R PSYCH PIONEERS+THEORIES REQUIRED???

I. THE SCI OF PSYCH

I. Psychology: scientific study of behavior and mental processes
 Subfields: S 6-12
 Enduring issues: S 14-18
 Human diversity: S 46-49
II. When our natural thinking style fails:
1. Hindsight bias, making a post-diction: I knew this would happen! The mind builds it current
wisdom around what we have been told and around our experiences. We are “biased” in favor of
old information.
2. Coincidence (mistakenly perceiving order in random events). Humans have the wrong idea about
what randomness looks like.
3. Overconfidence: Overestimating our performance/skills/knowledge &/ judging our accuracy: our
level of confidence is usually much higher than our level of accuracy. Familiarity is not
understanding.
III. Scientific attitude: always asking new questions
1. Curiosity: always asking new questions. Hypothesis: curiosity, if not guided by caution, can lead
to the death of felines and perhaps humans.
2. Skepticism: not accepting a “fact” as true without challenging it; seeing if facts withstand
attempts to disprove them. Like curiosity, skepticism generates questions.
3. Humility: seeking the truth rather than trying to be right; a scientist needs to be able to accept
being wrong. What matters is not my opinion or yours, but the truth nature reveals in response to
our questioning.
IV. Critical thinking
 Critical thinking is a more careful style of forming and evaluating knowledge than simply using
intuition. Along with the sci method, it helps us develop more effective and accurate way to
figure out what makes people do, think, and feel the things they do.
 Look for hidden assumptions and decide if you agree
 Look for biases/personal connections/politics/values
 See if the info is flawed
 Consider other possibilities or explanations
 Put aside your own assumptions and biases, and look at the evidence
 Why should we work on our thinking? Why should we apply critical thinking? The brain is
designed for surviving and reproducing, but it’s not the best tool for seeing “reality” clearly.
V. The process of the sci method
1. Collect data
2. Develop theory
3. Make testable predictions based on theory: hypothesis
4. Systematically test predictions
If the data doesn’t fit, we modify our hypothesis and try again
VI. Some definitions
 Theory: in the language of sci, it’s a set of principles, built on observations and other verifiable
facts, that explains some phenomenon and predicts its future behavior.
  Hypothesis: testable prediction consistent with our theory. “Testable” means that the hypothesis
is stated in a way that we could make observations to find out if it is true. Biases are a danger to
hypotheses, since we might select the data that we believe.
 Operational definitions: guide for making useful observations.
 Replication: final step in the sci method: trying the methods of a study again but with different
participants or situations to see if the same results occur. We could introduce a small change in
the study.
 Random sampling: technique for making sure that every individual in a population has an equal
chance of being in your sample. Thus, the selection of participants is driven only by chance.
VII. Types of research
 Descriptive: systematic objective observation of people. The goal is to provide a clear and
accurate picture of people’s behaviors, thoughts and attributes
 1. Case study: observing and gathering info to compile an in-depth study of one individual.
 Advantage: can be a source of ideas about human nature in general. Detailed.
 Disadvantage: overgeneralization from one example. Time consuming. Observer bias.
 2. Naturalistic observation: gathering data about “natural” behavior, and watching but not
intervening.
 Can be done to a group of people. Can be used to find truths that apply to a broader
population.
 Advantage: spontaneous, natural, and varied behavior.
 Disadvantage: observer bias
 3. Surveys and interviews: having other people report on their own attitudes and behavior.
 Disadvantage: possibility of ambiguous answers bc of poorly worded questions. May not
be accurate or honest.
 Experimental: manipulating 1 factor in a situation to determine its effect. Here, we can determine
causation.
 Control group: same as the other groups in the experiment except the one variable we’re
changing. How do we make sure the control group us really identical in every way to the
experimental groups? We should randomly select participants to participate in the study, and
randomly assign them to the control group or the experimental group (random assignment).
 Placebo effect: experimental effects caused by expectations about the intervention. How do
we make sure that the experimental group doesn’t experience an effect just because they
expect to experience it?
 Naming the variables
 IV independent variable: we are able to manipulate it independently of the other variables
(cause).
 DV dependent variable: we expect it to experience change depending on the manipulation
we’re doing (effect).
 Confounding variables: unexpected ones that we didn’t expect or account for, and that
might have an effect on the DV.
 Experiment: a limited number of IVs are manipulated and we measure the impact on DVs.
 A pattern in the data shows a difference between 1 group and the other
 Reliable difference: nonbiased sampling, consistency, many data points (no
generalization from just a few cases)
 Significant difference: reliable data, and large difference between the control group and
the experimental groups
  Correlational: its purpose is to detect naturally occurring relationships and to assess how well one
variable predicts another.
 Conducted through compute statistical association, sometimes among survey responses.
 Weaknesses: does not specify cause-effect: one variable predicts another but this does not
mean one causes the other.
VIII. Correlation
 General definition: observation that two traits/attributes are related to each other (co-related)
 Scientific definition: a measure of how closely two factors vary together, or how well we can
predict a change in one from observing a change in the other.
 Correlation coefficient: number representing how closely and in what way two variables correlate
(change together). Its direction can be positive (direct relationship) or negative (inverse
relationship), & the strength of the relationship varies from 0 to +/-1
IX. Causation
 We find out about causation by experimentation.
 Correlation =/= causation. Every causation is a correlation, but the opposite is not true.
 If self-esteem correlates w depression, there are still numerous possible causal links
 Low self-esteem could cause depression OR
 Depression could cause low self-esteem OR
 Distressing events or biological predisposition (a 3rd factor) could cause low self-esteem and
depression.