PSY2012 Exam 1 Notes 8 29 Psychology Levels of Analysis o The scientific study of the mind brain and behavior o Rungs on a ladder of analysis with lower levels tied most closely to biological influences and higher levels tied most closely to social influences Abstract Concepts o Mental biological o Social The actions of the brain and its billions of nerve cells Parenting practices peer influences and the influence of culture and society Challenges for psychology 5 o 1 Human behavior is difficult to predict Actions are multiply determined Produced by many factors We should be skeptical of attempts to explain complex behaviors with a single casual factor o 2 Psychological influences are rarely independent of each other Many factors that may cause disorders are interrelated Makes it difficult to figure out which cause s are operating What is the main contributing factor o 3 Individual differences are among people Individual differences variations among people in their thinking emotion personality or behavior Help explain why people respond differently to same situation o 4 People influence one another Reciprocal determinism we mutually influence each other s behavior Makes it hard to draw conclusions about causation o 5 Behavior is shaped by our culture Cultural differences can limit conclusions scientists can draw about human nature Gender age race etc Girls vs boys Girls observe everything when talking to another girl Boys don t Nisben 2005 o Found cultural differences when viewing this tiger scene o European vs Asian Americans Focusing on foreground vs background o Generalizing to a population Why can t we trust our common sense o Native Realism The belief that we see the world precisely as it is in truth seeing is believing Works well typically but seeing is not necessarily believing Example Pic of Obama upside down Psychology as a science o We must abandon our opinions o Find out which explanations best fit the evidence or data o Explanation for a large number of findings in natural world Scientific theory Hypothesis o Testable prediction derived from a scientific theory Science as a safeguard against bias o Confirmation bias Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis and neglect or distort contradicting evidence Scientists need to find things that disprove their hypotheses Wason Selection Task CONCLUSIONS o If a card has a 3 on one side then it has the color brown on the other side o We can t always trust our common sense o Understanding psychology requires integrating information across the LOA o Psychologists use logic and statistics to generate and test theories and predictions 8 31 Patient H M Scientific skepticism o Pip shot through head couldn t form new memories o Learning to think scientifically can help us avoid falling prey to pseudoscience o this does not mean being close minded evaluate claims with an open mind but insist on persuasive evidence before accepting them phrenology Critical thinking bumps on head o A set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open minded and careful fashion o This allows us to overcome our own biases Especially confirmation bias o SIX CRITICAL THINKING PRINCIPLES 1 Ruling out rival hypotheses 2 Correlation vs causation Have important alternate explanations for the findings been excluded Can we be sure that A causes B o Correlation does not mean causation 3 Falsifiability 4 Replicability Can the claim be disproved o Has to be testable Can the results be duplicated in other studies o Experiment has to be able to be redone 5 Extraordinary claims Is the evidence as strong as the claim o Big foot example o Diet pill without exercise 6 Occam s razor Does a simpler explanation fit the data just as well o UFO at a Frisbee tournament Subfields of Psychology o Developmental psychologists Human development from birth to death Emotions cognitive changes with age o Experimental psychologists Cognitive social and neuroscience Study memory language thinking and social behaviors of humans Basic research Applied research Tests theories and seeks to build a foundation of knowledge Strives to solve specific problems o Ex What is the best way to make a cop car inconspicuous o Clinical psychologist o Counseling psychologist Deal with peoples problems listen and assess diagnose don t prescribe Work with people experiencing temporary problems Marital occupational difficulties Great Debates in Psychology o Two great debates shaped psychology 1 Nature vs nurture Are our behaviors attributed mostly towards our genes nature or to our rearing environments nurture 2 Does free will exist To what extent are our behaviors freely selected rather than caused by factors outside of our control CONCUSIONS o When confronted with claims from popular psychology and popular culture remember to use scientific skepticism o The six principles of scientific thinking help us guard against pseudoscience o Major theoretical debates in psychology may never have a clear answer o True or false The fact that two things are directly related means that the directly influence each other Studying color conservation in the lab is basic research Testing which color stop sign results in the fewest traffic accidents is an example of applied research FALSE TRUE TRUE 9 5 Chapter 2 Research Methods Safeguards Against Error The need for good research design o Facilitated communication In the early 1990s an autism treatment was developed called facilitated communication The developers thought that autism was a motor disorder The facilitator sat next to the child with autism and guided the child s hand over the keyboard allowing them to type out words o Dozens of controlled studies examined the phenomenon and found that the words came solely from the minds of the facilitators Still some people continue to practice facilitated communication Why do we need scientific research o Pseudoscience Claims that seem scientific Biases and errors Curiosity Valid and reliable measures Prefontal lobotomy o Used to treat schizophrenia Severed neural fibers connecting the frontal lobe to the thalamus About 50 000 Americans received prefrontal lobotomies between 1940 1950 Worked but became zombies sat there and drooled Didn t test any alternate hypotheses How can we be fooled o Heuristics Common Heuristics o Representativeness Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb we use daily o They reduce cognitive energy required to solve problems but we oversimplify reality Rich people live in mansions and drive
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