Chapter 1:Psychology & Scientific thinking
What is Psychology? Science Vs. intuition
- Psychology: the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior
Levels of analysis:
➔ Higher rungs tied most closely to social influences-involves relating to others and
personal relationships-” the mind.”
➔ Middle rungs tied most closely to psychological influences-involves thoughts, feelings,
and emotions.
➔ Lower rungs tied most closely to biological influences-” the brain.”
What makes Psychology so challenging? -and fascinating
Five challenges:
1. Human behavior is difficult to predict
● Actions are multiplied determined: proceed by many factors.
2. Psychological influences are rarely independent of each other.
3. Individual differences: people differ from each other in thinking, emotion, personality,
and behavior.
4. People influence each other.
● Reciprocal determinism
5. Behaviour is shaped by culture.
● Emic approach: investigators study the behavior of a culture from the
perspective of a “native” or insider
● Etic approach: investigators study the behavior of a culture from the perspective
of an outsider
Why we can’t always trust common sense:
-Naive Realism: the belief that we See the world precisely as it is
-we assumed that “seeing is believing” and trust our intuitive perception of the world ourselves
-in many cases, “believing is seeing “ rather than the reverse
,Psychology as a science:
- Not all common sense is wrong.
● Hypothesis generation
- Science is not a body of knowledge but an approach to evidence.
- Science consists of a set of attitudes & skills designed to prevent us from fooling
ourselves.
- Science beings with empiricism, the premise that knowledge should initially be acquired
through observation
What is a scientific theory?
- A scientific theory is an explanation for a large number of findings in that natural world.
- Generate predictions regarding new data we haven’t yet observed
- Hypothesis: testable prediction derived from a scientific theory
- Theories are general explanations; hypotheses are specific predictions derived from these
explanations.
- Misconception 1: a theory explains one specific event
- Misconception 2: a theory is just an educated guess
Science as a safeguard against bias: protecting us from ourselves:
- Two traps into which scientists can fall under:
- Confirmation Bias: the tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and
deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them
- Belief perseverance: the tendency to stick to our initial belief even when evidence
contradicts them
Science is not perfect, but it’s one of the best tools we have:
- Knowledge is tentative and potentially open to revision.
- Knowledge changes rapidly after a paradigm shift.
- Science does not “prove” anything, but it can falsify
- Not all claims falsified, and so science has nothing to say about certain things.
Metaphysical claims: the boundaries of science:
- Metaphysical claims: boundaries of science
- Claims about the world we cannot test
- Ex: God, soul, afterlife
- A good scientist avoids committing to conclusions.
1.2A: Psychological Pseudoscience: Imposters of science
,The fantastic growth of popular psychology
- Self-help books: about 35 000 published every year, 5% are tested.
What is Pseudoscience?
Pseudoscience: Science imposters
- Appears to be scientific due to the growth of popular science (self-help books/etc.)
- Lacks safeguards against confirmation bias a nd belief perseverance
- Can be tested to be disproved, unlike Metaphysical claims
- Ex: Astrologer, Psychic
Warning signs:
1) Overuse of ad hoc immunizing hypothesis: Loopholes that protect theory from being
disproved
2) Lack self-correction: Wrong claims never go away despite contrary evidence
● Autism and perseverance
3) Over-Reliance on anecdotes: Second-hand evidence
● “I lost 85IBS in 2 weeks” or “I know some who said…”
Patternicity: the tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli
- Ex: see a face on the mars
Hot Hand case study:
● When a player makes 2-3 shots in a row, they are “on a role.”
● Thomas Gilovich studied the probability.
● Discovered hot hand is an illusion.
Terror Management Theory: Awareness of own inevitable death leaves us with an underlying
sense of terror; we cope by adopting reassuring cultural worldviews
● Reassure us that our lives possess meaning
● Mortality salience (the extent to which thoughts of death are foremost in our mind) is
manipulated to study theory.
Logical fallacies: traps in thinking that can lead to mistaken conclusions seem to make intuitive
sense; types are:
1) Emotional reasoning: using emotions are guides for evaluating validity.
● “I refuse to believe it.”
2) Bandwagon Fallacy: correct because everyone else believes it
● The opinion is not dependable.
3) Not me fallacy: immune from errors that affect others
● Bias blind spots, people are unaware of their bias.
, The dangers of pseudoscience: why should we care?
- Opportunity cost
- Direct harm
- Blacks scientific thinking
Scientific Thinking: Distinguishing fact from fiction:
Scientific Skepticism
Scientific skepticism: approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on
persuasive evidence before accepting them
- Keep an open mind to all claims after scientific testing.
- Critical thinking is critical.
Basic Principles of Scientific Thinking:
1) Ruling out rival hypotheses
● Media often only reports one explanation that we should assume is right.
2) Correlation isn’t causation
● Error assuming that because one thing is associated with another, it must cause
the other thing
● Third variable problems
3) Falsifiability
● Capable of being disproved, if a theory falsifiable, it can't be tested
● Risky prediction: forecast that stands a good chance of being wrong
4) Replicability
● Independent investigators can continuously duplicate study findings.
5) Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
● Ex: alien abduction
6) Occam’s razor
● Principle of logical simplicity, simple explanations over confusing ones
History of Psychology
● Evolution occurred mid-1800’s
● William Wundt (1879): developed the first formal psychology lab.
- Introspection- reflections and reports of personal mental experiences
● 1900’s: learning types and methods were a focus
Five Major Theoretical Perspectives:
Structuralism: E.B Titchener (1967-1927)
● Aimed to identify essential elements of psychological experience
● Create a map of conscious awareness, believed to be emotions, thoughts, etc.
