PSY 3000 Lecture Notes - Observational Error, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Schwinn Bicycle Company
18 Sep 2013
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Document Summary
The scientific approach to knowledge relies mainly on empiricism and logic. Science requires (among other things): empirical referent= must be testable and observable, science is self-correcting= when data doesn"t match, the theories will fix, scientific theories must be testable = otherwise is it not a theory. Nature of scientific proof = we rarely have proof of anything. Experiments= confirms, disconfirm, pit one against the other. Populations is everyone or everything we are trying to study. For example: all women in the world, american men, 5th graders in the us, south american yaks, all schwinn bicycles made in 1986, anyone with a genetic disposition for skin care, scores (population of iq scores) But it is too hard to measure everyone so we . A representative sample represents the larger population well on the variables we are studying. The sample should look like the population at least on the variable we are studying, percentages matter.
