SOCPSY 1Z03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Western Electric, Hawthorne Effect, Internal Validity

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Social Psychology
• Course: SOCPSY 1Z03
• Professor: Paul Galvin

Document Summary

Experimental designs (manipulating iv, random assignment, treatment, control, pretest and post-test) Research methods are used to test causal relationships between phenomena. The goal of social scienti c theories (which utilize research methods) is to explain aggregate pattens of behaviour that are regular even though individual within the aggregate vary over time. Aggregate: a whole formed by combining several elements. Social psychologists are interested in the aggregation of humans not individual behaviour. You cannot generalize from one individual and they are attempting to establish an average or overall pattern. These theories try to understand the systems in which people operate. The elements of the systems or aggregates are not individual but variables. Variables: any characteristic or attribute that varies. For example, gender, age, height or income. Variables cannot be constant such as the speed of light. A hypothesis is a conjectural statement of the relation between 2 or more variables.