PS374 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cognitive Dissonance, Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Testability
Document Summary
On the basis of observaions, conclude that some tacics work beter than others. 5 goals of science are descripion, predicion, determining causality, explanaion, and control. See igure 2. 1 on page 25 in textbook. From observaion of phenomena, to development of theory, to deducion of speciic hypothesis derived from theory, to tesing the hypothesis through research and intervenions: observaion. Incident from everyday life, descripive data gathering, review of exising research evidence, analysis of intervenion outcomes: theory development. Theory: a set of interrelated hypotheses or proposiions concerning a phenomenon or set of phenomenon. On basis of observaions you construct a theory that explains observaions. Moving from speciic to general is known at induction. Hypothesis deined as a predicion that speciies the relaionship between variables (relaionship may be causal: one variable changes another. Tesing carried out through design and execuion of systemaic research studies. Results that don"t support hypothesis may lead to modiicaions of theory or development of a new one: applicaion.
