UNIT 1

Objective 4:

What are some limits on or intuition and common sense?

Objective 5: How do psychological theories guide scientific research?

Objective 6: How do psychologists use case studies, survey, & naturalistic obs. to observe & describe behavior, & why is random sampling important?

Objective 7: What are positive & negative correlation, & how to they permit prediction w/o cause –effect explanation?

OBJECTIVE : WHAT ARE SOME LIMITS ON OR INTUITION AND

COMMON SENSE? HINDSIGHT BIAS “I-knew-it-all-along-phenomenon”

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder” “Out of sight is out of mind.”

If two opposite findings make sense, need science to prove. HINDSIGHT BIAS When drilling the

Deepwater Horizon oil well in 2010, oil industry employees took some

shortcuts and ignored some warning signs, without intending to harm the

environment or their companies’ reputations.

After the resulting Gulf oil spill, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, the foolishness of those judgments

became obvious.

THE LIMITS OF INTUITION AND COMMON SENSE

Overconfidence People tend to think they know more than they do. This occurs in academic and social behavior.

WREAT → WATERETRYN → ENTRYGRABE → BARGE

• About how many seconds do you think it each anagram?

POINT TO REMEMBER…

Hindsight Bias & Overconfidence often lead us to overestimate our intuition.

Why use the scientific method? Using the scientific method can help us separate

reality from illusion.

OBJECTIVE 5: HOW DO PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES GUIDE

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH?

Theory “mere hunch” Organizes observations & predicts behavior Produces testable predictions

Hypothesis Testable prediction; implied by a theory

Operational Definition Define research variables w/ precise procedures or

measures Helps control for researcher bias; lets our research be

replicated Replication

Repeating research study Helps prove reliability of results

METHODS OF RESEARCH

descriptive methods – describe behavior

correlational methods – show relationships between variables /

associations predicts behavior

experimental methods- show cause and effect relationship

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH METHODS (3)

Case StudyOne person studied in depthGet ideas for new studies (+)Cannot learn general truths (-)

SurveyLooks at many cases at once

Word effects (-)Random sampling

Representative sample (+)

Population All cases in a group being studied from which the sample

may be drawn

Random Sample Each person in group has the same chance of

participating. Large rep. samples are better than small Can’t compensate for unrep sample by adding more people

Naturalistic Observation Describes behavior as it happens in natural

environment

Doesn’t control for all the factors that can contribute to behavior (-)

DESCRIPTION

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATIONNaturalistic Observation

What did you observe?see & hear?

What is your interpretation of what you observed?

underline all factual observations

Circle all subjective statements

OBJECTIVE 7:WHAT ARE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE CORRELATIONS, AND WHY DO THEY

ENABLE PREDICTION BUT NOT CAUSE-EFFECT EXPLANATION?

Correlation (correlation coefficient)How well does A predict B; Positive versus negative correlationStrength of the correlation

-1.0 to +1.0 (r)

Scatterplot a graphed cluster of dots each dot represents the values of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the

two variables. The amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation (little scatter

indicates high correlation).

Says nothing about strength of

prediction

Correlation

Correlation

Correlation

Correlation

Correlation

Correlation

+.63

OBJECTIVE 7:WHAT ARE ILLUSORY CORRELATIONS?

Illusory CorrelationWhen we believe there is a

relationship we are likely to notice & recall instances that confirm our belief

CORRELATION

CORRELATION AND CAUSATION

Correlation helps predictDoes not imply cause and effect

Length of marriage correlates with hair loss in men.

CORRELATION DOES NOT MEAN CAUSATION!!!

LAB #1: CORRELATING NUMBERS & LETTERS

In your notebook, under your correlation notes, write title LAB#2 CORRELATION

Write Results Letter Time (X Axis): ______Number Time (Y Axis):_____

Record your data for class set (my computer)

Write Scatterplot: (1/2 page)Plot class data & answer

questions (WRITE ?s in notes)

Letter TimeX Axis

Nu

mb

er

Tim

eY

Axis

INFO TO ADD UNDER SCATTERGRAM…LAB #1: CORRELATING NUMBERS & LETTERS

1. Positive or Negative Correlation? EXPLAIN

2. Strong or Weak Correlation? EXPLAIN

3. Would the correlation coefficient be closer to -1, 0, or 1.0?

4. What assumption could you safely draw if this data represented a perfect correlation?

Initials Letter Time (X Axis) Number Time (Y Axis) Initials Letter Time (X Axis) Number Time

(Y Axis)

     

     

     

2nd period

Letter TimeX Axis

Nu

mb

er

Tim

eY

Axis

30 80

30

80

OBJECTIVE 8:HOW DO EXPERIMENTS CLARIFY OR REVEAL

CAUSE-EFFECT RELATIONSHIPS?

Define the following terms (leave 2 lines in between each of your definitions) Experiment Random Assignment Experimental Group Control Group Placebo Effect Double-Bind Procedure Independent Variable Dependent Variable

HOMEWORK DUE WEDNESDAY