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Flashcards in CH 1: Thinking Critically Deck (95)
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1
Q

Critical Thinking

A

Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, appraises the source, discerns hidden biases, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.

2
Q

What is the Scientific Attitude and What are the Scientific Attitude’s 3 main components?

A

Being skeptical but not cynical, open but not gullible.

  • Curious
  • Skeptical
  • Humble
3
Q

As Scientists, Psychologists approach the world with a ‘Curious Skepticism’, persistently asking what 2 questions?

A

1) What do you mean?

2) How do you know?

4
Q

Humility

A

Awareness of our own vulnerability to error and openness to surprises and new perspectives.

5
Q

What are some Questions Critical Thinkers ask?

A
  • How do they know that?
  • What is this person’s agenda?
  • Is the conclusion based on a personal story and gut feelings, or on evidence?
  • Does the evidence justify a cause-effect conclusion?
  • What alternative explanations are possible?
6
Q

“For a lot of bad ideas, science is society’s garbage disposal.”

Describe what this tells us about the scientific attitude and what’s involved in critical thinking.

A

Many ideas and questions may be scrutinized scientifically, and the bad ones end up discarded as a result.

1) Curiosity about the world around us.
2) Skepticism about unproven claims and ideas.
3) Humility about one’s own understanding.

This process leads us to evaluate evidence, assess conclusions, and examine our own assumptions, which are essential parts of critical thinking.

7
Q

From a psychologist’s perspective, What does it mean to be human?

A

To be human is to be curious about ourselves and the world around us.

8
Q

Who created Psychology’s first Laboratory?

A

Wilhelm Wundt

9
Q

Who is Wilhelm Wundt?

A

Wundt established the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig, Germany in 1879. Wundt was seeking to measure ‘atoms of the mind’ -the fastest and simplest mental processes.

10
Q

What are two of Psychology’s first schools of thought?

A

Structuralism and Functionalism

11
Q

Structuralism

A

Early school of thought promoted by Wundt and Titchener; used introspection to reveal the structure of the human mind.

12
Q

Functionalism

A

Early school of thought promoted by William James and influenced by Darwin; explored how mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish.

13
Q

Self-Reflective Introspection

A

External observation of oneself - Looking Inward

14
Q

Who is William James?

A

American philosopher - psychologist, and first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James has been labeled the “Father of American psychology”.

15
Q

How does Consciousness serve as a Function?

A

It enables us to consider our past, adjust to our present, and plan our future.

16
Q

Who is Mary Whiton Calkins?

A

A pioneering memory researcher and the first woman president of the American Psychological Association in 1905.

17
Q

Who is Margret Floy Washburn?

A

The first woman to receive a Ph.D. in Psychology. She also wrote an influential book, The Animal Mind in 1908, and became the APA’s second female president in 1921.

18
Q

What event defined the start of Scientific Psychology?

A

Scientific Psychology began in Germany 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt opened the first Psychology Laboratory.

19
Q

Why did introspection fail as a method for understanding how the mind works?

A

People’s self-reports varied depending on the experience and the person’s intelligence and verbal ability.

20
Q

Fill in the Blank:

The School of _____ used introspection to define the mind’s makeup; _____ focused on how mental processes enabled us to adapt, survive, and flourish.

A

Structuralism; Functionalism

21
Q

Psychology

A

The science of behavior and mental processes.

22
Q

Behaviorism

A

The view that psychology,
1) Should be an objective science that
2) Studies behavior without reference to mental processes.
(Most scientists agree with (1) but not with (2).

  • Became one of psychology’s two major forces in the 1960’s.
23
Q

Freudian Psychology

A

Emphasizes our unconscious thought processes and emotional responses to childhood experiences affect our behavior.

24
Q

Humanistic Psychology

A

Historically significant perspective that emphasizes human growth potential.

25
Q

Behavior

A

Anything an organism does; any action we can observe and record.

26
Q

What are Mental Processes?

A

The internal subjective experiences we infer from behavior - sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings.

27
Q

Fill in the Blank:

From the 1920s through the 1960s, the two major forces in psychology were _____ and _____ psychology.

A

Behaviorism; Freudian

28
Q

Cognitive Psychology

A

How we perceive, process, and remember information, and the cognitive roots of anxiety, depression, and other psychological disorders.

29
Q

Cognitive Neuroscience

A

The marriage between Cognitive Psychology (The science of the mind) and Neuroscience (The science of the brain).
It is the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language).

30
Q

What is the Nature-Nurture Issue?

