Psychology reading notes chapter 1 Aug 30, 2011 Psychology 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 validate the 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 lead to 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 be testable -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 says otherwise -testable claims fall within the realm of science, while untestable claims dont -pseudoscience: a set of claims that seems scientific but actually isnt. It lacks the safeguards against confirmation bias, and belief perseverance that characterize real science. -ad hoc immunizing hypothesis: An excuse for why someone cant simulate their claims under stringent testing conditions. This makes their hypothesis virtually untestable. -apophenia: tendency to perceive meaningful connections among unrelated phenomena -in order to avoid apophenia, you need to look for the evidence that will contradict your initial impression -pareidolia: seeing meaningful images in meaningless visual stimuli -we look for patterns when we feel a loss of control over our surroundings (says research) -terror management theory: theory proposing that our awareness of our inevitable death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror which we cope with by adopting reassuring cultural world views

-scientific skepticism: an approach to research where one considers all claims with 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 necessarily causes the other -I the past, psychology = philosophy -Introspection: method where observers carefully reflect on their mental experiences -Rather than looking for evidence of the supernatural, people looked to see why people believed in those things -Structuralism: method of psychology to identify the basic elements of the psychological experience (range of emotions = periodic table) WHAT happens? -Functionalism: aimed to understand the adaptive purposes of psychological experience. WHY did this happen? -Behaviorism: belief that you can learn all that you need to know about an organism 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 and emotional 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 or disproved (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 selected rather 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 at how we can use basic research to solve everyday problems