PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Critical Thinking, Naturalistic Observation, Frequency Distribution

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Mark Dallas

Document Summary

Psychologists are open to surprising findings and willing to debunk popular preconceptions. Critical thinking: examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, assesses conclusions. Seek to maintain a scientific attitude: curiosity, skepticism, humilty. Ex; we have discovered that massive losses of brain tissue early in life may have minimal long-term effects, and that contrary to popular assumptions, opposites do not generally attract. Scientific method: theory formed, hypothesis for study, research and observations. Scientific method is a self-correcting process for asking questions and gaining answers. Theories are modified/created if there are great discrepancies between new and old research findings. Empirical evidence: gained through objective observation, measurement, experimentation: anecdotes don"t count as empirical evidence. Descriptive methods: used to systematically observe and record behaviour; provide information that is hard to gain experimentally: case study: examines one individual or social unit in depth in the hope that the findings can be generalized.