A

The longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors. Today’s science sees traits and behaviors arising from the interaction of Nature and Nurture.

31
Q

Describe what “Nurture works on what nature endows” means?

A

Our species is biologically endowed with an enormous capacity to learn and adapt. Moreover, every psychological event (every thought, every emotion) is simultaneously a biological event. Thus, depression can be both a brain disorder and a thought disorder.

32
Q

How did the cognitive revolution affect the field of psychology?

A

It recaptured the field’s early interest in mental processes and made them legitimate topics for scientific study.

33
Q

What is Natural Selection?

A

This is the process by which nature selects from chance variations the traits that best enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.

34
Q

What is contemporary psychology’s position on the nature-nurture issue?

A

Psychological events often stem from the interaction of nature and nurture rather than from either of them acting alone.

35
Q

Evolutionary Psychology

A

The study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection.

36
Q

What is the WEIRD cultures?

A
W - western
E - educated
I - industrialized
R - rich
D - democratic
37
Q

Culture

A

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

38
Q

Behavior Genetics

A

The study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior.

39
Q

Positive Psychology

A

The scientific study of human functioning, with the goals of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities to thrive.

40
Q

What are levels of analysis?

A

The differing complimentary views from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon.

41
Q

What is the Biopsychosocial Approach?

A

An integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis.

42
Q

Psychodynamic

A

How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts.

43
Q

Critical Thinking 1.1

How do the scientific attitude’s three main components relate to critical thinking?

A

The scientific attitude equips us to be curious, skeptical, and humble, in scrutinizing competing ideas or our own observations. This attitude carries into everyday life as critical thinking, which puts ideas to the test by examining assumptions, appraising the source, discerning hidden biases, evaluating evidence, and assessing conclusions.

44
Q

What advantage do we gain by using the biopsychosocial approach in studying psychological events?

A

Incorporating different levels of analysis, the biopsychosocial approach can provide a more complete view than any one perspective could offer.

45
Q

Fill in the Blank:

The _____ perspective in psychology focuses on how behavior and thought differ from situation and from culture to culture, while the _____ perspective emphasizes observation of how we respond to and learn in different situation.

A

Social-Cultural; Behavioral

46
Q

Social-Cultural Perspective

A

How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures.

47
Q

What is the difference between Basic Research and Applied Research?

A

Basic research is pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base. Applied research is scientific study that aims to solve practical problems.

48
Q

Counseling Psychology

A

A branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living (often related to school, work, or marriage) and in achieving greater well-being.

49
Q

Clinical Psychology

A

A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders.

50
Q

Psychiatry

A

A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provider medical treatments as well as psychological therapy.

51
Q

Community Psychology

A

A branch of psychology that studies how people interact with their social environments and how social institutions affect individuals and groups.

52
Q

Fill in the Blank:

In 1879, in psychology’s first experiment, _____ and his students measured the time lag between hearing a ball hit a platform and pressing a key.

A

Wilhelm Wundt

53
Q

Fill in the Blank:

In the early twentieth century, _____ redefined psychology as “the science of observable behavior.”

A

John B. Watson

54
Q

Intuition

A

An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.

55
Q

What three phenomenon illustrate why we cannot rely solely on intuition and common sense?

A

Hindsight Bias, Over-confidence, and our Tendency to perceive patterns in random events.

56
Q

What is the “I knew it all along” phenomenon?

A

Hindsight Bias

57
Q

Hindsight Bias

A

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.
(Also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.)

58
Q

Why do we experience Overconfidence?

A

We humans tend to think we know more than we do. We tend to be more confident than correct.

59
Q

Why, after friends start dating, do we often feel that we knew they were meant to be together?

A

We often suffer from hindsight bias - after we’ve learned a situation’s outcome, that outcome seems familiar and therefore obvious.

60
Q

Why do we perceive order in random events?

A

We have built-in eagerness to make sense of our world. Even in random data, we often find patterns, because - here’s a curious fact of life - random sequences often don’t look random.

61
Q

What is the scientific method?

A

A self-correcting process for evaluating ideas with observation and analysis.

62
Q

Theory

A

an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.

63
Q

Hypothesis

A

A testable prediction, often implied by a theory.

64
Q

Operational Definition

A

A carefully worded statement of the exact procedures (operations) used in a research study.

65
Q

Why should we Replicate research studies?

A

Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding can be reproduced.

66
Q

What does a good theory do?

A

1) It organizes observed facts.
2) It implies hypotheses that offer testable predictions and sometimes, practical applications.
3) It often stimulates further research.

