Psych Midterm 1

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psychology

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scientific study of the mind,brain, and behaviour

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3 levels of analysis

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social culture influences

psychological

biological

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5 main challenges

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1. human behaviour is difficult to predict

2. psychological influences are rarely independent

3. individual differences among people

4. people influence one another

5. behaviour is shaped by culture

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emic approach

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insider

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etic approach

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outsider

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naive realism

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the belief that the world is exactly how we see it

"seeing is believing"

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science

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a way of collecting data

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hypothesis

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testable prediction

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theory

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explains a wide range of events, and explains why results were found

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confirmation bias

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tendency to seek evidence that supports our hypothesis and neglecting contradicting evidence

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belief perseverance

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tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence is contradictory

"don't confuse me with the facts"

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psychological pseudoscience

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set of claims that seem scientific but lack defence from bias

WARNING: over reliance on anecdotes, lack of self correction and ad hoc hypothesis adjustments (loopholes)

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apophenia

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tendency to perceive meaningful connections among unrelated phenomena (coincidence)

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pareidolia

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seeing meaningful images in meaningless visual stimuli

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emotional reasoning fallacy

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using emotions rather than evidence

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bandwagon fallacy

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lots of people believe it so it must be true

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not me fallacy

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other people may have those biases, NOT ME!

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dangers of pseudoscience

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opportunity cost, direct harm, blocks scientific thinking

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scientific skepticism

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willingness to keep and open mine to all claims, accept claims only after they researchers have subjected them to careful scientific tests

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pathological skepticism

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tendency to dismiss any claims contradicting ones beliefs

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critical thinking

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skills to evaluate claims open-mindedly and carefully and over coming our bias

there are 6 principles

1.ruling out rival hypothesis

2. correlation vs causation

3. falsifiability

4. replicability

5. extraordinary claims

6. Occams razor or KISS

RECROF

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ruling out rival hypothesis

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important alternate explanations should be considered as they are possible

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correlation vs causation

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can we be sure a causes b?

you need to see other variable

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falsifiability

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can the claim be disproven?

you need to go against it to prove it right

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replicability

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is it possible to duplicate the scientific findings?

if someone else does it will they end with the same result

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extraordinary claims

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is the evidence as convincing as it claims?

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Occams razor or KISS

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does a simpler explanation fit the data?

Keep It Short and Simple

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History

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1800s- Wilhelm Wundt followed William James lead and developed the 1st official psychology lab in Germany, launching psych as an experimental science

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introspection

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method by which trained observers careful reflect and report their natural experiences

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theoretical perspectives in psych

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how can we explain behaviour?

5 primary schools of thought that have shaped modern psychology

1. structuralism

2.functionalism

3.behaviourism

4.cognitivism

5.psychoanalysis

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structuralism

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William Wundt and E.B. Titchener

Aim: identify the most fundamental elements of psychology experience

-systematic data collection

-analyzing the structure of mental life

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functionalism

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William James (influenced by Darwin)

Aim: understand the adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics (thoughts, behaviours, feelings) asks why

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behaviourism

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Watson and Skinner

Aim: understand the general laws of learning my focusing on external observable elements

-look outside the organism to rewards and punishments delivered by the environment

-scientific rigour

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cognitivism

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Piaget and Neisser

Aim: understand mental processes underlying thinking in a variety of contexts

-gave credit to the way humans think

-interpretation of events

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psychoanalysis

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Freud and Jung

Aim: uncover internal processes (impulses, thoughts and memories) we are unaware of

-starting point for conceiving mental processes outside of conscious awareness

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nature vs nurture

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behaviour is attributed to both genes and environment but the relative balance of the 2 depends on which characteristic we measure

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evolutionary psychology

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applies Darwins theory of natural selection to human and animal behaviour

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free will-determinism

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to what extent are our behaviours freely selected rather than cause by factors outside of our control

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compatibilism

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free will and determinism aren't mutually exclusive , our genes and environment limit behavioural choices

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basic research

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examines how the mind works

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applied research

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utilize the research in everyday life

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facilitated communication

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a means for autistic children to communicate, the adult was just communicating what they were feeling through the child

Neglected to consider rival hypothesis

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prefrontal lobotomy

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used to treat schizophrenia and other severe mental disorders, they severed the fibres connecting the frontal lobe and the thalamus

Researchers naive realism and confirmation bias deceived them

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heuristics

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mental short cuts or rule of thumb, can oversimplify reality

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representative heuristic

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judging the probability of an event by its similarity to a prototype

"like goes with like"

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base rate

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how common a behaviour or characteristic is in the population

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base rate fallacy

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neglecting to consider how common a behaviour characteristic is in the population

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availability

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estimates the likelihood of an occurrence based on how easily it comes to our minds

"off the top of my head"

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cognitive biases

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systematic errors in thinking that can lead to confidence in false conclusions

