Psych 225Exam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 1 - 9Stanovich: How to Think Straight About Psychology (CP p. 57-65)-Benjamin Rush tried to use bloodletting has a cure for yellow fever. He decided if the patient lived, he had succeeded and if the patient died that the disease had been too strong for any kind of treatment-Scientific theories must always have a specific prediction (it cannot encompass everything) and they must be falsifiable or match the falsifiable criterion. (notable with Karl Pooper) -Difference between a layperson use of theory vs. scientific definition; to a layperson, a theory means a guess or hunch, to science it has been tested through many hypothesis and has withheld. -The Theory of Knocking Rhythms: the more specific and possible a prediction is to falsify, the more impressive and useful it is when shown to be true -Freudian psychoanalytic theory is described as stagnant because it is not falsifiable. It does not predict anything that will happen but instead describes behavior or diseases after the fact, making it scientifically useless (looked at od explanations of Tourette syndrome) -The Little Green Men: Little Green men are in our heads that control everything, but when they sense an intrusion they hide to protect themselves (X ray, scans, etc.) This is the argument with ESP often; skeptics present negative energy and thus it cannot be demonstrated in their presence-Not all Confirmations are Equal: Must look at not only the quantity of confirmations but the quality of them too (extent to which the prediction exposes itself to disconfirmation) -Falsifiability and Folk Wisdom: Psychology does not follow folk wisdom tat is passed on betweengenerations; science seeks conceptual change as does psychology; they attempt to find empirical testing -The Freedom to Admit a Mistake: in science, unlike in other areas of life, it is almost encouragedto make or at least acknowledge mistakes in the field because it betters it overall. Also even if someone is biased about their hypothesis there are other scientists in place that do checks and balances that catchthe errors one may not want to admit to -Thoughts Are Cheap: many people can think about or theorize global or complicated theories that can fit anything; what’s hard is to create a theory that is testable and falsifiable -Errors in Science, Getting Closer to the Truth: If a hypothesis is wrong, it does not mean all aspects of the theory are also wrong. Example when they thought the earth was flat, they were not completely wrong; the earth’s curvature is not flat, but is very close to 0; also the earth is not perfectly spherical but that does not mean the theory of it being a sphere should be completely discardedCarey: Journal’s Paper on ESP Expected to Prompt Outrage-extrasensory perception (ESP) ability to sense future events -Dr. Bem believes that ESP is real; he is a well received social psychologists, that may contribute to the fact that his paper is being published (in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) without a strong base in being able to interpret or replicate the results; people argue between allowing it for freeexpression and inquiry and not allowing It because it offends the field; part of the debate circles around the fact that peer review is supposed to be unknown, but that Dr. Bem’s paper was reviewed by people who likely new his name and are also social psychologists Kirk: Pictures power ‘truthiness’-truthiness was defined by Stephen Colbert as the ‘gut feeling’ that something is right; they found that when showing people claims such as “magnesium is the liquid metal in a thermometer” people are more likely to believe the claim if a picture accompanies it; this produces concerns for how much images and the media may have an effect on people’s beliefs and what feels right to them Course Packet (pg. 71-91)The Language of Psychology by Madigan, Johnson, and Linton (p. 71-80)-all American psychologists have two common characteristics: they take a stats course and use APA style-APA style refers to the: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association APA Style as a Writing Genre-subheadings are widely used in psychology which reduces the need for transitional passages-frequently cite other published work but rarely quote directly which allows flexibility -typically psych work is the work of more than one authors; mean samples were 2.5 and 2.8-Bizzel uses the term discourse communitydiscourse community: group of individuals who share common goals and beliefs and who have established mechanisms for communication; texts within are judged with implicit norms that serves as a model/template and it because appropriate, persuasive and interesting to the writers and readers withinit APA Style and Paradigmatic Thinking -it has evolved along with psychology-first began journal programs in 1923 and has lengthened and advanced since then -ex. evolved with the definition of “subjects” (now called participants) in psych; currently participants areanonymous, interchangeable and distinct from experimenters; before they were name explicitly and were often the authors of the report~thus its changes have far reaching effects on the data collected and method to do so Characteristics of APA Style -professional journals are model for appropriate scholarly writing in psychStory Schema for Empirical Reports-typically follows: introduction, method, results, and discussion -it can appear rational and impersonal behind the more complex human story that actually took place-the written report is sanitized and rationalize that conforms to the story schema -this schematic model reinforces and promotes psychology’s empiricist values-implicitly has a formula for a) reviewing past empirical studies b) collect/analyze new data & c) relate conclusions to current psychological theorizing Language of Disagreement -confrontive disagreements are rare and explicitly discouraged -in psych, disagreement focuses on the empirical process rather than investigators as individuals Drawing Hedged Conclusions-empirical reports typically relate the data of the study to the discipline’s current understanding of a recognized problem -have to balance convincing peers the results have substantive implications yet the conclusion must not extend beyond the data -ex. conclusive: there is reason to argue vs. hedged: is consistent with, may be related to Hedged: “tend”, “suggest”, “may”-hedge