PSYC 1010 Chapter 15: PSYC 1010 Chapter 15 Notes
20 May 2018
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PSYC 1010 Chapter 15 Notes
Introduction
Faint Red Light
• Does detecting the blink of a faint red light in a dark room say anything useful about
flying a plane at night?
• After ieig a iolet, seuall eplicit fil, does a aroused a’s icreased
willingness to push buttons that he thinks will electrically shock a woman really say
anything about whether violent pornography makes a man more likely to abuse a
woman?
• Before you answer, consider:
• The experimenter intends the laboratory environment to be a simplified reality—one
that simulates and controls important features of everyday life.
• Just as a wind tunnel lets airplane designers re-create airflow forces under controlled
conditions
• A laboratory experiment lets psychologists re-create psychological forces under
controlled conditions.
• A eperiet’s purpose is ot to re-create the exact behaviors of everyday life but to
test theoretical principles (Mook, 1983).
• In aggression studies, deciding whether to push a button that delivers a shock may not
be the same as slapping someone in the face, but the principle is the same.
• It is the resulting principles—not the specific findings— that help explain everyday
behaviors.
• When psychologists apply laboratory research on aggression to actual violence
• They are applying theoretical principles of aggressive behavior, principles they have
refined through many experiments.
• Similarly, it is the principles of the visual system, developed from experiments in
artificial settings (such as looking at red lights in the dark), that researchers apply to
more complex behaviors such as night flying.
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