Chapter One Psychology Everyday Thinking 09 30 2014 Psychology Scientific study of the mind brain and behavior Spans many levels of analysis Runs from biological to social influences Can t understand psychology by focusing on only one level of analysis Behavioral Perspective Behavior results from learning and experience Cognitive Perspective Behavior resulted from mental processes involve in decision making and problem solving Evolutionary Perspective Behavior results from natural selection of advantageous traits Humanistic Perspective believes that people seek value meaning and creativity in all they do Neuroscience Behavior results from genes the brain and other biological processes Psychodynamic Behavior results from the unconscious memories conflicts and desires Sociocultural Social and culture experiences influence their behavior Treatment for depressions from Neuroscience Differences in brain chemistry or function drugs and pills Cognitive Unrealistic Thoughts expectations critical talk more rational Multiply Determined produced by many factors Individual Differences Variations among people in their thinking emotion personality and behavior Na ve Realism Belief that we see the world exactly how it is Scientific Theory Explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world Hypothesis Testable prediction derived from a scientific theory Confirmation Bias Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and deny dismiss or distort evidence that contradicts them Belief Perseverance Tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them Metaphysical Claim Assertion about the world that is not testable Pseudoscience Set of claims that seems scientific but isn t 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 the cultural worldviews Scientific Skepticism Approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them Critical Thinking Set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open minded and careful fashion Correlation Causing Fallacy Error of assuming that because on thing is associated with another It must cause the other Variable anything that can vary Falsifiable Capable of being disapproved Replicability When a study s findings are able to be duplicated ideally by independent investigators 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 Structuralism School of psychology that aimed to identify the basic elements of psychological experience Functionalism school of psychology that aimed to understand the adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics Natural Selection Principle that organisms that possess adaptations survive and reproduce at a higher rate that do other organisms Behaviorism school of psychology that focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning by looking at the observable behavior 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 Psychoanalysis School of psychology founded by Sigmund Freud that focuses on internal psychological processes of which we re unaware Evolutionary Psychology Discipline that applies Darwin s Theory of natural selection to human and animal behavior Basic Research Research examining how the mind works Applied Research Research examining how we can use basic research to solve real world problems Challenging Fascinating 09 30 2014 Five factors make the study of psychology very difficulty but very rewarding 1 Human behavior is difficult to predict actions are multiply determined 2 Psychological influences are rarely independent of each other 3 People display individual differences in thinking emotion and personality 4 People influence one another reciprocal determinism 5 Behavior is shaped by culture The Issue With Common Sense Even though common sense can sometimes be right people differ in what they believe to be true because it is often based on their own limited experience Our values influence our reality in many ways specifically what we pay attention to which is what is true Naive Realism the belief that we see the world precisely as it actually is in truth seeing is believing We are motivated to believe what we know to be true Hindsight Bias The tendency to exaggerate after learning the outcome one s ability to have foreseen it Confirmation Bias Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and deny dismiss or distort evidence that contradicts them Belief Perseverance Tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them Systematic observation and experimentation are needed to check our ideas against reality Systematic Empirical Evidence In science empirical evidence is collected in a systematic rigorous fashion Observable Factual Data to support our claims Set procedures Precise A scientific theory is a explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world A theory does NOT explain one specific event A theory is NOT just an educated guess A hypothesis is a specific prediction based o theory which can then be tested Types of Psychological Research Two Broad categories of research Basic Research Examines how the mind works Applied Research examines how we use basic research to solve the real world problems Thinking Clearly Learning to think scientifically can help us avoid falling pre to pseudoscience Emotional Reasoning Fallacy Using emotions rather than evidence as the guide for example Milgram research Bandwagon Fallacy Lots of people believe it so it must be true for example multitasking research Not Me Other people may have those biases but not me for example stereotyping research Chapter 2 Research Methods 09 30 2014 The Scientific Method Toolbox Allows us to test specific hypotheses derived from the broader theories of how things work Theories are never proven but hypotheses can be confirmed or disconfirmed We can use a number of different