PSYC 203 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Institutional Review Board, Belief Perseverance, Confirmation Bias
27 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Ways of knowing: knowledge derives from experiences and how we interpret them, reliance on authority of others, use of reason. Empirical experience is a way of knowing, but interpretations in experience can be influenced by social cognition biases: belief perseverance, confirmation bias (ignoring contradictory information, availability heuristic (shocking things are more memorable) Incorrect or untruthful authorities: scientific methods can lead to discovery of regularities in behaviour. Systematic observations less affected by bias than everyday thinking. Tentative conclusions subject to outcomes of future research. Falsification criterion: objectivity led to shift from introspection to observation. Psychological science and pseudoscience: pseudoscience: deliberate attempt to associate itself with true science but cannot be tested, appears to use scientific method, but doesn"t, relies on anecdotal evidence, explains away disproof. Goals of research in psychology: provide clear and detailed descriptions of behavioural phenomena, develop laws to enable scientists to predict behaviour greater than chance, provide adequate explanations of the causes of behaviour, description, prediction, explanation, application.
