PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Kurt Lewin, Statistical Inference, Naturalistic Observation

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: A.George Alder

Document Summary

Assumes that events are governed by some form of lawful order. Goals of scientific approach: description & measurement. Measure health thru heart rate: understanding & prediction. Variable: any measurable condition, event, characteristic, or behavior that is manipulated, controlled or observed: application & control. Hypothesis: tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables. Operational definition: a definition that describes the actions or operations that will be made to measure or control a variable: select research methods and design study. Obtaining participants: analyze the data & draw conclusions. Psych 100- september 9th, 2014: report findings of research. Experiment: research methods in which the investigator manipulates a variable under controlled conditions and observes whether there are changes in a second variable as well. Group receives specific treatment related to the independent variable. Group treated identically to those in experimental group except they don"t receive treatment. Variables other than the independent variable that may influence the dependent variable.