Chapter 1 - Psychology and Scientific Thinking PDF

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Chapter 1 - Psychology and Scientific Thinking
Chapter Notes from Textbook: Inquiry to Understanding
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Chapter 1 Definitions Psychology – The scientific study of the mind, brain and behaviour Levels of Analysis – Rungs on a ladder of analysis, with lower levels tied most closely to biological influences and higher levels tied most closely to social influences Multiply Determined – Caused by many factors Individual Differences – Variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality and behaviour Reciprocal Determinism – The fact that we mutually influence each other’s behaviour Emic Approach – Investigators study the behaviour of a culture from the perspective of a “native” or “insider” Etic Approach – Investigators study the behaviour of a culture from the perspective of an outsider. Introspection – Method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental experiences Structuralism – School of psychology that aimed to identify the basic elements of psychological experience Functionalism – School of psychology that aimed to understand the adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics Natural Selection – Principle that organisms that possess adaptions survive and reproduce at a higher rate than organisms Cognitive Neuroscience – Relatively new field of psychology that examines the relation between brain functioning and thinking Psychoanalysis – Focuses on internal psychological processes of which we’re unaware Evolutionary Psychology – Discipline that applies Darwin’s theory of natural selection to human and animal behaviour

Naïve Realism – Belief that we see the world precisely as it is Scientific Theory – Explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world Hypothesis – Testable prediction derived from a scientific theory Confirmation Bias – Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them Belief Perseverance – Tendency to stick our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them Metaphysical Claim – Assertion about the world that is not testable (Religion/Spirituality) Pseudoscientific – Set claims that seems scientific, but lacks any support or evidence Ad Hoc Immunizing Hypothesis – Escape hatch or loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification Patternicity – The tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli Terror Management Theory – Theory proposing that our awareness of our death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror we cope with by adopting reassuring cultural world views Bias Blind Spot – Demonstrates that most people are unaware of their own biases but keenly aware of them in others Scientific Skepticism – Approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them Critical Thinking – Set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open-minded and careful fashion Correlation-Causation Fallacy – Error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another, it must cause the other Variable – Anything that can vary Falsifiable – Capable of being disproved Risky Prediction – Forecast that stands a good chance of being wrong Replicability – When a study’s findings are able to be duplicated, ideally by independent investigators

Basic Research – Research examining how the mind works Applied Research – Research examining how we can use basic research to solve real-world problems

Levels of Analysis Highest Rung: Social/Cultural Influences  Social or behavioural level  Involves relating to others and personal relationships Middle Rung: Psychological  Mental or neurological level  Involves thoughts, feelings, and emotions Lowest Rung: Biological  Molecular or Neurochemical Level  Involves molecules and brain structure The lower rungs are more closely tied to what we traditionally call “the brain”, and the higher rungs to what we traditionally call “the mind.”  Mind is just the brain in action

5 Factors Challenges in Psychology 1) Human behaviour is difficult to predict – Actions are influenced by numerous factors and a single cause is impossible to pin point 2) Psychological influences are rarely independent of each other. – Makes it difficult to pin down which cause, or causes are operating, and each action may influence another 3) People differ from each other in thinking, emotion, personality and behaviour – How an individual may react to one situation may different from another person’s reaction 4) People often influence each other, making it difficult to pin down what causes what.  Reciprocal determinism 5) People’s behaviours are often shaped by culture.

Emic vs Etic Approach (Pros & Cons) 1) An emic approach may better understand the unique characteristics of a culture, but they may overlook characteristics that culture shares with others 2) An etic approach may be better able to view this culture within the broader perspective of other cultures, but they may unintentionally impose perspectives from their own cultures onto others.

History of Psychology   

Wilhelm Wundt developed the first full-fledged psychological laboratory in Germany He used a combination of experimental methods, including reaction time, and introspection  Marked the beginning of psychology as a science Psychology struggled to break free for spiritualism

Great Theoretical Frameworks Main Thorny Question: What unifying theoretical perspective best explains behaviour?

