PSY 2012 Lecture 3: PSY 2012 Chapter 1 Research Methods
Document Summary
Hindsight bias: tendency to believe that we would have foreseen an outcome after we"ve learned it. Overcon dence: thinking we know more than we do. Con rmation bias: tendency to search for information that con rms our preconceptions. To defeat this you look for the bigger picture. Develop theories: general principle or set of principles about a class of events. Predictions about the causes of behavior: operationally de ne variables. Case study: in-depth observations of one person in the hope of revealing universal principles. Naturalistic observations: observe behavior without trying to manipulate or control the situation. Problem: only describing observations so offers nothing in the way of explanation. False consensus effect: tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors. Correlation: a statistical measure indicating how closely two things vary together. Correlation is not causation indicates the possibility of a cause-defect relationship but does not specify that one exists.
