As you review and think about the concepts in this chapter, you might think also about the following two questions.
1. How does science compare with everyday observation and thought? No sharp dividing line exists between science and the kinds of observation and thought that all of us use every day to learn about the world around us. In our everyday learning, we begin with the data of our senses and use those data to draw tentative conclusions (make inferences) about specific aspects of our world. For example, we might one day observe someone from town X acting politely and someone from town Y acting rudely and infer from those observations that people from X are more polite than people from Y. Most of us make such inferences all the time, often on scarcely more evidence than that. Science is simply the attempt to improve on our natural ways of learning by systematizing the data-collection procedures, controlling conditions to be more certain about which variables are having which effects, striving to eliminate sources of bias, deliberately thinking of alternative explanations, and using statistical procedures to assess the degree of confidence we should have in our tentative conclusions.
As you review each of the main concepts discussed in the sections on research strategies, statistical methods, and sources of bias in this chapter, you might think about how that concept applies—somewhat less formally—to the distinctions between good and poor observation and thought in everyday life. We are observing and thinking poorly when we draw firm conclusions from too little evidence, or neglect to think about alternative explanations, or fail to see what is really there because of our biased expectations.
2. What is a science of psychology for? I (Peter Gray) remember, as a college freshman on my first visit home, expressing pride about an A that I had received in calculus. My mother, hearing me boast and having a knack for fostering humility and putting things into perspective, asked a simple question: “What is calculus for?” I was floored. I could rattle off terms and equations about calculus, and I could solve the problems as they were given to me in the class, but I had no understanding at all of what calculus was for. Perhaps that is why, by a few months after the class had ended, I had completely forgotten the terms, the equations, and the way to solve them. So what is a science of psychology for?
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Some people think of psychology purely in applied terms, as a means of solving human problems. These people are likely to appreciate the study on treatments for depression (illustrated in Figure 2.1) but are less likely to appreciate research motivated by the desire for knowledge and understanding rather than by pragmatic, applied concerns. The issue of pragmatism occurs in other sciences as well. What good does it do us to know whether there was once microbial life on Mars?
For the most part, people go into psychological research, or any other research field, because they are curious or because they are thrilled by the prospect of being the first to uncover some mystery of nature, large or small. So psychology, like any other science, has two purposes: to solve practical problems and to satisfy the human quest for knowledge. It is hard to separate the two, however, because research undertaken to satisfy curiosity very often reveals solutions to practical problems that at first seemed unrelated to the research. As you read the remaining chapters of this book, we hope you will allow yourself to become engaged by the questions for their own sake, regardless of whether you think they have practical applications. Each chapter contains mysteries—some solved, some not.