Psych 117

8:10 9:25
Ji Sun Jeong

Today
1. Introductions
2. What is Psychology?
3. Syllabi and Administrative stuff

Who I am

Who they are
! Name, Major, Hometown
! Does anyone have an unusual hobby?
! Why is each person taking this class?
! What is your goals for this class?

Think: What is psychology?
! What is psychology?
! Write down your thoughts for 3 mins

Share
! Share with your group members your
thoughts and ideas about what is
psychology

What Psychology Is
! The scientific study of behavior and
mental processes.

What Psychology Is
! The scientific study of behavior and
mental processes.
! Science, psychology uses scientific
methods.
! Behavior is everything we do that can be
directly observed
! Mental Processes are the thoughts,
feelings, and motives that each of us
experiences privately, but which cannot
be observed directly

Syllabi and Administrative stuff

MyPsychLab
! be required to purchase this book and
access to MyPsychLab, an online
supplement
! (1) full eBook with access to MyPsychLab,
an online learning system (~$90)
! (2) for students who prefer a hard copy of
the textbook. New copies come with the
eBook and access to MyPsychLab for free.
(~$125)
! (3) If you are using a used or borrowed
copy of the textbook, you may also
purchase MyPsychLab access without the
eBook. (~$45)



Ch1. Psychology and
Scientific Thinking

!""#$"%&'&"()
! MyPsychLab Chapter 1 Quiz is due on
Thursday (8/28)
! SONA log-in due on 9/4
http://utk.sona-systems.com
See page xxii in your textbook
!






Today
1. Common errors in thinking about
psychology
2. Scientific Thinking Principles
3. Warning Signs of Pseudoscience

I have psychic abilities
! I can guess the line of text just below where you
will cut the newspaper
! How many of you guys think that I have psychic
abilities. This is nothing more than simple magic
tricks.
! I want you guys to challenge to think
scientifically about this
! It is surprisingly easy to detect if we make the
effort to look into it. However, we often fall
victim to those non-scientific way of thinking and
because it is far more interesting and catches
out attention.
! Learning to think scientifically teaches us when
to trust what we see

Do you agree?
! Birds of a feather
flock together
! Opposites attract

Common sense is not always right!

! Absence makes the heart grow fonder / out of sight,
out of mind
! Two heads are better than one / too many cooks spoil
the broth
! A lot of these are the basis of our theories of human
behavior. Common sense can lead us to believe things.
! When examined together, appear contradictory.
! The way that we intuitively understand the world is
frequently incorrect.

Nave Realism: Is seeing Believing?
! Nave realism is the mistaken belief that
we see the world as it really is

Nave Realism: Is seeing Believing?
! Our perceptions are not always wrong,
but appearance can be deceiving.
The Earth seems flat.
The sun seems to revolve around the Earth
! Learning to think scientifically teaches us
when to trust our common sense and
when not to. This helps us become better
consumers of popular psychology and
make better decisions in the real world.
!

Common errors in thinking about
psychology
! Rely on common sense, anecdote
Intuition often wrong
Confirmation bias
Ex. Older people are bad drivers
Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our
hypotheses and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence
that contradicts them
See and ye shall find

Common errors in thinking about
psychology
! Rely on common sense, anecdote
Intuition often wrong
Confirmation bias
Belief perseverance
Tendency to stick to our initial belief even when
evidence contradicts them
Because none of us wants to believe were wrong,
were usually reluctant to give up our beliefs.
Even when we know that we are wrong, we dont
completely forgive our initial belief.

Common errors in thinking about
psychology
! Rely on common sense, anecdote
Intuition often wrong
Confirmation bias
Belief perseverance
! Forget that behavior is multiply
determined

Common errors in thinking about
psychology
! Rely on common sense, anecdote
Intuition often wrong
Confirmation bias
Belief perseverance
! Forget that behavior is multiply
determined
! Forget about culture
Individualism / collectivism



Do you feel comfortable depending on your
romantic partner?

Scientific Thinking Principles
1. Extraordinary claims require
extraordinary (more rigorous) evidence
2. Replicability
If they cant be duplicated, its possible that
the original findings were due to chance.
3. Ruling out rival hypotheses
We should ask ourselves whether weve
excluded other plausible explanations for
this claim.

Scientific Thinking Principles
4. Occams razor
Also called the Principle of Parsimony
simpler is better
If two explanations account equally well, we
should select the more parsimonious one.
Occasionally the best explanation for a
phenomenon is the most complex, not the
simplest; but Occams razor is a helpful rule
of thumb, as its right far more often than
wrong.

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5. Falsifiability
Is it possible to find evidence that would
prove this statement false?
! Penguins do not exist
Heres a
penguin.
! FALSIFIABLE



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5. Falsifiability
Is it possible to find evidence that would
prove this statement false?
! Extraterrestrials exist
NOT FALSIFIABLE
Cant rule out the possibility that they do exist



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5. Falsifiability
testable hypotheses are falsifiable


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5. Falsifiability
Is it possible to find evidence that would
prove this statement false?
! Premarital sex is a sin.
???
NOT FALSIFIABLE = NOT TESTABLE



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5. Falsifiability
Is it possible to find evidence that would
prove this statement false?
Those who wait until marriage to have sex are
less likely to get divorced.
! FALSIFIABLE = TESTABLE



Scientific Thinking Principles
5. Falsifiable
God does not exist
God exists
Religious people have higher well-being

Scientific Thinking Principles
6. Correlation isnt causation
A B
C
Correlation-causation fallacy: error of
assuming that because one thing is
associated with another, it must cause the
other.

Scientific Thinking Principles
6. Correlation isnt causation
Ice Cream
Consumption
Drowning
Temperature

! Its a problem because it can lead us to
conclude mistakenly that A and B are
causally related to each other when theyre
not.
! Making matters worse, we may never have
thought to measure third variable C in our
study.

! We should remember that a correlation
between two things doesnt demonstrate a
causal connection between them.

Scientific Thinking Principles
! Correlation isnt causation
# of
churches
Crime
Rate
Population

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Warning signs Pseudoscience, and
Skepticism
! Exaggerated claims
lose 20 lbs in one week!
! Overreliance on anecdotes
Confirmation bias?
! Lack of review by other researchers
Never submitted to scientific journal
! Lack of self-correction
Belief perseverance?
! Psychobabble
! Talk of proof instead of evidence

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Six Principles of Scientific Thinking
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Correlation
vs. causation
Falsifiability
Replicability
Have important alternative explanations for
the findings been excluded?
Can we be sure that A causes B?
Can the claim be disproved?
Can the results be duplicated in other studies?
Extraordinary
claims
Occams razor
Is the evidence as strong as the claim?
Does a simpler explanation fit the data just as well?

Group activity!

! Apply what youve learned about
recognizing pseudoscience, logical
fallacies and biases into this example.
! Find at least FOUR different concepts
! Briefly explain the definition of the concept
! Identify how that idea is relevant to this
example.

Brightspark

! Principles of scientific thinking
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
Replicability
Ruling out rival hypotheses
Occams razor
Falsifiable
! Warning signs of pseudoscience
Exaggerated claims
Overreliance on anecdotes
Lack of review by other researchers
Lack of self-correction
Psychobabble
Talk of proof instead of evidence
! Logical Fallacies
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There were lots of possibilities here:
! Exaggerated claims
! Overreliance on anecdotes
! Evasion of peer review
! Absence of connectivity
! Emotional reasoning fallacy
! Appeal to authority fallacy
! Bandwagon fallacy

! Failure to rule out rival hypotheses
! Confirmation bias
! Lack of replication outside of the
developers own clients

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