There are 5 main theoretical perspectives 1) Structuralism  Edward Bradford Titchner  Asked “what” questions  Scientific Goal: Uses introspection to identify basic elements or structures of experience  Two major problems I) Even highly trained introspectionists often disagreed on their subjective reports II) German Psychologist Oswald Kulpe showed that people asked to solve certain mental problems engage in imageless thought: thinking unaccomplished by conscious experience  Demonstrated that some important aspects of human psychology lie outside the conscious awareness  Lasting Influence: Emphasis on the importance of systematic observation to the study of conscious experience 2) Functionalism  William James  Influenced by Charles Darwin  Asked “why” questions  Scientific Goal: To understand the functions or adaptive purposes of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours

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Lasting Influence: Has been absorbed into psychology and continues to influence it indirectly in many ways Built on Darwin’s theory of natural selection  Using mind/behaviour to survive or adapt

3) Behaviourism (Laws of Learning)     

John B. Watson & B.F. Skinner Scientific Goal: To uncover the general principles of learning that explain all behaviours; focus is largely on observable behaviour Lasting Influence: Influential in models of human and animal learning and among the first to focus on the need for objective research Proposed behaviours as products of a handful of basic learning principles Human mind is a black box  We know what goes into it and what comes out of it, but we needn’t worry about what happens between the inputs and outputs

4) Cognitivism (Opening the Black Box)  Jean Piaget & Ulric Neisser  Scientific Goal: To examine role mental processes on behaviour  Thinking is central to understanding behaviour  Lasting Influence: Influential in many areas, such as language, problem solving, concept formation, intelligence, memory, and psychotherapy  We learn not by reward & punishment, but by insight 5) Psychoanalysis  Scientific Goal: To uncover the role of unconscious psychological processes and early life experiences in behaviour  Lasting Influence: Understanding that much of our mental processing goes on outside of conscious awareness  Focuses on psychological processes such as impulses, thoughts, and memories and suggests that behaviour is influenced by unconscious drive such as sexuality and aggression

Types of Psychologists 1) Clinical Psychologists  Perform assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders  Conduct research on people with mental disorders  Work in colleges and universities, mental health centres, or private practice 2) Counselling Psychologists  Work with people experiencing temporary or relatively self-contained life problems, like marital conflict, sexual difficulties, occupational stressors, or career uncertainty

 Work in counselling centres, hospitals, or private practice 3) School Psychologists  Work with teachers, parents, and children to remedy students’ behavioural, emotional, and learning difficulties 4) Developmental Psychologists  Study how and why people change over time  Conduct research on infants’, children’s and sometimes adults’ and elderly people’s emotional, physiological, and cognitive processes and how these change with age 5) Experimental Psychologists  Use research methods to study memory, language, thinking, and social behaviours of humans  Work primarily in research settings 6) Biological Psychologists  Examine the physiological bases of behaviour in animals and humans  Most work is in research settings 7) Forensic Psychologists  Work in prisons, jails, and other settings to assess and diagnose inmates and assist with their rehabilitation and treatment  Others conduct research on eyewitness testimony or jury decision-making  Typically hold degrees in clinical or counselling psychology 8) Industrial/Organizational Psychologists  Work in companies and businesses to help select productive employees, evaluate performance, examine the effects of different working or living conditions on people’s behaviours  Design equipment to maximize employee performance and minimize accidents

Evolutionary Psychology  

Suggests that many human psychological systems, such as, memory, emotion, and personality, serve key adaptive functions: They help organisms survive and reproduce Fitness – The extent to which a trait increases the chances that organisms possessing this trait will survive and reproduce at a higher rate

Free Will – Determinism Debate  To what extent are our behaviours freely selected rather than caused by factors outside of our control?  Behaviourists argue that our sense of free will stems from the fact that we unconsciously aware of the thousands of subtle environmental influences that shape our behaviour in a given moment Naïve Realism  “Seeing is believing”

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Suggests that although common sense and intuition serves our judgement well, it does not always reflect the truth and realities of everyday life Definition of Science  Science isn’t a body of knowledge but a systematic approach to evidence  Empiricism – That knowledge should be acquired through observation Confirmation Bias  To protect themselves against bias, good scientists adopt procedural safeguards against errors, especially errors that could work in their favour. They use scientific methods as tools for overcoming confirmation bias  distinguishes scientists from non-scientists  Can result in psychological tunnel vision  It’s a bias that can most easily fool us into seeing what we want to see Belief Perseverance  “Don’t confuse me with the facts” effect

