Unit 0

Critical thinking

Smart thinking that involves curiosity, skepticism, and humility. It examines assumption, appraises the source, discern hidden biases, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.

How is psychology a science?

Psychology facts are back with evidence from observations and testings. It requires adopting a scientific attitude.

What are the three key elements of the scientific attitude, and how do they support scientific inquiry?

The three key elements are curiosity, skepticism, and humility. They support scientific inquiry by allowing us care about facts rather than opinions.

How does critical thinking feed a scientific attitude, and smarter thinking for everyday life?

It allows us to think harder and smarter by examining any hidden biases or assumptions. The awareness of knowing you could be wrong.

Hindsight Bias

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.(I knew it all along phenomenon).

What is overconfidence?

When humans think they know more than they do.

Why do people often perceive order in random events?

We are naturally born to make sense of our world as it relives stress and helps us get on with daily living.

What 3 tendencies makes our common sense flawed?

Hindsight Bias, Overconfidence, and our tendency to perceive patterns in random events.

Peer review

Scientific experts who evaluate a research articles theory, originality, and accuracy.

Theory

An explanation using integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction, often implied by a theory

falsifiable

The possibility that an idea, hypothesis, or theory can be disproven by observation or experiment.

Operational definitions

A carefully worded statement of th exact procedures used in a research study.

Replication

Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see wether the basic finding can be reproduced.

Case Study

A non-experimental technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal experiences.

Naturalistic observations

A non-experimental technique of observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation.

Survey

A non-experimental technique for obtaining the self reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative.

Social desirability

People answering in a way they think will please the researched.

Self-report bias

When people don’t accurately report or remember their behaivors.

Sampling bias

A flawed sampling process that produces an unrepresentative sample.

Random sample

A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.

Population

All those in a group being studied, from which random samples may be drawn.

How do theories advance psychological science?

Organizing observations, implying predictions, and stimulate further research that leads to a revised theory.

How do psychologists use case studies, naturalistic observations, and surveys to observe and describe behaviors?

Psychologist use case studies to give depth, naturalistic observation shows real behavior in context, and surveys provide info across many individuals.

Why is random sampling important?

To prevent bias, allow better generalization, and its more likely to reflect the larger population.

Correlation

A measure of the extent to which two factor vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.

Correlation coeficient

A statistical index of the relationship between two variables (from -1.00 to +1.00)

Variable

Anything that can vary and is feasible and ethical to measure.

Scatterplot

A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. The slope of points suggests the direction of the relationship between two variables. The amount of scatter suggest the strength of the correlation.(Little scatter=high correlation)

Positive correlation

As one variable increases so does the other

Negative correlation

As one variable increases, the other decreases

Ilusory correlation

perceiving a relationship where none exists, or perceiving a stronger-than-actual relationship.

Regression toward the mean

The tendency for extreme or unusual scores or events to fall back towards the average,

Experiment

Research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on same behavior or mental process.

Experimental group

Group exposed to th etreatment

Control group

Group not exposed to the treatment, serves as comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.

Random assignment

Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance minimizing preexisting difference between different groups.

Single Blind procedure

The research participants are blind about whether they received the treatment or placebo.

Double Blind procedure

Both research participants and staff are blind about wether participants have received the treatment of a placebo,

Placebo

Experimental results caused by expectations alone

Independant variable

The factor that is manipulated; variable whose effect is being studied

Cofounding variabled

A factor other than the factor being studied that might influence a study’s results.

Experimenter Bias

Bias caused when the researched may unintentionally influence results to confirm their own beliefs.

Dependent variable

The outcome that is measured; the variable that may change when the independant variable is manipulated.

Validity

The extent to which a test or experiment measure or predicts what is supposed to.

What is directionality problem with correlation research?

It doesn’t tell us which variable is the cause, and which one is the effect.

What is the third variable problem with correlation research?

There could be an unmeasurable variable affecting the other variables.

Does correlation=causation?

No, correlation only suggests a possible cause-effect relationship.

What are the characteristics of experimentation that make it possible to isolate cause and affect.

The independant and dependent variable. As well as the control group and random assignment of participants to groups.

Quantative research

A research method that relies on quantifiable numerical data.

Qualitative research

A research method that relies on in-depth narrative data that are not translated into numbers.

Confederate

Somebody who is part of the experimental team but is presented to the real research participant as a another participant.

Informed Consent

Giving potential participants enough information about a study to enable them to choose wether they wish to participate.

Debriefing

The post experimental explanation of a study, including the purpose and any deceptions, to its participants.

What 4 ethical standards do the APA and the BPA urge researches to follow?

They urge researches to obtain, informed consents, protect participants from harm, keep information confidential, and fully debrief people.

How do psychologists values influence what they study and how they apply their results?

Sometimes the psychologist use their values to influence an experiment to see what they want or expect to see.

Descriptive statistice

numerical data used to measure and describe characteristics of groups; include measures of central tendency and measure of variation.

Histogram

A bar graph depicting a frequency distribution.

Mode

The most frequently occurring score

Mean

The arithmetic average of a distribution obtain by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores

Median

The middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it.

Percentile rank

Percentage of scores that lack symmetry around their average value.

Skewed distribution

A representation of scores that lack symmetry around their average value.

Range

Their difference between highest and lowest scores in a distribution.

Standard deviation

A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score.

Normal curve

Symmetrical bell shaped curve that describes distributions of many types of data.

Inferential statistics

Numerical data that allows one to generalize to infer from sample data the probability of something being true of a population.

Meta-Analysis

A statistic procedure for analyzing the results of multiple studies to reach an overall conclusion.

Null Hypothesis

Assumption that no difference exists between groups.

Statistical significance

A statistical statement of how likely it is that a result occurred by chance, assuming there is no difference between populations being studied.

Effect size

The strength of relationship between two variables. The larger the effect size, the more one variable can be explained by the other.

How do we determine wether an observed difference can be generalized to other populations?

If representative samples are better than biased samples, bigger samples are better than smaller ones, and more estimates are better than fewer estimates.