PsychChapter1New - Ch 1 Thinking Critically with Psychological Science The Limits of Psychological Science and Common Sense Did We Know It All Along The

Ch. 1: Thinking Critically with Psychological Science The Limits of Psychological Science and Common Sense  Did We Know It All Along? The Hindsight Bias • Hindsight bias (I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon)- finding out that something has happened makes it seem inevitable • Can seem like common sense after the fact  Common sense describes what has happened more easily than it predicts what will happen  Overconfidence • Human tendency to be overconfident • Anagrams The Scientific Attitude  Curious skepticism • What do you mean? • How do you know? • Show me the evidence  Need the humility to reject our own ideas  Critical thinking- smart thinking that examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions The Scientific Method  Theory- an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations  Hypothesis- a testable prediction, often implied by a theory  Operational definition- a statement of the procedures used to define research variables • Intelligence- what an intelligence test measures 