AP Psychology - Module 0.1: The Scientific Attitude, Critical Thinking, and Developing Arguments

What is Psychology?

Psychology gives us the tools to decode human behavior and mental processes through scientific study.

Human Behavior

Observable actions or reactions of individuals or groups.

Physical Actions

Movements and activities that can be seen and measured, such as walking, talking, eating, and playing sports.

Emotional Responses

Expressions of feelings like happiness, sadness, anger, and fear.

Social Interactions

Ways in which people interact with each other, such as communication, cooperation, and conflict.

Learned Behaviors

Actions that are acquired through experience or education, such as driving a car or playing a musical instrument.

Cognition

Mental activities related to thinking, knowing, and remembering. This involves perception, memory, problem-solving, decision-making, and reasoning.

Emotion

Internal experiences related to feelings, which can influence behavior and thought patterns.

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information to understand the environment.

Motivation

The internal drives and needs that direct behavior towards achieving goals or satisfying needs.

The Four Main Goals:

1. Describe

2. Explain

3. Predict

4. Change

Empirical Evidence

Psychologists rely on observable and measurable data. They conduct experiments, surveys, and case studies to gather evidence.

Scientific Method

This involves forming hypotheses, conducting experiments, and analyzing results. It ensures findings are reliable and valid.

The scientific attitude is built on three key elements:

1. Curiosity

2. Skepticism

3. Humility

Curiosity

This is the drive to explore and understand the unknown. “Does it work?”

Skepticism

Healthy skepticism means not accepting claims without evidence. “What do you mean? How do you know?”

Humility

Scientists, including psychologists, must be willing to accept that they can be wrong. “That was unexpected! Let’s explore further”.

Critical thinking is the engine that drives the scientific attitude.

Thinking that does not automatically accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, appraises the source, discerns hidden biases, evaluated evidence, and assesses conclusions

Critical Thinking

1. Questioning Assumptions

2. Analyzing Evidence

3. Recognizing Biases

Harrison observed that people who read fiction novels were also artists. Whenever Harrison shared this observation with his friends, they said that teenagers only do those activities to meet school requirements. Harrison disagreed, instead believing that personality explained an association between reading novels and being artistic. Even when Harrison learned that having access to books and art was the biggest predictor of participating in these activities, he continued to believe that his original idea was correct.

Which element of the scientific attitude should Harrison improve if he wants to engage in scientific inquiry more effectively?

Humility

If Harrison wanted to increase his use of critical thinking, which of the following questions might he ask?

How can I interpret this result?

What is the name of the approach that uses observation and testing to draw conclusions?

Scientific

Which of the following best illustrates a skeptical attitude?

After Matsuo’s mother told him that chewing on his fingernails might make him sick, Matsuo asked her to provide an explanation of how he might get sick from chewing his nails.

Which of the elements of a scientific attitude is most associated with the question, “Does it work?”

Curiosity

Why is psychology considered a science?

Psychological researchers rely on observation and experimentation when testing claims.