PSYC1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Standard Deviation, Confounding, Design Of Experiments
Document Summary
Behaviour is influenced jointly by environment and heredity. People"s experiences of the world are highly subjective. A theory: summarizes existing empirical knowledge, organizes knowledge into laws, explains a phenomenon, and provides basis for prediction. Operational definitions: used to clarify what is meant by each variable. Data collection techniques: allow for empirical observation and measurement. Statistics: used to analyze data and decide whether hypotheses were supported. Information dissemination: findings are shared at scientific conventions, or published in scientific journals. Research methods: general techniques for conducting scientific studies. Different ways to collect, measure, control, analyze and present data. Experiment: manipulation of one variable in a controlled setting to influence the other variable. Defining features: manipulation, control, and cause and effect relationships. Extraneous variable: a variable other than the independent variable that can affect the dependant variable. Confounding variable: uncontrolled extraneous variable that effects the results- one group is inadvertently different from the other in some way.
