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Unit 2 (The need for psychological science (We need psychological science…
Unit 2
The need for psychological science
We need psychological science because we can easily fool ourselves and we overestimate the accuracy of our intuition.
Hindsight bias="i knew it all along" phenomenon (think monday morning quarterbacking and such)
Overconfidence: we think we know more and have more ability than we do. (think anagrams and harvard examples)
illusory patterns: patterns that are perceived but don't actually exist (think crazy stuff on full moon illusory pattern and "winning streaks"/gambler's fallacy)
Scientific attitude=curious, skeptical, and humble. required to sift fantasy from reality
critical thinking: no blindly accepting arguments and conclusions; examine source, discern hidden values, evaluate evidence, etc.
Statistics
Key terms: descriptive statistics, histogram, mode, mean, median, skewed distribution, range, standard deviation, measures of central tendency, normal curve, inferential statistics, statistical significance.
Know and understand standard deviations and normal curves!
we need stat bc our estimates are often inaccurate (ex. 10% of people are gay--its really onle like 2-3%)
When you see a mean reported, consider whether a few rly big/small scores could be distorting it
representative samples>>>biased samples
Know internal vs. construct validity
The scientific method and description
Key terms; theory, hypothesis, operational definition, replication, scientific method, case study, naturalistic observation, survey, random sampling, sampling bias, population.
Description=case study, naturalistic observation, and survey.
random sampling is necessary to obtain a representative sample.
Does NOt explain behavior, just describes it
Good experiments need a random sample, random assignment, independent/dependent variables, hypothesis, operational definitions, etc. think key lime pie chart
Correlation and Experimentation
CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION; experiments are needed to determine cause and effect
correlation coefficient (r): between -1 and 1; shows strength and direction of correlation
illusory correlations exist
Key terms: correlation, correlation coefficient, scatter plot, illusory correlation, experiment, experimental group, random assignment, control group, experimental group, double-blind procedure, placebo effect, independent variable, etc.
FAQs about psych
ETHICS: prevent pain/harm to animals as much as possible, &follow the four guidelines from the APA for human subjects: 1) confidentiality, 2) minimilize discomfort, 3) debrief, 4) informed consent
culture and gender can affect behavior, but the human race also has a lot in common.
lab experiments are in an artificial environment, but they can still illuminate everyday life