ExpePsych Chap 1-2

• Psychology


  The science of behavior
• Psychologists


  • Take a scientific approach to understanding behavior
  • Knowledge about psychological processes is based on scientific evidence accumulated through research
• Commonsense psychology


  The kind of everyday, nonscientific data gathering that shapes our expectations and beliefs and directs our behavior towards others
• Commonsense psychology seems to work well enough for us most of the time
• Commonsense beliefs about behavior

  • Derived from data we collect from our own experience and what we have learned from others
  • The data that we collect in our everyday lives have been generated from a very small sample of behaviors
  • The conclusions we draw from them are subject to a number of inherent tendencies, or biases that limit their accuracy and usefulness
• Nonscientific sources of data

  • Friends and relatives
  • People in authority
  • People you admire
  • Reports from media
  • Books we have read
• Confirmation bias


  The tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with one's existing beliefs
• We are often unaware of factors that influence our attitudes and behaviors
• We frequently use data from our own experiences to come up with commonsense assumptions about cause and effect, but if we were to rely only on commonsense psychology, we would frequently be wrong
• Nonscientific inference


  When we understand other people's behavior, there is a strong bias to overlook situational data in favor of data that substantiate trait situation
• Gambler's fallacy


  The incorrect belief that, if a particular event occurs more frequently than normal during the past, it is less likely to happen in the future (or vice versa), when it has otherwise been established that the probability of such events does not depend on what has happened in the past
• Fundamental attribution error


  In social psychology, a cognitive attribution bias where observers underemphasize situational and environmental factors for the behavior of an actor while overemphasizing dispositional or personality factors
• These, and many other inferential biases exist in human information processing. They are believed to be the brain's way of coping with an immense volume of information. They are shortcuts, and most of the time, they allow us to function well enough, but they are not always accurate
• If we want to be able to rely on our conclusions and use them as general principles to predict behavior across many settings and conditions, we need to proceed more systematically and objectively – or scientifically
• The scientific method


  The steps scientists take to gather and verify information, answer questions, explain relationships, and communicate this information to others
• The scientific mentality


  • The psychologist's goal of prediction rests on the assumption that behavior must follow a natural order and can therefore be predicted
  • Research psychologists share the belief that there are specifiable causes for the way people behave and that these causes can be discovered through research – determinism
• Empirical data


  Data that are observable or experienced, which can also be verified or disproved through investigation
• General principles


  Laws or theories that explain observations
• Laws


  Principles that have the generality to apply to all situations
• Theory


  An interim explanation that pulls together or unifies diverse sets of scientific facts into an organizing scheme that can be used to predict new examples of behavior
• Good thinking


  • Systematic, objective, and rational approach to the collection and interpretation of data
  • Avoiding letting private beliefs or expectations influence observations or conclusions
  • Being open to new ideas even when they contradict our prior beliefs and attitudes
  • Following the rules of logic so that conclusions follow from the data
• Self-correction


  • Modern scientists accept the uncertainty of their own conclusions
  • The content of science changes as we acquire new scientific information and old information is reevaluated in light of new facts
  • Changes in scientific explanations and theories are an extremely important part of scientific progress
• 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 followed good thinking
  • Findings that are obtainable by only one researcher have very limited scientific value
• Description


  A systematic and unbiased account of the observed characteristics of behavior
• Prediction


  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
• Explanation


  Understanding what causes a behavior to occur, including knowledge of the conditions that reliably reproduce the occurrence of behavior
• Control


  The application of what has been learned about behavior to affect change or improve behavior
• Tools of the psychological science

  • Observation
  • Measurement
  • Experimentation
• Observation


  The systematic noting and recording of events. Only events that are observable can be studied scientifically.
• Measurement


  The assignment of numerical values to objects or events or their characteristics according to conventional rules
• Experimentation


  A process undertaken to test a hypothesis that particular behavioral events will occur reliably in certain, specifiable situations
• Psychology experiment


  • A controlled procedure in which at least two different treatment conditions are applied to subjects, and the subjects' behaviors are then measured and compared to test a hypothesis about the effects of those treatments on behavior
• The greatest value of the psychology experiment is that, within the experiment, we can infer a cause-and-effect relationship between the antecedent conditions and the subjects' behaviors
• Psychology Experiment


  • In the traditional psychology experiment, we create specific sets of antecedent conditions, or treatments, to test a hypothesis about behavior
  • To use the experimental approach, the researcher must be able to set up these conditions for any individual who ends up as a subject in the experiment. Many times, this requirement cannot be met
• Psychology Experiment Example


  • Depresso
  • Group A received drug, Group B received placebo, Symptoms after treatment: Group A 1.24, Group B 3.42
• In the traditional psychology experiment, we create specific sets of antecedent conditions, or treatments, to test a hypothesis about behavior
• To use the experimental approach, the researcher must be able to set up these conditions for any individual who ends up as a subject in the experiment. Many times, this requirement cannot be met
• Nonexperimental Approaches


  Note that the purpose of an experiment is to establish a causal relationship between a specified set of antecedent conditions (treatments) and the subsequent observed behavior. We cannot usually claim this in nonexperimental approaches
• Nonexperimental Approaches


  • Phenomenology
  • Case Studies
  • Survey and Interview Research
  • Correlational Designs
  • Quasi-Experimental Designs