PSYCHOLOGY MIDTERM ONE Chapter 1 Psychology and Scientific Thinking Psychology the scientific study of the mind brain and behavior Levels of analysis rungs on a ladder of analysis with lower levels tied most closely to biological influences and higher levels tied most closely to social influences Multiply determined caused by many factors Individual differences variations among people in their thinking emotion personality and behavior Popular psychology industry a sprawling network of everyday courses about human behavior Na ve realism belief that we see the world precisely as it really is Subliminal messages messages that aren t consciously perceived but supposedly affect behavior Be sure to insist on evidence for a claim Science an approach to evidence a toolbox of skills to prevent us from fooling ourselves Communalism willingness to share findings with others 1 Scientists are part of a community of scholars who share information Disinterestedness attempt to be objective when evaluating the evidence Confirmation bias tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis and neglect or distort evidence that contradicts them Remember Seek and ye shall find 1 Example Wason selection task page 8 Belief perseverance tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them Don t confuse me with the facts effect Science is a process of continually updating and revising findings This is called a prescription for humility because scientists never claim to prove anything How do you think scientifically Become aware of your biases and avail yourself of the tools of the scientific method to try to overcome them Metaphysical claim assertion about the world that is not testable Scientific theory explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world Hypothesis testable prediction derived from a theory Scientific skepticism approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them Pathological skepticism tendency to dismiss any claims that contradict our beliefs Disconfirmation bias the tendency to seek out evidence inconsistent with a hypothesis we don t believe and neglect evidence consistent with it Oberg s dictum premise that we should keep our minds open but not so open that we believe virtually everything Astrology pseudoscience sorry horoscope readers that claims to predict people s personalities and futures from the precise date and time of their birth Scientific thinking form of thinking that allows us to evaluate scientific claims not only in the lab but in everyday life too Critical thinking set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open minded and careful fashion Critical thinking principles 1 ruling out rival hypotheses 2 correlation IS NOT causation 1 Correlation causation fallacy error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another it must cause the other 2 Variable anything that can vary 3 Third variable problem case in which a third variable causes the correlation between the two other variables 3 falsifiable or capable of being disproved 1 Risky prediction forecast that stands a good chance of being wrong like the Buckeyes will lose to Michigan Never 4 replicability or the ability for a study s finds to be duplicated ideally by independent investigators 5 extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence 6 Occam s Razor or the principle of parsimony aka logical simplicity states that if two explanations account equally well for the same phenomenon we should generally choose the more parsimonious or the simplest one Chapter 2 Research Methods Prefrontal lobotomy surgical procedure that severs fibers connecting the frontal lobes of the brain from the underlying thalamus Heuristics mental shortcuts or rules of thumb 1 Cognitive misers we re all mentally lazy and try to conserve our mental energy by simplifying the world Representativeness heuristic that involves judging the probability of an event by its superficial similarity to a prototype Base rate how common a behavior or a characteristic is in the general population Availability heuristic that involves estimating the likelihood of an occurrence based on the ease with which it comes to our minds Cognitive biases systematic errors in thinking Hindsight bias tendency to overestimate how well we could have successfully forecasted known outcomes Overconfidence tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictions Naturalistic observations watching behavior in real world setting without trying to manipulate the situation External validity extent to which we can generalize findings to real world settings Internal validity extent to which we can draw cause and effect inferences from a study Case study research design that examines one person or a small number of people in depth often over an extended time period Existence proofs demonstrates that a given psychological phenomenon can occur Random selection procedure that ensures every person in a population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate Reliability consistency of measurement Validity extent to which a measure assesses what it purports to measure Response set tendency of research participants to distort their responses to questionnaire items Correlational design Research design that examines the extent to which two variables are associated Scatter plot groupings of points in a two dimensional graph in which each dot represents a single person s data Illusionary correlation perception of a statistical association between two variables where none exists Experimental designs or experiments permit cause and effect inferences Experiment research design characterized by random assignment of participants to conditions and manipulation of an independent variable i ii iii iv v Random assignment randomly sorting participants into two groups Experimental group the group of participants that receive the manipulation Control group the group that doesn t receive the manipulation Independent variable variable that the experimenter manipulates Dependent variable variable that the experimenter measures to see whether the manipulation has an effect For an experiment to be valid the independent variable must be the ONLY difference between the experimental group and the control group Operational definition a working definition of what a researcher is measuring Confound any difference between the experimental and the control group other than the independent