● Problems:
What is Psychology? Science Vs. intuition
- Psychology: the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior
Levels of analysis:
➔ Higher rungs tied most closely to social influences-involves relating to others and
personal relationships-” the mind.”
➔ Middle rungs tied most closely to psychological influences-involves thoughts, feelings,
and emotions.
➔ Lower rungs tied most closely to biological influences-” the brain.”
What makes Psychology so challenging? -and fascinating
Five challenges:
1. Human behavior is difficult to predict
● Actions are multiplied determined: proceed by many factors.
2. Psychological influences are rarely independent of each other.
3. Individual differences: people differ from each other in thinking, emotion, personality,
and behavior.
4. People influence each other.
● Reciprocal determinism
5. Behaviour is shaped by culture.
● Emic approach: investigators study the behavior of a culture from the
perspective of a “native” or insider
● Etic approach: investigators study the behavior of a culture from the perspective
of an outsider
Why we can’t always trust common sense:
-Naive Realism: the belief that we See the world precisely as it is
-we assumed that “seeing is believing” and trust our intuitive perception of the world ourselves
-in many cases, “believing is seeing “ rather than the reverse
,Psychology as a science:
- Not all common sense is wrong.
● Hypothesis generation
- Science is not a body of knowledge but an approach to evidence.
- Science consists of a set of attitudes & skills designed to prevent us from fooling
ourselves.
- Science beings with empiricism, the premise that knowledge should initially be acquired
through observation
What is a scientific theory?
- A scientific theory is an explanation for a large number of findings in that natural world.
- Generate predictions regarding new data we haven’t yet observed
- Hypothesis: testable prediction derived from a scientific theory
- Theories are general explanations; hypotheses are specific predictions derived from these
explanations.
- Misconception 1: a theory explains one specific event
- Misconception 2: a theory is just an educated guess
Science as a safeguard against bias: protecting us from ourselves:
- Two traps into which scientists can fall under:
- Confirmation Bias: the tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and
deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them
- Belief perseverance: the tendency to stick to our initial belief even when evidence
contradicts them
Science is not perfect, but it’s one of the best tools we have:
- Knowledge is tentative and potentially open to revision.
- Knowledge changes rapidly after a paradigm shift.
- Science does not “prove” anything, but it can falsify
- Not all claims falsified, and so science has nothing to say about certain things.
Metaphysical claims: the boundaries of science:
- Metaphysical claims: boundaries of science
- Claims about the world we cannot test
- Ex: God, soul, afterlife
- A good scientist avoids committing to conclusions.
1.2A: Psychological Pseudoscience: Imposters of science
,The fantastic growth of popular psychology
- Self-help books: about 35 000 published every year, 5% are tested.
What is Pseudoscience?
Pseudoscience: Science imposters
- Appears to be scientific due to the growth of popular science (self-help books/etc.)
- Lacks safeguards against confirmation bias a nd belief perseverance
- Can be tested to be disproved, unlike Metaphysical claims
- Ex: Astrologer, Psychic
Warning signs:
1) Overuse of ad hoc immunizing hypothesis: Loopholes that protect theory from being
disproved
2) Lack self-correction: Wrong claims never go away despite contrary evidence
● Autism and perseverance
3) Over-Reliance on anecdotes: Second-hand evidence
● “I lost 85IBS in 2 weeks” or “I know some who said…”
Patternicity: the tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli
- Ex: see a face on the mars
Hot Hand case study:
● When a player makes 2-3 shots in a row, they are “on a role.”
● Thomas Gilovich studied the probability.
● Discovered hot hand is an illusion.
Terror Management Theory: Awareness of own inevitable death leaves us with an underlying
sense of terror; we cope by adopting reassuring cultural worldviews
● Reassure us that our lives possess meaning
● Mortality salience (the extent to which thoughts of death are foremost in our mind) is
manipulated to study theory.
Logical fallacies: traps in thinking that can lead to mistaken conclusions seem to make intuitive
sense; types are:
1) Emotional reasoning: using emotions are guides for evaluating validity.
● “I refuse to believe it.”
2) Bandwagon Fallacy: correct because everyone else believes it
● The opinion is not dependable.
3) Not me fallacy: immune from errors that affect others
● Bias blind spots, people are unaware of their bias.
, The dangers of pseudoscience: why should we care?
- Opportunity cost
- Direct harm
- Blacks scientific thinking
Scientific Thinking: Distinguishing fact from fiction:
Scientific Skepticism
Scientific skepticism: approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on
persuasive evidence before accepting them
- Keep an open mind to all claims after scientific testing.
- Critical thinking is critical.
Basic Principles of Scientific Thinking:
1) Ruling out rival hypotheses
● Media often only reports one explanation that we should assume is right.
2) Correlation isn’t causation
● Error assuming that because one thing is associated with another, it must cause
the other thing
● Third variable problems
3) Falsifiability
● Capable of being disproved, if a theory falsifiable, it can't be tested
● Risky prediction: forecast that stands a good chance of being wrong
4) Replicability
● Independent investigators can continuously duplicate study findings.
5) Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
● Ex: alien abduction
6) Occam’s razor
● Principle of logical simplicity, simple explanations over confusing ones
History of Psychology
● Evolution occurred mid-1800’s
● William Wundt (1879): developed the first formal psychology lab.
- Introspection- reflections and reports of personal mental experiences
● 1900’s: learning types and methods were a focus
Five Major Theoretical Perspectives:
Structuralism: E.B Titchener (1967-1927)
● Aimed to identify essential elements of psychological experience
● Create a map of conscious awareness, believed to be emotions, thoughts, etc.
● Problems:
