Thinking Critically With Psychology

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• Thinking Critically With Psychology

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• Thinking Critically With Psychology
• The Need for Psychological Science

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• Thinking Critically With Psychology
• The Need for Psychological Science
• Did We Know It All Along?

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After the first two murders at Virginia Tech, and
before the massacre, many people say it was
obvious that the university should have locked
down campus.
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Commonsense describes what has happened after the
fact more easily than it predicts what will
happen before the fact. This is called the
hindsight bias.
Hindsight is 20/20!
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A thought experiment Tell one group of people
that psychologists have found that separation
weakens romantic attraction. Asked to imagine
why this is true, what do you suppose people will
say?
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I already knew that! Commonsense! Out of sight,
out of mind!
A thought experiment Tell one group of people
that psychologists have found that separation
weakens romantic attraction. Asked to imagine
why this is true, what do you suppose people will
say?
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A thought experiment Tell another group of
people that psychologists have found that
separation strengthens romantic attraction.
Asked to imagine why this is true, what will do
you suppose people will say?
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I already knew that! Commonsense!
Absence makes the heart grow fonder!
A thought experiment Tell another group of
people that psychologists have found that
separation strengthens romantic attraction.
Asked to imagine why this is true, what will do
you suppose people will say?
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• Thinking Critically With Psychology
• The Need for Psychological Science
• Psychology Makes the World a Better Place to
  Live

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The innovation the lime-green fire truck.
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The rationale perceptual psychologists
discovery that the human visual system is most
sensitive to light with wave lengths between 510
and 570 nm.
700 nm
400 nm
500 nm
600 nm
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14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0
The result lime-green fire trucks are more
than three times less likely to be in a traffic
accident than red fire trucks (Solomon King,
1995).
Accidents Per 100,000 Runs
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The innovation the sequential police lineup
procedure, in which a witness is shown suspects
one at a time instead of all at once
(simultaneously).
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The rationale psychologist Gary Wells discovery
that when shown sequential lineups, people make
absolute judgments, which lead to much lower
rates of misidentification.
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The result sequential lineups cut eyewitness
misidentification in half compared to
simultaneous lineups. Fewer innocent people go to
jail.
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• Thinking Critically with Psychology
• How Do Psychologists Ask and Answer Questions?
• The Scientific Method

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Theory an explanation using an integrated set
of principles that organizes observations.
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Hypothesis a testable prediction implied by a
theory.
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We might theorize that the cause of depression is
low self-esteemones feelings of self-worth.
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We might hypothesize that depression and
self-esteem will correlate negatively.
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We might test this hypothesis by seeing if people
who receive a low score for self-esteem tend to
receive a high score for depression.
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Research Process
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• Thinking Critically with Psychology
• How Do Psychologists Ask and Answer Questions?
• Generating a research question

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Generating a Research Question
Everyday observation One source of research
questions psychology is simply observing the
world around you and asking questions about why
people think and behave as they do.
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Generating a Research Question
In the 1960s, social psychologists John Darley
and Bibb Latane were horrified by the brutal
murder of a woman named Kitty Genovese. It was
widely reported that dozens of neighbors
witnessed or were aware of the attackbut no one
helped.
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Generating a Research Question
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Generating a Research Question
Darley and Latane hypothesized that any given
bystander is less likely to give aid to a victim
if other bystanders are present. In a series of
studies, Darley and Latane found that this is
indeed the case.
http//www.youtube.com/watch_popup?vJcowGVd6GqYv
qmedium
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Generating a Research Question
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Generating a Research Question
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Generating a Research Question
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Generating a Research Question
Personal experience Like you, psychologists
want to understand their own tendencies, and
foibles.
http//www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/science/which-ma
tters-more-talent-or-practice.html?_r0
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Generating a Research Question
Replication seeing whether a basic finding can
be observed again with different participants and
under different circumstances.
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Generating a Research Question
After the original study of the bystander effect,
there were dozens of follow-up studies aimed at
answering specific questions about the effect.
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• Thinking Critically with Psychology
• How Do Psychologists Ask and Answer Questions?
• Establishing operational definitions

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Establishing Operational Definitions
Operational definition a specific statement
of the procedures used to define research
variables, so as to allow others to replicate the
original observations.
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Establishing Operational Definitions
An operational definition of intelligence might
be the number correct on tests of verbal,
spatial, numerical, and reasoning abilities.
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• Thinking Critically with Psychology
• How Do Psychologists Ask and Answer Questions?
• Choosing a research design

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Choosing a Research Design
Setting
Three major types of research designs that
psychologists use in their research
Lab
Field
Descriptive
Correlational
Methods
Experimental
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• Thinking Critically With Psychology
• Descriptive Methods
• The Case Study an in depth investigation
  of a single (or very few) subjects

