What is psychology
Study of mind and behaviour
Levels of analysis
Social Cultural- Psychological - Biological
Challenges with Psychology
1- human behaviour is difficult to predict- multiple reasons for any one thing
2- psychological influences are rarely independent
3- individual differences among people
4- people influence one another
5- behaviour is shaped by culture
Emic vs Etic
Emic- change approach depending on culture
Etic- don’t ch age approach depending on culture
Naive Realism
Perceiving world based on senses
“Seeing is believing”
Confirmation Bias
- tendency to value info you already believe
- distort/neglect opposing evidence
Belief Perseverance
Tendency to stick to belief despite even when evidence is contrary
Ad hoc immunizing hypotheses
Way of explaining why their hypotheses doesn’t work
Patternicity
Tendency for detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli
Terror Management Theory
- we feel anxiety over uncertainty about death and its inevitability
- to manage this, we seek worldviews that provide meaning, purpose, and continuity
- tested by manipulating mortality salience
What is mortality salience
How much death is on our minds
How to avoid pseudoscience
-Think scientifically
- understand difference between science and psuedo
Avoid logical fallacies
Three main logical fallacies
Emotional reasoning fallacy
Bandwagon Fallacy
Not me fallacy
Dangers of psuedo science
Opportunity cost
Direct harm
Blocking critical thinking
6 principles of scientific thinking
Rule out rival hypothesis
Correlation vs causation
Falsifiability
Reliability
Extraordinary Claim
Occam’s razor
Structuralism
-Identify fundamental elements of psychological experience
- use introspective technique
- Edward Titchener
Functionalism
William James
- understand adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics
- influenced by Theory of Natural Selection
Behaviourism
Watson+ Skinner
- uncover the general laws of learning by focusing on external observable elements
Cognitivism
Piaget and Neisser
- understand mental processes underlying thinking in a variety of contexts
Basic vs Applied research
Study of the mind
Utilize research in everyday life
Reciprocal Determinism
Behaviour, personal factors, and environment constantly interact and influence each other in a dynamic cycle rather than one factor solely determining outcomes
Hindsight Bias
Bias where one believes after an event has occurred, that they predicted or could have predicated the outcome
Nature vs Nuture Debate
Free will- determinism debate
