PSYC 2310 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Internal Validity, Demand Characteristics, Convenience Sampling
30 Sep 2015
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Social psychology is rooted in the scientific method. Scientific research: (1) describes phenomenon (2) makes predictions about it (3) explains why it happens. How do researchers in social psychology test their ideas? (1) form a question. Usually based on observation of a real world event. Can be designed to test established theories (2) search the literature. Determine what people have examined and found on the topic. Literature review: examining previous relevant studies on a given topic and critically appraising them (3) form a hypothesis. Testable prediction about the conditions under which an event will occur. About expected cause and effect relationship, but more specific (4) create an operational definition. Operational definition: describes a specific procedure/measure that one uses to test a hypothesis (5) collect and analyze data. Collect data (observation, surveys, pre-existing documents, experiments) Analyze to see if the ideas are supported by research.
