Chapter 1 Psychology
What is the hindsight bias?
"i knew it all along"
know the 5 ways to critically think
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What is correlation>
An observation of how two things are similar - related in some kind of way
What is the benefit and danger of a case study?
Benefit: can be a source of ideas about human nature in general Danger: over generalization from one example; "he got better after tapping his head so tapping must be the key to health!"
operational definitions
Danger when testing hypotheses: theories can bias our observations. We might select only the data, or the interpretations of the data, that support what we already believe
Replication
Doing something over and over again in the same setting
What is the overconfidence error?
I am 100% sure I am correct
Theory
Set of principles that explains something or predicts somebody's behavior. Theories are mostly based on observations; not actual test.
What is the key to getting useful information with surveys?
Super, super careful of how you word something because the wording can affect the results Only question random groups of people
What is the difference between negative and positive correlation?
The direction of the correlation can be positive (both variables increase together) or negative (as one goes up, the other goes down).
confounding variable
The other variables that might have an effect on the dependent variable
dependent variable
The variable we are able to manipulate independently of what the other variables are doing
Independent variable
The variable we expect to experience a change which depends on the manipulation we're doing
What is sampling?
another part of survey - a technique for making sure that every individual in a population has an equal chance of being in your sample. It saves time.
What are the two ways to be scientific?
be systematic about things and have a scientific attitude
What is naturalistic observation?
big group of people or just one; observe people in their natural environment (do not talk to them)
What are the three ways to use "description" as a research type?
case study, naturalistic observation and surveys
How can you have a scientific attitude?
curiosity- always ask new questions skepticism - not believing everything you hear humility - not being over confident. being able to admit you are wrong
Critical thinking
evaluating what you know to come up with an answer
What is survey?
having people tell you and report on their own attitudes and behaviors
Why does critical thinking fail?
hindsight bias, overconfidence error, and the coincidence error
What is a case study?
involves one person, observe somebody and gather information about their behavior and thoughts
What is the coincidence error?
mistakenly perceiving order in random events - if some rolls the dice, and you roll a 6 three times in a row, and you think that the dice is fixed because there was no way to roll 3 times in a row
What can overconfidence effect?
performance and accuracy, if we over estimate our accuracy and judgment it can become a problem
hypothesis
prediction that you can actually test/ it matches the theory
What is experimentation?
when you are experimenting with something, you manipulate one particular factor in a situation to determine its effect
