PSYC 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Dependent And Independent Variables, Random Assignment, Nomothetic
Document Summary
Research in psychology: three levels of analysis! Human nature (we are like all others)! Group differences (we are like some others): helps us understand the individual person! Gets a rich description and deep understanding of a single person! Has some limitations: allows you to understand that subject however does not allow you to understand the next person at all, nomothetic research! Can allow you to predict characteristics of new subjects, strong predictive ability! Large samples of people: three types of research! Naturalistic observations - ex. case studies: observing and taking notes on subject! Correlational studies - ex. questionnaires, surveys: not manipulating in anyway, solely recording data and measuring a variable, researchers have not impact on the participants, do not affect their mood or behaviours with any exterior forces! Experimental research: are manipulating the participants in some way to measure the effect of that on another variable, ex. mood vs. your level of environmental altruism!