Topic One Psychological Science 02 03 2015 What is science what is its purpose and why do we prefer it instead of intuition Science A system of acquiring knowledge We prefer science over intuition because in order to fully understand science we must consider multiple levels of analysis o Because each level tells us something different and we gain new knowledge from each vantage point What are the five steps of the scientific method Ask and Empirical question o Empirical can be tested Conduct research Formulate hypothesis Collect data Results and Conclusions What is a scientific theory How can we distinguish a good theory from a bad one Give two of your own examples of a good theory and two examples of a bad theory and explain your answer Scientific Theory An explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world including the psychological world Good scientific theories do more than account for existing data they generate predictions regarding new data we haven t yet observed For a theory to be scientific it must generate novel predictions that researchers can test What are empirical claims How are they different from metaphysical or other untestable claims Empirical claims are testable claims Metaphysical Claims Assertions about the world that we can t test o God the soul afterlife etc What is pseudoscience Give some examples How can you discriminate it from true science Pseudoscience A set of claims that seems scientific but isn t Lacks safeguards against confirmation bias and belief perseverance that characterize science Overuse of Ad Hoc immunizing hypothesis o Loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect this theory from being disproven Lack of Self Correction Rely heavily on anecdotal evidence Base claims on dramatic reports of one or two individuals Why should we be wary of pseudoscience Is it actually harmful Pseudoscientific treatments for mental disorders can lead people to forgo opportunities to seek effective treatments Treatments sometimes do dreadful harm to those who receive them causing psychological or physical damage Cause an inability to think scientifically as citizens Summarize the following research designs Naturalistic Observation Case Study Correlational Quasi experimental and Experimental designs Try to come up with an example of each design type Naturalistic Observation o Studying humans in the wild o Watching participants behavior in real world settings without trying to manipulate their actions Case Study Correlational o Researchers examine one person or a small number of people often over an extended period of time o The psychologists examine the extent to which two variables are associated o Conclusions from correlational research are limited because we can t be sure why these predicted relationships exist Quasi Experimental o Group designed without random assignment Experimental Designs o Two components o Random assignments of participants to conditions o Manipulation of an independent variable What conclusions if any can be drawn from case studies and naturalistic observations How are they useful High in external validity The extent that our findings generalize to real world settings Major disadvantage in internal validity The extent to which we can draw cause and effect inferences Can be problematic if people know they re being observed as this awareness can affect their behavior What types of claims can be made with each of the above designs Frequency Claims One Variable o 1 in 10 European children were conceived on an Ikea bed Association Claims Two Variables o People who use chap stick are more likely to wad rather than fold their toilet paper Causal Claims A causes B o Playing music to a developing fetus enhances the newborns IQ Random selection is the key to generalizability When evaluating results from any dependent variable or measure we have to ask if our measure is reliable and valid Correlation does not mean causation The Placebo Effect Why can causation NOT be inferred from correlational designs Correlation designs can be extremely useful for determining whether two or more variables are related As a result they can allow us to predict behavior Correlation does not necessarily mean causation we cannot tell from a correlational study alone whether the relationship is casual How is the strength and direction of correlations expressed What is a positive correlation What is a negative correlation Expressed on a scatterplot a grouping of points on a two dimensional graph Negative Correlation Clump of dots goes from higher on the left of the graph to lower on the right of the graph o Ex Some students drink a lot of beer and still do well on their first psychology exam and that some students drink almost no beer and do poorly on their first psychology exam Positive Correlation Clump of dots goes from lower on the left of the graph to higher on the right of the graph o Ex The more psychology classes students attend the better they tend to do on their first psychology exam Why do experimental designs allow us to make causal claims Causal Claims A causes B and B causes C There are at least two components exposed to conditions with at least one of them being manipulated The presence of an experimental group manipulation and the control group does not receive manipulation What is the relationship between a Population and a Sample A sample is a group of selected people from a population Random Selection Every person in the population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate Obtaining a random sample if usually more important than obtaining a large sample if we want to generalize our results to most people Why is random sampling so important What about random assignment Random assignment Experimenter randomly sorts participants into one of two groups By doing so we tend to cancel out preexisting differences between the two groups such as differences in gender race or personality traits Know the basics of the bell distribution and why it is an important concept to understand for psychology Mean Average Median Middle Mode Most frequent Outlier Point that lies outside the others Variability Gives us a sense of how loosely or tightly bunched the scores are Range Difference between the highest and lowest scored Standard Deviation Depicts variability o How far each data point is from the mean rather than simply how widely scattered the most extreme points are What are the 5 APA ethical standards discussed in class and what do
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