Psychology and Scientific Thinking Reading assignment Textbook Chapter 1 pp 4 10 21 34 Objectives psychology 1 What is the definition of psychology both definitions given in class What is the goal of The scientific study of an individuals thoughts feelings and behavior e g the human experience The scientific study of the mind brain and behavior 2 What are four reasons discussed in class why psychology can be a complex and challenging subject to study Be able to define and discuss those four reasons in detail Psychological phenomena thoughts feeling and behavior are multiply determined aka caused by many factors be wary of single variable explanations Influences are both internal and external individual differences variations among people in their thinking personality emotion and behavior and even physiology ex Introverts vs extroverts o Environment includes parents peers neighborhood cultural influences etc ex Social distance violating personal space based on culture kiss on cheek hug handshake etc Influences are interrelated nature and nurture influences can create a feedback loop Ex Physical attractiveness and social competence attractive people are more prone to be more social because people want to be around them even babies want to be around more physically attractive people We are not objective observers of ourselves others or even our environment we don t see things exactly how they are we have our own perception of things our own psychology leads us to engage in biases errors o Four main biases na ve realism confirmation bias belief perseverance and illusionary correlation 3 What is the definition of individual differences Be able to give at least one example Individual differences people differing from each other in thinking emotion personality and behavior Explains why each person responds differently to the same situation ex Religion culture personal morals and beliefs etc What does the environment consist of Be able to given an example of an environmental influence o Environment Includes parents peers neighborhood cultural influences etc Social norms social distance Americans stand about a foot foot and a half away from each other when conversing 4 What are four biases errors discussed in class that can prevent us from being objective observers Be able to define each bias error and give an example each Na ve realism belief we see the world precisely how it is ex Our common sense assures us that ppl with different political views are biased but ours are objective Confirmation bias the tendency to seek out evidence that supports our beliefs and deny dismiss or distort evidence that contradicts them Belief perseverance tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them 5 What is science as discussed in class Science isn t really a subject or content area its an approach to evidence 6 What is empiricism For science to be able to study some phenomenon what has to be true of that phenomenon Empiricism knowledge derived from evidence or consequence observable by the senses To scientifically research phenomenon o Must be observable o Or consequences of phenomenon have to be observable Cant do studies on love we cant see hear taste or physically touch love to study it 7 What does it mean to say something is falsifiable Be able to give examples of questions that are aren t falsifiable Falsifiable idea must be setup in a way that it could be proven false Ex There is a human soul cannot be proven true or false you must have a condition you can prove or disprove 8 What are the five steps to the scientific method Form a research question Create a testable hypothesis Devise a method to test the hypothesis and collect data Analyze data Communicate results 9 What are two ways in which science is self correcting How do these things help science Peer review Replication repeating an experiment multiple times to see if you get the same self correct result 10 What is the difference between theory and hypothesis How do they relate to each other A hypothesis is a testable prediction while a theory is an explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world including the psychological world They both are educated guesses because we will never be 100 percent sure something actually happened but a theory is supported by a large amount of evidence pointing out why it is true Theories have broad construct composed of an organized set of hypothesis and observations provides an overall framework for understanding some phenomena Hypotheses are scientific predications that can be test through various research methods ex Children that are rewarded for good manners are more likely to repeat good manners 11 What is the difference between nonscientific and scientific theory Scientific theory broad construct composed of an organized set of hypotheses and observations Non scientific guess or speculation I have a theory on why bob is a jerk 12 What is scientific skepticism To consider carefully and evaluates all claims with an open mind but insists on persuasive evidence before accepting them What are the six principles of scientific thinking Be able to define and explain each Ruling out rival hypotheses whenever we evaluate a psychological claim we should ask ourselves whether we ve excluded other plausible explanations for it Correlation isn t causation remember that a correlation between two things doesn t demonstrate a casual connection between them Falsifiable capable of being disproved Replicability that a study s findings can be duplicated consistently proving that the results were not a one time fluke Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence ask yourself whether this claim runs counter to many things we already know to be true and if it does whether the evidence is extraordinary as the claim Occam s Razor principle of KISS Keep it simple stupid Ask yourself if this explanation offered is the simplest explanation that accounts for the data or whether simpler explanations can account for the data equally as well 13 Who was Wilhelm Wundt What significant contributions did he make to the field of psychology Considered the father of experimental psychology proposed mental processes could be examined using scientific methods like reaction time Introduced introspection method which trained observers carefully reflect and report on mental experiences Ex Have participants look at an apple and report every thing that comes to mind 14 What was Structuralism and
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