Lecture 1: Psychology as a Science Flashcards Preview

Introduction to Biological and Cognitive Psychology > Lecture 1: Psychology as a Science > Flashcards

Flashcards in Lecture 1: Psychology as a Science Deck (37)
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1
Q

What are the different approaches to answering psychological questions?

A

1) Social
2) Mental
3) Behavioural
4) Neurological
5) Neurochemical
6) Molecular

2
Q

Why is psychology so difficult to study?

A

1) HUMAN BEHAVIOUR CANNOT BE RELIABLY MEASURED
2) Behaviour is difficult to predict
3) Behaviour is multiply determined
4) Determinants are not independent
5) Influences can go unnoticed
6) Individuals are different to groups
7) Concepts are popular but ill-defined
8) People react when they are being studied
9) Every culture is different

3
Q

What is Naïve Realism?

A

The idea that we do not experience the world as it actually is and not everyone receives information in the same way (has different views of the same information).

4
Q

What is Patternicity?

A

Agreeing with our need for pattern recognition, familiarity is imposed upon natural or random patterns.

5
Q

What are Logical Fallacies?

A

The idea that human rationality us classically bounded and so we think we act rationally when we do not.

6
Q

What are 6 common fallacies?

A

1) Bandwagon
2) Either-or
3) Appeal to authority
4) Appeal to ignorance
5) Argument from Antiquity
6) NOT ME…

7
Q

What is Pseudoscience?

A

Something that looks like science because of the techniques it uses but it is not real science.

8
Q

What are the 7 warning signs of Pseudoscience?

A

1) Exaggerated claims:
2) Absence of connectivity:
3) Ad-hoc immunisation:
4) Psychobabble:
5) Lack of review:
6) Proof not evidence:
7) Anecdotes:

9
Q

What defines a good theory?

A

1) consolidates previous observations (what we know)

2) generates future hypotheses (future predictions)

10
Q

What are the 6 principals of scientific thinking?

A

1) Rival hypotheses
2) Replicability
3) Correlation vs. Causation
4) Extraordinary claims
5) Falsifiability
6) Occam’s Razor

11
Q

What was Descartes main theory?

A
  • Concerned with resolving the Dualism problem.
  • Dualists thought mind and brain were separate.
  • Monists: one kind of ‘stuff’.
  • interaction between physical and mental thought to be in the pineal gland.
  • wrong but important in hormone reproduction.
12
Q

What is Natural Selection?

A

(1859)

The idea that tendencies have adaptive value.

13
Q

What is Introspection?

A

Wundt thought it was possible to boil down complex experiences to combinations of simpler sensations/processes.

14
Q

What is Structuralism?

A

The idea that you can decompose something (vision) into many experiences (32,800).

15
Q

What is Behaviourism?

A

Introspection about mental processes is hard to verify and so you can only reliably measure behaviour.

16
Q

What is Freud’s Psychodynamic Theory?

A

Our conscious mind gatekeeps our iceberg sized unconscious (causes behavioural problems).
Freudian slips.

17
Q

What is the focus of a behaviourist?

A

Input and output.

18
Q

What is the focus of a cognitivist?

A

How we get from input to output.

19
Q

Complete the quote:

Cognition both ______ and ______ to _______ the ‘________ __ ___ ____’.

A

Cognition both acknowledges and attempts to describe the ‘blueprints of the mind’.

20
Q

What is a bandwagon fallacy?

A

Popular=correct

21
Q

What is the either or fallacy?

A

Accepting 1 of 2 extreme positions

22
Q

What is the appeal to authority fallacy?

A

Endorsed by higher power

23
Q

What is the appeal to ignorance fallacy?

A

Must be true because not proved false

24
Q

What is the argument from antiquity fallacy?

A

Been around a long time thus true

25
Q

What is an exaggerated claim?

A

need extraordinary evidence/too good to be true?

26
Q

What is proof not evidence?

A

It is impossible to prove certain psychological condition.

27
Q

What is the absence of connectivity?

A

Bridges built between observations and theory

28
Q

What is ad-hoc immunisation?

A

loophole/additional argument that protects theory from rejection

29
Q

What is an anecdote?

A

Small samples are hard to verify.

30
Q

What is Psychobabble?

A

Use of complex and unusual sentences to convey science without being scientific.

31
Q

What is a lack of review?

A

Research not peer-reviewed/researchers not vesting interest.

32
Q

What are rival hypotheses?

A

findings consistent with several hypotheses need research to rule out certain ones.

33
Q

What is replicability?

A

capable of being duplicated following the same methodology.

34
Q

What is correlation vs. causation?

A

Association does NOT mean a cause and effect relationship.

35
Q

What are extraordinary claims?

A

A claim that contradicts what we already know must have a lot of evidence to back it up.

36
Q

What is falsifiability?

A

Claims must be capable of being disproved.

37
Q

What is Occam’s Razor?

A

If two hypotheses explain a phenomenon equally well, select the simpler one.