67
Q

Why is replication important?

A

When other investigators are able to replicate experiment with the same (or better) results, scientists can confirm the result and become more confident of its reliability.

68
Q

Case Study

A

A descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.

69
Q

We cannot assume that case studies always reveal general principles that apply to all of us. Why not?

A

Case studies involve only one individual or group, so we can’t know for sure whether the principles observed would apply to a larger population.

70
Q

Naturalistic Observations

A

a descriptive technique of observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation.

71
Q

What is a Survey?

A

A descriptive technique for obtaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group.

72
Q

Random Sample

A

A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.

73
Q

What is an unrepresentative sample, and how do researchers avoid it?

A

An unrepresentative sample is a group that does not represent the population being studied. Random sampling helps researchers form a representative sample, because each member of the population has an equal chance of being included.

74
Q

Correlate

A

A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.

75
Q

Correlation Coefficient

A

A statistical index of the relationship between two things.

76
Q

What is a positive and negative correlation?

A
  • A Positive Correlation (above 0 to +1.00) indicates a direct relationship, meaning that two things increase together or decrease together.
  • A Negative Correlation (below 0 to −1.00) indicates an inverse relationship: As one thing increases, the other decreases.
77
Q

What is an Experiment?

A

A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable). By random assignment of participants, the experimenter aims to control other relevant factors.

78
Q

Experimental Group

A

In an experiment, the group exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.

79
Q

Control Group

A

In an experiment, the group not exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.

80
Q

Random Assignments

A

Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between the different groups.

81
Q

What is the Double-Blind Procedure?

A

An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo. Commonly used in drug-evaluation studies.

82
Q

What is the Placebo Effect?

A

Experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent.

83
Q

What measures do researchers use to prevent the placebo effect from confusing their results?

A

Research designed to prevent the placebo effect randomly assigns participants to an experimental group (receives the real treatment) or to a control group (receives a placebo), using a double-blind procedure (neither those who receive nor those who administer the treatment know who gets the placebo versus the actual treatment). A comparison of the results will demonstrate whether the real treatment produces better results than belief in that treatment.

84
Q

What is an Independent Variable in an experiment?

A

In an experiment, the factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.

85
Q

What is a Confounding Variable in an experiment?

A

A factor other than the factor being studied that might produce an effect.

86
Q

What is a Dependent Variable in an experiment?

A

In an experiment, the outcome that is measured; the variable that may change when the independent variable is manipulated.

87
Q

In the experiment on the effects of perceived ethnicity on availability of rental housing, what was the independent variable? The dependent variable?

A

The independent variable, which the researchers manipulated, was the set of ethnically distinct names. The dependent variable, which they measured, was the positive response rate.

88
Q

Fill in the Blank:

By using Random Assignment, researchers are able to control for _____ _____, which are other factors besides the independent variable(s) that may influence research results.

A

Confounding Variables

89
Q

What is the purpose of the APA and BPS ethics code for researchers?

A

1) Obtain human participants informed consent before the experiment.
2) Protect participants from greater-than-usual harm and discomfort.

3) Keep information
about individual participants confidential.

4) Fully debrief people (explain the research afterward).

90
Q

How are animal and human research participants protected?

A

Animal protection legislation, laboratory regulation and inspection, and local ethics committees serve to protect animal and human welfare. At universities, ethics committees screen research proposals.

91
Q

What is the SQ3R Study?

A

The SQ3R study method is an acronym for its five steps:

Survey, Question, Read, Retrieve, Review.

92
Q

Fill in the Blank:

The _____ describes the enhanced memory that results from repeated retrieval (as in self-testing) rather than from simple reading of new information.

A

Testing Effect.

93
Q

Critical Thinking 1-7:

How does our everyday thinking sometimes lead us to a wrong conclusion?

A

Our everyday thinking can be perilous because of three phenomena: hindsight bias, overconfidence, and a tendency to perceive order in random events.

94
Q

Critical Thinking 1-8:

How do theories advance psychological science?

A

Psychological theories are explanations that apply an integrated set of principles to organize observations and generate hypotheses—predictions that can be used to check the theory or produce practical applications of it. By testing their hypotheses, researchers can confirm, reject, or revise their theories.

95
Q

Critical Thinking 1-12

Can laboratory experiments illuminate everyday life?

A

Yes and No.

Researchers intentionally create a controlled, artificial environment in the laboratory in order to test general theoretical principles. These general principles help explain everyday behaviors.