Psychological Research Methods and Scientific Attitude Flashcards

Scientific Attitude

The overarching attitude of psychological inquiry characterized by three major components: curiosity, skepticism, and humility.

Hindsight Bias

Also known as the "I knew it all along phenomenon"; the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.

Overconfidence

A roadblock to critical thinking characterized by the tendency to think we know more than we do.

Perceiving Patterns in Random Events

A roadblock to critical thinking driven by our susceptibility to pattern-seeking in random sequences because an unpredictable world is unsettling.

Scientific Method

A self-correcting process for evaluating ideas with observation and analysis.

Peer Reviewers

Expert scientists who evaluate a study's theory, originality, and accuracy to help a journal editor decide if the research should be published.

Theory

An explanation of behaviors or events that offers ideas organizing observations, summarizing, and simplifying.

Hypothesis

Testable predictions that specify which results would support the theory and which would disconfirm it.

Falsifiability

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

Operational Definition

A carefully worded statement of exact procedures used in a study (