PSY 302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Scientific Method, Naturalistic Observation, Mercury Poisoning

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 302
• Professor: Margaret Moulson

Document Summary

Class outline: scientific method, contexts for gathering data about children, correlation and causation, designs for experimental design. Step #2: formulating a hypothesis: restating the question into an educated guess, e(cid:454)a(cid:373)ple: (cid:862)se(cid:374)siti(cid:448)e pare(cid:374)ti(cid:374)g predi(cid:272)ts (cid:373)ore fu(cid:374)(cid:272)tio(cid:374)al ro(cid:373)a(cid:374)ti(cid:272) relatio(cid:374)ships i(cid:374) adoles(cid:272)e(cid:374)(cid:272)e(cid:863) Step #3- developing a method for testing the hypothesis: choosing a method in which we can test our hypothesis, disprove or gain evidence rather than prove. Step #4- using the data yielded by the method to draw a conclusion regarding the hypothesis: must do many tests in order to determine our evidence to the best of our ability. Developing a method: key criteria in creating good research measures. Relevance to hypotheses: if you are investigating parental styles and romantic relationships, you have to have measures that measure those two construct of interests: you have to be more specific than that- example: observational study. Reliability: degree to which independent measurements of a given behavior are consistent.