PSYC 2002 Lecture 1: PSYC2002 L1

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2002
• Professor: John Logan

Document Summary

Facts are produced by collecting measurements about psychological phenomena, and by running experiments to establish the root causes of the phenomena. Theories are working explanations of a set of facts, they describe how causal forces work to produce the psychological phenomena. Facts about psychology are only as good as the evidence for them. Facts can be relied upon when the evidence for their existence is indisputable (clear-cut); many reliable findings exist in psychology. You should not believe every fact you hear. Some findings in psychology are unreliable (other researchers can"t reproduce them), some are faked! The point of theories is to explain evidence, or the credible facts about a psychological phenomena of interest. How can we trust the facts and theories in psychology? . You need to learn how to evaluate the evidence. Psychologists run experiments to test research questions and claims. Statistics are used to evaluate the evidence.