jimtrue.com : school : PSY1012 : Chapter One: Critical Thinking

Posted by Jim True on January 12, 2006 5:36 PM. Last Updated October 22, 2006 9:23 PM

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Chapter One: Critical Thinking

Terms

• hindsight bias tendency to believe, after experiencing or learning about an outcome, that one would have foreseen it... the 'I knew it all along' phenomenon.
• critical thinking thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence and assesses conclusions.
• theory - explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations.
• hypothesis - testable prediction, often implied by a theory.
• operational definition - statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables. for example, intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures.
• replication - repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances.
• case study - an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.
• survey - a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviours of people, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of them.
• false consensus effect - the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.
• population - all the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study (note: except for national studies, does not refer to a country's whole population.)
• random sample - a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.
• naturalistic observation - observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation.
• correlation coefficient - a statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.
• scatterplot - a graphed cluster of dots, each of which 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 higher correlation).
• illusory correlation - the perception of a relationship where none exists.
• experiment - 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 experiment controls other relevant factors.
• double-blind procedure - 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.
• placebo effect - experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which is assumed to be an active agent.
• experimental condition - condition of an experiment that exposes participants to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.
• control condition - the condition of an experiment that congtrasts with the experiemental condition and servers as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.
• random assignment - assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups.
• independent variable - the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.
• dependent variable - the experimental factor - in psychology, the behavior or mental process - that is being measured; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable.
• mode - the most frequently occurring score in a distribution.
• mean - the arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores.
• median - the middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it.
• range - the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.
• standard deviation - a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score.
• statistical significance - a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance.
• culture - the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

In Class Discussion & Notes

scientific attitude - open minded; no preconceived notions; skeptical (but not cynical); curiousity

hypothesis - educated guess; testable prediction; often implied by theory. State question as a hypothesis so it can be researched and tested.

Clue words from journal articles that what is following is the researcher's hypothesis: 'We predict' 'the goal of this present study was...', 'we hypothesize'.

Figure from Pg 25 - Process from theory to hypothesis to research and observations. Notice the arrows are cyclical; this is a never ending process. People will take existing research and refine the hypothesis, or expand upon it, or discover findings that alter it. Get away from the concept of 'proving' something in psychology; nothing in psychology is ever proved... it just has more research confirming the results.

Operational definition: when you state a question as a hypothesis you need concrete definitions of how you're defining your variables so you can more explicitly measure them in your experiments. Very specific definitions are preferred so it's easier to specifically determine what you're measuring.

Important to 'replicate' the findings from existing hypothesis. Replicate is 'copy' the experiment. Need to replicate in order to reinforce the findings, or question them; changing some aspects of the experiment to see if different results are obtained. This is why concrete definitions are required; you need the recipe that was used in reinforcing a hypothesis so that when you replicate the study, you are following the same recipe, or at least know what you're changing from the original.

All research in psychology attempts to describe, predict or explain behavior.

Non-experimental research

Can only be used to describe behavior.

Case studies - study one or more individuals in great depth in the hope of revealing things true of us all. Sigmund Freud relied upon case studies of his patients as a basis for his theory of psychoanalysis. Weakness to this method is that you can't really generalize one particular case study to a larger base of individuals.

Naturalistic observation - Jane Goodall and Diane Fossie; the concept with this method is you don't want subject to change their behavior because they realize they are being observed.

Survey - technique for collecting the self-reported behaviors or attitudes of people. Easier to grab a random sample of people. Sometimes problems with the wording of the questions; sometimes people are not honest about their attitudes and behaviors. Good way to collect a whole bunch of data and this method is cheaper than other research methods.

Random Sample - Often skewed because the sample of the population is not truthfully 'random'; often the sample is collected from college students, because this is the population that research psychologists working in Graduate and Undergraduate programs have access to.

False Consensus Effect - tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors. Believing more people agree with your findings that is truthfully the case.

Correlational Research

Can be used to describe and predict behavior

Often use surveys to collect their data.

Correlation Coefficient - Closer to 1.0 the more related the two variables are two each other. Positive means variables move in the same direction; negative means variable changes run opposite to each other. Ie, as stress goes up rates of sickness increase (positive); as depression increases self-esteem decreases (negative).

Correlation research predicts a relationship between two variables, but does not explain the relationship. Does not prove that one variable causes another (there is no proof of cause & effect).

Non-experimental research leaves all manner of factors and variables to chance.

Experimental Research

Only research design where you can talk about cause and effect; speaks to the larger population represented by your random sample. Researchers take the time to control and manipulate independent variables. Most powerful research method psychologists use; also very expensive and time-consuming.

Mozart Experiment - measurement of intelligence when babies are exposed to Mozarts music. Independent variable was Mozart's music; dependent variable was 'intelligence' but was actually testing the ability to solve spatial tasks. As infants were exposed to Mozard (independent variable), the ability of the infants to solve spatial tasks increased (dependent variable).

Independent variable - experimental factor, the variable being manipulated and whose effect is being studied.

Dependent variable - variable/experimental factor being measured to determine how it is changed in response to the manipulations of the independent variable. In psychology, this is usually a behavior or mental process.

Experimental condition - group or factor in experiment that gets exposed to the independent variable.

Control condition - group or factor in experiment that doesn't get exposed to the independent variable.

Using both will test what happens when exposed and when not exposed so that it's possible to compare the results from both groups. Serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.

At this point in research we are talking about cause and effect; never proven but there should be some sort of effect that can be generalized.

Placebo and Double-blind procedure (from textbook)

Reliability and Validity - when using tests and measures in research, researchers will talk about how reliable and valid their results are. When a test is reliable, the results are consistent (you can rely on them). When a test is valid, a test measures what it says it measures.

Comparing Research Methods (chart in book) Pg. 40

Disclaimer: These are MY notes taken from classroom lectures while I'm in the classroom. While I'm perfectly happy to share my notes with my classmates and I know I take very good notes, you should still make every effort to attend the class and TAKE YOUR OWN NOTES. I will not transcribe everything the instructor says in the classroom, and I will NEVER post pre-exam reviews. My notes will not replace the value of actually attending class and taking your own class notes.I also cannot attest to their accuracy, other than they are what was provided in the lecture; you should not reference my notes as "expert opionion" by any means, and if you notice an error or omission, please do me the favor of e-mailing me with the correction and I will re-post my notes. End of Disclaimer.