Thinking Critically with Psychological Science Myers

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Thinking Critically with Psychological
ScienceMyers

• Eran Hanke
• Chapter 1

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How is Psychology defined?

• the study of/ the science of behavior and mental
  processes
• Behavior action we can observe, anything a
  person does
• Mental processes internal, subjective
  experiences, inferred from behavior
• Science of particular way of studying behavior
  and mental processes
• Way of asking and answering questions
• Observing, evaluating, analyzing ideas
• Methods for describing and explaining human
  nature by making predictions and testing ideas
  and theories

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• How can we best use psychology to understand why
  they think, feel and act as they do?
• sort uniformed opinions from evaluated conclusions

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What are some problems with Common Sense?

• More than common sense and intuition
• Easy to explain after the fact
• Harder to predict
• Learn through observation, experience

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What are some problems with Common Sense?

• Hindsight Bias
• Tendency to believe, after learning the outcome,
  you could have foreseen, predicted it
• Knew-it-all-along phenomenon
• Psychology helps predict, know what to expect

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• ought --gt tough
• night --gt thing
• needs --gt dense
• rocks -- gt corks

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• looped --gt
• votes --gt
• layer --gt

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What are some problems with Common Sense?

• Overconfidence
• Tendency to think we know more than we do, we are
  less prone to mistakes
• Difficult to challenge, to undo

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How do people using psychology approach study?

• Scientific Attitude
• Curious
• Skeptical
• Open

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What is Critical Thinking?

• Combining curiosity, skepticism
• Examining assumptions
• Discerning values
• Evaluating evidence
• Assessing conclusions

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How can Critical Thinking be applied?

• What do they mean?
• How do they know that?
• What is the agenda?
• Is the conclusion based on anecdote, gut feeling,
  evidence?
• Does the evidence justify cause-effect
  conclusions?
• What alternative explanations are possible?
• http//www.parents.com/articles/age/5811.jsp

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Applying Critical Thinking

• What is the purpose or aim of the information?
• Who is the intended audience?
• What are the assumptions made?
• Who is the source of the information?
• How did they get their information?
• What are their conclusions?
• What evidence brought them to their conclusions?
• What else would you like to know?
• What alternative explanations are possible?

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What is the Scientific Method?

• Make observations, gather data
• Form theories
• Formulate hypotheses
• Test through research (gather data)
• 5. Refine theory

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Scientific Method

• Theory explains behavior or mental process
  through a set of principles that organize and
  predict the thoughts, feelings and actions under
  study
• Organizes/links observed facts
• Implies hypotheses
• Able to be tested
• Hypothesis a testable prediction implied by a
  theory (what you expect to happen)

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Scientific Method

• Conceptual Definition/Construct/Research Variable
  main theoretical idea being studied
• Operational Definition a statement of
  procedures used to define the research variable
• Replication repeating the essence of a research
  study to see if findings extend beyond original

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How do folks studying psychology gather data?
Test hypotheses?

• Psychology attempts to understand thoughts,
  feelings and actions
• First determine the purpose of the study
• Describe
• Determine Relationship
• Explain

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How do folks studying psychology gather data?
Test hypotheses?

• Purpose will help determine method of data
  collection
• Case Study
• Survey
• Naturalistic Observation
• Experiment