Summary Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding - chapter 1 outline PDF

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PSY 1001H Chapter 1 notes: Psychology and Scientific Thinking “Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding, 3rd edition, Pearson” by Scott Lillenfeld -

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William James: founder of American psychology psychology: scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior o Spans multiple levels of analysis  Lower levels: studies of brain  Higher levels: studying the mind (brain in action) almost all actions are multiply determined (produced by many factors) o Human behavior is hard to predict o Be skeptical of single-variable explanations of human behavior psychological influences are usually dependent on each other people differ in: behavior, personality, thinking, emotion o “individual differences”  explains different reactions to same situation  hard to explain behavior in a way that applies to everyone people influence each other o reciprocal determinism: everyone influences everyone else’s behavior  it’s hard to isolate causes of behavior behavior is shaped by culture o can’t always trust common sense  naïve realism: belief that we see the world exactly as it is o you should learn when to/not trust common sense and intuition psychology is a science o science: systemic approach to evidence  empiricism: knowledge should be gained via observation  systemic research methods: used by psychologists o scientific theory: explains a large number findings in the natural world o hypothesis: a testable prediction bias o confirmation bias: looking for evidence that supports your own beliefs, and disregarding/distorting contradictory evidence  impacts daily life o belief perseverance: sticking to initial beliefs after they are contradicted by evidence metaphysical claims: untestable assertions about the world o God, the afterlife, etc.  science can’t answer everything recognizing possible incorrectness o scientific knowledge can be tested and revised o knowledge is gained slowly in small parts o pseudoscience: set of claims that seems scientific, but isn’t  ESP, astrology  isn’t protected from confirmation bias and belief perseverance  warning signs:

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 overuse of ad hoc immunizing hypotheses  lack of self-correction  overreliance on anecdotes  brains are programed to find order in nonsense: reason for our draw to pseudoscience  loss of sense of control – prone to false beliefs  terror management theory: awareness of inevitable death causes fear, which we cope with by adapting worldviews that give meaning beyond our lives o logical fallacies: traps in thinking that result in mistaken conclusions  emotional reasoning fallacy: using emotions as guides when evaluating the validity of a claim  bandwagon fallacy: assuming something is true because other people think it is  not me fallacy: belief that you’re immune to errors in thinking that affect other people o bias blind spot: people see others’ biases, but not their own dangers of pseudoscience and pseudoscientific treatments o opportunity cost: treatments lead people away from actual treatments o direct harm: causes physical/psychological damage  rebirthing therapy: mimicking sensation of birth o inability to think scientifically: slows reaching decisions about global warming, genetics, etc. scientific thinking o scientific skepticism  open-mindedness to all claims  accept claims that are subjected to scientific tests  don’t accept claims just on basis of authority o framework for scientific thinking  critical thinking: set of skills for evaluating claims carefully and with an open mind  principles:  ruling out rival hypotheses  correlation isn’t causation o correlation-causation fallacy: 2 variables that are correlated don’t necessarily cause each other  falsifiability  replicability  extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence  occam’s razor/principle of parsimony o if 2 explanations are given for something, the simpler one is most likely to be true history of psychology o early history  used to be like philosophy  1879: Wilhelm Wundt: 1st psych lab in Leipzig, Germany

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 used experimental methods (incl. introspection)  beginning of psychology as a science theoretical frameworks  5 major perspectives: o structuralism (Titchener): identifying basic elements of psychological experience o functionalism (Darwin): understanding purposes/functions of psychological characteristics o behaviorism (Watson): finding general principles of learning underlying behavior  observable behavior only o cognitivism (Piaget): thinking affects behavior o psychoanalysis (Freud): internal psychological processes modern psychology  there are 500,000 psychologists worldwide o many areas of interest  different types of psychology and work settings debates  nature vs. nurture o are behaviors due to genes or upbringing?  free-will determinism o do we choose our behaviors, or are they controlled by outside factors? how psychology affects life  basic research: how the mind works  applied research: how we use basic research to solve problems...