Psychology basic 1

• Your intuition isn't always right. In fact, sometimes it is exactly wrong, and we tend to grossly underestimate the dangers of false intuition.
• Hindsight Bias


  The "I-Knew-It-All-Along" phenomenon where if your idea about a person and their behavior turns out to be right, it reinforces your trust in your intuition, but if you're wrong, you probably won't even think about it again
• Our intuitive sense more easily describes what just happened, than what will happen in the future.
• We tend to be overconfident and perceive order in random events, which can lead to false assumptions.
• Psychological research and the scientific method help us get around the problems of our own minds.
• Operationalizing


  Turning general questions into measurable, testable propositions
• Theory


  In science, a theory explains and organizes lots of different observations and predicts outcomes
• Hypothesis


  A testable prediction based on a theory
• Replication is key in scientific research.
• Case studies


  • Take an in-depth look at one individual, can't be replicated, run the risk of over-generalizing, but good at showing what CAN happen and framing questions for more extensive studies
• Naturalistic observation


  • Researchers watch behavior in a natural environment without trying to manipulate or control the situation, good at describing behavior but limited in explaining it
• Surveys and interviews


  • Good at accessing consciously held attitudes and beliefs, but how questions are phrased and who is asked can influence results
• Correlation


  A relationship between two traits or behaviors, but correlation does not imply causation
• Experiments


  • Isolate different effects by manipulating an independent variable and keeping all other variables constant, need a control group and experimental group, can use double-blind procedures
• Conducting an experiment


  Come up with a question

  2. Develop a testable hypothesis

  3. Randomly assign participants to control and experimental groups

  4. Measure the results and compare the groups
• Psychological research is probably the best tool for understanding other people.