Topic Outline for Exam 1 The Science Game The Cycle of Scientific Progress Ch 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 1 10 1 15 lectures The Science Game The Cycle of Scientific Progress 3 non scientific modes natural ways of understanding their limits 1 Experience What seems to have been true for me in the past cons 2 Experience does not allow systematic comparison Experience is Confounded Intuition What feels like the true answer cons We are prone to making a number of cognitive biases in judgment reasoning Once our beliefs are formed they tend to be reinforced through Confirmation Biases 3 Tradition Authority What does my culture believe to be true What do trusted and knowledgeable people claim to be true cons Normative beliefs have social consequences Sometimes we are unaware at how extensively our culturally learned assumptions influence our worldview and its facts ex arranged marriages Golden Rule Scientific claims i e answers must be subject to empirical tests that produce empirical evidence Empirical evidence an observation or measurement that contributes to either verifying or falsifying a claim about what s true The evidence will be the same no matter who observes it objective ex ghosts are not objective because we have no evidence to stand for or against them while being shot is objective because we have firsthand accounts Empirical testing Any situation or procedure that creates empirical evidence which allows a claim on truth to be verified or falsified Empirical tests must be replicable and verifiable Falsifiability a claim must be stated in a way that makes it possible to reject it In other words we have to be able to prove a theory or hypothesis wrong Replication When others can repeat it and get the same results Golden Assumption If an object of study exists in nature it is knowable it s possible to fully DESCRIBE and EXPLAIN even highly complex things like brains beliefs time and romantic relationships The Object of Study is Lawful If we could perfectly control all of the input variables we could perfectly PREDICT the outcome and CONTROL Golden Caveat The findings of our science are conditional and probabilistic we discover the conditions under which phenomena tend to occur for the majority of people There will always be exceptions to our findings because there are always conditions or variables we can t control for The Cycle of Scientific Progress Theory Data cycles If Then reasoning enables us to test and refine theories Set of statements from an observation that describes general principles about relationships between variables Proving a theory supported by data falsifiable Basic Applied Cycle If Then reasoning also enables us to take basic findings and apply them to more realistic scenarios Enhancing the body of knowledge by solving real world problems Stimulates basic research divided attention learning Construct validity Does the OPERATIONAL definition of the variable fully and accurately capture the CONCEPTUAL definition of the variable Ex How do we actually validly measure sexual attraction External Validity generalizability Is it true for people other than the sample True for all students All ethnicities All people everywhere Operationalizing Measures Ch 5 1 22 lecture 3 types of claims 1 Association argues that one level of a variable is likely to be associated with a particular level of another variable ex Sexual Orientation Linked to Handedness 2 Causal goes even further arguing that one of these variables is responsible for changing the other ex Summer Sun May Trigger Suicidal Thoughts 3 Frequency describes a particular rate or level of something ex 8million people consider suicide Descriptive claims Case studies surveys naturalistic observation and laboratory observation Psychological construct Any explanatory variable that is not directly observable or tangible Must be operationalized to turn abstract constructs into specific measurable instances those are both reliable and valid Multiple ways to Operationalize psychological constructs Operationalized definitions Self Report Recording people s answers to verbal questions about themselves ex questionnaire or interview Pro s Easy low cost large anonymous samples may be the most appropriate format Con s Open to fabrication social desirability biases memory distortions laziness may not be useful for non conscious constructs Observational Behavioral Recording observable behaviors or physical traces of behavior ex counting the number of times a certain event takes place Pro s More shielded from respondent bias can be recorded w less interference sometimes most appropriate operationalization of a construct Con s Can be more complicated to collect subject to experimenters seeing what they want to see confirmation bias discrepancies may arise over whether the behavior was actually produced ethics Physiological Recording biological data believed to be associated with a construct ex dopamine epinephrine levels Pro s hard to consciously control or fake can be quite precise perceived as more credible Con s can be expensive time consuming to collect may require technical expertise w machinery procedures and may be most sensitive to uncontrollable sources of error Scales of Measurement Nominal Categorical ex eye color religion birth month etc Ordinal Variables in which the values indicate some kind of ranking ex central tendency time length area volume pressure mass force and energy Interval Numerical but Zero has a value 0 C is the point at which water freezes Ratio Numerical but Zero has no value ex 0 income means you didn t make any money or lose any equals to nothing Validity Face Seems to plausibly and reasonably capture the construct of interest ex Measuring intelligence as the speed at which someone can recite the alphabet is not very face valid Content must capture all parts of a defined construct ex measuring intelligence simply by scoring 10 math problems does not fully capture the construct the big picture 3 empirical ways to assess validity Predictive should predict future outcomes ex entrance exams SAT ACT BAR Concurrent RELATED to and correlated with concrete outcomes that it theoretically SHOULD be related to ex predicting happiness should be recorded by the outcomes of smiles Divergent aka Discriminant should be UNRELATED to measures of other constructs that are unrelated ex Changing intelligence tests to discriminate intelligence from culturally biased knowledge Reliability also reinforced in 2 5 lecture on correlations
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