Science and Common Sense

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Questions

Question 1

What is the collective term for the intuitive beliefs people hold about human behavior, thoughts, and feelings?

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Question 2

According to scientific research cited in the chapter, what is the actual effect of 'letting out' anger, for instance, by punching something?

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Question 3

What is the common but incorrect belief regarding false confessions to crimes, according to the text?

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Question 4

Which of the following is listed as one of the 'great myths' of popular psychology discussed by Scott Lilienfeld and colleagues?

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Question 5

What mental shortcuts do people tend to rely on in forming and maintaining their beliefs, which contributes to being wrong about human behavior?

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Question 6

What is the term for the tendency to focus on cases that confirm our intuitive beliefs while ignoring cases that disconfirm them?

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Question 7

The chapter defines the scientific attitude of skepticism as...

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Question 8

What is the attitude that scientists cultivate when there is not enough evidence to fully evaluate a belief or claim?

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Question 9

Which of the following beliefs is NOT listed in the 'Some Great Myths' section of the chapter?

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Question 10

Why is it nearly impossible for individuals to form accurate beliefs about group differences (like talkativeness between men and women) using informal observation?

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Question 11

What example does the chapter use to illustrate confirmation bias in action?

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Question 12

What is another reason people hold incorrect beliefs, as exemplified by the belief in the effectiveness of calorie-reducing diets for long-term obesity treatment?

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Question 13

According to the chapter, why is scientific psychology necessary despite the existence of common sense or intuition?

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Question 14

What does taking an attitude of skepticism toward a magazine article's claim that a weekly allowance helps children develop financial responsibility entail?

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Question 15

What is the relationship between an empirically testable question and the scientific attitude of tolerance for uncertainty?

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Question 16

The book '50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology' by Scott Lilienfeld and colleagues is cited to demonstrate what?

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Question 17

According to the chapter, why do psychologists and other scientists understand that they are susceptible to the same incorrect intuitive beliefs as anyone else?

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Question 18

What is the common but incorrect belief about psychiatric admissions and crimes mentioned as a 'great myth'?

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Question 19

One of the key reasons our intuitions about human behavior are often wrong is that if a belief is widely shared and makes intuitive sense, we tend to...

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Question 20

How many great myths of popular psychology are explicitly listed in the chapter's 'Some Great Myths' section?

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Question 21

The chapter suggests that if a research question is important enough, what should an attitude of skepticism lead one to do?

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Question 22

What is the primary reason the chapter gives for why the scientific approach to psychology is necessary?

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Question 23

Which researcher is cited in the text in relation to the common-sense myth about venting anger?

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Question 24

The tendency for people to believe that calorie-reducing diets are effective long-term treatments for obesity, despite evidence to the contrary, is used to illustrate that...

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Question 25

What is the key difference between the scientific attitude of skepticism and being cynical?

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Question 26

What does the chapter suggest about the accuracy of folk psychology?

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Question 27

The practice of forming beliefs based on mental shortcuts is identified as a reason for being wrong. The chapter gives a general reason for why we rely on these shortcuts, which is that...

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Question 28

From a scientific perspective, what is the value of discovering that we do not know the answer to an empirically testable question like whether an allowance makes children materialistic?

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Question 29

Which of the following describes the myth about learning styles as presented in the chapter?

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Question 30

What conclusion did Kassin & Gudjonsson's empirical research on confessions lead to, as cited in the chapter?

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Question 31

The chapter identifies how many main contributing factors for why our intuitive beliefs about human behavior can be so wrong?

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Question 32

The text states that forming accurate beliefs would be nearly impossible without science because it requires powers of observation, memory, and analysis to an extent that...

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Question 33

What is the final 'great myth' listed in the chapter from Lilienfeld et al.'s book?

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Question 34

An attitude of skepticism, when applied to a claim, means that if the issue is important enough, one might...

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Question 35

Which statement best summarizes the chapter's view on the relationship between scientific psychology and common sense?

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Question 36

The chapter describes confirmation bias as being 'compounded' by our tendency to...

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Question 37

What is the primary flaw in thinking that is at play when someone continues to believe that women are more talkative than men by only paying attention to talkative women and silent men?

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Question 38

In the context of the chapter, what is the role of scientific attitudes like skepticism and tolerance for uncertainty?

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Question 39

When the chapter states that for an important issue, skepticism might mean 'turning to the research literature,' what does this imply about the nature of scientific knowledge?

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Question 40

What is the common folk psychology belief about anger that scientific research by Bushman (2002) has shown to be incorrect?

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Question 41

Which of the following cognitive errors is NOT identified in the chapter as a reason for why our intuitions are often wrong?

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Question 42

The chapter ends by suggesting that when we do not know the answer to an interesting and empirically testable question, this uncertainty is...

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Question 43

The statement 'Low self-esteem is a major cause of psychological problems' is presented in the chapter as...

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Question 44

What is the primary characteristic of the evidence that a skeptical person would search for?

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Question 45

The chapter suggests that if you read in a magazine that giving children an allowance is a good way to help them develop financial responsibility, a skeptic would first...

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Question 46

What does the existence of cognitive errors like confirmation bias and heuristics imply about human reason, according to Gilovich (1991)?

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Question 47

How many contributing factors does the text explicitly identify to explain how our intuitive beliefs about human behavior can be so wrong?

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Question 48

The chapter's main purpose is to explain...

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Question 49

The fact that scientists cultivate a 'tolerance for uncertainty' shows that the scientific process...

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Question 50

According to the chapter, which of these is an example of a common-sense belief about human behavior that scientific research has shown to be incorrect?

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Other chapters

Methods of KnowingUnderstanding ScienceGoals of ScienceExperimental and Clinical PsychologistsKey Takeaways and ExercisesA Model of Scientific Research in PsychologyFinding a Research TopicGenerating Good Research QuestionsDeveloping a HypothesisDesigning a Research StudyAnalyzing the DataDrawing Conclusions and Reporting the ResultsKey Takeaways and ExerciseMoral Foundations of Ethical ResearchFrom Moral Principles to Ethics CodesPutting Ethics Into PracticeKey Takeaways and ExercisesUnderstanding Psychological MeasurementReliability and Validity of MeasurementPractical Strategies for Psychological MeasurementKey Takeaways and ExercisesExperiment BasicsExperimental DesignExperimentation and ValidityPractical ConsiderationsKey Takeaways and ExercisesOverview of Non-Experimental ResearchCorrelational ResearchComplex CorrelationQualitative ResearchObservational ResearchKey Takeaways and ExercisesOverview of Survey ResearchConstructing SurveysConducting SurveysKey Takeaways and ExercisesOne-Group DesignsNon-Equivalent Groups DesignsKey Takeaways and ExercisesSetting Up a Factorial ExperimentInterpreting the Results of a Factorial ExperimentKey Takeaways and ExercisesOverview of Single-Subject ResearchSingle-Subject Research DesignsThe Single-Subject Versus Group “Debate”Key Takeaways and ExercisesAmerican Psychological Association (APA) StyleWriting a Research Report in American Psychological Association (APA) StyleOther Presentation FormatsKey Takeaways and ExercisesDescribing Single VariablesDescribing Statistical RelationshipsExpressing Your ResultsConducting Your AnalysesKey Takeaways and ExercisesUnderstanding Null Hypothesis TestingSome Basic Null Hypothesis TestsAdditional ConsiderationsFrom the "Replicability Crisis" to Open Science PracticesKey Takeaways and ExercisesGlossaryReferences