Psychology 1000 Final: Psychology Reading Notes final.docx

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Prof

Document Summary

Chapter 2: how psychologists do research4/10/2012 8:33:00 am. What makes psychological research scientific: precision- scientists launch investigations because of a hunch. They start off with a theory that explains something. From the hunch the scientist derives a hypothesis which attempts to describe or explain a given behavior. The hypothesis leads to predictions about what will happen in a particular situation: skepticism- this means treating conclusions both new and old with caution. Science depends on the free flow f ideas and full disclosure of the procedures used in a study. Scientists must also be willing to tell people how they got their ideas, how the ideas were tested and what the results were. Other scientists must be able to replicate studies so scientists must be clear about the process. Replication is a huge part of scientific process because many times things turn out to just be a fluke.