Psych209Exam1

Front 1

different "ways of knowing"

Back 1

-authority
-experience
-use of reason

Front 2

a priori method

Back 2

the use of reason, and a developing consensus among those debating the merits of one belief over another

Front 3

beliefs are deduced from____

Back 3

statements about what is thought to be true according to the rules of logic

Front 4

the outcome of the "a priori approach"

Back 4

philisophoical beliefs go in and out of fashion, with no real "progress" towards the truth

Front 5

empiricism:

Back 5

the process of learning things through direct obeservation or experience, and reflection on those experiences

Front 6

"social cognition bias"

example of belief preseverence

Back 6

our experiences are necessarily limited and out interpretations of our experiences can be influenced by a number of "social cognition biases"


belief preserverence: motivated by a desire to be certain aabout one's knowledge, it is a tendency to hold on doggedly to a belief, even in the face of evidence that would convince most people that the belief is false

Front 7

confirmation bias

Back 7

tendency to search out and pay special attention to information that supports ones beliefs

Front 8

availability heuristic

crime show example, airplane ex

Back 8

social cognition bias

occurs when we experience unusual or very memorable events and tgen overestimate how often such events occur


crime show: people who watch a lot of crime on television misjudge their chances of beign a crime victim

airplane crashes get more media attention, people cannot believe that airlines are MUCH safer than cars

Front 9

availability heuristic, multiple choice test example:

Back 9

students tend to believe that you need to trust your gut and NOT change your answer

BECAUSE so much attention is raised when you change from a right to a wrong

Front 10

scientists are human and prone to the downfalls of other "ways of knowing". explain:

Back 10

-they rely on authority
-argue with eachother "a priori style (the use of reason)"
-prone to their own social cognitions

Front 11

researchers assume DETERMINISM and DISCOVERABILITY. explain:

Back 11

determinism: events, including psychological ones, have causes

discoverability: by using agreed-upon scientific methods, the causes can be discovered

Front 12

probabilistic or statistical determinism:

Back 12

-events can be predicted, but only with a probability greater than chance

Front 13

argument that free choice is actually meaningless unless determinism is true:

Back 13

because choices shoudl be made on some reasonable basis and there can be no basis for a choice unless the world is lawful