PSYC 2360 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Institutional Review Board, Naturalistic Observation, Operational Definition
1 Aug 2013
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Purpose of behavioural research: increase understanding of behaviour, provide methods for improving quality of lives, guide public policy, see which methods are most effective. Goal of behavioural research: discover how people interact, perceive, think, feel, change, learn, make decisions. Intuition: gut feeling, often leads us to incorrect conclusions because we do not study thoroughly enough. Hindsight bias: after learning the outcome, thinking that it was obvious all along. Values: cannot be proven right or wrong, can be influenced by scientific facts. Quantitative: descriptive research that focuses on numbers, then used for statistical analysis. Qualitative: descriptive research that focuses on verbal accounts, often more subjective and time consuming. Basic research: curiosity sake, answers fundamental questions, uses applied research to know what to study. Applied research: answers specific questions for social issues, uses knowledge from basic research. Program evaluation research: study the effectiveness of methods designed to make positive social changes.
