Chapter 1 - Thinking Critically With Psychology Notes

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Chapter 1: Thinking Critically With Psychology Notes

The Need for Psychological Science

o

Did We Know It All Along? (Common sense often leads us astray)

Hindsight bias – Common sense describes what has happened after the fact

more easily than it predicts what will happen before the fact. (Hindsight is

20/20!)

Thought experiment: Tell one group of people that psychologists have found

that separation weakens/strengthens romantic attraction” W (Common sense:

Out of sight, out of mind) S (Common sense: Absence make the heart grow

fonder). They are contradictory, both cannot be right. Truth? It weakens a

relationship.

o

Psychology Makes the World a Better Place to Live

The innovation: the lime-green fire truck (It’s easier to see lime-green at night

than red). Lime green fire trucks are more that 3x less likely to be in an accident

that red fire trucks. Our eyes are most sensitive at the middle of the spectrum,

or yellow-green wavelengths.

The innovation: The sequential police line-up procedure, in which a witness is

shown suspects one at a time instead of all at once. Forces people to make a

more absolute judgment. It cuts mistaken identification by a lot. Result: Fewer

innocent people go to jail.

People make relative judgments and leads to mistaken identification

o

How do Psychologists Ask and Answer Questions?

The Scientific Method

Theory – an explanation using an integrated set of principles that

organizes observations or data (plural of datum).

o

Ex. We might theorize that the cause of depression is low self-

esteem—one’s feelings of self -worth.

Hypothesis – a testable prediction implied by a theory.

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Ex. We might hypothesize that depression and self-esteem will

correlate negatively.

Research and Observations

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Ex. We might test this hypothesis by seeing if people who

receive a low score for self-esteem tend to receive a high score

for depression.

Major Steps

Step 1: Generate a Research Question

o

Simple observation – observing the world around you andasking questions about why people behave and think as they

do.

Ex. The rape and murder of Kitty Genovese by Winston

Moseley (people saw what happened, but no one

intervened).



Darley and Latane hypothesized that any given

bystander is less likely to give aid to a victim if

other bystanders are present. In a series of

studies, Darley and Latane found that this is

indeed the case. This is called a diffusion of

responsibility. Confederate (psychology) – the person who acts

like they are in distress, but are actually one of

the experimenters.

o

Personal Experience – Psychologists want to understand their

own tendencies and foibles (weaknesses). Research based on

personal experience is often called me-search.

o

Replication – seeing whether a basic finding can be observed

again with different participants and under different

circumstances.

After the original study of the bystander effect, there

were dozens of follow-up studies to see if it can be

observed again.

o

Step 2: Establish Operation Definition

o

Operational definition – a specific statement of the procedures

used to define research variables, so as to allow others to

replicate the original observations. Ties an abstract concept to

observable responses or behaviors.

Ex. An operational definition of intelligence might be

the number correct on tests of verbal, spatial,

numerical, and reasoning abilities.

o

Step 3: Choose a Research Design Three major types of methods that psychologists use in

their research

Methods Setting

Descriptive Lab Field

Correlational Lab Field

Experimental Lab Field

Descriptive Methods

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The Case Study – an in-depth investigation of a single (or very few) subjects.

Ex. Through a 30 year case study, Irene Pepperberg concluding that African Greyparrot Alex could name and categorize objects, and comprehend numbers up to

six.

Ex. Through a series of case studies, often of his own children, Jean Piaget

developed an influential theory of cognitive development, which assumes that

cognitive functions unfold through a series of distinct stages.

Weakness: They typically involve few subjects, and the results may not be

representative of the whole population.



o

The Survey – an investigation of many cases in less depth by asking people to report

opinions and behaviors. A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes,

opinions, or behaviors of people usually done by questioning a representative sample

of people—one that accurately portrays the population of interest.

o

Naturalistic Observation – recording behavior in its natural environments, and

describing it in detail.

Ex. Primatologist Jane Goodall used naturalistic observation to study

chimpanzees. She concluded that observations made in the natural habitat,

helped to show that the societies and behavior of animals are far more complex

than previously supposed.

Naturalistic Observation is also used to study the effects of social interaction on

people’s behavior. One study found that people are 30x more likely to laugh in a

social setting than in solitary situations. (Provine, 2001).

Experimental Methods – Purpose is to explore cause and effect by manipulating one or more

factors or variables, while holding other variables constant.

o

Independent and Dependent Variables

Variable – anything that can fluctuate. Whether it’s rainy or sunny, warm or

cold, whether a person is male or female, or in a good mood or bad mood, those

are all examples.

Independent Variable – aspect of the situation or of individuals that can vary

independently of other variables. The variables whose effect is being studied.

Situational variable (classroom vs. online instruction), organismic variable

(property of an organism, intrinsic property).

Ex. Online vs. classroom learning.

Dependent Variable – the variable that may change in response to the

manipulations of the independent variable.

Ex. Score on test

An Example: Does breastfeeding children have an impact on their intelligence

later in life.

The independent variable is whether moms are assigned to an

experimental condition in which their children breastfeed, or to a

control condition where the child is feed formula.

The dependent variable is the child’s score on an intelligence test at age

8. (This is the measure aspect of psychological functioning that we think

may be influenced by the independent variable.)

