PSYC 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Hindsight Bias, Availability Heuristic, Confirmation Bias

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1000
• Professor: Paula Barata

Document Summary

What is psychology: today"s definition: the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. What about common sense: as human beings, we all know what common sense is eg. opposites attract, people who are alike tend to stay together, first impressions are lasting. It would be safer to drive in a car because we hear more about plane crashes: mood effects, hindsight bias, overconfidence, perceived order in random events. The scientific method: guides how scientists should collect and analyze data, designed to help the scientific process remain accurate and objective. The logic of cause and effect: the researcher manipulates one variable (eg. if you pass a lot of gas, you think about what you"re eating. So you try to stop it by changing what you eat: the researcher determines whether this variable produces changes in another variable, researcher attempts to control for other factors, seeks to establish a cause and effect variable.