PSYCH101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Scientific Literacy, Confounding, Scientific Method
7 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Module 1.1 – The Science of Psychology
- The central theme is the quest to understand why it how we behave the way we you do
- Psychology and psychological research affect almost every aspect of your life
- Two unifying themes allow us to group the vast collection of disciplines of psychology
together:
➢ Psychology involves the study of behavior which can include perceptions, thoughts,
and emotions
➢ Psychologist employed the scientific method in their work
- Psychology: the scientific study of behavior, thoughts, and experience, and how they
can be affected by physical, mental, and social, environmental factors
- For a person to conduct science they must carefully follow system observations,
predicting, and testing
- The scientific method is a way of learning about the world through collecting
observations, developing theories to explain them, and using theories to make
predictions
- Scientific thinking and procedures revolve around the concept of hypothesis and a
theory
- A hypothesis is a testable prediction about processes that can be observed and
measured; can be supported or rejected, but a scientific hypothesis must be testable
- Astrology is often referred to as pseudoscience: an idea that is presented as science but
does not actually utilize basic principles of scientific thinking our procedure
- Theory: an explanation for a broad range of observations that also generates new
hypothesis and integrates numerous findings into coherent whole
- Theories are general principles or explanations of some aspect of the world
- Hypothesis is our specific predictions can test the theory
- Theories are not the same thing as opinions or beliefs
- All theories are not equally plausible
- A measure of a good theory is not the number of people who believe it to be true
- And the case of psychology we must remember that behavior can occur on a number of
different levels including activity of cells In different parts of the brain, thought
processes such as language and memory, and socio-cultural processes that shape daily
life for millions of people
- Psychology examines the individual as a product of multiple influences, including
biological, psychological, and social factors
- The biopsychosocial model is the means of explaining behavior as a product of
biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors
- Biological influences: Brain structure, chemicals, hormones, external substances
- Psychological influences: memories, emotions, personalities
- Social factors: family, peers, ethnicity, and culture
- Scientific literacy: the ability to understand, analyze, and applies scientific information
- Massed learning: performing all studying the session
- Distributed learning: having shorter study sessions over several days
- Critical thinking; involves exercising curiosity and skepticism when evaluating claims of
others, as well as our own assumptions and beliefs
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
13
PSYCH101 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
13 documents
Document Summary
The central theme is the quest to understand why it how we behave the way we you do. Psychology and psychological research affect almost every aspect of your life. Two unifying themes allow us to group the vast collection of disciplines of psychology together: Psychology involves the study of behavior which can include perceptions, thoughts, and emotions. Psychologist employed the scientific method in their work. Psychology: the scientific study of behavior, thoughts, and experience, and how they can be affected by physical, mental, and social, environmental factors. For a person to conduct science they must carefully follow system observations, predicting, and testing. The scientific method is a way of learning about the world through collecting observations, developing theories to explain them, and using theories to make predictions. Scientific thinking and procedures revolve around the concept of hypothesis and a theory.
