PSYC 3450 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Alla Chavarga Email alla

PSYC 3450 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Alla Chavarga Email: alla. chavarga@gmail. com

PSYC 3450: EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 01 WRITE THIS DOWN: psychfiles. net 02 Syllabus Review 03 04 All course content including syllabus and lecture slides on website Course Format Lecture vs Lab Required Textbook OER : https: //crumplab. github. io/Research. Methods/

CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Scientific Thinking Lecture Outline Why take this course? How do we come to know things? Science as a way of knowing Psychological Science vs. Pseudoscience Goals of Research

WHY TAKE THIS COURSE? Learn how to do research in psychology Process vs. Content Informed & critical consumption of information Responsibility as a clinician How to get intro Grad School 101

HOW DO WE COME TO KNOW THINGS? I KNOW THREE THINGS: Empiricism Correlation is not causation. Authority Socrates has ten fingers. Reason/Rationality The sun will come up tomorrow. Experience / Empiricism The process of learning things through direct observation or experience and reflecting on those experiences. • • What are some problems with empiricism? We can only know the things with which we’ve had direct experience.

Social Cognition Biases • Belief perseverance – the tendency to hold onto a belief, even in the face of contradictory evidence • Confirmation bias – tendency to seek out information only in support of belief, ignoring contradictory information • Availability heuristic – the tendency to overestimate the frequency with which unusual or memorable events occur

SCIENCE AS A WAY OF KNOWING The scientific method is the most reliable method to develop a belief, independent of pre-existing bias and information. THEORY HYPOTHESIS EXPERIMENT Determinism All events have causes. Statistical Determinism Discoverability Through systematic observation, these causes can be found. CONCLUSION

SCIENCE AS A WAY OF KNOWING 01 Hypothesis 02 Theory – a set of statements that summarize what is known about some phenomenon and propose working explanations for those phenomena. 03 Falsification https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=RRd. Ae 3 UAIVs

SCIENCE AS A WAY OF KNOWING Scientific methods are characterized by objectivity. Scientific results need to be publicly verified and replicated. Scientists are data -driven. 1 2 3 4 5 Science produces tentative conclusions. Science asks answerable questions.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE VS. PSEUDOSCIENCE Pseudoscience - any field of inquiry that appears to be scientific but is based on inadequate scientific methods and typically produces false conclusions. 01 Anecdotal evidence 02 Effort justification 03 Sidesteps disproof

GOALS OF RESEARCH Why do we do it? And what’s the result? • Description • Prediction • Explanation • Application