PSCYH 2030 Lecture part 1

Which of the following best describes intuition as a way of knowing?

• Logical deduction from empirical data

• Gut instinct that taps into reflexes but gives little insight into why we feel it

• Cultural tradition passed through authority

• Controlled peer-reviewed testing

“Authorities, tradition, and culture” can lead to which of the following?

• Falsifiability of hypotheses

• Assuming a behaviour is natural or prescriptive just because it is common

• Larger sample sizes in experiments

• A more scientific understanding of rationalism

Which statement best captures experience as a way of knowing?

• Experience always produces generalizable knowledge

• It is identical to lay theory and is always invalid

• You learn something because it happened to you; lessons inspire observations to study

• It replaces scientific method with tradition

How did the lecture describe common sense/rationalism?

• It is the highest level of evidence that eliminates the need for research

• It is a basic logical assessment, often obvious but limited in depth

• It is pseudoscience, impossible to test

• It is the same as a correlational design

What are lay theories according to the slides?

• Scientific theories that have been peer-reviewed

• Everyday explanations we create to explain events; often correct “enough”

• Intuitive guesses with no potential accuracy

• A synonym for pseudoscience

Which of the following is NOT part of the scientific method described in the lecture?

• A. Empirically study the research question

• B. Analyze the data

• C. Draw conclusions

• D. Ignore contrary evidence to protect a theory

Why is pseudoscience problematic according to the lecture?

• It requires pre-registration of studies

• It cannot be studied systematically and often rejects available evidence

• It always produces accurate results

• It uses too large of a sample size

What does the lecture mean by “me-search”?

• Research with no personal motivation

• Investigating phenomena in one’s own life, sometimes criticized as a slur

• Meta-analysis of many different studies

• Archival research that relies on secondary data

What is the goal of research when it seeks to describe?

• To explain why one variable influences another

• To summarize facts, often exploratory, such as group differences

• To apply findings to interventions

• To predict outcomes based on conditions

What is the goal of research when it seeks to predict?

• To determine group norms descriptively

• To explain mechanisms

• To state that if X happens, Y happens, often under specific conditions

• To apply interventions