PS101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Quackery, Cultural Psychology, Pseudoscience
Document Summary
What is psychology: behaviour and mental processes and how they are affected by organism"s physical/mental state and external environment, symbolized with, empirical (evidence from careful observation, experiments, measurement) Makes use of research evidence and challenges opinion: psychobabble pseudoscience and quackery covered by a veneer of psychological and scientific-sounding language (confirms unsupported popular opinion) Ex. if you play classical music to an infant, do they actually become smarter: thinking critically: The ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments on basis of well-supported reasons and evidence instead of emotion or anecdote (a story) Way that we look at things influence the data . Eight thinking guidelines: ask questions- be willing to wonder. Never accept a conclusion without evidence; what evidence supports/refutes this argument & opposition?, how reliable is the evidence? : analyze assumptions and biases. Assumptions: beliefs taken for granted; ex you need the product we are selling .
