psy290 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: The Control Group, Operational Definition, Naturalistic Observation

• School: Athabasca University
• Department: general science
• Course: psy290
• Professor: dfgdfg

Document Summary

What are the five steps in scientific investigations? (page 46,48) Step three: collect the data: collect the data, use data collection techniques such as: direct observation, questionnaire, interview, psychological test, psychological recording examination of archival records. Step four: analyze the data and draw conclusions: researchers use statistics to analyze data (does data support hypothesis?) Step five: report the findings: scientific progress can only be achieved only if researchers share their findings with another and with the general public, submit to journal, allows research to be evaluated and critiqued. Define an operational definition, participants (or subjects), and data collection techniques. (page 44-45) Operational definition: describes the actions or operations that will be used to measure or control a variable. Participants: are the persons or animals whose behaviour is systematically observed in a study. Data collection techniques: procedures for making empirical observations and measurements: direct, questionnaire, interview, psychological test, physiological recordings, examination of archival records.