Psychology as a Science Psychology 1010 Science is not a body of knowledge e g chemistry or physics Science is an approach to evidence one designed to keep us from fooling ourselves Science begins with Empiricism but then tests those observations using rigorous methods Empiricism All you know and know from your senses In psychology and all science we must abandon relying on opinions Instead we find out which explanations best fit the evidence or data Theories and Hypothesis A Scientific Theory is an explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world A Hypothesis is a specific prediction based on a theory which can be tested Theories are general explanations hypotheses are specific predictions derived from them A theory is not an explanation of one specific event It also isn t an educated guess A hypothesis is an educated guess that we use the Scientific Method to answer Confirmation Bias Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis and neglect or distort contradicting evidence Scientist needs to design studies that may disprove their theories Confirmation Bias simply means seek and ye shall find Belief Perseverance Tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them The don t confuse me with the facts bias What is Pseudoscience A set of claims that seem scientific but aren t Pseudoscience lacks the safe guards against confirmation bias and belief perseverance that characterize science Testable beliefs that are not supported by the evidence Pseudoscience doesn t follow the scientific method Test of popular Psychology Knowledge 1 Most people use only about 10 of their brain capacity False 2 New born babies are virtually blind and deaf False 3 Hypnosis enhances the accuracy of our memories False 4 All people with dyslexia see words backwards False 5 6 The polygraph test is 90 95 accurate at detecting falsehoods False 7 People tend to be romantically attracted to individuals who are opposite to them in In general it s better to express anger than to hold it in False personality and attitudes False 8 The more people present at an emergency the more likely it is that at least one of them 9 People with schizophrenia have more than one personality False 10 All effective psychotherapists require clients to get to the root of their problems in will help False childhood False Reciprocal Determinism Theory by Albert Bandura that the fact that we mutually influence each other s behavior Naive Realism Belief that we see the world precisely as it is Depression at Differing Levels of Explanation Social level Loss of important personal relationships lack of social support Behavioral level Decrease in pleasurable activities moving and talking slowly withdrawing from others Mental level Depressed thoughts I m a loser sad feelings and ideas of suicide Neurological Physiological level Differences among people in the size and functioning of brain structures related to mood Neurochemical level Differences in levels of the brain s chemical messengers that Molecular level Variations in people s genes that predispose to depression influence mood Human behavior challenges First human behavior is difficult to predict in part because almost all actions are Multiply Determined that is produced by many factors Second psychological influences are rarely independent of each other making it difficult to pin down which cause or causes are operating Third people differ from each other in thinking emotion personality and behavior Fourth people often influence each other often making it difficult to pin down what causes what Fifth people s behavior is often shaped by culture Critical thinking 8 29 pg 21and 23 26 A set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open minded and careful fashion This allows us to overcome our own biases especially the confirmation bias Six critical thinking principles will be emphasized throughout the course Ruling out Rival Hypotheses Correlation isn t Causation Falsifiability Replicability Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Results Occam s Razor Parsimony logical simplicity Scientific Theory Explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world Hypothesis Testable prediction derived from a scientific theory Metaphysical Claim Assertion about the world that is not testable Science Testable with Data Nature Religion Untestable with Data Moral Values Ad hoc immunizing hypothesis Escape hatch or loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification Patternicity The tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli Terror Management Theory Theory proposing that our awareness of our death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror with which we cope by adopting reassuring cultural worldviews Emotional reasoning fallacy affect heuristic The error of using our emotions as guides for evaluating the validity of a claim Bandwagon Fallacy The error of believing that a claim is correct just because many people believe it Logical Fallacies Traps in thinking that can lead to mistaken conclusions Not me Fallacy The error of believing that we re immune from errors in thinking that afflict other people Bias Blind Spot Most people are unaware of their biases but keenly aware of them in others Scientific Skepticism Approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them Correlation Causation Fallacy Error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another it must cause the other 1 A B It is possible that variable A causes variable B 2 B A It s possible that variable B causes variable A 3 A C B Third Variable Problem C causes both A and B Decline Effect Fact that the size of certain psychological findings appears to be shrinking over time Introspection Method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental experiences E B Titchener Structuralism William James influenced by Charles Darwin Functionalism Ivan Pavlov John B Watson B F Skinner Behaviorism Jean Piaget Ulric Neisser Cognitivism Sigmund Freud Psychoanalysis Behaviorism is sometimes called Black box psychology Cognitive Psychology School of psychology that proposes that thinking is central to understanding behavior Cognitive Neuroscience Relatively new field of psychology that examines the relation between brain functioning and thinking Symbolic meaning of our slips of the tongue is a Freudian Slip Types of Psychologist What they Do and What they Don t