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Psychology reading notes chapter 1Aug 30, 2011Psychology and Scientific Thinking

-Cant make everyday assumptions about psychology based on intuition or urban

legends-Psychology is more than just common sense its backed up by sciences to validatethe facts-Psychology: the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior-brain vs mind combindation-levels of analysis -multiply determined behavior-people do things for multiple reasons, and a combination of complications can leadto any sort of issue (aka you cant pinpoint one), so its impossible to generalize -You cant isolate anything in psychology since everything is connected -reciprocal determinism: we mutually influence each others behavior

-emic : studying a culture from the perspective of a native-etic : studying a culture from the perspective of a scientist on the outside-psychology isnt so much science as it is employing a scientific approach -scientific theory : explanation for large number of findings in the natural world-in order to have a scientific theory, it must generate future hypotheses and betestable-a theory should explain multiple events and be testable-scientists are not free of biases, but thy try to find ways to compensate for them.-confirmation bias : tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses,and to deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them.-belief perseverance : sticking to ones own beliefs even when the evidence saysotherwise-testable claims fall within the realm of scien ce, while untestable claims dont -pseudoscience: a set of claims that seems scientific but actually isnt. It lacks thesafeguards against confirmation bias, and belief perseverance that characterize realscience.-ad hoc immunizing hypothesis : An excuse for why someone cant simulate theirclaims under stringent testing conditions. This makes their hypothesis virtuallyuntestable.-apophenia : tendency to perceive meaningful connections among unrelatedphenomena-in order to avoid apophenia, you need to look for the evidence that will contradictyour initial impression-pareidolia : seeing meaningful images in meaningless visual stimuli-we look for patterns when we feel a loss of control over our surroundings (saysresearch)-terror management theory : theory proposing that our awareness of ourinevitable death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror which we cope with byadopting reassuring cultural world views

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-scientific skepticism: an approach to research where one considers all claimswith an open mind, but insists on persuasive evidence before accepting them.-You must be willing to change your mind-Just because two items correlate to one another does not mean that one necessarilycauses the other

-I the past, psychology = philosophy-Introspection : method where observers carefully reflect on their mentalexperiences-Rather than looking for evidence of the supernatural, people looked to see whypeople believed in those things-Structuralism : method of psychology to identify the basic elements of thepsychological experience (range of emotions = periodic table) WHAT happens?-Functionalism : aimed to understand the adaptive purposes of psychologicalexperience. WHY did this happen?-Behaviorism: belief that you can learn all that you need to know about anorganism from looking at how it appears to the world (without looking inside)

-Also known as black box psychology -Cognitive psychology: our thinking affects our behavior-Cognitive neuroscience : examines the relationship between brain function andemotional output-Psychoanalysis : focus on internal psychological processes (subconscious??)-Persuasion doesnt come form the outside, but rather form within -Believe that our subconscious, and slip ups gives insight into our character-Psychoanalytic research is hard to maintain though since it cant be proved ordisproved (it cant be looked at scientifically) -Nature/Nurture debate : both genes and environment determine our behavior,but to what extent is each portion?-Evolutionary biology : applies natural selection to human and animal behavior-Belief that mental functions EVOLVED as a survival method-Free will/Determinism debate : To what extent are our behaviors freely selectedrather than caused by factors out of our control?-Is free will actually an illusion?-Basic research examines how the mind works, while applied research looks athow we can use basic research to solve everyday problems