equal and representative, define the population through randomly selecting by hardworka. Self-Reports questionnaire of behaviors, thoughts, interests, psychological symptomsb. Surveys attitudes, opinions, base ratesc. Random Selection everyone in population has equal chance of being selectedd. Pros: easy to administer to large groupse. Cons: self-presentation bias where we see ourselves as being better than we are4. Correlation: examine extent to which two or more variables relate to eachother, cannot infer causation because of a potential 3rd variable, range is always -1 to 1, -0.2 and 0.2 correlation is the same, can be negative, positive, or zero5. Experiments: only research that can draw cause & effect conclusions because of 2 conditionsa. Random assignment of participants that cancels out pre-existing differences between two groupsb. Manipulation of an independent variable (treatment) that causes achange in the dependent variable (outcome of interest)c. Pitfalls: experimenter expectancy effect unintentionally guides patients which can skew the results, remedy is if the experimenter is blind to the condition of the patientd. Demand characteristics: participant guesses the hypotheses of the study and behaves accordingly, remedy is to be deceptiveResearch Ethics- Informed consent informed about benefits and risks of research and they must agree to perform- Debriefing tell them what the purpose of the study really was after the fact- Protection from harm or discomfortStatisticsMeasures of central tendency: mean, median, and modeMeasures of variability: range and standard deviationInferential stats: probability that a difference or correlation this large could occur by chance, p < 0.05 =1 in 20 chance of occurring by chanceChapter 7 P&B- Barbara Ehrenreich criticizing profiteers for inferring
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