PSYC 1030H Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Social Desirability Bias, Psycinfo, Naturalistic Observation
11 Jan 2018
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Experimental research: involves the manipulation of an independant variable to determine its effect on a dependant variable. Any differences between the groups in the dependant variable ought to be due to manipulation of the independent variable as long as no confounds. Variables are to be confounded when they vary together so that researchers cannot isolate the effect of the independent variable on the dependant variable. Featured study: examines the effects of level of fear or anxiety on sexual attraction. Psychologists rely on correlational research when they are unable to manipulate the variables they want to study. Naturalistic observation: careful, prolonged observation of behaviour in its natural setting without any intervention. Clinical research depends on: case studies, in-depth investigations of individuals. Descriptive/correlational research: allow psy. to explore issues that might not be open to experimental investigation. P. use descriptive stats to organize and summarize their numerical data. The mean, median and mode are central tendency measures.
