PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Homo Erectus, Null Hypothesis, Anthropocene

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Oliver Michael Hardt

Document Summary

We have no access to what is really there. We can just talk about what we perceive. 2 groups: one is allowed to text, not the other one. We measure dependent variable =loneliness score (78 for texters, 81 for others) Are these outcomes driven by our interventions or are they just random event because people are different. Null hypothesis (h0): there is no difference, just random event. Experimental hypothesis (h1): opposite, our treatment had an effect, meaningful. Tests give up probability of being correct. Probability is about 5% if i do test 100 times, 5 times it looks like it is actually different, a wrong decision. Type 1 error: probability to falsely reject hypothesis. Type 2 error: reject experimental hypothesis, but there is a difference. Probabilities involved, errors can be made, can say id results of experiments are due to chance, or are meaningful. Another proof that psychology is an empirical science. Nativism: from birth, world is mostly innate.