PSY 2012 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Rape Myth, Spiritualism, African Grey Parrot
27 Aug 2016
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Lecture Part 1
What is psychology viewed as a non-science?
1. Early associations with fringe fields (spiritualism, paranormal phenomenon)
2. Some methods and findings questionable (introspection, research seems trivial or is trivialized)
3. Vast popular psych industry distorts the image (quality control problem, much of psychology
seems like common sense)
4. Media portrayal (unfavorably portrayal, misportray research)
5. Many people who call themselves psychologists are not scientists
"Hindsight Bias": Tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it
The purpose of psychology: to advance our knowledge of humans
1.Does watching pornography lead to greater rape? (greater existence of the rape myth: "all women
secretly want to be raped", leads to decline of satisfaction with sex lives)
2.Do rewards lead to greater work satisfaction? (The answer is no! Paying people more decreases their
liking for a task, or a job)
3.How reliable are eyewitness testimonies? (Eyewitness testimonies are very fallible, memories are
reconstructive. Every time you recover a memory it is slightly different)
4.Are one-sided or two-sided arguments better? (If they are for your cause, one-sided. If they are
against, two-sided)
Generalizing from Animals
Darwin's assumption- Animals are a useful model for understanding humans
Objections- humans are qualitatively different (humans use tools> so do monkeys! Birds!)
(humans have language> african grey, apes) (humans are self aware> so are monkeys, dolphins)
(humans experience the continuity of time> no research yet)
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