Chapter 2The Research Enterprise in Psychology

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Demonstration

• Get out a piece of paper and a pen

• Follow instructions and write your answers to the following questions

1. Imagine that a person is whirling a ball attached to a string around his or her head. Draw a circle that represents the path of the ball as viewed from above the person’s head.

Like This

1. Draw a dot somewhere on the circle and connect the dot to the center of the circle with a line. The line represents the string, and the dot represents the ball at a particular instant in time.

Top of your head

The ball

The String

1. Imagine that at exactly this instant, the string is cut. Your first task is to indicate with your pencil the subsequent flight of the ball. Draw your answer on your paper now.

?

• Turn your paper over, or use the bottom half for the next task.

2. Imagine that you are a bomber pilot flying toward a target at 500 miles per hour at a height of 20,000 feet. Draw a bull's-eye to represent the bomber’s target and then draw a long arrow over the bull’s-eye to represent the flight path of the plane.

Flying this direction

2. To simplify the problem, assume that there is no air resistance.

2. The question here is: At which location would you drop your bomb? Draw a bomb at the point on the arrow (flight path) where you would release it from your plane. (Reminder: you are a bomber pilot flying toward a target

at 500 miles per hour at a height of 20,000 feet.)

bomb

? ? ? ? ? ?? ?? ? ? ? ???

• One more…

3. Imagine that you are firing a rifle from shoulder height. Assume that there is no air resistance and that the rifle is fired exactly parallel to the ground.

BANG!

3. If a bullet that is dropped from the same height as the rifle takes one-half second to hit the ground, how long will it take the bullet that is fired from the rifle to hit the ground if its initial velocity is 2,000 feet per second?

Why did I Make you do these?

If you didn’t answer all three, quit cheating and go back and do them!

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Intuitive Physics!You live your life in the real world

where the laws of physics apply.

How well are your intuitive ideas about physics?

Intuitive Physics – Answers1. Once the string is cut, the ball will

fly in a straight line at a 90-degree angle to the string (tangent to the circle).

Intuitive Physics – Answers2. The bomb should be dropped

before the target, five miles before passing over it.

bomb

Intuitive Physics – Answers3. The two bullets would hit the

ground at the same time.

Intuitive PhysicsDon’t worry if you missed any of

these.

1/3 of college students answer that the ball will fly away from the string in a curved trajectory

1/2 of college students answer that the bomb should be released directly over the target.

Intuitive Physics

We Observe things moving all throughout our lives… so why don’t we know intuitive physics?

Intuitive Physics

More to the point, not many people seriously argue that their intuitive ideas of physics are better than physicists’ theories.

Many people do resist psychological findings, though.

Have you heard comments like these?

“Psychologists may say that, but I know a person who…”“Don’t tell me I have a drinking problem; I can quit anytime I want to.”“I don’t need some psychologist to tell me how to raise my children.”“Researchers can do all the studies they want, I know how to do my job based on experience.”…

How do we Study Behavior?

The problem is that Intuitive Psychology is limited. It doesn’t work well.

It is limited to personal experiences.

How do we Study Behavior?

As rich and diverse as one person’s experiences may be…

…think how much better it would be to include many people’s experiences.

How do we Study Behavior?

Imagine including thousands of people’s experiences.

This is what a science of behavior attempts to do:

We put together information from many people to find general findings, tendancies, or trends.

Do we really have to have the scientific method?

Yes

Human nature is not very systematic in gaining information!

The following is a quote by biologist E. O. Wilson, which highlights the problem with human experience as a tool for investigating the world.

“the brain is a machine assembled not to understand itself, but to survive. Because these two ends are basically different, the mind unaided by factual knowledge from science sees the world only in little pieces. It throws a spotlight on those portions of the world it must know in order to live to the next day…That is why even today people know more about their automobiles than they do about their own minds…” (1998)

Think about it:

Why would we be able to figure out general rules about human behavior based on only our own experiences? Or only ours and our closest friends’ and family member’s experiences?

Of course a systematic study, using many people’s experiences, will be better!

Review

• Unaided by science, many people have poor intuitive ideas of physics.

• Unaided by science, intuitive psychology is not much better.

So what does Intuitive Psychology look like?

Psychologists have studied this.

Intuitive Psychology

One type of intuitive ideas about psychology is called Recipe Knowledge

•Recipe Knowledge – doing something because you believe it will lead to a certain result

Recipe Knowledge typically has the form:

If I do [A], then [B happens].

Simple example:If I [press the power button], then [the TV turns on].

Recipe Knowledge is very useful.

You use it to get what you need.

Most recipes work, though some are bad recipes…

Example Recipes

•Recipe to pass a class: • get syllabus• see where points come from• figure out minimum effort to get points• do minimum• Result: pass course, learn little.

•Recipe to get a date:• see sexiness at a bar• approach sexiness• say pickup line• Result: usually get laughed at, but occasionally get a date.

Problem!

To use a recipe, you do not have to know why the recipe works. All you have to do is follow it, and you get the predictable result.

Let’s be honest, few of us know the chemistry behind why most kitchen recipes work…

Recipe Knowledge is Limited

Recipe knowledge gets us through our days, but it leaves us with few tools if we need to make changes, improve the recipe, or explore alternatives. If something goes wrong, recipe knowledge can leave you clueless.

Recipe Knowledge is Limited

Sometimes recipe knowledge holds us back. Many people do things a certain way simply because that is how they have always done it. Is it the best way? Can it be improved?

“If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”

This is only good advice if you’ve looked to see if “it” is not broken. If you never look…then this is bad advice.

Intuitive Psychology

Review

One type of intuitive ideas about psychology is called Recipe Knowledge

Intuitive Psychology

Review

Recipe Knowledge can work well.

Intuitive Psychology

Review

Recipe Knowledge is limited.

•It gives us no guide to change or select recipes if we do not know why it works.

•It can limit us if we never explore our recipes.

Intuitive Psychology

A Second type of Intuitive Psychology is a Personal Theory.

• Personal Theory – psychological explanations based on your experiences

• Sometimes called Armchair Psychology, or Lay Psychology

Personal theories are sometimes simplistic, incomplete

Personal theories are sometimes simplistic, incomplete

“I can solve the problem in Iraq. Nuke them!”

…is this a fair solution? What would be the result? Would this solve problems or create more?

Personal theories are sometimes biased

Personal theories are sometimes biased

The word “Bias” in psychology is not judgmental.

If knowledge of new information might lead to a different personal theory, then the original theory was “biased.”

(Note how I’m using “bias” differently than commonly used.)

Remember the E. O. Wilson quote? He pointed out that we shouldn’t expect people to come up with perfect theories based only on personal experience.

“the brain is a machine assembled not to understand itself, but to survive. Because these two ends are basically different, the mind unaided by factual knowledge from science sees the world only in little pieces. It throws a spotlight on those portions of the world it must know in order to live to the next day…That is why even today people know more about their automobiles than they do about their own minds…” (1998)

The scientific method allows us to observe systematically and to seek information strategically.

Take Home Message

Take Home Message

Examine your own recipe knowledge.

You have spent your life gaining knowledge of how to live.

To use the scientific approach, you must be open to finding new ways!

Take Home Message

Be aware that you probably have personal theories

Although many of us have personal theories of psychology, we may not have put them into words. Nevertheless, your personal theories will probably color your opinions of topics as you read them in the text.

Goal for Chapter 2

Learn how the scientific method can improve upon “intuitive psychology”