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hindsight bias

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tendency to over estimate how well we could have successfully forecasted known outcomes

"i knew it all along"

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overconfidence

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tendency to over estimate our ability to make correct predictions

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the scientific tool box

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includes naturalistic observation, case study, self report and surveys, correlation designs, and experimental designs

N E C C S

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naturalistic observation

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-watching behaviour in read world settings

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high external validity

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findings are generalizable to the real world

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low internal validity

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ability to draw cause and effect inference

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observer effect

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people change their behaviour when they are being watched

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observer bias

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sees what they want to see

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case study

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studying one or small numbers of people for an extended period of time, used to study rare brain damage or mental illness

provides existing proofs

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self report and surveys

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self report measures and assesses characteristics such as personality or mental illness

surveys ask for opinions or abilities

(random selection, validity, and reliability must be met)

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random selection

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ensures every person within a population has an equal chance of being selected

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validity

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extent to which a measure assesses what is claims to measure

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reliability

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consistency of measurements

2 types: Test and Interpreter reliability

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halo effect

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tendency of ratings of one positive characteristic to influence the ratings of others

"famous people don't do bad things"

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correlation design

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examine the extent to which 2 or more variables are associated, the range from -1 to +1

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positive correlation

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as one increases so does the other

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negative correlation

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as one increases the other decreases

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zero correlation

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no relationship between the variables

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illusory correlation

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perception of a statistical association where none exists

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correlation vs causation

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just because 2 things are related doesn't mean that one causes another (3 possible explanations)

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experimental designs

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needs: experimental group, control group, independent variable, dependent variable, confounds

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experimental group

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receives manipulation

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control group

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does not receive manipulation

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independent variable

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manipulated

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dependent variable

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measured, depends on independent

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confounds

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difference between the experimental and control groups other than the independent variable

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cause and effect

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it is possible to infer with random assignment and manipulation of independent variable

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experimental pitfalls

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placebo effect, nocebo effect, experimenter expectancy effect, double blind design, hawthorn effect, demand characteristics

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placebo effect

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improvement because you expect it

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nocebo effect

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harm resulting from expectation of harm

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experimenter expectancy effect

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researchers hypothesis lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome

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double blind design

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neither researchers nor participants know who is in the control or experimental group

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hawthorne effect

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phenomenon in which participants knowledge that they are being studied can affect behaviour

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demand characteristics

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cues that participants pick up allowing them to guess the researchers hypothesis

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tuskegee study

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men diagnosed with syphalis- they were never given the treatment in order to study to disease

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modern ethics for humans

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research ethics board (REB)

-informed consent

-justification of deception

-debriefing of subjects afterwards

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modern ethics for animals

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canadian council on animal care(CCAC)

-7-8% of research in psych uses animals

-the majority are birds and rodents

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descriptive statistics

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numerical characteristics of nature of the data

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central tendency

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where the group tends to cluster

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mean

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average of all scores

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median

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middle score in the data

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mode

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most frequent score in the data

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outlier

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a data point distinctly separate from the rest

can affect the mean

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dispersion

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how loosely or tightly bunched scores are

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range

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difference between highest and lowest scores

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standard deviation

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measure of dispersion accounting for how far each data point is from the mean

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inferential statistics

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allows us to determine whether they can generate findings from the sample to the population

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statistical significance

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findings would have occurred by chance less than 1-20 times

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practice significance

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real world importance

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truncated graph

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make it look like theres a big difference but there really isn't

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peer review

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process to help identify and correct flaws in research and its conclusions

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evaluating media

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most reporters are not scientists, consider the source

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either-or fallacy

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error of framing a question as though we can answer it in only one of two extreme ways

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appeal to authority fallacy

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error of accepting a claim merely because an authority figure endorses it

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genetic fallacy

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error of confusing the correctness of belief with its origins or genesis

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argument from antiquity fallacy

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error of assuming that a belief must be valid just because its been around for a long time

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argument from adverse consequences fallacy

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error of confusing the validity of an idea with its potential real world consequences

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appeal to ignorance fallacy

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error of assuming that a claim must be true because no one has shown it to be false

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hasty generalization fallacy

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error of drawing conclusion on the basis of insufficient evidence

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circular reasoning fallacy

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error of basing a claim on the same claim reworded in slightly different terms

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reciprocal determinism

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tendency for people to mutually influence each others behaviour

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terror management theory

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theory of proposing that our awareness of our death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror with which we cope by adopting reassuring cultural world views

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metaphysical claim

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assertion about the world that is not testable

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social minimalists

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mentally lazy

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RECROF

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Ruling out rival hypothesis

Extraordinary claims

Correlation vs causation

Reliability

Occams razor/KISS

Falsifiability

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Wilhelm Wundt

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Established the first psychological journal in 1881

Credited for launching psych as a lab science in 1879

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William James

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Wrote principles of psych in 1890