Psychology as a science
The more a claim contradicts what we already know, the more persuasive the evidence for this claim must be before we accept it.
What is extraordinary claims, extraordinary evidence?
What is validity?
A brain imaging technique that can be used to identify the precise location of epilepsy related seizures.
What is magnetoencephalography (MEG)?
An imposter of science.
What is pseudoscience?
What is non-experimental design/correlational research?
A type of research design where we look at the relationship amongst variables.
A testable prediction.
What is a hypothesis?
Every person in the general population has an approximately equal chance of being chosen to participate in the research sample, it is essential to generalize findings.
What is random selection?
They protect, support and nourish neurons.
What are glial cells?
What is terror management theory?
What is the hippocampus?
The tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis, and neglect or distort contrary evidence.
What is confirmation bias?
When we ask ourselves, “how consistent is the measure across different raters?”
What is inter-rater reliability?
The place where neurons meet.
What is the synapse?
A school of psychology that was heavily influenced by Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
What is functionalism?
An area of the brain that regulates and controls our internal bodily states.
What is the hypothalamus?
The tendency to stick to our initial belief even when the evidence is contradictory.
What is belief perseverance?
The consistency of a measure.
What is reliability?
The primitive region of the brain, which handles direct essential survival functions.
What is the hindbrain?
The most frequent score in a dataset.
What is the mode?
Does a simpler explanation fit the data equally well?
What is Occam’s razor/principle of parsimony?
The tendency for participants to respond inaccurately or untruthfully.
What is response bias?
A drug that blocks or impedes the normal activity of a neurotransmitter.
What is an antagonist?
A school of psychology that focused on the role of a person’s unconscious.
What is psychoanalysis?
A variable not of interest that varies along with the independent variable, and could provide an alternative explanation for our results.
What is a confound?