General Psychology PSY2012 Exam 1 Study Guide Psychology and Scientific Thinking Psychology the scientific study of the mind brain and behavior o The study of an individual s thought feelings and behavior otherwise known as The Human Experience o Goal of psychology is to use scientific methods to systematically observe understand and predict the human experience Psychology is a complex and challenging subject o Psychological phenomena are multiply determined Almost all actions are produced by many factors Phenomena thoughts feelings or behaviors Ex Violent behavior occurs from the interplay of many factors o Influences are both internal and external Individual Differences Internal variations among people in their thinking emotion personality and behavior Individual differences make psychology challenging because they make it difficult to come up with explanations of behavior that apply to everyone Environment External includes parents peers neighborhoods and cultural influences People influence each other People s behavior is often shaped by culture o Influences are almost always interrelated Influences create a feedback loop Interrelated influences make it tricky to pinpoint what factors contribute Ex physical attractiveness and social competence o We are not objective observers of ourselves others or even our environment Our own psychology leads us to engage in biases errors o Na ve Realism belief that we see the world precisely as it is We assume that seeing is believing and trust our intuitive perceptions of the world and ourselves Our beliefs shape our perceptions of the world o Confirmation Bias the tendency to seek out information that supports our beliefs and ignore evidence that contradicts them Biases and Errors Seek and ye shall find Not necessarily a conscious thing o Illusionary Correlation perception of a relationship between two things when none exists Often happens when two notable events happen to occur together Ex Lunar Lunacy Effect Many people are convinced of a strong statistical association between the full moon and a variety of strange occurrences like violent crimes suicides and psychiatric hospital admissions Yet data shows that there is no correlation o Belief Perseverance the tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them In everyday life belief perseverance is the don t confuse me with the facts effect Beliefs endure Even when informed that we re wrong we don t completely wipe our mental slates clean and start from scratch Psychology as a Science o Science isn t a body of knowledge or subject area Instead it s an approach to evidence o Science begins and relies on empiricism o Science tests ideas that are falsifiable Empiricism knowledge should be acquired from observations or evidence To scientifically research some phenomenon the phenomenon has to be observable or the consequences of the phenomenon have to be observable Idea must be set up in a way that it can be proven false You can t prove to be true if you can t prove it to be false Falsifiable Ex All swans are white It will rain in Tallahassee on August 15th 3299 Non Falsifiable Humans have free will o Science uses the scientific method Steps of the Scientific Method 1 Form a research question must be falsifiable 2 Create a testable hypothesis 3 Devise a method to test the hypothesis and collect data 4 Analyze Data o Science is self correcting 5 Communicate Report the results Replication repeating an experiment to see if you get the same results Peer Review Journals Hierarchy of Science o Theories Broad construct of an organized set of hypothesizes and observations Provide an overall framework for understanding some phenomenon Ex Social Learning Theory Non scientific theory Guess or speculation o Hypotheses Specific predictions that can be tested through various research methods Ex Children rewarded for using good manners will use good manners more often than children who are not rewarded for good manners Ex I have a theory on why Bob is such a jerk o Theories help shape new hypothesizes o Hypotheses help support these theories Scientific Thinking o Scientific Skepticism the approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them o Six Principles of Scientific Thinking 1 Ruling out rival hypotheses have important alternative explanations for the findings been excluded 2 Correlation vs Causation Can we be sure that A cause B 3 Falsifiability Can the claim be disproved 4 Replicability Can the results be duplicated in other studies 5 Extraordinary Claims is the evidence as strong as the claim The more extreme the claim the more extreme or strong the evidence must be 6 Occam s Razor Does a simpler explanation fit the data just as well The simpler explanation is probably the right explanation but not always true Psychology Past and Present o Psychology as a science has existed for around 130 years o Wilhelm Wundt father of experimental psychology Marked the beginnings of psychology as a science Proposed mental processes could be examined using scientific methods Introspection method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on mental experiences o Five major theoretical perspectives of psychology Structuralism aimed to identify the basic elements of psychological experience Founded by Edward Titchener a student of Wilhelm Wundt Using introspection structuralists tried to create a map of the elements of consciousness Faced two problems disagreement of subjective reports and imageless thoughts Asked what questions Functionalism aimed to understand the adaptive purposes or functions of psychological characteristics such as thoughts feelings and behaviors Influenced by natural selection Asked why questions William James two adaptive purposes of consciousness o Contemplating past learn from our past o Planning for the future Psychoanalysis focuses on internal psychological processes of which we re unaware of Founded by Sigmund Freud extensively studied psychopathology Used case studies to build theories Focuses on impulses thoughts and memories Behaviorism focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning by looking at observable behavior Differed from previous schools of thought in that behaviorists believed we can only study observable behavior Can t study the black box or mind Cognitivism proposes that thinking is central to understanding behavior Believed behaviorism neglected cognition Thinking
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