Chapter 1 Psychology, Science, and Life

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Chapter 1Psychology, Science, and Life
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Why are Research Methods Important Tools for Life?

• Understanding human behavior
• Creating new knowledge
• Preparing for a career in psychology

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Why are Research Methods Important Tools for Life?

• Answering important questions
• What is the biological basis of consciousness?
• How are memories stored and retrieved?
• How did cooperative behavior evolve?
• To what extent are genetic variation and personal
  health linked?
• What causes schizophrenia?

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Scientific and Nonscientific Knowledge
Way of Knowing What it entails
Tenacity Acceptance of knowledge uncritically and unwillingness to change beliefs
Authority Acceptance of knowledge because it comes from an authority or expert
A priori method Knowledge from logic based on premises that are subject to possible change
Scientific approach Knowledge based on empirically derived data
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What Constitutes Scientific Knowledge

• Tenacity
• Simply believing something because you don't want
  to give up your belief. It may be obvious to you,
  even if not to others.
• You have probably discovered that people do not
  change their minds easily, concluding that they
  are simply being stubborn. But they are probably
  thinking exactly the same about you

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What Constitutes Scientific Knowledge

• Authority
• This way of adopting knowledge removes the burden
  from any single person to make decisions
  instead, one would rely on an expert of some
  kind.
• Authorities and experts are often right, but they
  can be wrong.

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What Constitutes Scientific Knowledge

• A Priori Method
• People might fix their knowledge based on
  consensus and reasoned argument, the a priori
  approach.
• The problem is that reasons for believing
  something may change over time, so what was seen
  as true in the past may change.

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What Constitutes Scientific Knowledge

• The Scientific Method
• If we want to know universal truths, the most
  valid approach can be through science, which is
  objective and self-correcting. Gradually, we can
  accumulate knowledge that is valid and discard
  ideas that prove to be wrong.
• Unfortunately, some questions cannot be addressed
  scientifically.

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What Constitutes Scientific Knowledge
Four Characteristics of Scientific Research
ObjectiveClearly specified and well defined
Data drivenConclusions are based on the data
ReplicableOther investigators can repeat the research to see if the same results occur
PublicThe research is made public, in detail, so others can scrutinize it
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What Constitutes Scientific Knowledge

• Concepts and Measurements are Objective
• Research requires that concepts have objective
  definitions and measurements that are well
  defined and that anybody can apply.

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What Constitutes Scientific Knowledge

• Claims Are Data Driven
• Research claims must be based on objective data
  rather than on the preferences or initial beliefs
  of the researcher.

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What Constitutes Scientific Knowledge

• Scientific Research is Replicable
• Research has to be set up so that others can
  repeat a study to see if the same results occur.
• A process is scientific if different scientists
  can repeat a study, even if the results differ.
  More research can identify why there are
  discrepancies.

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What Constitutes Scientific Knowledge

• Scientific Research is Public
• After completing research, scientists make their
  work public so other scientists can scrutinize it
  and create new research based on it.

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Culture and Ways of Knowing
Culture Example of Characteristic
Eastern Acceptance of contradictory statements as each having partial truth
Western Search for a single correct answer Creation of dichotomies (e.g., It is either this or that it cant be both)
Not all people accept the same type of logical
framework that people do in Western cultures.
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Why We Do Research

• Curiosity and Enjoyment
• Scientific Goals

Scientific Goals of Research
Describing behavior
Explaining Behavior
Predicting Behavior
Controlling Behavior
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Why We Do Research

• Description
• One evening in 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese
  was attacked and murdered while walking home from
  work. It was claimed that 38 people saw what was
  happening, but nobody helped or called the
  police.
• Two psychologists (e.g., Latané and Darley, 1970)
  wondered why this might happen. Their first step
  in understanding this phenomenon was to describe
  the behaviors of the bystanders.

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Why We Do Research

• Explanation
• As Darley and Latané noted, when there are more
  people around, we are less likely to offer aid.
• The researchers called this failure to act
  diffusion of responsibility that is, when others
  are around, we can pass blame for our inaction to
  them, assuming less (or none) for ourselves.

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Why We Do Research

• Prediction
• We can determine those when helping behavior is
  likely to occur.
• Helping occurs as people try to avoid feeling
  guilty or if a person is similar to them.
• Helping diminishes if people have been relieved
  of guilt.

