PSYCO212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Dependent And Independent Variables, Psycinfo, Google Scholar
2 Feb 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
It"s problematic to base conclusions off of personal experiences because life does not have a comparison group. Basing information off of systematic data collection is better because it offers a comparison group. It is important to look at the data instead of just relying on others. A confound occurs when you think one things causes an outcome but in fact other things changed, too, so it is not clear what the cause really was. In the real world, it is hard to isolate variables. In a research setting, scientists can use careful controls to be sure they are changing only one factor at a time. In a systematic controlled study scientists can set up the conditions such that they include at least one comparison group and avoid confounds. Consistent results from several similar studies mean that scientists will feel confident in the findings. As studies amass evidence on the subject, theories gain support.
