PSYC 1010 Chapter Notes -Scientific Method, Naturalistic Observation, Phineas Gage
16 Oct 2014
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Document Summary
Scientific method in psychology: process if testing our ideas about the world by: Setting up situations that test our ideas then. Analyzing whether our data fits with our ideas. Research findings revealed in the scientific method: bran can recover from early childhood brain damage, sleepwalkers not acting our dream, we use all of our brain not just 10, people change their opinions to fit their actions. Scientific method tools and goals: the basics: Theory: the big picture: a theory = set of principles built on observations and verifiable facts, that explain some phenomenon and predicts its future behaviour. Hypothesis :informed predictions: hypothesis = testable prediction consistent with our theory, testable = hypothesis states in a way we could make observations to find out if it is true. Danger when testing hypothesis: theorys can bias our observations. Because we already have a theory we may only select the interpretations of the data that support what we believe.
