PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Informed Consent, Blind Experiment, Standard Deviation

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jordan Poppenk

Document Summary

Seek explanations for observed phenomena, make testable predictions, test them. Create & test models of nature (helps reduce bias) Descriptive experimental methods: naturalistic & laboratory observation, case studies. Correlational designs measure relationships between two variables. Veri ability: theory can be tested by others. Objectivity: results based on observable phenomena, unin uenced by emotions. Reliability: characteristic of measure that provides consistent & stable answers across multiple observations & points in time. Formulate hypothesis: testable prediction about processes that can be observed/measured. Draw conclusions, use to develop new hypothesis, share ndings. Operational de nitions: describe concept by how it is demonstrated in observable/measurable way (in numbers) Independent variable: variable whose variation does not depend on that of another. Dependent variable: variable whose variation depends on that of another. Control group: separated from rest of experiment so independent variable can"t in uence results (looking for correlation) Experimental group: group receives experimental procedure (looking for causation)