Introductory Psychology Chapter 1 Psychology and Scientific Thinking William James described psychology as a nasty little subject Why would the first American psychologist think this about his discipline It s difficult to study simple answers are not to be had the farther you go the more complex it seems so testing is a challenge Our definition will be that psychology is the scientific study of the mind brain and behavior What is psychology First off it s not very easy to define As a discipline psychology spans many levels of analysis Runs from biological to social influences Encompasses thinking feeling behaving From the micro neurons in the brain to macro levels how we re affected by our environments Levels of Analysis in Depression We can view psychological phenomena depression at multiple levels of analysis with lower levels being more biological and higher levels being more social Each level provides unique information and offers a distinctive view of the phenomenon at hand Based on data from Ilardi Rand Karwoski 2007 Five factors make the study of psychology very difficult but very rewarding 1 Human behavior is difficult to predict 2 Actions are multiply determined 3 Psychological influences are rarely independent of each other 4 People display individual differences in thinking emotion and personality Even twins aren t totally alike 5 People influence one another Reciprocal determinism Behavior is shaped by culture Individual vs communal cultures and values Common Sense Birds of a feather flock together Opposites attract Absence makes the heart grow fonder Out of sight out of mind Better safe than sorry Nothing ventured nothing gained Two heads are better than one Too many cooks spoil the broth Actions speak louder than words The pen is mightier than the sword Even though each of these ring true they are in fact opposites Na ve Realism The belief that we see the world precisely as it actually is in truth seeing is believing Works well in ordinary life but consider The earth seems flat The sun seems to be rotating around the earth We seem to be standing still yet the earth is moving around the sun 18 5 miles sec Not all common sense is wrong Common sense should serve as a generator for hypotheses which can then be tested But learning to think like a scientist means learning when and when not to trust our common sense Psychology as a Science 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 In psychology and all science we must abandon relying on opinions Instead we find out which explanations best fit the evidence or data Empiricism is the premise that knowledge should be acquired through systematic observation But some of our observations can fool us na ve realism The best studies operate in such a way the subjects don t know what you are looking to prove double blind studies Theories and Hypotheses 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 then be tested Theories are general explanations hypotheses are specific predictions derived from them Theory Misconceptions A theory explains one specific event A theory is just an educated guess Why are these both wrong Science as a Safeguard against Bias Confirmation bias Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis and neglect or distort contradicting evidence WE all do this as we believe our attitudes are facts They aren t Scientists need to design studies that may disprove their theories They call it the null hypothesis Belief perseverance Tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them The don t confuse me with the facts bias Elizabeth Loftus Lost in the mall study even after debriefing subjects believed this had occurred Metaphysical Claims Non testable assertions that fall outside the realm of science The existence of God the soul or the afterlife Science and religion are entirely different and nonoverlapping realms of understanding the world Science deals with testable claims about the natural world that can be answered with data whereas religion deals with untestable claims about moral values that can t be answered with data We Might Be Wrong Good scientists are aware they might be wrong Scientific knowledge is always tentative and open to revision Science forces us to question our findings and conclusions So science does not proclaim absolute truths but it gives us a process to test what can be tested Popular Psychology About 3500 self help books are published each year only 5 are tested The quality of the information can be good misleading or even harmful Many websites may offer helpful advice but others may contain erroneous information What is Pseudoscience A set of claims that seem scientific but aren t Pseudoscience lacks the safeguards against confirmation bias and belief perseverance that characterize science Testable beliefs that that are not supported by the evidence Shere Hite Women and Love So today there is an explosion of misinformation out there very accessible to anyone with a computer Warning Signs of Pseudoscience Ad hoc immunizing hypotheses Escape hatches to protect against falsification usually a loophole or exception for negative findings Psychics who don t perform well in controlled circumstances invoke this excuse Lack of self correction which would occur with ongoing testing Overreliance on anecdotes Anecdotes are often not representative but can t tell us about cause and effect and are often difficult to verify Reasons we are drawn to pseudoscience Our brains are predisposed to make order out of disorder and make sense out of nonsense Patternicity Apophenia is the tendency to find connections among unrelated or random phenomena Pareidolia is seeing meaningful images in meaningless visual stimuli We believe what we want to believe Many pseudoscientific beliefs offer control over an uncontrollable world Terror management theory and mortality salience Pseudoscientific beliefs help counter our fear of death The more aware of our impending deaths we are the more likely we are to believe in paranormal things Likewise the less control we feel we have over life the more likely we are to believe in spiritual things Thinking Clearly Learning to think scientifically can help us