EXPE PSYCH LEC:
SELF-CORRECTION: modern scientists accept the uncertainty of their own
CHAPTER 1
PSYCHOLOGY: the science of behavior
• Affect
• Behavior
• Cognition
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE: research about the psychological processes
underlying behavior
SCIENCE: “scientia” (Latin) - “knowledge”
• modern meaning:
1. CONTENT: what we know; facts
2. PROCESS: an activity that includes the systematic ways in
which we go about gathering data, noting relationships, and
offering explanations
METHODOLOGY: the scientific techniques used to collect and evaluate
psychological data
DATA: the facts and figures gathered in research studies
THE NEED FOR SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY
COMMONSENSE PSYCHOLOGY: the kind of everyday, nonscientific data
gathering that shapes our expectations and beliefs and directs our behavior toward
others
CONFIRMATION BIAS: the tendency to overlook disconfirming beliefs, and
instead, seeking confirmatory ones
TWO WAYS ON HOW TO PREDICT OTHERS’ BEHAVIOR:
1. THEIR TRAITS
2. THE SITUATION
GAMBLER’S FALLACY: the tendency to believe that a certain slot machine is
overdue for a payoff because it has not paid off in a love time
OVERCONFIDENCE BIAS: an unshakeable belief that our predictions are more
correct than they actually are; a false assumption about a situation
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN SCIENCE
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD: postulated that faith in an organised universe is
essential to science; if no inherent order existed, there would be no point in looking
for one and no need to develop methods for doing so
• SCIENTIFIC MENTALITY: “Behavior must follow a natural order; therefore,
it can be predicted.”
• DETERMINISM: the belief that there are specifiable causes for the way
people behave and that these causes can be discovered through research
ARISTOTLE: assumed that order exists in the universe, and he set about
describing that order in a systematic way by collecting empirical data
• EMPIRICAL DATA: observable/experienced data; can be verified/
disproved through investigation
LAWS: principles that have the generality to apply to all situations
THEORY: an interim explanation that unify diverse sets of scientific facts into an
organised schemes that can be used to predict new examples of behavior
• Theories can…
1. explain many, but not all, instances of a situation or a behavior
2. guide the course of future observations
HYPOTHESIS: a testable prediction
GOOD THINKING: being systematic, objective, and rational
• PARSIMONY: A.K.A. “Occam’s razor”; simplicity, precision, and clarity of
thought
conclusions
• Changes in scientific explanations and theories are an extremely important
part of scientific progress.
• Experience favors a “WEIGHT OF EVIDENCE” approach:
- The more evidence that accumulates to support a particular explanation
of theory, the more confidence we have that the theory is correct.
PUBLICIZING RESULTS: because of its dynamic nature, modern science has
become a highly public activity
• The continuous exchange of information is vital to the scientific process.
• It would do little good for scientists to work in isolation.
REPLICATION: being able to repeat our procedures and get the same results
again if we have gathered data objectively and if we have followed good thinking
• We have a great deal more confidence that we have explained something
if the predicted effects are repeatable by other researchers
THE OBJECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
There are four major objectives of research conducted in psychology:
1. DESCRIPTION: a systematic and unbiased account of the observed
characteristics of behaviors
• CASE STUDIES: used to make inferences about the origins of
psychological disorders, developmental processes and the influence
of life events
• FIELD STUDIES: observational studies of groups of people in real
life settings
2. PREDICTION: refers to the capacity of knowing in advance when certain
behaviors would be expected to occur because we have identified other
conditions with which the behaviors are linked or associated
• CORRELATIONAL DESIGNS: researchers look for a statistical
relationship between different events, behaviors, or experiences
• QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS: researchers look for
systematic differences among groups of people and use the results
to make predictions
3. EXPLANATION: includes knowledge of conditions that reliably
reproduce the occurrence of a behavior
• EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGN: we systematically
manipulate aspects of the setting with the intention of producing the
specific behavior
4. CONTROL: the application of what has been learned about behavior
• Once a behavior has been explained through experimentation, it
may be possible to use that knowledge to effect change or improve
behavior.
• APPLIED RESEARCH: designed to solve real-world problems
• BASIC RESEARCH: designed to test theories or to explain
psychological phenomena in humans and animals
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD: TOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
The three main tools of the scientific method are:
1. OBSERVATION: the systematic noting and recording of events
• Only events that are observable can be studied scientifically.
• The key to studying internal processes is defining them as events
that can be observed
• Observations must be made SYSTEMATICALLY (the procedures
are consistently applied)
• Observations must be made OBJECTIVELY
• We must avoid distorting data by allowing our expectations to alter
our records
2. MEASUREMENT: the assignment of numerical values to objects or
events or they characteristics according to conventional rules
• When we do research, we assign numbers to different quantities,
or qualities of the events under observation
ANGEL STA. MARIA
 • If measurement is inconsistent, we cannot compare our measured
observations directly.
- It’s like comparing apples to oranges.
3. EXPERIMENTATION: a process undertaken to test a hypothesis that
particular behavioural events will occur reliably in certain, specifiable
situations
• We systematically manipulate aspects of a setting to verify our
predictions about observable behavior under specific conditions.
• Predictions must be testable.
• Three minimum requirements must be met:
(1) We must have procedures for manipulating the setting.
(2) The predicted outcome must be observable.
(3) We must be able to measure the outcome.
• Experimentation must be objective.
5. NECESSARY VS. SUFFICIENT CONDITIONS
• As we seek cause-and-effect relationships in science and psychology, we
try to identify the conditions under which events will occur.
• We distinguish between necessary and sufficient conditions.
• The cause-and-effect relationships established through scientific research
commonly involve identifying sufficient conditions.
• When we seek causes, we rarely seek conditions that are both necessary
and sufficient.
FROM PSEUDOSCIENCE TO PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
WILHELM WUNDT: generally credited with being the first experimental
psychologist; employed the scientific method to study human sensory experience
• G. STANLEY HALL: one of Wundt’s laboratory students who opened the
first psychology laboratory in the US in 1883 at Johns Hopkins University

