Psychology

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What is the connectivity principle?

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a new theory in science must make contact with previously established emperical facts

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Cautions scientists to examine flaws throughout research; used to consistently support a theory while collectively eliminating another.

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Principle of Converging Evidence

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Why is the principle of converging evidence important to scientific research?

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Because it takes a large amount of evidence to account for all the alternative explanations of human behavior.

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Scientists are able to make gradual theories about human behavior after looking at large amount of evidence to support one theory.

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Gradual Synthesis Model

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Manipulating one variable to see it's changes to one variable effect the results of another variable.

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Experimental Method

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Informed Consent

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Researchers must provide their subjects with knowledge about the research in question and freely obtain their consent to participate in the experiment.

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Random Sampling

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refers to how subjects are chosen to be a part of a study. (randomly in this case)

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Random Assignment

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Requirement of a true experiment in which an experimental group and control group are formed by the experimenter

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Research that focuses primarily on theory testing

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Basic Research

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Applied Research

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the purpose of the investigation is to go from data directly to real world obligation

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College Sophomore Problem

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Experiments done several years ago on college students. College students back then typically came from the same background so results were generalized.

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What implications does the college sophomore problem have on psychology?

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It generalizes the results you will be receiving from a group of people with similar backgrounds. Internet has helped this problem by the ability to survey a wider variety of people

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What use is Basic Research in the field of Psychology?

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focuses on further developing or testing a theory to increase scientific knowledge. Important in understanding basic human behavior

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Importance of Applied research in the field of Psychology?

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Applied research uses findings immediately to influence treatment, such an election polling or advertisement research

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What is multiple causation?
Why is it important to psychology?

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When studying relationships between variables, it is important to remember that behavior is influenced by multiple variables.
It is important not to over interpret one causual connection because it could have not uncovered the main reason. Through continued research on the multiple causes of relationships, researchers are able to develop a more complex and encompassing theory for human behavior

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Magnitude of the effect one variable has may depend on the level of another variable.
Example: Factors such as job loss, divorce, and homelessness all together have an interaction on mental illness

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Interaction

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Pre-existing bias

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people already hold beliefs and opinions on certain situations; people more prone to focus on 1 cause

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it is more likely than not, but does not hold true in all cases
Example: Smokers get lung cancer, more likely than not but not always true

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Probalistic Trend

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"Person Who" Reasoning

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There's always an exception to an explanation.

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Uses group statistics by taking to account all the variable factors to determine a prediction that may not be correct.

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Actuarial Prediction

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Insufficient Use of Probabilistic Reasoning

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Not looking at all of the statistics and only looking at one variable.
Example: When testing for HIV, medical personnel assumes that since people tested positive for HIV that they actually had the virus, but only 2 % actually did

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belief that events in the past and future are related even though they are independent of each other.
Example: You get heads five times in a row when flipping a coin, so you think that this has an effect on what will happen in the future when it is just a chance event

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Gambler's Fallacy

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Chance Event

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Example: Coin Toss
No way to measure variables to predict outcome, 50/50 chance no matter what
Humans are constantly trying to find patterns for events happening around them, when sometimes it's just chance

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the phenomenon that happens when people believe that two types of events should commonly occur together, they tend to think they are seeing co-occurrances with great frequency, even when the two critical events are occurring randomly, and do not co-occur more frequently than any other combination of events

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Illusory Correlation
Example: Blind people are "blessed" with better hearing. A tendency for people to try to balance things out

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Studies have shown that human beings have an inability to accept the fact that factors of skills cannot affect chance events. We want to believe that we have the power to change things that are only due to chance

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Illusion of Control

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the fact that people tend to believe they live in a world in which people get what they deserve, they don't happen by chance
Example: People find it hard to believe that something terrible could happen to a good person

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Just-World Hypothesis

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Psychohistories

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Tendency to try to explain everything, to have our theories account for every bit of variability rather than the components of nonchance behaviors

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Coincidence

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An occurrence of related events due to chance, no way to explain it
Rare event, but happens by chance

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making predictions of people in general, going beyond actuarial predictions; doesn't work, overcome by actuarial consistency

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Clinical Predictions

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Pseudo Sciences

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books that are focused on things such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, biorhythms. These books being shelved in the psychology section cause the general public to believe that the information presented has been confirmed using psychological methods

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Self-Help Literature

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not based on psychological experiments but on one individuals experiences and assumptions. Unfortunately, the therapeutic techniques that have actually been developed based on psychological methods are overshadowed by these self-help books to the general public because of the media coverage of these alternative methods.

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Recipe Knowledge

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knowledge of how to use something without knowledge of the fundamental principles that govern its functioning.