WAYS of Knowing Tenacity unquestioning faith intuition Authority

WAYS of Knowing Tenacity – unquestioning faith (intuition) Authority – believe what told Logic – argue a belief Experience – common sense –direct experience -empiricism, observation, experiment (science) scientists influenced by all four ways of knowing

• Science can be defined as a process or as content or both • Science is an accumulation of integrated knowledge • An activity of discovering important variables in nature and relating those variables and explaining those relationships

Psychology as a SCIENCE IS • Deterministic - can predict world (probabilistic) • Objective • Data-driven - term only means supported by evidence • Empirical questions asked answered by systematic observations and experiences. • Conclusions tentative

nonscientific General approach Intuitive Empirical Observation Casual, uncontrolled Systematic, controlled Reporting Biased, subjective Unbiased, objective Concepts Ambiguous with surplus meaning Clear definitions, operational specificity Instruments Inaccurate, imprecise Accurate, precise Measurements Not valid or reliable Valid and reliable Hypotheses Untestable Testable Attitude Uncritical, accepting Critical, skeptical

Experience is not infallible • bias • confirmation, notice what fits • availability , notice the unusual

Scientific and everyday approaches • Science – empirical and requires systematic controlled observation • Intuition – feels right but our perception may be biased or logic faulty –e. g tendency to perceive relationship when there is none.

Observation – casual rather than systematic e. g Clever Hans Systematic and CONTROLLED is the essential distinction – manipulating one variable at a time

• To achieve control in a research situation, researchers manipulate independent variables or select levels of individual differences to determine their effect on behavior • Dependent variables are measures of behavior used to assess the effects of independent variables.

• Scientists adopt a skeptical attitude and are cautious about accepting explanations until sufficient empirical evidence is obtained. People make mistakes –including scientists (see ways of knowing) • Yet science is based on trust – truth of reporting and trust in observations of others

• Concepts – need clear definition • NEED Operational definition • explains a concept solely in terms of operations used to produce and measure it. (balance this against having a meaningful definition)

• Measure heart rate. • Measure creativity. • Measure happiness. • Measure intelligence.

• Scientific reporting is unbiased and objective; clear communication of concepts occurs when operational definitions are used • Science is public – results must be shared

• Scientific instruments are accurate and precise; physical and psychological measurements should be valid and reliable.

Measurement –the record of controlled observations • physical measurement, psychological measurement • VALIDITY – truthfulness of measure (does it measure what we say it does) • RELIABILTY – consistency

• A hypothesis is a tentative explanation for a phenomenon; testable hypotheses have clearly defined concepts (operational definitions) are not circular and do not refer to unobservable concepts.

• Hypotheses – a tentative explanation for something (how and why questions) • Not testable if concepts cannot be defined

Psychology Goals Describing behavior– eg attractiveness ratings in different times Predicting behavior– election results, occupational aptitude Explaining behavior– causation at different levels of analysis Controlling/changing behavior – education, clinical application

Pseudoscience -associates/mimics science (credibility) -relies on anecdotal evidence -avoids disproof -oversimplifies -selective evidence -cannot generate reliable predictions Psychology goals -especially vulnerable to pop/pseudoscience Good examples – phrenology (Flourens), ESP, subliminal tapes, horoscopes

• Greenwald, A. G. Spangenberg, E. R. , Pratkanis, A. R. , & Eskenazi, J. (1991). Double-blind tests of subliminal self-help audiotapes. Psychological Science, 2, 119 -122. • Memory or self-esteem tapes