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The Case Study
Through a 30-year case study, Irene Pepperberg
concluded that African Grey parrot Alex could
name and categorize objects, and comprehend
numbers up to six.
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v7yGOgs_UlEc
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The Case Study
Through a series of case studies, often of his
own children, Jean Piaget developed an
influential theory of cognitive development,
which assumes that cognitive functions unfold
through a series of distinct stages.
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The Case Study
http//www.youtube.com/watch_popup?vue8y-JVhjS0v
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• Thinking Critically With Psychology
• Descriptive Methods
• The Survey an investigation of many cases
  in less depth by asking people to report
  opinions and behaviors

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The Survey
A technique for ascertaining the self-reported
attitudes, opinions or behaviors of people
usually done by questioning a representative
sample of peopleone that accurately portrays the
population of interest.
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The Survey
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• Thinking Critically With Psychology
• Descriptive Methods
• Naturalistic Observation recording
  behavior in its natural environments, and
  describing it in detail

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Naturalistic Observation
Primatologist Jane Goodall used naturalistic
observation to study chimpanzees. She concluded,
Observations, made in the natural habitat,
helped to show that the societies and behavior of
animals are far more complex than previously
supposed.
Credit Delphine Bruyere
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Naturalistic Observation
Psychologists have used naturalistic observation
to study, effects of social interaction on
peoples behavior. One study found that people
laugh 30 times more often in social situations
than in solitary situations (Provine, 2001).
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• Thinking Critically With Psychology
• Experimental Methods
• Purpose is to explore cause and effect by
  manipulating one or more factors, while
  holding other factors constant

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Independent and Dependent Variables
Variable anything that can fluctuate. Whether
its rainy or sunny, warm or cold, or whether a
person is male or female, or in a good mood or a
bad mood, are all examples.
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Independent and Dependent Variables
Independent variable aspect of the situation or
of individuals that can vary independently of
other variables. The variables whose effect is
being studied.
Online vs. Classroom
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Independent and Dependent Variables
Dependent variable the variable that may change
in response to manipulations of the independent
variable.
Score on Test
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Independent and Dependent Variables
An Example Does breastfeeding children have an
impact on their intelligence later in life?
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Independent and Dependent Variables
The independent variable is whether mothers are
assigned to an experimental condition in which
their children breast feed, or to a control
condition in which they feed their children
formula.
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Independent and Dependent Variables
The dependent variable is the childs score on an
intelligence test at age 8. (This is the
measureable aspect of psychological functioning
that we think may be influenced by the
independent variable.)
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Random Assignment
Random assignment assigning participants to
experimental and control groups by chance, thus
minimizing preexisting differences between the
groups that could affect the dependent variable
(e.g., SES).
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http//www.youtube.com/watch_popup?vhHHdovKHDNUv
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Sometimes its not possible to conduct an
experiment. For example, it isnt possible to
assign a child to be male or female for the
purpose of an experiment.
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Other times, its unethical to conduct an
experiment. For example, it would be unethical
to assign people to be exposed to polluted air or
non-polluted air for the purpose of seeing
whether pollution has a negative effect on mental
functioning.
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• Thinking Critically with Psychology
• Correlational Methods
• Purpose is to observe naturally occurring
  relationships between variables

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• Thinking Critically with Psychology
• Correlational Methods
• Correlation coefficient a statistical index
  (-1 to 1) of the relationship between two
  variables

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Scatterplot 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, while the amount of scatter
suggests the strength of the relationship.
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Test Score
Time Spent Studying
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Correlation and Causation
We might theorize that the cause of depression is
low self-esteemones feelings of self-worth.
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Correlation and Causation
We might hypothesize that depression and
self-esteem will correlate negatively.
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Correlation and Causation
We might test this hypothesis by seeing if people
who receive a low score for self-esteem tend to
receive a high score for depression.
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Correlation and Causation
30 25 20 15 10 5 0
Depression
0 5 10 15
20 25 30
Self Esteem
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Correlation and Causation
or
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Correlation and Causation
Correlation does not mean causation!
or
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Correlation and Causation
or
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Correlation and Causation
or
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• Thinking Critically with Psychology
• Research Ethics
• Is it Ethical to Experiment on People?

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The Milgram Experiments
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The Milgram Experiments
Was it that Eichmann and his accomplices in the
Holocaust had mutual intent, in at least with
regard to the goals of the Holocaust?
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The Milgram Experiments
I was just following orders
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The Milgram Experiments
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The Milgram Experiments
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vyr5cjyokVUs
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The Milgram Experiments
I was just following orders
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• Thinking Critically with Psychology
• Research Ethics
• (1) Obtain informed consent
• (2) Protect them from harm
• (3) Maintain confidentiality
• (4) Debrief

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• Thinking Critically with Psychology
• Research Ethics
• Is it Ethical to Experiment on Animals?

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• Chapter 1 Review
• Why do we need psychological science?
• How do psychologists ask and answer questions?
• What are major steps in the research process?
• What are the major research methods that
  psychologist use?

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• Chapter 1 Review
• Question(s) from textbook on material not
  covered in class
• Statistical reasoning in everyday life (pp.
  36-39)