————E 4 PART 1 « Introduction ner tan sai IvES CHAPTER opJect Site methods" ty on $C or iaesrnnary why we (YS sense to explain «Learn the principles Of cals besos and effect + Understand how “caUS tific approach to und! logical processes is based 0° sci research. AS scientists, We rely 07 Jn as specifyin' observing in @ systematic Of ations of beha when we © which We psychological research, SUC orderiy way. and ac basis of make our observations. cepting or rejecting alternative explan: hy about the PSY" what we observe. In short, researc underlying behavior is known as psychological st ‘omes from the Latin word sscientia, which simPY word is used today, however, it has WO meanings— ¥ science is what we know. such as the ges. But science IS also a hemistry cours the systematic ways in which we go ‘The word scien means knowledge. AS the content and process. The content 0! facts we leam in our psychology OF ¢! process—that is, an activity that includes ‘about gathering data, noting relationships, and offering explanations. ess of psychological science is the principal aim of Explaining the proce e some of the basic this text. In the chapters that follow, we will examine dy methodology, the tactics used in psychological research. We will stu (the scientific techniques used to collect and evaluate psychological facts and figures gathered in research studies). Fs a ee ey ‘on scientific research methods. Research- , for example, collect data in formal laborator ‘experiments designed to provide the most precise information. P: wu gists interested in understanding attitudes and social beha meee “gether data under controlled laboratory conditions; at oth eae: \duct surveys in the community or observe and a oe natural settings. Psychologists studying human devel ites young children’s reactions under different eee E pa oo e laboratory or inFs get aad won peytoomogcel cata 00 wader’ 6 behavior of others and to guide our own behavior. When you notice that ert ca ania, eon apie for avo. YOO SO La a ee fac 2 job amcrview becanse frat impressions 66° YT. pecause they don’t cone You don't invite John and Evan to the same party & like each other. You can probably think of many more € ological data to predict the be The kind of everyday, nonscientific data gat § and directs our behavior towar (Heider, 1958). Commonsense Psy f situations in which xamples of havior of others and to guide ering that d others you used psychi your own behavior. shapes our expectations and belief has been called chology seems to work well enoug) At other times, though, nonscienti hh for us most of the time fic data gathering can leave us up in the air. Suppose, for example, that your significant other has just announced that SS hha been accepted for a summer program at the Sorbonne in Paris. Should you be worried? Some of che nonscientific data you gather about ab- eor-poricccs is résscumimey(rabeencel makes: cue BEST OT fonder”), but Soot e nox (rout of sigh, out of mind”). Most of your data se500 support the former conclusion, so you see her off at the airport it {good spirits. On the | ore ehome, you remember all the stories you have heard about Paris nightlife se) seay Parisian men... Without knowing which ousork really more probable, you are likely ro spend an anxious sumer. ‘An understanding of eee characteristics and limitations of commonsens© psychology might not help with dilemmas like this one, but it may help you become a better psy- chological scientist—if only because it clearly demonstrates the need for a sore ccientific approach to understanding and predicting behavior. ‘As commonsense psychologists, we find that our ability to gather data in 4 systematic and impartial way is Constrained by two very important factors: the sources of psychological information and our inferential strategies. Commonsense beliefs about behavior are derived from data we collect from crown experience and what we have leaned from others. The data we col- feat in our everyday lives have been generated from a very small sample of be- haviors, and the conclusions we draw from them are subject to a number of Zeheren sendencies, or biases, that limit their accuracy and usefulness. Often, the sources of our commonsense beliefs about behavior can be unreliable, dictions that we derive from them are likely to and the explanations and pr