PSYC 2360 Chapter 1: Chapter 1

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2360
• Professor: Mark Fenske

Document Summary

Fields like behavioural medicine, communication, criminology, human development, education, psychology and sociology. Goal is to discover how people perceive their world, how they think and feel, how they change over time, how they learn and make decisions and how they interact with others. The statements made by social scientists are empirical, meaning they are based on systematic collection and analysis of data, where data are information collected through formal observation or measurement. The problem with the way people collect and interpret data in their everyday lives is that they are not always very thorough. There are a variety of cognitive and motivational biases that frequently bias our perceptions and lead us to draw erroneous conclusions. Set of assumptions, rules and procedures used to conduct research. The scientific method demands that the procedure used be objective, or free from the personal bias or emotions of the scientist.