Chapter 1 Psychology scientific study of the mind brain and behavior Levels of analysis consider the lower rungs most connected to biological influences higher rungs connected to social influences Multiply determined almost all actions are considered this or being produced by multiple factors Individual Differences variations among people in their thinking emotion personality and behavior Na ve realism belief that we see the world as it is Scientific theory explanation for a large number of findings in 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 Nonoverlapping realms science and religion are considered these because science bounds are tested in the natural world where religion is tested on unprovable moral claims argued by Stephen Jay Gould 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 our awareness of our own inevitable death leaves many of us with an underlying sense of fear Correlation causation fallacy error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another it must cause the other Variable anything that can vary Page 23 Scientific Thinking Principle Diagram Falsiable capable of being disproved Replicability when a study s findings are able to be duplicated ideally by independent investigators Decline Effect fact that 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 Willhelm Wundt 1879 credited with launching psychology as a laboratory science Table on page 29 about different perspectives by various psychological professionals Structuralism school fo 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 posses adaptations survive and reproduce at a higher rate than do other organisms Behaviorism school of psychology that focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning by looking at 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 function and thinking Psychoanalysis school of psychology found 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 Six Principles of Scientific Thinking Pg 35 Basic Research research examining how the mind works Applied research research examining how we can use basic research to solve real world problems