Unit 1: History of Psychology and Research Methods 1.3 Critical Thinking & the Scientific Method

Critical Thinking Why do we need to think critically in psychology? 1. Hindsight Bias – the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would have foreseen it. (“I knew it all along”) 2. Overconfidence – the tendency to think we know more than we actually do Critical thinking – examine assumptions, evaluates evidence, assesses conclusions

Scientific Method 1. Form a Research Question 2. Form a Hypothesis Usually done after making an observation 1. Form a Research Question Hypothesis – a proposed explanation; a starting point for further investigation 2. Form a Hypothesis Usually done by collect data – from lab setting or observations 3. Test Hypothesis

Scientific Method 1. Form a Research Question 4. Analyze Results 2. Form a Hypothesis Fails Passes Revise/Change Hypothesis (back to step 2) 3. Test Hypothesis Draw Conclusions & Create a Theory

Draw Conclusions & Create a Theory Scientific Method Draw Conclusions & Create a Theory Replication - Other scientists must be able to replicate your study - Follow your operational definitions (directions for experiment so anyone can replicate it) - If a study doesn’t produce the same results more than once, the original results probably weren’t accurate