Can Week-Old Pizza Cause Hallucinations? And Other Questions in Psychology

Introduction

• **Common Questions: **
  • Can week-old pizza cause hallucinations?
  • Does coffee make you smarter?
• Our intuitions about human behavior can be misleading, leading to false conclusions.
• Importance of scientific inquiry to understand behaviors accurately.

Problems with Intuition

• Hindsight Bias:
  • We tend to overestimate our ability to predict events after they have occurred.
  • Example: Believing we “knew it all along” after seeing outcomes.
• Overconfidence Bias:
  • Overestimating the accuracy of our beliefs and predictions.
  • We feel confident but can often be wrong.
• Perceiving Order in Random Events:
  • Seeing patterns where none exist, like interpreting a series of coin flips.

Methods in Psychological Research

Step 1: Operationalizing Questions

• Transforming general questions into measurable and testable propositions.
• Theory in sciences:
  • Organizes observations and predicts outcomes.
• Hypothesis:
  • Testable prediction derived from a theory.
• Importance of clear language to allow replication.

Case Studies

• In-depth look at one individual.
• **Pros: **
  • Highlights what can happen.
  • Good for storytelling and framing questions.
• **Cons: **
  • Non-replicable.
  • Risk of over-generalizing.

Naturalistic Observation

• Observing behavior in a natural setting without intervention.
• **Pros: **
  • Describes behavior accurately.
• **Cons: **
  • Limited in explaining behavior.

Surveys and Interviews

• Collecting data by asking people about their opinions and behaviors.
• Pros:
  • Effective for accessing attitudes and beliefs.
• Cons:
  • Subtle wording can influence results.
  • Sampling bias can skew results.
• Examples:
  • Alfred Kinsey’s survey on sexual behavior.

Correlations and Predictions

• Identifying relationships between traits or behaviors.
• **Correlation is not Causation: **
  • Correlations suggest possible cause-effect relationships but don’t prove them.

Experimental Research

• Key to understanding cause-and-effect relationships.
• Components:
  • Independent Variable: Manipulated factor (e.g., caffeine dosage).
  • Dependent Variable: Measured outcome (e.g., maze completion time).
  • Control Group: Not exposed to the independent variable.
• Random Assignment:
  • Minimizes biases and confounding variables.
• Double Blind Procedure:
  • Neither participants nor researchers know who belongs to which group.

Example Experiment: Caffeine and Problem-Solving

• Question: Do humans solve problems faster with caffeine?
• Hypothesis: Adult humans given caffeine navigate a maze faster than without caffeine.
• Procedure:
  • Control group: Decaf
  • Experimental group one: 100mg caffeine
  • Experimental group two: 500mg caffeine
  • Measure maze completion time.
• Outcome: Compare results to see correlation between caffeine and performance.

Conclusion

• Scientific method is invaluable in psychological research.
• Learnt Methods:
  • Applying scientific methods, case studies, naturalistic observations, surveys, and experiments.
• Importance of avoiding biases in research.
• Thanks to contributors and viewers for enabling educational content.