PSY B110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Central Tendency, Frequency Distribution, Squared Deviations From The Mean
Document Summary
Psychology: the scientific study of behavior and mental process. Psyche= soul logos= study of a subject. The study of the soul or study of the mind. Started the first psychology lab in germany. First to use scientific methods to examine basic psychological processes. Paradigm: a set of beliefs or assumptions that is shared by a group. Logical positivism: behavior is governed by laws that exist independent of the observer. Laws can be studied by conducting experiments, Steps in the scientific method: hypothesis, make an experiment to test the hypothesis, analyze the data (statistics, accept or reject hypothesis depending on results, report the results (journal articles, conferences) No single truths apply to everyone because every person"s reality is different (relativism) The role of the scientist is to observe and describe behavior rather than design experiments to test the hypothesis. Explanation that tries to integrate and account for the relationships of the findings and observations.
