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CLASSROOM TOUR
Monday:
Name Assignment DUE
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Wednesday:
Notebook DUE
(1- 2- 3)
October 1st
$3 Mask Fee DUE
MYTH #1 – NOTES
GUIDE
1.
Do you think there’s truth to the statement,
“Psychology is just common sense”? Explain.
2.
What do you think? Do “opposites attract” or do
“birds of a feather flock together”?
Let’s look at some research (half-sheet).
WHAT IS
PSYCHOLOGY?
Myth #1:
Psychology is Just Common
Sense.
Myth #1
• “Of course that’s true!”
• “Why do people even waste their time researching stuff
that’s just common sense?!”
• Let’s look at some research…
Can They Both Be True?
3.
Attraction…
What does research say?
University of Iowa
People tend to marry those who are similar in attitudes,
religion, and values.
It appears that similarity in personality that appears to be
more important in having a happy marriage.
Hindsight Bias
Sometimes just asking people how and why they felt or
acted as they did can sometimes be misleading.
4.
Common sense describes what HAS happened, not
what WILL happen.
“I knew it all along phenomenon”
5.
*The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome,
that one would have foreseen it.
“Hindsight is 20/20”
Hurricane Katrina (2005)
Michael Brown, former Federal Emergency Management
Agency director, recalled his feelings from the day before
Katrina hit:
“I knew in my gut this was the bad one”
The Limits of Common Sense
Just because something seems like it should be true does not
necessarily mean it is.
7.
Psychomythology: misconceptions, urban legends,
mythology, and misinformation about psychology
Psychology: the scientific STUDY of mental processes
and behavior
8.
Researchers take some of our guesses about human
behavior and test them scientifically.
• Would you deliver potentially fatal shocks to a stranger just
because an authority figure told you to?
• What does your common sense tell you?
Obedience to authority
How far will we go to follow the orders of an authority
figure?
Stanley Milgram
• One of the most famous and widely recognized
psychological studies (Yale University; 1963).
• Raised the ethics of using humans in research.
• Wanted to understand WWII atrocities.
7. Methods
• Imagine you and another participant arrive at a laboratory
for an experiment called "The Effects of Punishment on
Learning."
• After being greeted by an experimenter, he randomly
assigns you to be the "teacher" and the other participant
to be the "learner."
• The learner is led to another room and hooked up to a
shock machine.
Mr. Wallace
Methods
• The teacher reads a list of word pairs (Example: “clear”
goes with “air.”).
• If the answer is wrong, the learner receives a shock.
• With each mistake, you move to the next lever
administering a more intense shock (begins at 15 volts,
increases by 15v each lever to 450v).
• How far would you go? – Select a measure and write
it on your paper.
The procedure
Voltage
75
120
Learner response
grunts
Experimenter response
1. Please continue
shouts in pain
150
says he refuses to continue
200
blood-curdling screams
300
330+
2. The experiment requires
you to continue.
3. It is absolutely essential
that you continue.
4. You have no other choice
but to continue.
refuses to answer, heart condition
silence
What would you do?
Prediction: Average estimate was 1.2% to 450 volts;
average estimated response was 135 volts.
*What did you say you would do?
8. Results:
• 26 out of 40 (65%) went to 450 volts.
• The “learner” is a confederate of the experimenter.
Everything is scripted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYLCy5PVgM
Voltage
75
120
150
200
300
330+
Learner response
Experimenter response
grunts
1. Please continue
shouts in pain
2. The experiment requires you to continue.
says he refuses to continue
3. It is absolutely essential that you continue.
blood-curdling scream
4. You have no other choice but to continue.
refuses to answer, heart condition
silence
9. Factors Influencing Obedience
Was the original hypothesis based on
“common sense”?
Obedience, now & then…
ABC News: “What would you do?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwqNP9HRy7Y
Replication of Milgram’s research
Were the results similar?
Again … Are our expectations about human behavior
“common sense” or is it more complicated than that?
Reversing the Process: How do we prevent
tragedy that arises from blind obedience?
Milgrim’s studies led to debates about whether or not something
like The Holocaust could happen again.
Dr. Philip Zimbardo (www.lucifereffect.com) makes some
suggestions:
• Teaching children to recognize and disobey unjust authority.
• Promoting critical thinking that challenges false ideologies and
bad means to good ends.
• Encouraging respect for human diversity and
appreciating human variability.
Obedience, now & then…
ABC News:
“Would you obey a total stranger and steal a baby?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxfk973QQvo
Were any of the things Zimbardo warns us against in place
for the people who obeyed?
Myth #1 – What Are the Take-Aways?
• Common Sense, Intuition, and Snap Judgments are more of a
reflection of what has happened and has been researched
then what will happen.
• Thus, MISTRUST your “common sense” when you hear
something or read something about Psychology.
• Find research EVIDENCE to support claims.
• Don’t buy into something just because it says “studies show.”
• Science can be and often IS “uncommon” sense – it requires us to put
aside our personal bias and belief systems and focus primarily on
EVIDENCE!
• Think about those “experts” and their predictions for Milgrim’s research.
• Think about your assumptions about whether or not people would steal a
baby.
• So … Is Psychology Really a Science?