PSYA01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Kurt Lewin, Karl Lashley
Thursday, September 21, 2017
An Introduction to Psychological Science
Module 1.1 The Science of Psychology
•Psychology is visceral— we feel emotions, take in sensations and we produce
behaviour s/s thoughts and actions. Psychology is you"
•Psychology: scientific study of behaviour, thought and experience, and how they
can be affected by physical, mental, social, and environmental factors"
•Psychology involves overlapping areas of investigation"
Overarching Goals of Psychology
•To understand how diff. brain structures work together to produce our behaviour"
•To understand how nature (genetics) and nurture ( our upbringing and
environment) interact to make us who we are "
•To understand how previous experiences influence how we think and act"
•To understand how groups—family, culture, and crowds—affect the individual "
•To understand how feelings of control can influence happiness and health"
•To understand how each of these factors can influence our wellbeing and could
contribute to psychological disorders "
•Every topic in psychology can be examined from a biological, cognitive, or
sociocultural perspective"
•Psych. can help you see the world in a diff. way— help you understand why other
people behave the way they do— "
•Psychology would be nothing without the scientific method
The Scientific Method
•A person who carefully follows a system of observing, predicting, and testing is
conducting science, whether the subject matter is chemicals, physiology, human
meaty or social interactions "
•Therefore, the scientific method is a way of learning about the world though
collecting observations, developing theories to explain them, and using the
theories to make predictions "
•whether a field of study is a science, or a specific type of research is scientific,
is based not on the subject but on the use of the scientific method"
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Thursday, September 21, 2017
•It involves a dynamic interaction b/w hypothesis testing & the
construction of theories
Figure 1.1 The Scientific Method
!
•Scientists use theories to generate hypotheses. Once tested, hypotheses are either
confirmed or rejected.
•Confirmed hypotheses lead to new ones and stuntmen theories."
•Rejected hypotheses are revised and tested again, and can potentially alter an
existing theory"
•**This figure shows how hypotheses testing eventually leads back to the theory from
which it was based, and how theories can be updated with new evidence. This
process helps to ensure that science is self-correcting—bad ideas typically of not
last long in the sciences **"
HYPOTHESES: Making Predictions
•Scientific thinking and procedures revolve around the concepts of a hypothesis and
a theory"
•Hypotheses: is a testable prediction about processes that can be observed and
measured "
•Can be supported or rejected, NOT proven bc its is always possible that a
future experiment could show that it is wrong or limited some way"
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Thursday, September 21, 2017
•theories can be proven, not hypotheses
•For a hypothesis to be testable, it must be falsifiable
•Falsifiable: the hypothesis is precise enough that could be proven false"
•e.g. All swans are white is a falsifiable statement. A swan that is not white
will falsify it. Falsification is a critical component of scientific hypothesis and
theories "
•Important b/c it will help future researchers if they try to replicate a study
( I.e reproduce the findings) to determine if the results were due to chance "
•Pseudoscience: an idea that is presented as science but does not actually utilize
basic principles of thinking or procedure"
•Often referred to as astrology e.g. horoscopes"
•e.g. 25% of Canadians believe that the position of the starts in the sky can
affect a persons behaviour"
THEORIES: Explaining Phenomena
•Theory: is an explanation for a broad range of observations that also generates new
hypotheses and integrates numerous findings into a coherent whole"
•Theories are general principles/ explanations of some aspect of the world ( e.g.
human behaviours)"
•Hypotheses are specific predictions that can test the theory or specific parts of
the theory"
•Good hypotheses provides more support for the theory"
•Theories are built from hypotheses that are repeatedly tested and confirmed "
•Essential quality of theories is that they can be supported or proven false with
new evidence"
•If a hypotheses is supported—provides more support to the theory"
•Good theories eventually become accepted explanations of behaviour or
other phenomena e.g. they can be used to generate new hypotheses"
•Any scientific theory must be falsifiable"
•Theories can be updated with new evidence "
•This process helps to ensure science is self-correcting"
•If hypotheses is not supported by the results—-researchers may have to rethink
elements of the theory"
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Document Summary
Module 1. 1 the science of psychology: psychology is visceral we feel emotions, take in sensations and we produce behaviour s/s thoughts and actions. Psychology is you: psychology: scienti c study of behaviour, thought and experience, and how they can be a ected by physical, mental, social, and environmental factors, psychology involves overlapping areas of investigation. : it involves a dynamic interaction b/w hypothesis testing & the. Figure 1. 1 the scienti c method: scientists use theories to generate hypotheses. This process helps to ensure that science is self-correcting bad ideas typically of not last long in the sciences ** A swan that is not white will falsify it. Common misperceptions of the term theory : theories are not the same as opinions or beliefs. A theory can help scientists develop testable hypotheses; opinions do not need to be testable, or even logical. All theories are not equally plausible ( reasonable/ probable).
