Lecture 1 - Psychology's Progress to Becoming a Science PDF

Lecture 1 Psychology’s Progress to Becoming a Science Study of Psychology - Study of the mind, brain, and behavior → aims to describe what's happening, ask why, predict future behaviour, and limit harm through different levels of analysis - Hierarchy of study (small to la...

Lecture 1 Psychology’s Progress to Becoming a Science Study of Psychology - Study of the mind, brain, and behavior → aims to describe what's happening, ask why, predict future behaviour, and limit harm through different levels of analysis - Hierarchy of study (small to large): biological (molecular/neurochemical) → psychological (mental/neurological) → social/cultural (social/behavioural) The Scientific Method - Observe → hypothesis → predict → test → modify (go back to hypothesis) - The scientific method uses confirmation bias (seeking evidence supporting what you believe) and belief perseverance (ignoring contradictory evidence to support your belief) - Used to prove or disprove our beliefs, rather than saying its right or wrong - Challenged by: - Behaviours are multiply determined (there are many reasons contributing to one's behaviour) - Individual differences (changes person to person and day to day) - Social and cultural influences (contexts affect behaviours) - Theories → established explanations based on completed research (makes hypotheses) - Hypothesis → predicting statement formed before research Pseudoscience - Stuff that looks like science, but is false or misleading w/out scientific evidence - We may believe in it because of: - Sunk cost fallacy - after already coming this far, I might as well keep going - Confirmation bias - we may only look for evidence agreeing with our belief - Dunning-Kruger effect - the less you know about a topic, the more likely you are to believe you’re an expert (or vice versa) - Warning signs: - Exaggerated claims  - statements sounding “too good to be true” - Over Reliance on anecdotes - influenced thinking by using stories/testimonials from other individuals, rather than large-scale data - Lack of reliable and external peer review - a lack of credibility of expert verification to confirm findi ngs, there may be a conflict of interest - Proof rather than evidence - stating that studies were done but w/out proof or hiding the data - Psychobabble - using embellishing fancy terms that are actually garbage - Dangers of pseudoscience: - Opportunity cost - what you’re giving up to get something else (“there’s opportunity now at the cost of”) - Erodes trust in science - if pseudoscience happens to work, it may put you off from actual science - Harm to people - w/out evidence/rigorous testing, it can cause harm - Scientific principles guarding against pseudoscience: - Rule out rival hypotheses - look for alternative explanations for observations - Don’t confuse correlation vs causation - doesn’t always correlate - Falsifiability/Testability - science allows for testing and proving things wrong (can be measured) - Extraordinary evidence for big claims - biggers claims need stronger evidence - Replicability - you need to be able to repeat the study for stability - Parsimony/Occam’s Razor - sometimes the simple answer is best History of Psychology - Structuralism, 1879 (what) → Wilhelm Wundt, the building blocks of thought and consciousness (periodic table of mental experiences) - There were some limitations: - Subjectivity → everyone had their own individual differences contributing to perception - Imageless thought → thinking that occurs w/out visual content - Not enough to just describe our mental experiences → explain, predict, and limit - Wundt’s technique was introspection → wanted to describe basic experiences w/out reflection or being subjective (experience of having it rather than personal thoughts about it) - Functionalism (why) → William James, why do we react or do things the way we do - Psychoanalysis (late 1800-early 1900)→ Sigmund Freud, studying the unconscious/”hidden” impulses and memories - Thought the mind was like an iceberg, as with themes of sexuality and aggression which may be taboo suppressed to the bottom and outwardly shared thoughts/information on the top - Dream analysis → thought dreams were an unconscious wish fulfilment, but the problem was w/ confirmation bias - Freudian slip → when you say one thing, but mean something else, he thought it was a “leak” og unconscious to conscious, but hard to falsify - Behaviourism (1910) → John Watson and B.F. Skinner, built on watching observable or measurable behaviour, build the theory of learning through conditioning in interactive environments and repetition - The input isn’t as important as the output - Cognitivism (1950s) → Ulric Neisser, thinking affects behaviours, and that input is as equal as output, thinking that the brain is like a computer (but it’s not) - Thought behaviourism made it harder to make predictions - Psychology today → influenced by all of these theories and different subdisciplines