Random Assignment – assigning participants to experimental and control groups

by chance, thus minimizing pre-existing differences between the groups that

could affect the dependent variable (e.g., SES).

Confounding Variable – a variable that complicates the interpretation of the

results of an experiment. Another potential cause for the difference that is seen.

Ex. Mother’s parenting, mother’s attentiveness to child

Cause and Effect Relationships

Behavior-any response of an organism that can be recorded



Bobo Doll: IV: How the adult treated the bobo doll, whether or not the kids

saw the adult being violent with the bobo doll. DV: How the kids treated the

doll

Personal Space Experiment:

Hypothesis: People get anxious when personal space is invaded

IV: Behavior of confederate – encroaching personal space vs. not

encroaching personal space

DV: Behavior of test subject – anxiety or aggression, if they step away, facial

expression

Hypothesis: Listening to music w/ hidden messages in the form of speech reversals can influence

behavior. Subliminal messages.

Research design:

Participants listen to the Mary Poppins soundtrack, which contains the speech reversal

“drinking all night long.”

Participants are given the opportunity to drink alcohol. 50% of participants drink.

Reversespeech.com

Problem? No baseline. Solution? Just having people come in and choosing a drink. Or playing the

soundtrack forward.

Sometimes, it’s not possible to conduct an experiment. For example, it’s not possible to assign a child to

be male or female for the purpose of an experiment. Other times, it’s unethical to conduct an

experiment. For example, it would be unethical to assign people to be exposed to polluted air or non-

polluted air for the purpose of seeing whether pollution has a negative effect on mental functioning.

Correlational Methods – Purpose is to observe naturally occurring relationships between variables

Correlation coefficient – a statistical index (-1 to 1) of the relationship between two variables.

Direction – positive/negative and Magnitude (how close it is to -1 or 1, as opposed to 0)

Scatterplot – a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables.

The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship, while the amount of scatter suggests

the strength of the relationship.

Directionality Problem: It could be that variable A causes variable B, but it could also be variable B that

causes variable A.

Third Variable Problem/Spurious Correlation: The two variables have a correlation because of a third

variable.

Correlation doesn’t imply causation.

Research Ethics



Is it Ethical to Experiment on People?

Ex. The Milgram Experiments

Was it that Eichmann and his accomplices in the Holocaust has mutual intent, in at least with

regards to the goals of the Holocaust? The main excuse of all of the Nazi officers is that they were just

following orders.

Milgram was supposedly doing a study on memory. 2/3 of the participants gave the maximum intensity

shock

Research Ethics:

1.

Obtain informed consent (You have to be told upfront what the study involves. If there is any

deception, there can’t be any reasonable expectations of harm to the subjects)

2.

Protect them from harm (both physical and psychological)

3.

Maintain confidentiality (Only the experimenters has access to the responses and they can’t be

made public)

4.

Debrief (Have to be told the full purpose of the experiments and if there was any deception, thesubjects have to be told exactly what it was.)

Is it Ethical to Experiment on Animals?

If they die, there must be a compelling justification of why the sacrifice was necessary for the study.

A Very Brief History of Psychology

Psychology’s Roots

Psychology has a long past, but a short history – Hermann Ebbinghaus

Psychological Science is Born

Aristotle suggested that knowledge comes from experience. Plato argued that knowledge was

innate.

In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory devoted to psychological research.

Edward Titchener introduced structuralism and aimed to identify the basic elements of the mind

in the same way that chemists had identified the basic elements of nature.

William James thought about the mind’s functions. For example, he argued that the function of

consciousness is that it enables us to consider our past and to adjust our present circumstances

accordingly. This is called functionalism.

Contemporary Psychology

Psychology’s Three Main Levels of Analysis

Biological influences:

Natural selection of adaptive traits, genetic predispositions responding to environment,

brain mechanisms, hormonal influences



Psychological influences:

Learned fears and other learned expectations, emotional responses, cognitive

processing and perceptual interpretations

Socio-cultural influences:

Presence of others, cultural, societal, and family expectations; peer and other group

influences, compelling models (such as in the media).

Psychology’s Subfields

Biological psychologists study the link between the brain and behavior. For example,

what brain region regulates sexual behavior?

Developmental psychologists study how our behavior thinking changes from womb to

tomb. For example, why do certain types of memory decline with age?

Cognitive psychologists study how people perceive the world, and how they form new

memories, think, and solve problems. For example what are the factors that go into retaining info from a

classroom setting?

Social psychologists study how we interact—how we view and affect one another in

social interactions.

Types of Research in Psychology

Basic research: aim is to simply increase knowledge of some phenomenon—to build

theories.

Applied research: research that tackles tactical problems—like how to select individuals

who are likely to succeed in a particular job.

A Few of Psychology’s Areas of Practice

Counseling psychologists help people cope with challenges of all sorts, including

academic, vocational, marital, etc.

Clinical psychologists assess and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders.

Human factor psychologists use principles of perception and cognition to design devices

and interfaces that people interact with.

Industrial psychologists study the relationship between people and their working

environments to increase productivity, improve personnel selection, and promote job satisfaction.

Statistical reasoning in everyday life. Pgs 36-39



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Chapter 1 - Thinking Critically With Psychology Notes