PSY 376 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Falsifiability, Informed Consent, Longitudinal Study
Document Summary
Scientific method: belief that investigators should allow systematic observations to determine merits of their thinking, generating ideas and testing them through observation, theory, concepts and propositions intended to describe and explain phenomena. Internally consistent, falsifiable, supported by data: process, hypothesis, come from theories. Sample: group of people studied, random sampling. Identifies all members of larger pop and randomly selects pop to study: ensures it is representative, want a good sample so you can generalize. Looking at old studies in the 70s, they samples were not representative: data collection, verbal reports. Interviews, surveys, questionnaire, scales, tests: does(cid:374)"t (cid:449)o(cid:396)k fo(cid:396) all populatio(cid:374)s. Social desirability: behavior observation, naturalistic observations in everyday life, used to study children and adults. So(cid:373)e (cid:271)eha(cid:448)io(cid:396) i(cid:374)f(cid:396)e(cid:395)ue(cid:374)t a(cid:374)d u(cid:374)expe(cid:272)ted so (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t observe: ca(cid:374)"t explai(cid:374) (cid:272)ause, observer can influence how people act. Issues: direction of cause/effect can be reverse, third variable. Fed reg require review boards: protect physical or psychological harm, rights of participants.
