PSYCH 111 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Statistical Significance, Malingering, Syphilis
Document Summary
Allow us to infer causation (high in internal validity) Self report measures and surveys: asking people about themselves and others. Questionnaires used to asses personality traits, mental illness and interests. Surveys used to asses peoples opinions and attitudes. Every person in the population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate. The beauty and necessity of good research design. When basing the effectiveness of a scientific breakthrough soley on observations and anecdotes not on hard evidence you may be mislead to see something that isn"t there or to miss a problem that exists (examples: facilitated communication and lobotomy) How we can be fooled: two modes of thinking. Intuitive thinking: first impressions, quick, reflexive, gut hunch, not much mental effort required, system 1 thinking. Analytical thinking: slow, reflective, mental effort required, problem solving, system 2 thinking. Heuristic: a mental short cut or rule of thumb. High in external validity (the extent that our findings generalize to real world settings.
