Lectures 2-3: History and Methods in Psychology (ch1)

Psychology involves studying the mind at one specific level of explanation.

Science is a body of knowledge consisting of all the findings that scientists have discovered.

Scientific experiments work by trying to test the predictions of researchers' theories.

In general, scientists are just as prone to confirmation bias as non-scientists.

A scientific hypothesis is essentially the same thing as a scientific theory, only more specific in its predictions.

Most forms of psychotherapy have been tested.

According to terror management theory, our fears of death are an important reason for pseudoscientific beliefs.

Humans' tendency to see patterns in random data in entirely maladaptive.

A logical fallacy has occured whenever we arrive at false conclusions.

Research on the bias blind spot implies that we often do not perceive biases in people to whom we are emotionally close.

Scientific scepticism requires a willingness to keep an open mind to all claims.

When evaluating a psychological claim, we should keep in mind other possible explanations for it.

Occam's razor implies that the simpler of two explanations is the true one.

A risky prediction is one that stands a good chance of being wrong if the theory generating it is also wrong.

When psychological findings are replicated, it is especially important that the replications be conducted by the same team of investigators.

Behaviourism focuses on discovering the general laws of learning in animals rather than humans

Cognitive psychologists argue that psychological theories must account for how people interpret the meaning of the events which act as rewards and punishments.

Advocates of determinism believe that free will is an illusion.

Studying discrimination in the lab is applied research, while investigating which colour of motor vehicle is involved in fewest traffic accidents is basic research.

Achievement tests such as the HSC do no better than chance at predicting students' performance at university.