Pseudoscience Warning Signs of Pseudoscience 1. Exaggerated Claims 2. Overreliance on anecdotes a) Personal experiences may not be your own personal experience b) Second hand evidence  Subjective impressions c) Anecdotes don’t tell people anything about cause and effect d) Difficult to verify 3. Absence of connectivity to other research 4. Lack of review by other scholars (peer-reviewed) or replication by independent labs 5. Lack of self-correction when contrary evidence is published a) Fall prey to belief perseverance 6. Meaningless “psychobabble” that uses scientific-sounding terms that don’t make sense 7. Talk of “proof” instead of “evidence” - None of these signs is by itself proof positive that a set of claims is pseudoscientific. Nevertheless, the more of these signs we see, the more skeptical of them we should become

Why is Pseudoscientific Claims so Popular? - Humans have a tendency to see patterns in meaningless data - We find comfort in our beliefs and believe what we want to believe

a) Offers us a sense of control over an often- unpredictable world b) Using terror management theory by adopting cultural world views that reassure us that our lives possess a broader meaning and purpose c) Mortality Salience – The extent to which thoughts of death are foremost in our minds  Makes people more likely to adopt certain reassuring cultural perspectives Avoiding Pseudoscientific Claims 1) Avoiding logical fallacies a) Emotional reasoning fallacy  Using our emotions as guides for evaluating a claim b) Bandwagon Fallacy  Assuming that a claim is correct because many people believe in it  Astrology c) Either-Or Fallacy  Framing a question as though we can answer it in only one of two extreme ways  Believing an illness has only one specific cause rather that multiple factors d) Not Me Fallacy  Error of believing we’re immune from errors in thinking or we aren’t susceptible  bias blind spot e) Appeal to Authority Fallacy  Accepting a claim because an authority figure endorses it f) Genetic Fallacy  Error of confusing the correctness of a belief with its origins or genesis g) Argument from Antiquity Fallacy  Assuming that a belief must be valid because it’s been around for a long time h) Argument from Adverse Consequences Fallacy  Error of confusing the validity of an idea with its potential real-world consequences i) Appeal to Ignorance Fallacy  Assuming that a claim must be true because no one has shown it to be false j) Naturalistic Fallacy  Error of inferring a moral judgement from a scientific fact k) Generalization Fallacy  Error of drawing a conclusion on the basis of insufficient evidence l) Circular Reasoning Fallacy  Error of basing a claim on the same claim reworded in slightly different terms Dangers of Pseudoscience 1) Opportunity Cost a) Can lead people to forgo opportunities to seek effective treatment 2) Direct Harm a) Treatments that can cause further psychological or even physical damage and death

Ie. Taking a weight loss pill that can have damaging effects on liver 3) An Inability to Think Scientifically as Citizens

Scientific Skeptic There are Three Attitudes with being a Scientific Skeptic 1) A willingness to keep an open mind to all claims 2) A willingness to accept claims only after researchers have subjected them to careful scientific tests 3) Another feature is an unwillingness to accept claims on the basis of authority alone. 6 Principles of Scientific Thinking

1) Ruling out Rival Hypotheses a) Have important alternative explanations for the findings been excluded b) How Do We Use It? The results of a study on the effectiveness of a depression medication could be due to the fact that people who received depression medication expected to improve (Placebo effect) 2) Correlation vs. Causation a) The error that when two things are associated with each other (correlation) that one must cause the other (causation) b) *** Correlation isn’t causation c) Third Variable Problem – A variable that can influence the correlation of two things that are not related 3) Falsifiability a) If a theory isn’t falsifiable, we can’t test it b) Must have a specific or certain outcome c) Best scientific theories are risky predictions d) Sir Karl Popper 4) Replicability a) Means a study’s findings an be duplicated consistently b) If they can’t be duplicated, it increases the odds that the original findings were due to chance c) The more we can replicate our findings using different subjects in different settings, the more confidence we can place in them 5) Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence

6) Occam’s Razor a) Also called Principle of Parsimony b) Looks for the simplest explanation...