Lesson A: Experimental Psychology and the Scientific Method

Science

It is stated to connote content and process

Methodology

It consists of the scientific techniques we use to collect and evaluate data

Data

These are the facts we gather using scientific methods

Heider

Who called nonscientific data gathering commonsense psychology?

Commonsense Psychology

This approach uses nonscientific sources of data and nonscientific inferences. An everyday example is believing that “opposites attract”

Nonscientific Inference

It is the nonscientific use of information to explain or predict behavior

Nonscientific Inference

Few of its examples consist of the gambler’s fallacy, overuse of trait explanations, stereotyping, and overconfidence bias

Gambler’s Fallacy

In the _______, people misuse data to estimate the probability of an event, like when a slot machine will pay off

True

When we overuse trait explanations to explain others' behavior, we often make unwarranted dispositional attributions and underuse situational information.

True or False

Steretoyping

In ________, we falsely assume that specific behaviors cluster together.

Stereotyping

Since Imei is a Chinese-American student, people believe that she study 10 hours a day and excel at math. However, in reality, she failed calculus

This is an example of?

False

Stereotypes addresses individual differences

True or False

Overconfidence Bias

In _______, we feel more confident about our conclusions than is warranted by available data

Overconfidence Bias

This form of nonscientific inference can results in erroneous conclusions when we don’t recognize the limitations of supporting data

Alfred North Whitehead

This person assumed that behavior follows a natural order and can be predicted.

Scientific Mentality

Whitehead’s ________ assumes that behavior follows a natural order and can be predicted

True

The assumption of scientific mentality is essential to science, as there is no point to using the scientific method to gather and analyze data if there is no implicit order

True or False

False

Data are referred to as theoretical when it is observed or experienced

False

Aristotle’s commonsense method is more superior that Galileo’s empirical approach.

True or False

Galileo

This person correctly concluded that light objects fall as rapidly as heavy ones in a vacuum

Law

A __________ consists of statements generally expressed as equations with few variables that have overwhelming empirical support

Physical Sciences

Laws, like the Laws of Thermodynamics, are useful in the _________

Theory

A _______ is an interim explanation; a set of related statements used to explain and predict phenomena

Theory

A ______ integrates diverse data, explain behavior, and predict new instances of behavior

Good Thinking

_______ is critical to the scientific method, where we engage with this when data collection and interpretation are systematic, objective, and rational

Parsimony

The principle of ______ is that we prefer the simplest useful explanation

Social Contagion

An example of a parsimonious study is from Crandall (1988), which showed that a _______ model of bulimia was more parsimonious that competing explanations

Sir Karl Popper

_________ proposed that science advances by revising theories based on the “weight of evidence”

True

Science is self-correcting as scientific explanations and theories are challenged, revised, or replaced

True or False

Modus Tollens

The principle of ________ allows us to disprove statements using a single, contrary observation

True

It is said that we can never prove a statement because a contradictory observation might be found later

True or False

Replication

It refers to the exact or systematic repetition of a study, also increasing our confidence in experimental results by adding to the weight of supporting evidence

False

The four main objectives of science are:

• Description

• Prediction

• Explanation

• Confounding

True or False

Description

It refers to a systematic and unbiased account of observed characteristics of behaviors

Prediction

It refers to the capability of knowing in advance when certain behaviors should occur

Explanation

It refers to the knowledge of the conditions that reliably produce a behavior

Control

It refers to the use of scientific knowledge to influence behavior

Applied Research

It addresses real-world problems like how to improve student graduation rates

Basic Research

It tests theories and explains psychological phenomena like helping behavior

True

The main tools of psychological science are:

• Observation

• Measurement

• Experimentation

True or False

Observation

It is the systematic noting and recording of events

Systematic

_______ means that the procedures are consistently applied

False

Observations must be subjective so that there can be strong agreement among raters.

True or False

Measurements

________ assigns numbers to objects, events, or their characteristics, which is an inherent feature of quantitative research

Baron and colleagues (1985)

________ measured anger and depression using numerical scales

Experimentation

It is the process we use to test the predictions we call hypotheses and establish a cause-and-effect relationship

False

Experimentation is always possible because our predictions are testable

True or False

True

In experiments, we must be able to manipulate the independent variable and measure its effect on the dependent variable

True or False

False

Ethical concerns or technological limitations will not prevent experimentation

True or False

False

An experiment only require that we create one treatment condition and randomly assign subjects to this condition

True or False

Extraneous Variables

In psychology experiments, we control _______ so that we can make measure “what we intend to measure”

True

An experiment attempts to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the antecedent conditions (IV) and subject behavior (DV)

True or False

Temporal Relationship

Experiments establish a _______, because causes must precede effects. However, not all prior events are causes.

Pseudoscience

A ________ is any field of study that gives the appearance of being scientific, but has no true scientific basis and has not been confirmed using the scientific method