Exp Psy

• Social Loafing


  Tendency of individuals to put forth less effort when they are a part of group
• Latane and colleagues

  went on to perform a systematic series of experiments on the phenomenon of social loafing
• Diffusion of Responsibility


  the tendency for individuals to feel diminished responsibility for their actions when they are surrounded by others who are acting the same way; distribution of responsibility within the group
• Common Sense Psychology


  kind of everyday, nonscientific data gathering that shapes our expectations and beliefs and directs our behavior toward others
• Our Ability to gather data is constrained by two factors

  sources of psychological information and inferential strategies
• Non-Scientific Sources of Data

  Confirmation Bias & People who are attractive, popular, high in status, seemingly expert or highly confident
• Confirmation Bias


  Once we believe we know something, we tend to overlook instances that might disconfirm our beliefs, and we seek, instead, confirmatory instances of behavior
• Non-Scientific Inference

  Gambler's Fallacy & Overconfidence Bias
• Gambler's Fallacy


  occurs when an individual erroneously believes that a certain random event is less likely or more likely to happen based on the outcome of a previous event or series of events.
• Overconfidence Bias


  cognitive error that leads individuals to overestimate their predictions, guesses, and explanations, leading to poor decision making
• Scientific Method


  The steps scientists take to gather and verify information, answer questions, explain relationships, and communicate this information to others.
• Characteristics of Modern Science

  Scientific Mentality; Gathering Empirical Data; Seeking General Principles; Good Thinking; Self-Correction; Publicizing Results; Replication
• Scientific Mentality


  Behavior must follow a natural order, therefore, it can be predicted
• Alfre North Whitehead

  postulated that faith in an organized universe is

  essential to science
• Determinism


  Research psychologists share the belief

  that there are specifiable causes for the

  way people behave and that these causes can be discovered through research
• Gathering Empirical Data

  Aristotle assumed that order exists in the universe, and he set about describing that order in a systematic way by collecting empirical data—that is, data that are observable or experienced.
• Aristotle


  He assumed that order exists in the universe, and he set about describing that order in a systematic way by collecting empirical data—that is, data that are observable or experienced.
• Seeking General Principles


  Modern scientists go beyond cataloging observations to proposing general principles—laws or theories—that will explain them. Observations would be of limited use without general principles to structure them.
• Law


  principles that have the generality to apply to all situations.
• Theories


  pull together, or unify, diverse sets of scientific facts into an organizing scheme that can be used to predict new examples of behavior.
• Karl Popper

  a modern philosopher of science, wrote that science progresses only through progressively better theories
• Good Thinking


  Our approach to the collection and interpretation of data should be systematic, objective, and rational; includes being open to new ideas even when they contradict our prior beliefs or attitudes.
• Self- Correction

  The content of science changes as we acquire new scientific information, and old information is reevaluated in light of new facts.
• Publicizing Results

  Scientists meet frequently through professional and special interest groups and attend professional conferences to exchange information about their current work.
• Replication


  We should 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.
• Objectives of Psychological Science

  description, prediction, explanation, control
• Description


  the initial step toward understanding any phenomenon; refers to a systematic and unbiased account of the observed characteristics of behaviors.

  Example: Case Study and Field Studies
• Case Study

  an outside observer records the behaviors or experiences, or both, of a single individual.
• Field Studies


  observational studies of groups of people (or animals) in real-life settings.
• Prediction


  Refers to the 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

  Example: Correlational Design & Quasi-Experimental
• Correlational Designs


  Research design that attempts to make connections between two variables; correlation does not equate to causation
• Quasi-Experimental Design

  Research method similar to an experimental design except that it makes use of naturally occurring groups rather than randomly assigning subjects to groups; researchers cannot control the independent variable
• True Experimental Design

  isolates the effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable while controlling for effects of any extraneous variables; researchers can control the independent variable
• Explanation


  knowledge of the conditions that reliably reproduce the occurrence of a behavior.
• Parsimony/Parsimonious


  to explain simply and concisely
• Control

  to the application of what has been

  learned about behavior.
• Two Types of Research

  Applied Research & Basic Research
• Applied Research


  research that is designed to solve real-world problems
• Basic Research


  Research designed to test theories or explain psychological phenomena
• Tools of Psychological Science


  observation, measurement, and experimentation