CJ 280 Lecture 1: CJ 280

• School: University of Alabama
• Department: Criminal Justice
• Course: CJ 280
• Professor: Mark Lanier

Document Summary

Cj 280 lecture 1: how science differs from common sense : non scientists use theories rather loosely, while a scientist uses theory very carefully, they systematically and empirically test and retest theories, replication: redoing a study that"s already been done, focus group: group of people with a common trait, biggest cause of crime is government, laypersons use little control to test their theories while scientists try to control intervening variables, x = independent variable or the cause of the study, y = dependent variable or the effect of the study, z = intervening variable or exogeneous variables i. However, there are also z variables that affect y z = how you study, what you study, iq, attendance, etc: scientists disregard metaphysical explanations, ex: ghosts, metaphysical ideas happen, but we can"t explain them, once we get more sophisticated equipment, we might then have more information about their existence.