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Why We Do Research

• Control
• Behaviors in everyday life are seldom controlled
  by a single variable, but we can control behavior
  to a degree.
• We may help others if our mood is positive
  because we tend to generalize our good mood to
  everything around us
• We may help if our mood is negative, but if we
  think that helping somebody will improve our mood

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The Interaction of Science and Culture

• The Role of the Government in Science
• A lot of research is funded by the government.
• Some research is applied, with possible
  applications.
• Some research is theoretical, possibly without
  future applications.

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The Interaction of Science and Culture

• Cultural Values and Science
• Researchers are part of the culture and often
  study issues that are important in life.
• Culture helps determine how scientists conduct
  their research.

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ControversyShould women serve on juries?

• Hugo Münsterberg researched the difference
  between men and women in the decision-making
  process in groups in the early 1900s.
• He concluded that women should not serve on
  juries because of the way they were influenced in
  their decision making.

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ControversyShould women serve on juries?

• Harold Burtt conducted a conceptual replication
  of Münsterbergs study a few years later.
• Burtt concluded that women were as capable as men
  in making decisions.

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ControversyShould women serve on juries?

• Neither Münsterberg nor Burtt seem to have asked
  the question of whether men should serve on
  juries.
• Their assumption throughout the research was that
  men were appropriate for juries.
• Why? The answer has to do with culture.

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Scientific Literacy

• What is Scientific Literacy?
• A specialized form of critical thinking, that
  involves developing clear questions, collecting
  and assessing relevant information, identifying
  important assumptions, and generating effective
  solutions to problems

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Scientific Literacy

• How scientifically literate are Americans?
• Researchers have concluded that about 28 of
  Americans are scientifically literate

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Scientific Literacy

• The majority of Americans believe in various
  paranormal phenomena even though there is no
  systematic evidence for them.
• ESP
• Telekinesis
• Ghosts
• Clairvoyance
• Precognition

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Scientific Literacy

• Most psychologists regard these phenomena as
  involving pseudoscience.
• What is pseudoscience? An area about which
  believers claim scientific status but for which
  there is no sound scientific evidence.

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Scientific Literacy
How many people believe in pseudoscientific
claims?
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Scientific Literacy
Characteristics of Bogus Science
Claims appear in the popular press rather than in scientific journals
People claim that the scientific establishment is trying to suppress their work.
Independent researchers cannot verify claims
Claims are based on anecdotes rather than on systematic data collection.
Proponents simply assert that the truth has been known for a long time (e.g., centuries) when no current research can document the claims.
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Scientific Literacy

• Junk Science
• When scientists or researchers make claims to
  support their own interests, going beyond what
  the data support, they are using what is called
  junk science.
• Courts in the United States may restrict
  scientific testimony from so-called experts if
  the testimony would constitute junk science.

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ControversyWhat Causes Autism?

• Some nonscientists and physicians claim that the
  vaccines that contained mercury were responsible
  for autism.
• An early report in the British Medical Journal
  claimed to have found a link between vaccines and
  onset of autism

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ControversyWhat Causes Autism?

• Where did these claims come from?
• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
  Prevention recommended removal of mercury from
  vaccines because it is poisonous
• The CDC did not link the mercury with autism.
• The recommendation was purely preventive.

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ControversyWhat Causes Autism?

• When the CDC made its recommendations, parents
  were getting involved in advocating on behalf of
  children diagnosed as autistic.
• Parents were objecting to a psychoanalytically
  based explanation for autism.
• Parents favored a medical model.

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ControversyWhat Causes Autism?

• Some people drew the conclusion that mercury in
  vaccines was the culprit.
• Mercury poisoning leads to symptoms similar to
  those of autism
• Some activists concluded that the CDC recommended
  removing mercury from vaccines because of a
  mercury-autism link (which the CDC never made).

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ControversyWhat Causes Autism?

• What is the current consensus about mercury as
  the cause of autism?
• The original research claims were based on
  fabricated research.
• Even after mercury was removed from vaccines, the
  incidence of autism increased.
• Mercury levels are no higher in children
  diagnosed as autistic than in typically
  developing children.

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ControversyWhat Causes Autism?

• What is the message here?
• Scientific issues reflect issues important in
  society.
• Research can resolve controversies.
• If people are not scientifically literate, they
  can fall prey to claims that are not
  scientifically supported.