AHSS 1110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Negative Relationship, Confounding, Monism
31 Jul 2018
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Document Summary
Steps in the scientific process: identify question of interest, gather information form hypothesis (specific prediction, test hypothesis conduct research, analyze data draw tentative conclusions, build a body of knowledge build theory (formal statements. Two approaches to understanding behaviour: hindsight understanding. Relies on explanations after-the-fact": college sweethearts. Drawback: past events can be explained in many ways: understanding through prediction, control, theory building. Satisfies curiosity, builds knowledge, generates principles that can be applied to new situations. Good theories: organize information in meaningful way, are testable, have prediction supported by research, conform to law of parsimony, simpler theory is preferred. Issue: social desirability desire to make good impression. Issue: establishing link b/w physical responses and mental events: behavioural. Experiments: 3 essential characteristics, manipulate one variable, measures whether this variable produces changes in another variable, control for other factors that might influence results. Measured by experimenter & influenced by independent variable. Not exposed to treatment (basis for comparison)
