PSY 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Homo Sapiens, Pseudoscience, Falsifiability
25 Jul 2016
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Can learn about human psychology from animal psychology homo sapiens emerged 200000 years ago. We adapted from environment of 200000 years ago. Can learn about ourselves, by comparing to animals that have similar genetics, bonobos (98% same genetics) Psychology: the scientific study of the human mind brain and behavior. Mental or neurological level: biological molecular neurochemical. Intuition- birds of a feather flock together vs opposites attract . Scientific thinking- science is an approach to evidence. Explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world. Belief perseverance: tendency believe sometimes even if evidence against. Assertions about the world that are not testable. Do not tell us how representative cases are. Cannot stop ageing but many products claim to do so. Pseudoscience exists because people want to make order out of disorder. Error of accepting a claim merely b/c authority figure endorses it. Error of assuming something is correct b. c many people believe it (bandwagon fallacy)
