Lilienfeld et al. - Psychology and Scientific Thinking Study Guide
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Many first time college students struggle adjusting to expectations of college-level courses. One reason for this is that college-level courses require students to learn new
content and apply that content to new situations. These worksheets are designed to highlight the difference between simple content knowledge and application of that
knowledge. Your answers to content questions will come from your text, and classroom lectures and discussions. Your answers to application questions will come from
your thinking about the content and puzzling out the answer. To reiterate, answers to application questions are not in the text.
Content
1. What do the authors mean by “levels of explanation”?
Application
1. What would each of these levels look like if you were studying (a) “language
development in infants” or (b) “play in chimpanzees”? Choose one and describe
what would be studied at each level.
2. Why are these different levels of explanations important in the field of
psychology?
3. List three things that make the field of psychology challenging.
2. Explain why these different issues make it difficult for psychologists to arrive at
certain explanations of why people engage in road rage difficult?
4. What does it mean to say that a behavior is multiply determined?
5. What does it mean to claim that a behavior has a single-variable explanation?
6. When psychologists talk about “individual differences”, to what are they
referring?
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Lilienfeld et al. - Psychology and Scientific Thinking Study Guide
7. Describe two examples from the text that illustrate why we should not trust our
“common sense.”
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3. Describe two examples from your own experience that illustrate that you are
indeed prone to naïve realism.
8. What is “naïve realism”?
4. Explain how naïve realism and belief perseverance effect are related.
9. Under what circumstances are “common sense” or “gut instinct” useful in
science?
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Lilienfeld et al. - Psychology and Scientific Thinking Study Guide
10. What is science?
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5. Briefly explain why psychology is a science.
11. What attitudes are necessary for researchers?
6. Why are the attitudes and personality traits necessary for researchers?
12. What personality traits are useful to have if you want to participate in scientific
endeavors?
13. How do we know that confirmation bias is a problem?
14. What safeguards do researchers use to protect their findings from personal
bias?
15. What is a scientific theory? Include reference to the two misconceptions in your
answer.
7. A lady in front of you in line at the grocery store tells you that she has a theory
about the cashier in your line. She thinks that the cashier hates men. She predicts
that the cashier will treat the men rudely and the women with courtesy. Is this a
scientific theory? Why or why not?
16. How does a hypothesis differ from a theory?
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Lilienfeld et al. - Psychology and Scientific Thinking Study Guide
17. What is pseudoscience?
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8. Consider the seven characteristics of pseudoscience. What would the legitimate
scientific correlate of each of these be? Why is each of these characteristics of
science necessary?
18. From your textbook, list several examples of pseudoscience.
19. What safeguards are absent from pseudoscience?
20. Your book lists seven signs or characteristics of pseudoscience. List and
describe them.
21. What reasons do your authors provide for why people fall for pseudoscientific
claims?
9. Looking to your own present or past, describe three or four pseudoscientific
beliefs that you have had. Do not include examples from the text or lecture.
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22. What is the difference between empirical claims and nonempirical
(metaphysical) claims?
23. What is the authors’ point in talking about different types of claims?
24. According to your authors, why can pseudoscience lead to harm?
10. Consider the facilitated communication fiasco. Describe several different types
of harm that resulted from people using facilitated communication prior to its
being tested. Use specific references to people in the film. Do any of your examples
of harm caused by FC fit into the three types of harm mentioned by your authors?
If so, identify them in your answer.
25. What are the characteristics of scientific skepticism?
Principles of scientific thinking:
26. What does it mean to rule out rival hypotheses?
11. Can you see how ruling out rival hypotheses relates to the notion that
correlations do not indicate causal relationships? Explain.
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Lilienfeld et al. - Psychology and Scientific Thinking Study Guide
27. What does “Correlation isn’t Causation” mean?
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12. What are the definitions of the terms “correlation” and “causation”? [Yes, that does
mean using a dictionary! :^) ]
13. Describe an example of a pseudoscientific belief, perhaps from an infomercial
you have watched, that depends on people failing to acknowledge this principle.
Then explain your example using steps 1-3 on p. 20.
28. What is falsifiability?
14. Why is it crucial to scientific discovery that claims are falsifiable?
15. Explain why Doug Biklen’s position on facilitated communication was
nonfalsifiable. Use quotes from the transcript to support your answer.
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29. What is replicability?
