Class #2: Bias and Science

1. Psychology is the study of the way people feel, think, and act.
And so, you will forever be the go-to therapist for your friends because you minored in psych. Bring on the feels.

2. Relying on insight from personal experience can act as limitations in research, because expectation can lead us to the wrong answer.
e.g.: Pleasant Truth (Blind Spot) Bias — Other people being hazed are biased when they said it was worth it, when it was just cognitive dissonance.
Except for me. I’m different.

3. The most important part of the scientific method is that it is systematic, which means that all information counts (regardless of consistency with theory), base rates are attended to, and one tries to be as true to the real world as possible.

Pro-tip: people don’t care how systematic your data is if it’s systematically uninteresting.

(Writen by Hannah, 2016 & Alana, 2018)