Midterm 1 Flashcards
(244 cards)
What is Psychology?
A science based on evidence that studies the mind, brain, and behavior
Levels of analysis (3)
Lower levels: tied to biological influences (the brain)
Higher levels: tied to social and cultural influences (the mind)
ex: neurons to neighborhoods - study the bridges and roads and how they connect
Levels of Analysis (6)
Depression example
1. social
2. behavioral
3. mental
4. neurological/psychological
5. neurochemical
6. molecular
Levels of analysis - depression example
- social - loss of important personal relationships, lack of social support
- behavioral - decrease in pleasurable activities, move and talking slowly, withdrawal
- mental - depressed thoughts, sad feelings, suicidal thoughts
- neurological/psychological - differences among people in the size and functioning of brain structures related to mood
- neurochemical - differences in levels of brain chemistry
- molecular - variations in people’s genes that predispose depression
Five challenges of psychology
- human behavior are multiply determined
2.psychological influences are rarely independent - people differ from each other in thinking, emotion, personality, and behavior
- people influence each other = difficulty in pinning down root cause
- people’s behavior is shaped by culture
What’s the problem with trusting our common sense?
We never notice the contradictions until other people point them out to use
Nieve Realism
belief that we see the world precisely as it is
Scientific method in relation to relationship to empiricism
- the premise that all knowledge should initially be acquired through observation
-observation isn’t enough for psychological knowledge
theory vs hypothesis
theory: explanation for large number of findings in the natural world (ie. existing data, and putting ways we think to how things work)
hypothesis: testable prediction derived from a theory (used to accept/deny the theory)
theory vs strength of evidence
- theory is consistent with many differing
- theory doesn’t tell evidence
Role of biases in science
becoming aware of bias helps scientists compensate for them
confirmation bias
tendency to seek out evidence that supports our beliefs and deny, dismiss, or history evidence that contradicts them
belief perseverance
tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them
metaphysical claims and their relation to scientific questions
assertion about the world that’s not testable
we can never test them about using scientific methods
pseudoscience
set of claims that seems scientific but isn’t
they are untestable and there lie outside the realm of science
warnings of pseudo science (8)
- exaggerated claims
- overuse of ad hoc hoc immunizing hypothesis
- over reliance on anecdotes
- absence of connectivity to other research
- lack of review by other scholars or lab replication
- lack of self-correction when contrary evidence is published
- “psychobabble” using terms that don’t make sense
- talk of proof instead of evidence
ad hoc immunizing hypotheses - psychic example
the psychic claimed to predict the future, this failed all controlled tests in the lab, but that’s because the experimenters inhibited his extrasensory powers
and escape hatch or loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification
over reliance of anecdotes
this woman practiced daily yoga for three weeks and hasn’t had a day of depression since
lack of self-correction
although most scientists say that we use almost all of our brains, we’ve found a way to harness additional brain power previously undiscovered
emotional reasoning
error of using our emotions as guides for evaluating the validity of a claim
bandwagon
error of assuming that a claim is correct just because many people believe it
either or
error of framing a question as though we can only answer it one of two extreme ways
not me
error of believing we’re immune from errors in thinking that afflict other people
appeal to authority
error of accepting a claim merely because an authority endorses it