Exam 1 Study GuideIncludes all objectives from the sections, with information from both class and the textbook. The exam consists of 51 multiple choice questions, with the last being a bonus.Psychology and Scientific Thinking1. What is the definition of psychology (both definitions given in class)? What is the goal of psychology?a. Psychology- 1) the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior. Also, 2) the study of an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behavior.- E.g., the human experienceGoal of psychology- use scientific methods to systematically observe, understand and predict the human experience2. What are four reasons (discussed in class) why psychology can be a complex and challenging subject to study? Be able to define and discuss those four reasons in detail.a. Psychological phenomena (thoughts, feelings, and behavior) are multiply determined. Since they are caused by many factors, we have to try to control for them and be wary of single-variable explanations.b. Influences are both internal and external.- Situations can be influenced by both individual differences and the environmenti. Individual differences are variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behavior (and even physiology). An exampleof this is extraversion vs. introversionii. Environment includes parents, peers, neighborhood, cultural influences, etc. An example of this is the social distance example from class showing how far apart people stand when talking.c. Influences are interrelated. This can create a feedback loopd. We are not objective observers of ourselves, others, or even our environment.Our own psychology leads us to engage in biases and errors3. What is the definition of individual differences? Be able to give at least one example. What does the “environment” consist of? Be able to given an example of an environmental influence.a. Individual differences- variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behavior (and even physiology). An example of this is extraversion vs. introversionb. Environment includes parents, peers, neighborhood, cultural influences, etc. An example of this is the social distance example from class showing how far apart people stand when talking.4. What are four biases/errors (discussed in class) that can prevent us from being objective observers? Be able to define each bias/error and give an example each. a. Naive realism - belief that we see the world precisely as it is. An example wasthe illusion with the table or observing and thinking the world is flat. Seeing isbelieving.b. Confirmation bias - tendency to seek out information that supports our beliefs, ignoring evidence that contradicts them. Example, all men are aggressive jerks, and they only see the time men are aggressive and ignore all the times they aren’t.c. Illusory correlation - perception of relationship between two variables when none exists. An example is coincidences, like bad things happening on Friday the 13th. Recognizing patterns was important to survive.d. Belief perseverance - stick to initial belief even when evidence contradicts them. Ex. the firefighter study, saying then refuting that risk-takers or non-risktakers are better firefighters. People come up with their own reasons why something should be, so even when they are told the previous information is false, they have their own personal reasons to believe it.e. The difference between confirmation bias and belief perseverance is belief perseverance is when they are given examples showing their belief isn’t true, where confirmation bias is not seeing other options.5. What is science (as discussed in class)?a. Science is an approach to evidence1) it relies on evidence. The phenomenon or its consequences must be observable.-2) It tests ideas that are falsifiable.-3) uses the scientific method4) is self-correcting using peer review and replication6. What is empiricism? For science to be able to study some phenomenon, what has to be true of that phenomenon?a. Empiricism - knowledge derived from evidence or consequences observable to the sensesb. Empiricism is the premise that knowledge should be initially acquired through observation.7. What does it mean to say something is “falsifiable”? Be able to give examples of questions that are/aren’t falsifiable.a. Falsifiable- idea must be set up in a way that it could be proven false8. What are the five steps to the scientific method?a. Basic steps of the scientific method1.- Form a (falsifiable and testable) research question2. Create a testable hypothesis3. Devise a method to test hypothesis and collect data4. Analyze data5. Communicate results9. What are two ways in which science is self-correcting? How do these things help science self-correct?a. Self-correcting- uses peer reviews and replication to test. Using peer reviews,other professionals in the field can read through it for accuracy, and bring attention to any errors or discrepancies. With replication, other scientists use the same method to duplicate the experiment to see if they were able to yield the same results.10.What is the difference between theory and hypothesis? How do they relate to each other? What is the difference between nonscientific and scientific theory? a. A scientific theory is an explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world. Good ones make predictions regarding new data and not yet observed. Hypothesis is a testable prediction derived from a scientific theory.Scientific theories can never be “proved” because it’s always conceivable thata better explanation might come along one day.b. Theory- a broad construct composed of an organized set of hypotheses and observations.-Theories help shape new hypotheses and hypotheses help support theoriesHypothesis- specific predictions that can be tested through various research methods.-A scientific theory is a broad construct of an organized set of hypotheses and observations were the non-scientific theory is a guess or speculation11.What is scientific skepticism? What are the six principles of scientific thinking? Beable to define and explain each.a. Scientific skepticism- approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting any claimb. 6 principles of scientific thinking:i. Ruling out rival hypothesesii. Correlation vs causationiii. Falsifiability- can it be disprovediv. Replicability- can it be duplicated in other
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