16. Why is it crucial to scientific discovery that findings are replicable?
30. Your authors say “we shouldn’t place too much stock in a psychological finding
until it’s been replicated.” Why not?
17. In the facilitated communication fiasco, what finding was replicated?
31. What makes a claim extraordinary (or bold)?
18. How does this principle of scientific thinking relate to “Burden of proof”?
32. What is the main point of principle #5?
33. What is Occam’s Razor (Principle of Parsimony)?
19. Explain how Doug Biklen violated Occam’s Razor in his treatment of facilitated
communication. Provide evidence to support your response.
34. What is Wilhelm Wundt’s claim to fame?
20. What characteristic of pseudoscience does introspection demonstrate? (In
other words, what principle of scientific thinking does introspection violate?)
35. What is introspection?
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Lilienfeld et al. - Psychology and Scientific Thinking Study Guide
36. What was the primary goal of structuralism?
37. Who is associated with the school of structuralism?
38. What was the primary goal of functionalism?
39. Who is associated with the school of functionalism?
40. What was the primary goal of behaviorism?
41. Who is associated with the school of behaviorism?
42. What was the primary goal of cognitivism?
43. Who is associated with the school of cognitivism?
44. What was the primary goal of psychoanalysis?
45. Who is associated with the school of psychoanalysis?
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Lilienfeld et al. - Psychology and Scientific Thinking Study Guide
Look over Table 1.5 and be familiar with the different types of settings in which
psychologists operate.
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21. In your review of Table 1.5, were you surprised by any of the types of
psychologists? Were you a victim of any of the misconceptions? If so, which ones?
Why do you think you held these faulty beliefs?
46. What is the nature/nurture debate?
47. According to your authors, how has it been resolved?
48. What is evolutionary psychology?
22. What problems does evolutionary psychology run into when drawing
conclusions? Thinking back to the principles of scientific thinking.
49. What is basic research? (Use the definition from Shaw in class)
23. Look up “Roomba” on Wikipedia. What kind of basic research do you think was
conducted in order to bring the Roomba to market? What kinds of applied research
might have been conducted to make it an effective product?
50. What is applied research?
Fallacies: For each fallacy, be able to describe it and give an example, preferably a new one. Refer to Shermer’s article, which you can find on our website, and your text to help
with these fallacies.
Fallacy/ Thinking tendency
Description
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Example
Lilienfeld et al. - Psychology and Scientific Thinking Study Guide
1
Emotional reasoning (Appeal to
emotion)
2
Appeal to the masses (Bandwagon
fallacy)
3
False dilemma (Either-Or)
4
Not-Me Fallacy
5
Anecdotes Don’t Make a Science
6
Burden of Proof
7
Rumors Don’t Equal Reality
8
Failures are Rationalized
9
Correlation doesn’t equal Causation/
After-the-Fact Reasoning
10
Appeal to Ignorance/
Ad Ignorantium
11
Appeal to the person/
Ad Hominem
12
Hasty Generalization
13
Appeal to Authority
(Overreliance on Authority)
14
Appeal to Anonymous Authority
15
Confirmation bias
(Seek and ye shall find)
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Belief perseverance effect
17
Hindsight bias
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Important terms: These terms should look familiar and should appear in your answers to the study guide questions. Some terms will come from your notes from class
lectures and discussions.
1
anecdote
14
correlation-causation fallacy
27
levels of explanation
40
reactivity
2
apophenia
15
critical thinking
28
logical fallacies
41
replicability
3
applied research
16
disinterestedness
29
Meehl’s maxim
42
rival hypothesis
4
B. F. Skinner
17
either-or fallacy
30
metaphysical (nonempirical) claims
43
scientific skepticism
5
bandwagon fallacy
18
emotional reasoning fallacy
31
multiply determined
44
scientific theory
6
basic research
19
evolutionary psychology
32
naïve realism
45
scientist-practitioner gap
7
behaviorism
20
falsifiability
33
not-me fallacy
46
Sigmund Freud
8
belief perseverance
21
functionalism
34
Oberg’s dictum
47
single-variable explanations
9
Charles Darwin
22
hypothesis
35
opportunity cost
48
structuralism
10
claim
23
individual differences
36
pathological skepticism
49
variable
11
cognition
24
introspection
37
pseudoscience
50
Wilhelm Wundt
12
communalism
25
Jean Piaget
38
psychoanalysis
51
William James
13
confirmation bias
26
John B. Watson
39
psychology
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