PS101 Lecture Notes - Naturalistic Observation, Scientific Method
Document Summary
Exam outline: testing only chapter 1 and 2. The first technique is called naturalistic observation, which is essentially just seeing what happens. (obtrusive measures or non-interactive measures), not intruding in a way that might get in the way of responses and behaviours. The second way of observation is case study. This means deep study of a single individual (n=1). Get data from many different resources to try and get some understanding of why the individual may be suffering. You cannot generalize principles of behaviours from a big group. The third is the study of correlation (r)-the relationship between two variables. And the greater the correlation, the greater predictability of the outcome. You cannot say x variable causes y variable. All you can say is that there may be some relationship between the two. Only the scientific method allows you to find causation results. Things may be attributed to a third variable that we may not know about.
