AP Psychology Unit 2 Psychology as a Science Part 1
Summary
TLDRThis script challenges the misconception that psychology is not a science, emphasizing its scientific nature and the importance of critical thinking. It debunks common myths like the 10% brain usage and the hyperactivity caused by sugar. The speaker discusses cognitive biases such as hindsight and overconfidence, and the need for a scientific attitude in psychology. The script also outlines various research methods, including case studies, surveys, and the scientific method, highlighting the importance of hypothesis testing and operational definitions. It concludes by stressing the role of curiosity, skepticism, and humility in psychological research.
Takeaways
- 🧠 Psychology is a scientific discipline that studies the human mind and behavior, contrary to popular misconceptions that it relies on 'superhuman powers'.
- 🔍 The need for psychological science arises from the fallibility of human intuition and the common misconceptions about human behavior, such as the myth that we only use 10% of our brains.
- 📚 The course emphasizes the importance of understanding psychological science for the AP exam, which gives significant weight to this area of study.
- 🧐 Hindsight bias is a cognitive error where people believe they could have predicted an outcome that actually was unpredictable.
- 🚀 Overconfidence can lead people to underestimate the time or effort required to complete a task, which is a common pitfall in human thinking.
- 🎰 Humans tend to find order in randomness, which can lead to incorrect assumptions about cause and effect relationships.
- 🤔 Critical thinking involves being curious, skeptical, and humble, questioning assumptions, and being open to revising beliefs based on evidence.
- 🧪 The scientific method in psychology involves forming theories, creating hypotheses, conducting research, and revising theories based on findings.
- 📊 Descriptive methods in psychology, such as case studies, naturalistic observations, and surveys, help describe behavior but do not explain causes or effects.
- 📝 Operational definitions are necessary in research to provide clear and specific meanings to terms used, ensuring that research can be replicated.
- 🔄 The scientific process in psychology is iterative, with theories continually refined through hypothesis testing and research findings.
Q & A
What is the common misconception about psychology and psychologists?
-The common misconception is that psychologists have superhuman powers to read minds or know what's going on in someone's mind just by observing their facial gestures or body language.
Why is psychology considered a science?
-Psychology is considered a science because it uses systematic and empirical methods to study human behavior and mental processes, and it is based on observable evidence and data.
What is the significance of the example of folding a piece of paper 100 times?
-The example illustrates how intuition can lead us astray. The thickness of the paper after folding it 100 times is incredibly vast, demonstrating that our intuitive guesses can be far from the actual outcome when not supported by scientific calculation.
What is hindsight bias and how does it affect our perception of events?
-Hindsight bias is the tendency to believe that an outcome was predictable, once it has occurred. It affects our perception by making us think we knew an event was going to happen when in reality, we might not have had enough information to predict it accurately.
How does overconfidence influence our ability to learn and perform on tests?
-Overconfidence can lead to underestimating the time and effort required to learn and retain information, resulting in inadequate preparation and potentially poor performance on tests.
What is the importance of looking for order in randomness and why do we tend to do it?
-Looking for order in randomness is important because it can lead us to find patterns that might not actually exist. We tend to do it because our brains are wired to recognize patterns, which can sometimes lead to false conclusions when applied to random events.
What is the difference between a theory and a law in scientific terms?
-A law in science is a statement that describes an observed phenomenon that occurs consistently under the same conditions, while a theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on empirical evidence and repeated experimentation.
Why are operational definitions necessary in psychological research?
-Operational definitions are necessary to provide clear and specific meanings of terms used in research, ensuring that the measurements and observations are consistent and can be replicated by other researchers.
What is the Hawthorne effect and how can it impact research?
-The Hawthorne effect refers to the phenomenon where individuals change their behavior due to their awareness of being observed. It can impact research by causing changes in the behavior of subjects, which may not accurately represent their typical behavior outside of the research context.
How does the wording of survey questions affect the results?
-The wording of survey questions can significantly affect the results by influencing the way respondents interpret and answer the questions. Different wording can lead to different responses, even when the questions are about the same topic.
What is the significance of random sampling in research?
-Random sampling is significant in research because it ensures that every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected, which helps to reduce bias and increase the representativeness and reliability of the study's findings.
