Unit 0: Science Practices and the Need for Psychological Science

Defining Psychology * Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of humans and other animals. * Behavior: This refers to any observable and measurable action taken by a person or other animal. Essentially, it encompasses anything a person or animal DOES. * Mental Processes: These consist of internal, subjective experiences that are inferred from behavior. Examples include: * Sensations * Perceptions * Dreams * Thoughts * Beliefs * Feelings # The Scientific Nature of Psychology * Psychology is considered scientific because it utilizes empiricism and the scientific method to evaluate evidence critically. * The Tools of Science: Psychology uses these tools to perform four primary functions regarding behavior and mental processes: * Describe * Explain * Predict * Control * The Concept of "The Rat is Always Right": This principle suggests that facts speak for themselves. Researchers must be prepared to accept the results of a study as they are, even if the results prove their initial hypothesis wrong. # Key Elements of the Scientific Attitude * Curiosity: This involves asking questions and seeking to understand the world. Examples include questioning whether people can read minds or if stress levels are related to health. * Skepticism: This involves sifting reality from fantasy and demanding evidence. It asks questions such as whether facial expressions affect feelings or if parental behaviors determine a child's sexual orientation. * Humility: This is characterized by the acceptance of incorrect predictions. It aligns with the idea that "the rat is always right." # Critical Thinking * Critical thinking is defined by several core actions: * Examining assumptions * Appraising the source of information * Discerning hidden biases * Evaluating evidence * Assessing conclusions # The Necessity of Science-Based Answers * Repetition of statements often makes them easier to remember and makes them seem more "true." * Scientific research is necessary to help overturn popular but inaccurate ideas. Just because a statement is heard many times does not make it a fact. # Three Roadblocks to Critical Thinking * The three primary obstacles that hinder critical thinking are: * Hindsight bias * Overconfidence * Perceiving patterns in random events # Hindsight Bias * Definition: Also known as the "I-knew-it-all-along" phenomenon, this is the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. * Quotes: Soren Kierkegaard famously stated, "Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards." * Case Study: Deepwater Horizon BP Oil Spill ($2010$): * BP employees took shortcuts and ignored warning signs. They did not intend to harm the environment or the company's reputation. * However, with the benefit of “$20/20$ hindsight,” the foolishness of those specific judgments became obvious only after the spill occurred. * Social Examples: * Breakups: Friends might say "they were never a good match" only after a couple breaks up. Critical thinking asks why no one said this while they were dating, or what they would have said (e.g., "they are perfect together") if the couple had married. * Sports: Fans often criticize a coach's move as "stupid" after a loss but praise the same type of move as "gutsy" and a "great call" after a win. * Research Example: * Statement A: "Separation weakens romantic attraction." People find this unsurprising because of the phrase "Out of sight, out of mind." * Statement B: "Separation strengthens romantic attraction." People also find this unsurprising because of the phrase "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." # Overconfidence * Definition: The tendency to think we know more than we actually do. * Anagram Research: * When given anagrams like WREAT, ETRYN, and GRABE to unscramble, the average problem solver spends approximately $3\,\text{minutes}$. * However, when individuals are given the answers along with the anagrams, they estimate it would have only taken them $10\,\text{seconds}$. * Historical Examples: * The Telephone: A British expert group once evaluated the invention of the telephone and stated it might be appropriate for Americans but not for the British because they had an "adequate supply of messenger boys." * Computers: In $1949$, Popular Mechanics predicted that "Computers in the future may weigh no more than $1.5\,\text{tons}$." * Expert Predictions: In a study involving experts' confidence in $27,000$ outcomes in world events, experts expressed $80\%$ confidence in their predictions. However, they were only correct $40\%$ of the time. # Perceiving Order in Random Events * Humans have a natural eagerness to make sense of an unpredictable world, which makes them prone to perceiving patterns where none exist. * Coin Flip Example: Given sequences such as HHHTTT, HTTHTH, and HHHHHH, most people believe HTTHTH is the most likely. In reality, all three sequences are equally likely (or unlikely). * Statistical Principles: * Random sequences often do not look random to the human eye. * Statisticians Persi Diaconis and Frederick Mosteller ($1989$) noted: "With a large enough sample, any outrageous thing is likely to happen." * Fraud experts can use this principle to detect embezzlers who try to make their withdrawals look random but unknowingly create non-random patterns.