PSY 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Central Tendency, Standard Deviation, Neuroticism
5 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Psychology Chapter 2 September 13, 2017
Science:
1. Observe some phenomenon
2. Construct a hypothesis regarding its cause
3. Use the hypothesis to make predictions
4. Test the predictions with further observations and repeatable experiments (must
potentially be able to falsify your hypothesis)
5. Modify your hypothesis to account of new facts
6. Repeat steps 3-5 until no discrepancies remain
Principles of Scientific Methods:
• Parsimony
o A good theory builds on existing research and invokes as few new concepts as
possible (try to make the explanation as simple as possile ad esue that its
possible to be true and not unrealistic)
• Testability/Falsifiability
o A good theory must be testable
o Any theory that you can test runs the risk of being proven wrong
o However, without the capacity to test a theory, you can never ko if its ight
or wrong
Freudian Psychoanalysis:
• Children are all Id
o Primitive drives and instincts run the show
o Infants fuss and cry until their urges are met
• As hilde age, the Ego deelops to fid as to satisf the Ids desies ithout elig
on others
• Superego is how you go about making a decision)
o Between 3-6 boys want to have sex with their moms
▪ Ego tells the o that he at hae se ith thei othes eause of
their fathers
▪ Cause young boys to fear their fathers finding out they have sexual
feelings towards their mothers
▪ Fear that their fathers are going to cut their penises off as a result
▪ Stays in the mind but is repressed and stays in their subconscious mind
▪ Ego develops a symbolic solution of becoming a mini version of their
fathers akig it alost as though thee haig se ith thei othes
• Girls undergo a similar experience between 3 and 6
• Poess doest ok as ell ith gils as os eause gils dot
have anything to cut off like boys do
• Women end up less moral than men eause the dot
internalize these rules
▪ Me dot epot these feelig, Feud espods saig the fea has
repressed the memory deep into their unconscious
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Psychology Chapter 2 September 13, 2017
▪ Men never had such feelings in the first place
• Failed to satisfy criterion of testability/falsify
Principles of the Scientific Method:
• Connection to previous research
• In science, we set out to test hypotheses that are based on previous research
o New research is often connected to previous research
o New research builds on existing research, replicating it, and extending it
• Converging evidence:
o “ietifi ethods e ael podue a defiitie epeiet that
olusiel poes a hpothesis
▪ Ted ot to use the od poe
o For the vast majority of studies, alternative explanations are possible, and most
methods have weaknesses and can be criticized in certain ways
o Scientists look for converging evidence, from many different studies, using many
different methods to support their hypothesis
Collecting Data:
• Concept under observation
o Concept to be investigated
o The operational definition is the concept defined in an easily measurable way
• Observation
• Self- report survey
• Standardized testing
o Operational definitions of aggression:
• Number of times a child hits, kicks, or pushes another child
• Self-/parental/teacher- reports of the above
• Potential problems with observation
o Reactivity—he a idiiduals ehaiou hages, as a eatio to eig
observed
o If by observing behaviour, you change it, then the behaviour you are observing is
not represetatie of that ehaiou ude eal life oditios
o External validity—ho epesetatie of eal life ou oseatios ae
• Hidden observations
• Participant observation
• Indicators of behaviour
o Surveys-reported behaviour or opinions from many people
• Surveys are a very useful way of gathering a lot of data from
people in a short period of time
o Representative samples
• “aple is eeoe i the oo ho has ageed to fill out the
uestioaie
• Is the sample representative of the population?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Freudian psychoanalysis: children are all id, primitive drives and instincts run the show. September 13, 2017: men never had such feelings in the first place, failed to satisfy criterion of testability/falsify. Principles of the scientific method: connection to previous research. If by observing behaviour, you change it, then the behaviour you are observing is not represe(cid:374)tati(cid:448)e of that (cid:271)eha(cid:448)iou(cid:396) u(cid:374)de(cid:396) (cid:862)(cid:396)eal life(cid:863) (cid:272)o(cid:374)ditio(cid:374)s: external validity ho(cid:449) (cid:396)ep(cid:396)ese(cid:374)tati(cid:448)e of (cid:862)(cid:396)eal life(cid:863) (cid:455)ou(cid:396) o(cid:271)se(cid:396)(cid:448)atio(cid:374)s a(cid:396)e, hidden observations, participant observation. Attention: visual neglect, damage to the right parietal lobe can cause the neglect of the left side of, personality tests space, neuroticism (emotional stability, extraversion (introversion, conscientiousness (lack of) Problems with standardized tests: do not exist for every concept we might be interested in, expensive and time consuming to construct (must be standardized on a large sample and must be shown to be reliable and valid)