Outlines
🧠 Understanding Psychology and Its Misconceptions
This paragraph addresses common misconceptions about psychology, often influenced by media portrayals that suggest psychologists possess supernatural abilities to read minds. It clarifies that psychology is indeed a science, contrary to popular belief that it relies on common sense or intuitive observations. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding psychological science, especially for students preparing for the AP exam, where this section carries significant weight. The paragraph introduces the concept of cognitive biases and logical fallacies, such as hindsight bias and overconfidence, which can mislead our intuition and decision-making. It also touches on the idea that many 'common sense' notions, like the myth of using only 10% of our brains, are not supported by scientific evidence.
🔍 Developing a Scientific Attitude Towards Psychology
The paragraph focuses on the importance of adopting a scientific attitude in psychology, characterized by curiosity, skepticism, and humility. It discusses how people often mistakenly find order in randomness, leading to erroneous conclusions. The speaker advocates for critical thinking, which involves scrutinizing research findings, considering the source of information, and being aware of our own biases. The paragraph also explains the scientific method in psychology, starting with theories and moving towards hypotheses that can be tested through research. It highlights the importance of operational definitions to ensure that research is replicable and that terms like 'intelligence' are clearly defined within the context of a study.
📊 Exploring Descriptive Methods in Psychological Research
This paragraph delves into various descriptive methods used in psychological research, which are aimed at describing phenomena rather than explaining causes. It discusses case studies, which involve in-depth examination of individuals, and naturalistic observations, which take place in subjects' natural environments without manipulation. The paragraph also addresses the challenges of surveys, such as the impact of wording and potential biases, and the importance of random sampling to ensure that every member of the population has an equal chance of being included in the study. The speaker provides examples of how even small sample sizes, when properly selected, can represent larger populations, as seen in election polling.
📈 The Significance of Random Sampling in Research
The final paragraph emphasizes the critical role of random sampling in psychological research to avoid sampling bias and ensure that the sample is representative of the entire population. It discusses different methods for achieving random sampling, such as using random number generators or drawing names from a hat. The speaker points out that while larger sample sizes can improve the accuracy of research findings, a properly conducted random sample can yield reliable results even with a relatively small number of participants. The paragraph concludes by setting the stage for the next section, which will cover correlational studies and experiments, suggesting a continuation of the exploration into more complex research methods in psychology.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Psychology
💡Intuition
💡Hindsight Bias
💡Overconfidence
💡Randomness and Order
💡Critical Thinking
💡Theory
💡Hypothesis
💡Operational Definitions
💡Descriptive Methods
💡Random Sampling
Highlights
Psychology is a science that studies the mind and behavior, contrary to popular misconceptions.
Intuition can be misleading, and psychological science uses systematic methods to study human behavior.
The AP exam places a high emphasis on understanding psychological science, requiring thorough knowledge.
Folding a piece of paper 100 times illustrates how intuition can fail us, showcasing the power of exponential growth.
Hindsight bias is a cognitive error where people believe they could have predicted an outcome after it occurs.
Overconfidence can lead to underestimating the time or effort needed to complete a task.
Humans tend to find order in randomness, which can be misleading and is a common fallacy in thinking.
Developing a scientific attitude involves being curious, skeptical, and humble.
Critical thinking involves examining assumptions and not dismissing ideas without scrutiny.
Theories in science are well-tested ideas based on numerous observations and are more than mere hunches.
Hypotheses are testable statements derived from theories and are the basis for conducting research.
Operational definitions are necessary to ensure that terms used in research have clear and specific meanings.
The scientific method is a cycle of refining theories through hypothesis testing and observation.
Descriptive methods in psychology, such as case studies and surveys, describe behavior without explaining causes.
Case studies involve in-depth examination of an individual and are useful for understanding unique experiences.
Naturalistic observations record behavior in a subject's natural environment without interference.
Surveys can gather data from a large number of individuals but are subject to biases and wording effects.
Random sampling is crucial for obtaining representative data that accurately reflects a population's views.
The Hawthorne effect demonstrates how being observed can change a subject's behavior during research.
The upcoming section will cover correlational studies and experiments, which go beyond description to examine cause and effect.
