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MYTH #1 – NOTES GUIDE1. Do you think there’s truth to the statement,

“Psychology is just common sense”? Explain.

2. What do you think? Do “opposites attract” or do “birds of a feather flock together”?

Let’s look at some research (half-sheet).

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?

Myth #1:

Psychology is Just Common Sense.

Myth #1

• “Of course that’s true!”

• “Why do people even waste their time researching stuff that’s just common sense?!”

• Let’s look at some research…

Can They Both Be True?

3. Attraction…What does research say?

University of Iowa

People tend to marry those who are similar in attitudes, religion, and values.

It appears that similarity in personality that appears to be more important in having a happy marriage.

Hindsight Bias

Sometimes just asking people how and why they felt or acted as they did can sometimes be misleading.

4. Common sense describes what HAS happened, not what WILL happen.

“I knew it all along phenomenon”

5. *The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.

“Hindsight is 20/20” Hurricane Katrina (2005)

Michael Brown, former Federal Emergency Management

Agency director, recalled his feelings from the day before Katrina hit:

“I knew in my gut this was the bad one”

The Limits of Common SenseJust because something seems like it should be true does not necessarily mean it is.

7. Psychomythology:misconceptions, urban legends, mythology, and misinformation about psychology

Psychology: the scientific STUDY of mental processes and behavior

8. Researchers take some of our guesses about human behavior and test them scientifically.• Would you deliver potentially fatal shocks to a stranger just

because an authority figure told you to?

• What does your common sense tell you?

Obedience to authority

How far will we go to follow the orders of an authority

figure?

Stanley Milgram

• One of the most famous and widely recognized psychological studies (Yale University; 1963).

• Raised the ethics of using humans in research.• Wanted to understand WWII atrocities.

7. Methods• Imagine you and another participant arrive at a laboratory

for an experiment called "The Effects of Punishment on Learning."

• After being greeted by an experimenter, he randomly assigns you to be the "teacher" and the other participant to be the "learner."

• The learner is led to another room and hooked up to a shock machine.

Mr. Wallace

Methods• The teacher reads a list of word pairs (Example: “clear”

goes with “air.”).

• If the answer is wrong, the learner receives a shock.

• With each mistake, you move to the next lever administering a more intense shock (begins at 15 volts, increases by 15v each lever to 450v).

• How far would you go? – Select a measure and write it on your paper.

The procedureVoltage Learner response Experimenter response

75 grunts 1. Please continue

120 shouts in pain 2. The experiment requires you to continue.

150 says he refuses to continue 3. It is absolutely essential that you continue.

200 blood-curdling screams 4. You have no other choice but to continue.

300 refuses to answer, heart condition

330+ silence

What would you do?

Prediction: Average estimate was 1.2% to 450 volts; average estimated response was 135 volts.

*What did you say you would do?

8. Results:• 26 out of 40 (65%) went to 450 volts.• The “learner” is a confederate of the experimenter.

Everything is scripted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYLCy5PVgM

Voltage Learner response Experimenter response 75 grunts 1. Please continue 120 shouts in pain 2. The experiment requires you to continue. 150 says he refuses to continue 3. It is absolutely essential that you continue. 200 blood-curdling scream 4. You have no other choice but to continue. 300 refuses to answer, heart condition 330+ silence

9. Factors Influencing Obedience

Was the original hypothesis based on “common sense”?

Obedience, now & then…

ABC News: “What would you do?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwqNP9HRy7Y

Replication of Milgram’s research

Were the results similar?

Again … Are our expectations about human behavior “common sense” or is it more complicated than that?

Reversing the Process: How do we prevent tragedy that arises from blind obedience?

Milgrim’s studies led to debates about whether or not something like The Holocaust could happen again.

Dr. Philip Zimbardo (www.lucifereffect.com) makes some suggestions:

• Teaching children to recognize and disobey unjust authority.

• Promoting critical thinking that challenges false ideologies and bad means to good ends.

• Encouraging respect for human diversity and

appreciating human variability.

Obedience, now & then…

ABC News:

“Would you obey a total stranger and steal a baby?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxfk973QQvo

Were any of the things Zimbardo warns us against in place for the people who obeyed?

Myth #1 – What Are the Take-Aways?• Common Sense, Intuition, and Snap Judgments are more of a

reflection of what has happened and has been researched then what will happen.

• Thus, MISTRUST your “common sense” when you hear something or read something about Psychology.• Find research EVIDENCE to support claims.• Don’t buy into something just because it says “studies show.”• Science can be and often IS “uncommon” sense – it requires us to put

aside our personal bias and belief systems and focus primarily on EVIDENCE!• Think about those “experts” and their predictions for Milgrim’s research.• Think about your assumptions about whether or not people would steal a baby.

• So … Is Psychology Really a Science?