PSYC 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2.2: Dependent And Independent Variables, Confounding, Random Assignment

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1000
• Professor: Benjamin Giguere

Document Summary

Step 1: research question- the main question that you are trying to address with your research. Step 2: hypothesis- your personal theory/perspective on your research question. Step 3: research design- a set of strategies to test your hypothesis influences how researchers: organize stimuli to test hypothesis, make observations, evaluate results. Similarities between every research design: variables- an attribute/property specific to each subject of study, operational definitions- define and measure variables in order to provide accuracy, data- the recorded information on variables of interest. 1 = strong negative: third variable problem, possibility that a third variable causes changes in supposedly correlated variables and is actually responsible for recorded correlations. Illusory correlations are correlations that only exist in the mind rather than in reality: exist because people only notice things when they believe that the correlation is occurring, disregard other factors and reality. Quasi-experimental method is when two or more groups are compared based on predetermined variables, rather than random assignment (ex.