Transcripts
you know a lot of people get their idea
about psychology and psychologists from
movies and TVs and books where they're
kind of portrayed as having these
superhuman powers where they can tell
what's going on in someone's mind just
by the gesture they make with their face
a lot of people think psychology is you
know is not a science well it is a
science what is the need for it though
aren't a lot of the findings common
sense isn't there just a lot of
intuitive things out there that we can
observe and figure out like giving
children sugar makes them hyper or that
our brain we only use 10% of our brains
all those kinds of things
well sometimes intuition can lead us
astray we're gonna look in this section
at some of the fallacies of our human
thinking and we're also gonna look at
the the methods that psychologists use
to study what's going on in someone's
mind and their behavior okay it's an
important part of this course as the AP
exam has a fairly high weighting on this
section so you need to know it inside
and out so apply some of those memory
techniques that you remember from way
back when okay let's get started
okay so the need for psychological
science you know here's the learning
objectives take a second and look at
those make sure you know what we're
looking for in module four try this just
to see all your common sense is if you
could take a piece of paper this size
which is point one millimeters thick and
you could fold it now obviously you
can't do this but if you could fold it
100 times how thick do you think that
paper will be I'll give you a couple
seconds to think about that kind of an
answer you're gonna come up with here it
is you might be shocked to find out this
is the number I can't even say what this
number is it's so large but that's that
many times the distance between the Sun
and the earth that is huge you can check
this by the way go ahead and google it
and you'll see how the math is done on
this intuitively we most of us are going
to think this is wrong unless we've
heard this before so can our intuition
lead us astray and our human logic is it
full of fallacy or do we actually know
what we're talking about a couple of
errors that we have here's one that's
really common that shows that people's
minds don't always know exactly what's
happening it's called hindsight bias
hindsight biases the new and all along
phenomena this is something happens and
then you go back and you the fact and
say oh well everybody knew that was
gonna happen people in the stock market
stockbrokers and stuff from the analysts
when the stock market crashes they'll go
oh well it was due for a correction well
why'd you have your money in there
terrorism has become a big deal in the
United States in a lot of parts of the
world people say well of course it was
going to look at we've done with our
immigration laws all of those kinds of
things you might have been on a test
having a test in class and then you
answer a question you get it wrong you
find out the right answer you go I knew
that all along that's the I knew it all
along phenomena and it is one of the
fallacies in human thinking another one
is overconfidence people tend to think
that they know more than they actually
do take a look at these words down at
the bottom of the screen here how long
do you think if we gave you these
scrambled like this how long do you
think it would take you to unscramble
those anagram
well most people said it would take
about ten seconds yet on average it took
about three minutes people were
overconfident in how long they could do
this this is one of the reasons what we
tell you you should probably try to over
learn everything that you're learning in
your classes for your tests because we
tend to get overconfident passive
learning like just simply reading or
watching a video we go oh yes I knew
that all along I'm very confident I'm
gonna do well on the test and
unfortunately it doesn't work out for a
lot of us so this is why we want you to
over learn things another thing that we
do as human beings when events happen we
want to look for order in that
randomness for example if we look at
these poker hands down in the screen
which hand are you more likely to get
well your chances of getting either of
those hands is precisely the same it's
one in two million five hundred
ninety-eight thousand nine hundred and
sixty but because there's order in one
we think it's some kind of strange event
consider this for a second let's say
there's only seven billion people and we
have surpassed that mark in the world
and there's a one in a billion chance
something's gonna happen to somebody
each day well that's gonna happen seven
times every day in our world there are
so many strange things and we like to
put it together as they're some kind of
supernatural thing occurring or whatever
there's even cases where people think
you know I've dreamt somebody dreams of
someone they haven't thought about for
ten years and that person dies the next
day it seems so out there but if you do
the math on it we'll talk about it in
class it actually should happen about
seven times a month in North America so
randomness sometimes look like order but
we like to look for order in randomness
and it's usually a mistake so we need to
approach it one of the biggest things
you get out of this class is to develop
a kind of scientific type of attitude
which is curious skeptical and humble
okay the curious eagerness you want to
find out things you but you skeptically
scrutinize competing ideas so this isn't
saying you're a skeptic like nothing is
actually right I'm against everything
it's looking at it scrutinizing if
somebody comes up to you with a research
finding you start to think about okay
this
makes sense as far as where does this
information come from who are you
quoting who did this research to survey
how big was the sample all of those
kinds of things and you need to have
