PSYC 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Naturalistic Observation, Wine Bottle, Illusory Correlation

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1010
• Professor: Rebecca Jubis

Document Summary

The scientific method is a self-correcting process for evaluating ideas with observation & analysis. In science, a theory is an explanation using principles that organize observations and predict behaviours or events: a theory simplifies and summarizes by organizing isolated facts and linking them with deeper principles. A good theory produces testable predictions, called hypotheses: they specify what results support a theory and what results could disconfirm it. Our theories can bias our observations, to avoid this scientists use: operational definitions of procedures and concepts. Examples: hunger might be defined as x amount of hours without eating , bullying has many definitions, physical, verbal, cyber etc . By using carefully worded statements, others can replicate the original observations with different participants + materials + circumstances: if they get similar results, confidence in the finding"s reliability grows, replication is confirmation and enables scientific self-correction.