systematic ways in gathering data, noting relationship and offering explanations, ways to produce a content
process
Everyday, non-scientific data gathering that shapes our beliefs and directs our behaviors towards others
commonsense psychology
limitations of commonsense psychology
sources of psychological information
inferential strategies
Tendency to overlook instances that might disconfirm our beliefs and only seek confirmatory instances of that behavior
confirmation bias
When we understand other people’s behavior, there a strong bias to overlook situational data in favor of data that substantiate trait explanations
non-scientific inference
Our predictions, guesses and explanations tend to feel much more correct than they actually are and the more data we have available, the more confidence we have in our judgments about behavior
overconfidence bias
characteristics of scientific methods
scientific mentality
gathering empirical data
seeking general principles
good thinking
self-correction
publicizing results
replication
Behavior must follow a natural order; therefore. It can be predicted; there are patterns
scientific mentality
There are specifiable causes for the way people behave and that these causes can discovered through research
determinism
Advocated systematic observations and careful classification of naturally occurring events
aristotle
Observable and experienced data
empirical data
basis of our hypothesis
laws and theories
Principles that have the generality to apply all situations
laws
Set of general principles that attempts to explain and predict behavior or phenomena
theory
We don’t let our biases to influence our judgment and accept no matter the result is
good thinking
Simplicity and clarity of thoughts
principle of parsimony
Accept the uncertainty of our own conclusion
self-correction
End goal of research to make the information known which can be used by other researchers
publicizing results
Be able to repeat our procedures and get the same results again if we have gathered data objectively and if we have followed good thinking
replication
4 major objectives of research
description
prediction
explanation
control
Systematic and unbiased account of the observed characteristics of behaviors
description
Capacity for knowing in advance when certain behaviors would be expected to occur because we have identified other conditions with which the behaviors are linked or associated
prediction
Knowledge of the conditions that reliably reproduce the occurrence of a behavior
explanation
Application of what has been learned about behavior
control
Designed to solve real-world problems
applied research
Designed to test theories or to explain psychological phenomena in humans and animals
basic research
tools of psychological science
observation
measurement
experimentation
Systematic noting and recording of events
observation
Assignment of numerical values to objects or events or their characteristics according to conventional rules
measurement
Must have procedures for manipulating the setting
Predicted outcome must be observable
Able to measure the outcome
experimentation
Circumstances that come before the event or behavior that we want to explain
antecedent conditions
Specific sets of antecedent conditions
treatments
Controlled procedure in which at least 2 different treatment conditions are applied to subjects
Procedures in the psychology experiment are carefully controlled so that we can be sure we are measuring what we intend to measure
Successful experimentation relies heavily on the principle of control
psychology experiment
how to achieve control
Random assignment of subjects to different treatment conditions
Presenting a treatment condition in an identical manner to all subjects