1. Critical Thinking

2. Psychological Science
Hindsight Bias
Also known as “I-Knew-It-All-Along” Phenomenon
Tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that we knew it all along

3. Overconfidence Overconfidence contaminates our everyday judgments
Limited by the tendency to think we know more than we do
Usually more confident than correct
Political Elections?

4. Scientific Attitude Scientific Attitude Critical Thinking
Hard-headed curiosity to explore and understand the world w/out being fooled by it
Critical Thinking
Test assumptions
Discern hidden values
Evaluate Evidence
Assess Conclusions

5. Psychological Theories and Scientific Research
Theory: effectively organizes a wide range of observations in implies testable predictions or hypotheses
What results confirm or disconfirm our theory
Psychologists report results with CLEAR operational definitions
Thus allows others to test the theory

6. Case Studies vs. Surveys vs. Naturalistic Observation
Case Study
The analysis of one or more individuals in great depth
Hope: Revelation of things true in all of us
Problem: Any given subject may be atypical
Result: Case becomes misleading

7. Con’t Survey Looks at many cases less in depth
Hope: Results will show a consensus
Problem: Biased sample of people who share our attitudes and habits (Polls)
Result: Vulnerable to false consensus effect (we overestimate agreement with us

8. Con’t Naturalistic Observation
Observing and recording behavior of organism in their natural habitat
Hope: description of behavior will lead to reasononing
Problem: describes behavior but does not explain it
Result: No cause of behavior can be determined

9. Correlations Correlation Coefficient
A statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus how well either factor predicts the other

10. (positive or negative)
Correlation Con’t
Indicates direction
of relationship
(positive or negative)
Correlation
coefficient
r = +.37
Indicates strength
of relationship
(0.00 to 1.00)

11. Correlation Con’t Scatterplots
a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables
the slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship
the amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation
little scatter indicates high correlation
also called a scattergram or scatter diagram

12. Showing patterns of Correlations
Perfect positive
correlation (+1.00)
No relationship (0.00)
Perfect negative
correlation (-1.00)

13. Height and Temperament of 20 Men
Correlation Con’t
Height and Temperament of 20 Men 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 80 63 61 79 74 69 62 75 77 60 64 76 71 66 73 70 68 90 42 81 39 48 72 57 30 84
Subject
Height in
Inches
Temperament

14. Correlation 95 Temperament 90 85 scores 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 3530 25
Temperament
scores
Height in inches

15. Illusory Correlation Illusory Correlation
the perception of a relationship where none exists

16. Experimentation Experiment
Research method in which the investigator manipulates one or more variables
Observe their effect on some behavior or mental process

17. Experimentation Con’t
Experimental Condition
the condition of an experiment that exposes participants to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable
Control Condition
the condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental treatment
serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment

18. Experimentation Con’t
Placebo
an inert substance or condition that may be administered instead of a presumed active agent, such as a drug, to see if it triggers the effects believed to characterize the active agent
Double-blind Procedure
Research participants and staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo
commonly used in drug-evaluation studies

19. Experimentation Con’t
Random Assignment
assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance
minimizes pre-existing differences between those assigned to the different groups

20. Independent Variable Dependent Variable
the experimental factor that is manipulated
the variable whose effect is being studied
Dependent Variable
the experimental factor that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable
in psychology it is usually a behavior or mental process

21. Experimentation Con’t

22. Statistical Reasoning
Mode
the most frequently occurring score in a distribution
Mean
the arithmetic average of a distribution
obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores
Median
the middle score in a distribution
half the scores are above it and half are below it
Range
The difference between highest and lowest scores in a distribution

23. Statistical Reasoning Con’t
Standard Deviation
a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean
Statistical Significance
a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance

24. Can laboratory experiments illuminate everyday life?
Question #1
Can laboratory experiments illuminate everyday life?

25. Does behavior vary with gender?
Question #2
Does behavior vary with gender?

26. Is psychology free of value judgments?
Question #3
Is psychology free of value judgments?

27. Is it Ethical to experiment on animals?
Question 4 & 5
Is it Ethical to experiment on animals?
Is it Ethical to experiment on Humans?

28. Is psychology potentially dangerous?
Question #6
Is psychology potentially dangerous?