MENTAL PHILOSOPHY: included the study of conscious and mental processes

and was based on the premise that the human mind begins as a blank slate,
SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE gaining knowledge of the world through sensory experiences.
• MENTAL PHILOSOPHERS: primarily engaged in the study of the five
1. IDENTIFYING ENTECEDENT CONDITIONS senses through introspection and observation of their own mental processes
• ANTECEDENT CONDITIONS: the circumstances that come before the and overseeing those of others
event or behavior that we want to explain
• PHENOMENOLOGY: reporting our own thoughts and feelings
2. COMPARING TREATMENT CONDITIONS
PSEUDOSCIENCE: “pseudo” (Greek) - “false”
• TREATMENTS: specific sets of antecedent conditions; exposing of subjects • characterizes any field of study that gives the appearances of being
to different interventions; not necessarily medical
scientific but has no true scientific basis and has not been confirmed using
- We compare different treatment conditions so that we can test our the scientific method
explanations of behaviours systematically and scientifically.
- When we are able to identify the antecedents, or treatment
conditions, that lead to a behavior, we have essentially explained
that behavior.

3. THE PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENT

• PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENT: a controlled procedure in which at least two
different treatment conditions are applied to subjects
- The procedures in the psychology experiment are carefully
CONTROLLED so that we can be sure we are measuring what we
intend to measure.
- Characteristics of subjects receiving different treatments are also
controlled by special techniques like RANDOM ASSIGNMENT OF
SUBJECTS to different treatment conditions.
- We want to ensure that people who receive one kind of treatment
are EQUIVALENT to subjects receiving a different treatment.
- BETWEEN-SUBJECTS DESIGN: experimental design in which
subjects receive only one kind of treatment
- WITHIN-SUBJECTS DESIGN: presenting all treatments to each
subject and measure the effect of each treatment after is presented
- Control is most often achieved by:
(1) Random assignment of subjects to different treatment
conditions
(2) Presenting a treatment condition in an identical manner to
all subjects
(3) Keeping the environment, procedures and the measuring
instruments constant for all subjects

4. ESTABLISHING CAUSE AND EFFECT

• CAUSE-AND-EFFECT RELATIONSHIP: a controlled procedure in which at
least two different treatment conditions are applied to subjects
- TEMPORAL RELATIONSHIP: the type of cause-and-effect
relationship we establish through experiments because a time
difference occurs in the relationship
‣ We look for differences in the behavior AFTER the subjects are
exposed to the treatment, not before.
- Two other types of relationship others use:
1. SPATIAL: compelling to use, but not always correct
2. LOGICAL: sometimes used to establish cause and effect

ANGEL STA. MARIA