Why Study Psychology?

Do demos here….. 1)Hindsight Bias zConfirmation bias zOverconfidence

Why Study Psychology? HHindsight Bias wwe tend to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would have foreseen it tthe “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon OOverconfidence wwe tend to think we know more than we do

How do we overcome bias?  The Scientific Method  Critical Thinking  thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions

Scientific Method zSzState Problem zDzDevelop a Hypothesis zOzOperationalize Definitions zIzIdentify Variables zIzIdentify Population & sample size

The Scientific Method  Hypothesis  a testable prediction or educated guess  often implied by a theory/observable behavior

The Scientific Method OOperational Definition aa statement of procedures (operations) used to define research variables eexample- iintelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures ( Stanford- Binet) DDrug use? SSelf esteem?

Experimentation EExperiment AAn investigation seeking to understand the cause and effect relationship between two variables.

IIndependent Variable tthe experimental factor that is manipulated tthe variable whose effect is being studied DDependent Variable tthe experimental factor that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable

The Scientific Method zEzExperimental Group- The group exposed to the independent variable zCzControl Group- the group not exposed to the independent variable

Experimentation  Population - The total group of subjects available.  Random Assignment of a sample  assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance  minimizes pre-existing differences between those assigned to the different groups