PS101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Frequency Distribution, Central Tendency, Standard Deviation
Document Summary
The universe operates according to certain natural laws. Science is a way of approaching the world/a way of doing things. Psychology - using the scientific method to study human behaviour & mental processes behaviour & mental processes. Pseudo-psychology (pseudoscience) - no use of the scientific method when commenting on human behaviour & mental processes. Deductive = reasoning starts w a theory and leads us to predictions about specific situations. Inductive = reasoning starts with observation and leads us to a general theory. Hypothetico-deductive = reasoning which is the testing of hypotheses. Dependant variable = the variable you measure (or the variable that is changed by the iv) An operational definition = how we (the researcher) decide to measure our variables. When you do research, you have to decide how you are. When you do research, you have to decide how you are going to measure the iv and dv. Population = the entire group that is of interest to researchers.