Chapter 1: Thinking Critically with Psychological Science
Chapter 1 (pg. 19-45)
1. Analyze two pitfalls in thinking that make intuition and common sense untrustworthy.
Give an example of each (from your life or make one up, NOT from the text…prove your
understanding).
2. Briefly outline the attitudes that characterize scientific inquiry, and explain the
importance and nature of critical thinking.
3. Analyze the connection between theories, hypothesis, operational definitions, and
replication in psychological research.
4. Synthesize the three descriptive research strategies. Which would you prefer to be
involved in conducting and why?
5. Describe the types of correlation, and discuss why correlation enables prediction but not
explanation/causation.
6. Explain the nature and significance of illusory correlations and give an example.
7. Synthesize the advantages of experimentation.
8. Discuss the importance of random assignment and control techniques in research.
9. Define the three measures of central tendency, and explain how they describe data
differently.
10. Describe two measures of variation.
11. What are three important principles when trying to use research studies to make
generalizations to the larger population? In other words, how do the populations of
people in the research impact its ability to be generalized, or applied to, to larger groups
of people?
12. Describe how psychologists make statistical inferences (conclusions) about differences
between groups in research? Why is statistical significance important?
Left-Page Entry #1: Using pg. 37-41, design a web, a pamphlet or an illustrated outline titled
“Experimentation” with a minimum of ten details and at least three visuals. Be sure to include
important vocabulary that illustrates your understanding of the experimental method.
Left-Page Entry #2: Analyze the various research methods used by psychologists and
complete the attached chart.