PSYC 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Informed Consent, List Of Fables Characters, Institutional Review Board
5 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes: three critical characteristics of the science: Determine how to measure and observe a variable of interest. Create an independent and dependent variable: measure. Descriptive methods: describe situations, but they do not make accurate predictions or determine cause and effect. Correlational methods: predict one variable using another variable. Involves systematically measuring and assessing relationships between two variables. Symbolized by r and indicated by a number between -1 and +1: the number shows strength and direction. Important reminder: correlation does not always equal causation. Experimental methods: manipulate and control test variables to understand causal processes. For example, a study involves observing which nutrition source gives test mice the most energy to complete a task. The nutrition sources and the activities the mice will perform are the variables that will be controlled and tested. Requires: experiment, experimental group, control group, random assignment, and possibly confounds. Measures must be both reliable and valid.
