Test 2 Flashcards
Anecdote
Anecdote: a short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.
Testimonial
Testimonial: A formal statement testifying to benefits received.
Case study
Case study: an intensive analysis of an individual. Common in psych and medicine. Can also be of a social unit. Maybe like a study on a cult or an event like a hurricane.
Anecdotes Testimonials and Case Studies are not the same.
Anecdotes Testimonials and Case Studies are not the same.
Case studies are often scientific studies, whereas anecdotes and testimonials are not.
Case studies are often scientific studies, whereas anecdotes and testimonials are not.
Anecdotes and testimonials are often used to
sell something.
Nonetheless, be careful what kinds of generalizations
we make from data (scientific and not) from single subjects.
All are stories of a single event, person, or experience
Alone, they cannot act as evidence of a claim.
Case studies in psychology typically involve
in-depth analysis of an individual with a unique condition.
Many (but not all) case studies have been published in
scientific journals
Case studies involve and have led to
Peer review prior to publication.
They may serve as a starting point for further research
Some have also led to ethics reforms.
Data is usually collected using a variety of methods or techniques.
Are often collected longitudinally.
Are often qualitative in nature. Participant observations, notes from therapy or interview
Qualitative vs quantitative:
descriptions vs amounts.
Famous examples in psychology: little albert and the conditioning of fear. Phineas gage and the role of the prefrontal cortex. Genie the feral child. Anna O and the cathartic method. Chris Sizemore and dissociative identity disorder. H.M and memory.
Famous examples in psychology: little albert and the conditioning of fear. Phineas gage and the role of the prefrontal cortex. Genie the feral child. Anna O and the cathartic method. Chris Sizemore and dissociative identity disorder. H.M and memory.
Why anecdotes and testimonials but not statistics and studies?
Vividness effect:
the condition in which the vividness of information makes select information more accessible from memory.
Three components to a vivid claim:
- Emotionally interesting
- Concrete and image provoking
- “near” in time and space
Anecdotes and testimonials often exploit the vividness effect
Sometimes case studies too.
They make spectacular, rare, or inaccurate claims easier to bring to mind.
Anecdotes and testimonials often exploit the vividness effect
Sometimes case studies too.
They make spectacular, rare, or inaccurate claims easier to bring to mind.
Vividness effect and persuasiveness
Summary:
The vividness of a message or claim is persuasive only if the vividness is on message.
If a message or claim is vivid but off-message, it isn’t persuasive.
Telling a story
How basic communication can introduce distortion in what is communicated.
Telling a story
How basic communication can introduce distortion in what is communicated.
Sharpening and leveling.
Messages are distorted by sharpening the gist of the message while leveling the less essential details.
Important stuff Is emphasized.
Less important stuff is de-emphasized.
Like a game of telephone
Why does this happen for sharpening and leveling?
Limits on human memory
Implicit demand not to burden the listener with too many details
Implicit agreement with listener to be entertaining
Immediacy
Make a claim seem more important by increasing its immediacy
How Close the original source is to the claim
“My cousins wife’s aunt saw a ghost” -> “my wife saw a ghost”.
Informativeness
If they contain many details or qualifications, messages may be considered uninformative.
So the speaker might omit them.
Different from leveling because the qualifications may be very important.
Omitting them may alter the truth.
Stretch the facts so that:
Audience gets the point
A greater truth is publicized.
A Vexing paradox.
If others messages are distorted, should we rely on our own experience, memory, or perception to provide us the truth?
Some say no these are fallible
Shrug lol
- Sharpen your statistical understanding
- Be on the look out for concordance between experience or claims and base rates
- Use critical thinking tools including healthy skepticism
Correlation
A correlation is a statistical term used to describe the degree to which two variables change in a pattern together.