Deck 1: D: Psychology As Science: Thinking Like a Researcher

Question 1

What is the hindsight bias and when has it occurred in your own life?

Answer 1

The hindsight bias is the "I knew it all along" phenomenon.It occurs when people think that they could have predicted the occurrence of an event,when in actuality there is no objective reason to believe that they could have.People may have experienced this phenomenon after the end of a sporting event,like the Super Bowl or the Kentucky Derby.People often believe they could have reliably predicted the outcome.

Question 2

Carl refuses to believe that he is a bad driver even after experiencing a number of accidents and receiving several speeding tickets.Explain how his perception of his own driving abilities is the result of belief perseverance.

Answer 2

Belief perseverance is the tendency to maintain a belief despite encountering contradictory evidence.People often interpret information in ways that do not invalidate their original beliefs.If Carl thinks of himself as a good driver,he may make certain attributions (causal judgments)for the accidents and tickets that absolve him of responsibility.For instance,Carl may believe that the accidents he has been in are the result of other drivers' errors.He may also believe that the tickets he has received were unjustified.By placing blame for these infractions on others,he is able to maintain his belief that he is a good driver,perhaps with bad luck or poor timing.

Question 3

How is hindsight bias different from confirmation bias?

Answer 3

Hindsight bias is the tendency for a person to feel as if he/she "knew it all along" after learning the actual outcome.Hindsight bias makes people feel as if an event was predictable without there being any objective basis for making such a prediction.Confirmation bias,on the other hand,is the tendency for people to seek out information that is in line with their current beliefs and fail to search for information that could disconfirm their beliefs.

Question 4

Dr.Turpin is a social psychologist who teaches classes on the psychology of relationships.As part of a class discussion,he states that nearly half of all marriages end in divorce.He then asks his students whether they think that they will someday get divorced.Knowing what you do about the better-than-average effect,roughly what percentage of students do you expect will say that they will get divorced?

Question 5

Explain why good researchers should be open-minded.

Question 6

Why is replication a useful tool within the field of psychology?

Question 7

Use your knowledge of the focusing effect to explain why people are often surprised to hear that winning the lottery can ruin people's lives.

Question 8

Define an outlier and give an example from your own experience.

Question 9

Individuals who study research methods gain a number of important career skills.Please use your understanding of these skills to argue for which one you think is the most valuable.

Question 10

Ashlyn was asked by her research advisor to conduct a literature review of personality psychology articles that speak to their hypothesis that having siblings is associated with higher levels of conscientiousness.Knowing what you do about the confirmation bias,what types of articles is Ashlyn likely to bring to her advisor?

Question 11

Joaquin refuses to go into the ocean during his family's summer vacation because he has seen a number of recent news stories about shark attacks along the eastern seaboard.Use your understanding of the availability heuristic to explain Joaquin's fear of sharks.

Question 12

What is the law of small numbers?

Question 13

How is introspection different from empirical research?

Question 14

Margot recently saw an infomercial for a cleaning product that promises to remove all set-in stains from garments.Discuss how an understanding of psychological research provides Margot with the skills necessary to defend against potentially overzealous claims and make her a more critical consumer.

Question 15

Give an example of basic research and discuss how it is different from applied research.