PSYC 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Illusory Correlation, Applied Science, Pseudoscience
Document Summary
Illusory correlation- things happening at the same time are not necessarily related: problem personal experiences may not reflect larger reality. Psychology as a science: psychology- the study of the description, explanation, modification, and prediction of human and animal behavior. The process of establishing that the cause did indeed happen before the effect, providing a solution to the chicken and the egg problem. Researcher must establish which variable came first: determining whether an increase in the population of birds is followed by an increase in the number of predators. Populations estimates show that the number of birds rises due to an increase in the abundance of food. So, the availability of food for the birds dictate numbers, and in turn, dictates the population of predators: covariation of the cause and effect- process of establishing that there is a cause and effect relationship between the variables.
