PSYC104 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Belief Perseverance, Popular Psychology, Pseudoscience
17 May 2018
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PSYC104 Lecture Reading
Week 1 – Chapter 1: Science and pseudoscience in psychology
- Psychology: the scientific study of the mind, brain and behaviour
- Popular psychology industry: sprawling network of everyday sources of information
about human behaviour
- Levels of analysis
o Social level
o Behavioural level
o Mental level
o Neurological / physiological level
o Neurochemical level
o Molecular level
- Five challenges in psychology
o Human behaviour is difficult predict because almost all actions are multiply
determined
o Psychological influences are rarely independent of each other
o People differ from each other in thinking, emotion, personality and behaviour
o People often influence each other
o Peoples ehaiour is ofte shaped ulture
- Naïve realism: belief that we see the world precisely as it is
- Objectivity: attempt to set aside personal interests when evaluating the evidence for
a scientific claim
- Hypothesis: testable prediction derived from a theory
- Confirmation bias: tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and
neglect or distort evidence that contradicts them
- Belief perseverance: tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence
contradicts them
- Pseudoscience: set of claims that seems scientific but is not
- Warning signs of pseudoscience
o Exaggerated claims
o Overreliance on anecdotes
o Lack of peer review
- Ad hoc immunising hypothesis: escape hatch or loophole that defends of a theory
use to protect their theory from being contradicted by evidence
- Extrasensory perception (ESP): perception of events outside the recognised channels
of sensory information
- Astrolog: pseudosiee that lais to predit peoples persoalities ad futures
from the precise date and time of their birth
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Week 1 chapter 1: science and pseudoscience in psychology. Psychology: the scientific study of the mind, brain and behaviour. Popular psychology industry: sprawling network of everyday sources of information about human behaviour. Levels of analysis: social level, behavioural level, mental level, neurological / physiological level, neurochemical level, molecular level. Na ve realism: belief that we see the world precisely as it is. Objectivity: attempt to set aside personal interests when evaluating the evidence for a scientific claim. Hypothesis: testable prediction derived from a theory. Confirmation bias: tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and neglect or distort evidence that contradicts them. Belief perseverance: tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them. Pseudoscience: set of claims that seems scientific but is not. Warning signs of pseudoscience: exaggerated claims, overreliance on anecdotes, lack of peer review.