open-minded humility open-minded
humility just basically means like you
need to accept that you don't know
everything and if somebody shows you
something and it passes your criteria
that perhaps you will adopt what they're
talking about and not just think that
everybody is stupid we call it critical
thinking so critical this is what
critical thinking it's not putting
everything down again it's using this
scientific kind of attitude we look at
assumptions we examine them we make
assumptions we assume as we talk to the
start of the state of this section about
sugar making kids hyper well there's an
assumption how do you know that makes
them hyper have you looked at research
on it and if you have you'll find out
the research kind of bears out that no
it doesn't really cause hyperactivity
and children again assessing the source
are there hidden values we all have
values we bring them in to things we
want to we want stuff to show what we
wanted to show it's called the
confirmation bias will look at anything
that we can find to confirm what we
already believe or what we're trying to
show a psychology is not value three
value free as far as results the method
is entirely value free it's like any
other science so it's the same kind of
thing we want to confirm the evidence
and assess the conclusions made from any
kind of research findings that we may
may see so in module five we're going to
move on into some of the theories and
theories in and the scientific method
that was developed Francis Bacon again
was a big part of this if you remember
way back from the history wasn't that
long ago but you probably forget oh wait
you used your memory stuff make sure
you're tying in things in together as
you go through make things personally
meaningful so we're gonna look at the
scientific method it starts with a
theory a theory is more than a mere
hunch a lot of people you know look at
it well it's a theory it can be wrong
well let's keep this in mind numbers are
a theory
algebra algebra is a theory evolution is
a theory a lot of these things are
theories now the difference between a
theory and something that happens all
the time which we know is a law would be
like a law is every single time gravity
is a law when I drop a pencil it falls
to the ground because gravity pulls it
every time that's a law however our
explanation for it would be the theory
of gravity so if you're in an argument
say someone's arguing about creationism
and evolutionary ideas of beginning a
man and someone says well you know
that's just a theory well that's not a
really good argument because theories
are usually quite tested they're based
on education educated guesses based on a
lot of observations more often than not
but from that theory what we want to do
is develop a hypothesis the hypothesis
is a statement and it can be confirmed
or denied it can be shown to be correct
or incorrect now as a researcher you're
not really you don't care if you're
correct or incorrect well you do because
that's what you're trying to find out
but it's also important to find out that
your hypothesis may not be correct
usually worded in like and if this
happens then this will happen so you
know exactly what it is in your research
that you're trying to determine often we
need operational definitions let's say
for example our hypothesis is if you
take this pill then you will become more
intelligent well that's great but we
need to define some of these terms the
pill will be defined by the pill that we
have but a big operational definition
here be intelligence what is
intelligence it means something
different to everybody so we need to
have a definition that we can use in
that research so maybe for intelligence
we'll define it as a score on some
specific IQ test and get the
intelligence quotient test that we give
somebody and that will be our definition
of intelligence is that intelligence no
but for the purpose of our research
that's how we're defining it therefore
if we do our research give it to some
other researcher they can actually redo
that experiment which we call
replication and they'll be testing
exactly the same thing you were so it's
kind of a big long circle there our
theory
then we create hypothesis then we do
research and observations and then we
revise our theories and then we create
more hypotheses and so on and so on it
it really never ends in scientific
methods we never really say anything is
really proven if it's done through this
kind of research we just refine theories
to the point where we almost accept them
as fact like numbers and those kinds of
things so a good theory is quite useful
if it organizes a range of self reports
and observations okay so it's based on
some kind of idea and it can lead to a
clearer hypothesis okay that anybody can
use to check the theory remember the
hypothesis again is the if and then
statement it you can read a look at
hypothesis and you'll know exactly how
that research will be conducted okay and
it often stimulates research that leads
to a revised theory which better
predicts what we know so we're
increasing our knowledge every time we
do this kind of research so we're gonna
look at some of the descriptive methods
we have no descriptive methods really
don't tell us anything about causes or
how something will affect something what
we're looking at is basically describing
that situation so one of the methods we
have is a case study a case that is when
we look at one individual in depth so
we'll look at them from all sides and
spend a lot of time looking at that one
individual it's useful especially if we
want to find out that one individuals
experience but the problem with case
studies is you can't really generalize
that information that you got from that
one person to the entire population okay
but they are very useful when we have a
typical individuals say somebody there's
something rare somebody's going through
