CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Experimental Psychology

Psych 104 – Experimental Psychology | A.Y. 2024-2025 | PROF. JOY DEGAMO

TOPICS I. THE NEEDS FOR SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY

I. The Needs for Scientific Methodology Commonsense Psychology

- the kind of everyday, nonscientific data
II. The Characteristics of Modern Science
gathering that shapes our expectations
III. Objectives of Psychological Science and beliefs and directs our behavior
IV. Scientific Methods toward others
V. Scientific Explanation in Psychological
Science Nonscientific Sources of Data

1. Confirmation Bias
OBJECTIVES - tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and
recall information in a way that confirms or
- Understand why we rely on scientific strengthens one's preexisting beliefs or
methods rather than common sense to hypotheses
explain behavior. o People tend to overlook instances
- Learn the principles of the scientific that might disconfirm our beliefs,
method. and thing, we seek, instead,
- Learn the basic tools of psychological confirmatory instances of behavior
research.
- Understand how “cause and effect” is
established by experimentation. - Research has shown that we are more likely
to believe information if it comes from
OVERVIEW certain kinds of individuals
o People who are popular, attractive,
- Psychology is the science of behavior. high in status, seemingly expert, or
- Psychological science refers to the who appear highly confident are
psychological processes underlying more powerful sources of
behavior. information than others are
- Science means knowledge. Specifically, - Researchers have discovered that we are not
content and process. always privy to our own decision-making
o Content processes
▪ refers to what we know o People are often unaware of factors
o Process that influence our attitudes and
▪ activity that includes behavior (ex. Choice of wine)
the systematic ways in - People frequently use data from our own
which we go about experiences to come up with commonsense
gathering data, noting assumptions about cause and effect.
relationships, and
offering explanations
 CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Experimental Psychology
Psych 104 – Experimental Psychology | A.Y. 2024-2025 | PROF. JOY DEGAMO

Nonscientific Inference II. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN SCIENCE

1. Stereotyping A. Scientific Mentality

- the process of assigning generalized and - Behavior must follow a natural order;
often oversimplified characteristics, traits, or therefore, it can be predicted.
behaviors to individuals based on their
membership in a particular social group, B. Gathering Empirical Data
such as race, gender, age, or nationality - Data that are observable or experienced.
- Most important kinds of data we collect It is crucial as it provides objective,
about others comes in the form of traits we verifiable evidence that supports
assign to them informed decision-making and advances
o Ex. When we notice that Stacy is scientific knowledge.
sporting another new designer
outfit, we conclude that she is C. Seeking General Principles
vain about her appearance and - Theory - we advance understanding by
spends money frivolously. devising and testing an interim
o Ex. Once we know that Carol is a explanation.
librarian, we automatically - Theories pull together, or unify, diverse
assume that she is probably also sets of scientific facts into an organizing
serious because that scheme, such as a general principle or
characteristic is part of a set of rules, that can be used to predict
librarian stereotype new examples of behavior.

2. Gambler’s Fallacy D. Good Thinking

- erroneous belief that the occurrence of a - Approach to the collection and
random event is less likely or more likely to interpretation of data should be
happen based on the outcome of a previous systematic, objective, and rational.
event or series of events, despite the events
being independent of each other E. Self-Correction
- Problems in prediction occur because people - Content of science changes as we
are not very good at using data to estimate acquire new scientific information, and
the true probabilities of events. old information is reevaluated in light of
new facts.
3. Overconfidence Bias
- the tendency for individuals to overestimate F. Publicizing Results
their own abilities, knowledge, or - Scientists meet frequently through
predictions. People exhibiting this bias often professional and special interest groups
have unwarranted confidence in their and attend professional conferences to
decisions and judgments, believing they are exchange information about their
more accurate or competent than they current work
actually are.
- guesses, and explanations tend to feel much G. Replication
more correct than they actually are, and the - Ability to repeat our procedures and get
more data we have available (accurate or the same results again if we have
not), the more confidence we have in our gathered data objectively and if we have
judgments about behavior followed good thinking.
CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Experimental Psychology
Psych 104 – Experimental Psychology | A.Y. 2024-2025 | PROF. JOY DEGAMO

III. THE OBJECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE IV. SCIENTIFIC METHOD: PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

A. DESCRIPTION Tools for Scientific Method

- Initial step toward understanding any
phenomenon. Refers to a systematic and A. OBSERVATION
unbiased account of the observed - systematic noting and recording of
characteristics of behaviors. events. Only events that are observable
can be studied scientifically
B. PREDICTION
- Refers to the capacity for knowing in B. MEASUREMENT
advance when certain behaviors would - Assignment of numerical values to
be expected to occur—to be able to objects or events or their characteristics
predict them ahead of time—because according to conventional rules.
we have identified other conditions with
which the behaviors are linked or C. EXPERIMENTATION
associated - Process undertaken to test a hypothesis
that particular behavioral events will
C. EXPLANATION occur reliably in certain, specifiable
- Includes knowledge of the conditions situations.
that reliably reproduce the occurrence
of a behavior. Three minimum requirements must be met:

D. CONTROL First - we must have procedures for

- Refers to the application of what has manipulating the setting.
been learned about behavior. Once a
behavior has been explained through Second - the predicted outcome must
experimentation, it may be possible to be observable.
use that knowledge to effect change or
improve behavior. Third - we must be able to measure the
outcome.
CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Experimental Psychology
Psych 104 – Experimental Psychology | A.Y. 2024-2025 | PROF. JOY DEGAMO

V. SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION IN 4. ESTABLISHING CAUSE AND EFFECT

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE - In psychology experiment, we can infer a
cause-and-effect relationship between
1. IDENTIFYING ANTECEDENT CONDITIONS the antecedent conditions and the
- In a scientific context, explanation subjects’ behaviors.
means specifying the antecedent o If the XYZ set of antecedents
conditions of an event or behavior. always leads to a particular
o Antecedent conditions, or behavior, whereas other
antecedents, are the treatments do not, we can infer
circumstances that come before that XYZ causes the behavior.
the event or behavior that we o Temporal Relationship
want to explain. ▪ a time difference occurs
such that treatment
conditions come before
the behavior or the
cause precedes the
effect.
2. COMPARING TREATMENT CONDITIONS
- In the psychology experiment, we create
specific sets of antecedent conditions 5. NECESSARY VERSUS SUFFICIENT
that we call treatments. CONDITIONS
o We compare different - As we seek cause-and-effect
treatment conditions so that we relationships in science and psychology,
can test our explanations of we try to identify the conditions under
behaviors systematically and which events will occur. We distinguish
scientifically between necessary and sufficient
conditions.
o Necessary condition
▪ is something that must
be present for an event
to occur
o Sufficient condition
3. PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENT ▪ is something that, if
- Is a controlled procedure in which at present, guarantees the
least two different treatment conditions event will occur.
are applied to subjects - The cause-and-effect relationships
o The subjects’ behaviors are then established through scientific research
measured and compared to test commonly involve identifying sufficient
a hypothesis about the effects conditions.