Psychology Final Exam

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popular psychology industry

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sprawling network of everyday sources of information about human behavior

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naive realism

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belief that we see the world precisely as it is

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communalism

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willingness to share our findings with others

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disinterestedness

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attempt to be objective when evaluating the evidence

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confirmation bias

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tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and neglect or distort evidence that contradicts them

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belief perseverance

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tendency to stick to out initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them

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scientific theory

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explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world

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hypothesis

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testable prediction derived from a theory

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scientific skepticism

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approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind, but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them

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pathological skepticism

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tendency to dismiss any claims that contradict our beliefs

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oberg's dictum

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premise that we should keep our minds open but not so open that we believe virtually everything

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astrology

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pseudoscience that claims to predict people's personalities and futures from the precis date and time of their birth

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critical thinking

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set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open-mnded and careful fashion

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falsifiable

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capable of being disproved

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risky prediction

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forecast that stands a good chance of being wrong

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replicability

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demand that a study's findings be duplicated ideally by independent investigators

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correlation-causation fallacy

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error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another it must cause the other

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variable

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anything that can vary

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third variable problem

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case in which a third variable causes the correlation between two other variables

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pseudoscience

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set of claims that seems scientific but isnt

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metaphysical claims

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assertions about the world that are unfalsifiable

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ad hoc immunizing hypothesis

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escape hatch or loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification

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peer review

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mechanism whereby experts ina field carefully screen the ork of their colleagues

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connectivity

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extent to which a researcher's findings build on previous findings

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rational thinking

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thinking that relies on careful reasoning and objective analysis

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experiential thinking

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thinking that depends on intuitive judgements and emotional reactions

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transcendental temptation

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desire to alleviate our anxiety by embracing the supernatural

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terror management theory

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

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pareidolia

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tendency to perceive meaningful images in meaningless visual stimuli

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apophenia

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tendency to perceive meaningful connections among unrelated phenomena

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logical fallacies

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traps in thinking that can lead to mistaken conclusions

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emotional reasoning fallacy

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error of using our emotions as guides for evaluating the validity of a claim

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bandwagon fallacy

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error of assuming that a claim is correct just because many people believe it

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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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not me fallacy

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error of believing were immune from thinking errors that afflict others

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bias blind spot

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lack of awareness of our biases coupled with an awareness of other biases

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opportunity cost

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investment of time, energy, and effort in a questionable treatment that can lead people to forfeit the chance to obtain an effective treatment