a unique situation we want to find out
what it's like for them however we again
cannot generalize that to general
populations naturalistic observations
are done as well and they describe
behavior again it does not explain but
naturalistic observation is when we look
observe make observations in someone's
natural environment so we don't
to observe a student with ADHD do a
naturalistic observation we will observe
them in their natural area in their
classroom for example we have to be
careful we don't want to get in the way
and make them know that their watch
because there's a thing called the
Hawthorne effect which actually means
that if you are the subject of some kind
of research or observation it will
change your behavior the Hawthorne
effect was named that way because this
Hawthorne was doing research and was in
a company and they want to see if
workers produce better at different
levels of light and when they did the
actual research and they changed the
different levels of light in there they
found out that every change of light
actually increased productivity from
their baseline from before so what was
happening the workers know that they
were being watched
so they changed their behavior and
anytime there's some kind of research
and you know you're part of it you will
change your behavior to a certain point
so surveys these are those are annoying
things we get on our phones we get them
online we get them over telephones
they're there they can be quite annoying
and often they lead to scams but a
survey is really useful because it can
look at a lot of cases at once if we
want to find out it's something about
the population of our school we can
easily do a survey and ask people and
then gather the results they're easy to
do as far as the administration of them
and they're quick to get results okay
they can have problems because their
surveys that have gone out about the
same things that come back with entirely
different answers and a lot of that is
probably because of wording affects the
wording effects is how the question on a
survey might be worded so for example
there was one survey that found that 77%
of people were interested in plants and
trees but only 39% were interested in
botany botany is the study of plants and
trees it's the same thing or a total of
48 percent were interested in fossils
but only 39% were interested in
paleontology so that's different also
kind of wording effects that can happen
is if we say can't allow as opposed
to forbid or shouldn't allow so
televisions should not be allowed to
advertise cigarettes we're probably
going to get more people agree to that
than if we asked television advertising
and cigarettes should be forbidden we're
gonna get different answers so we have
to be very careful when we do our
surveys how we pick our questions we'll
look at some more examples like that in
class two of wording effects so the way
to get a good example and this is kind
of interesting the 1500 people can
represent an entire nation the size the
United States in fact during the
election which is happening around now
down there all this stuff when they do
the polls they usually only pull 1500
people and if it's done properly it'll
give you a really good overview of what
the population is thinking but it has to
be a random sampling how do we make it
random it has to be random because so
that every single person and the entire
population has an equal opportunity to
be part of our research okay we don't
want to have sampling bias this might
mean that we we interview or we survey
people that all are from one
geographical location that might have
ideas that are different than people
from other geographical locations that
would be a sampling bias okay other
things with surveys if we're actually
out there asking questions sometimes it
makes it different if you're a male or
female asking the questions for example
when interviewed by a man 64% of women
agreed abortion is a private matter that
should be left to the woman to decide
without government interference but when
interviewed by a woman 84 percent of
women respondents agreed to that so just
the person asking so there are lots of
little facets of surveys that need to be
paid attention to if you're going to
come up with with numbers or the
descriptions that you were looking for
without having anything else interfere
with it
so the random sampling again is really
an important idea when we sample a
population say we want to find out at
our
Skule something we're looking for
serving how many people spend an hour at
least one hour studying at our school
and so our population of this research
is the entire school population so a
random sampling though has to be taken
from that population and the random
sample has to be people that we've taken
that everybody had the same chance how
can we do that maybe we could have a
list of names we could get a random
number generator and use you know number
the names off it and use it that way
maybe we can write them all down and
pull them from hats there there are many
different ways that we can accomplish
this but it has to be done and it's one
of the most important things that we do
now the larger number of people that we
sample the better our results are going
to be but once again if it's done
properly you don't need a huge part of
the population so again we got the
sampling of the group we got a
population and the random sample like
we're talking about okay and then we're
gonna stop it right here and then in the
next section of this one we're going to
start to look at correlational studies
and also the experiment so once again
naturalistic observations and case
studies and surveys are all descriptive
kinds of research again they don't tell
us what's going to happen okay so we'll
see you next time for part two of this
unit bye for now
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