PSYC 241 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Observational Study, Social Loafing, Informed Consent

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 241
• Professor: Tara Mac Donald

Document Summary

Characteristics of social psychology: focuses on the individual, considers interaction between the person and the situation, examines internal psychological states and observable behaviours, uses scientific methods. Basic and applied research: this course will focus on mainstream social psychological research, related fields, social psychology and conflict/peacemaking, social psychology and health, social psychology in the court, social psychology and sustainable environments. Bubba psychology : common sense/intuition is sometimes, wrong, contradictory, too simple, common sense is more evident in hindsight. Video 3: research methods: hypotheses & non-experimental research. Theory: an organized set of principles used to explain observed phenomena, why is a theory so useful, organizes past research, directs future inquiry, explains why things happen, understanding a phenomenon enhances application. Hypotheses: an educated guess about the nature of the relationship among the variables being tested, guided by the theory being tested. Caution: non-experimental approaches do not necessarily imply a causal relationship, why, reverse causality, spuriousness (third variable)