PSYC 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Science Studies, Demand Characteristics, Operational Definition
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PSYC 102 Full Course Notes
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Why care about statistics: science studies uncertain things. Decide whether something is too uncertain to be considered valid: people are terrible at thinking and communicating about uncertainty. How do we know anything: intuition = you just know, observation = you have experienced it as so, authority = somebody tells you it is so. Problems with observation: not always possible = how we experience the thoughts and feelings of others, not al(cid:449)a(cid:455)s relia(cid:271)le = (cid:862)horse gallopi(cid:374)g pro(cid:271)le(cid:373)(cid:863) (cid:374)ot sol(cid:448)ed (cid:449)ithout photography, not always even true! = visual illusions, the earth appears to be flat: people do(cid:374)"t al(cid:449)a(cid:455)s agree o(cid:374) (cid:449)hat the(cid:455) are e(cid:454)perie(cid:374)(cid:272)i(cid:374)g = dress illusio(cid:374), (cid:862)fast rats stud(cid:455)(cid:863) Even if we give 2 people the exact same task, we will not find that they do the exact same thing: demand characteristics = we act differently when they think we are being observed. Operational definition = a description of a property in concrete, measure ways.
