Chapter One Thinking Critically Need For Psychological science Hindsight Bias Examples o Higher amounts of sleep lead to greater academic achievement Lower amounts of sleep lead to greater academic achievement o We come up with an explanation for every outcome Over confidence Perception of patterns in random events when in fact there are none We look for things that aren t really there we think we know more than we do we think there tends to be patterns The Scientific Attitude o Curiosity o Skepticism o Humility ask questions Don t be afraid to go against the norm be skeptical ask questions challenge assumptions verify things for yourself research that is trying to explain human behavior human behavior is a very complicated thing understand that you won t always get it right Your prediction might be wrong be humble Understand that especially when you re doing Let the data information guide you let the numbers speak for themselves o Evaluate evidence o Examine assumptions o Discern hidden values accept and adopt the views think about what the values are Will coke ever Critical Thinking put out an ad in favor of Pepsi who did the research How was the research conducted Was it done in an appropriate way using appropriate techniques that you were presented What evidence were you presented with Did you only get half the story did the conclusion make sense given the evidence o Assess Conclusions Asking and Answering Psychological Questions The Scientific Method o Theory o Hypotheses broader principles what you re testing in this one experiment in this study You can never prove a theory Be careful of confirmation bias the tendency to look for evidence that supports what we already believe experiment over and over again We need to expand show that these things work with different populations people in different countries of different ages etc How can I expand it into other areas how did you define this variable it doesn t do us any good to do the same o Operational definitions o Replicate expand Observing and Describing Behavior o Overt Observation when people know that they re being observed o Covert Observation watched hidden cameras spies etc when people do not know that they re being o v TWO SEPARATE ENTITIES o Participation Observation when the researcher plants him or herself into the situation The researcher becomes a member of the group that he or she is observing Undercover cops undercover bosses food critics sit back and watch things happen o Non participant Observation Correlation does not equal causation