term exam

• Rationalism


  Using logic and reasoning to acquire new knowledge, stating premises and following logical rules to arrive at sound conclusions
• Authority


  Most common method of acquiring knowledge, accepting new ideas because some authority figure states that they are true
• Intuition


  Relying on our guts, emotions, and/or instincts to guide us, believing what feels true
• Scientific method


  Process of systematically collecting and evaluating evidence to test ideas and answer questions, not feasible for all questions but can address empirical questions
• Systematic Empiricism


  Learning based on observation, scientists learn about the natural world systematically by carefully planning, making, recording, and analyzing observations
• Publication is an essential feature of science, allowing for self-correction and collaboration among researchers
• Scientific claims must be falsifiable
• Science and Common Sense: Folk psychology, heuristics, confirmation bias, skepticism
• Goals of Science: Describe, Predict, Explain
• Empiricism


  Acquiring knowledge through observation and experience, at the heart of the scientific method
• Authorities


  • Parents
  • Media
  • Doctors
  • Priests and other religious authorities
  • Government
  • Professors
• Psychology is a science as it takes a general approach to understanding human behavior
• Intuitions can be wrong due to cognitive and motivational biases rather than logical reasoning or scientific evidence
• Pseudoscience refers to activities and beliefs claimed to be scientific but lack one or more features of science
• Features of Science

  • Systematic Empiricism
  • Empirical questions
  • Public knowledge
• Learning about pseudoscience helps bring the fundamental features of science into sharper focus
• Basic research in psychology aims for a more detailed understanding of human behavior, while applied research addresses practical problems
• Scientific research in psychology is generally conducted by people with doctoral degrees (usually the doctor of philosophy [Ph.D.]) and master’s degrees in psychology and related fields, often supported by research assistants with bachelor’s degrees or other relevant training
• Heuristics: we tend to rely on mental shortcuts
• Skepticism: pausing to consider alternatives and to search for evidence—especially systematically collected empirical evidence—when there is enough at stake to justify doing so
• Clinical practice activities


  • Clinical and counseling psychologists
  • School psychologists
  • Marriage and family therapists
  • Licensed clinical social workers
• Theory


  Coherent explanation or interpretation of one or more phenomena
• Variable


  Quantity or quality that varies across people or situations
• Informal observations include direct observations of behavior and secondhand observations from non-scientific sources
• Theories and hypotheses always have an if-then relationship
• Hypothetico-deductive method is the primary way scientific researchers use theories
• Previous research is a common inspiration for new research ideas
• Model of scientific research in psychology

  Researchers formulate a research question, conduct an empirical study, analyze data, draw conclusions, and publish results
• Categorical variable


  Quality typically measured by assigning a category label to each individual
• Simple random sampling is a method of obtaining a sample where every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected
• Population


  Large group of people under research interest
• Clinical practice of psychology involves the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and related problems
• Tolerance for uncertainty: accepting that there are many things that we simply do not know
• Confirmation bias: we tend to focus on cases that confirm our intuitive beliefs and not on cases that dis-confirm them
• Characteristics of a good hypothesis: testable, falsifiable, logical, positive, good rationale, if-then format, clear relationship among variables
• Practical problems can inspire research ideas leading to applied research in domains like law, health, education, and sports
• Empirically supported treatment


  Treatment that has been studied scientifically and shown to result in greater improvement than no treatment, a placebo, or some alternative treatment
• Research questions often begin as more general research ideas, focusing on behavior or psychological characteristics like talkativeness, learning, depression
• Two criteria for evaluating research questions: interestingness and feasibility of answering
• Quantitative variable


  Quantity typically measured by assigning a number to each individual