Psychology 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Murder Of Kitty Genovese, Social Desirability Bias, Operational Definition

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Terry Biggs

Document Summary

Curiosity, skepticism, and open-mindedness are driving forces behind scientific inquiry. Science involves a continuous interplay between observing and explaining events. This section deals with kitty genovese murder: initial observation/question. Why did no one help: formulate hypothesis a tentative explanation or prediction about some phenomenon scientists gather clues and logically analyze them. Hindsight understanding: after-the-fact; problem is that related past events can be explained in many creative, reasonable, and sometimes contradictory ways. Prediction, control, and theory building: scientists prefer understand the causes of behavior and make predictions in a controlled setting; good theories generate an integrated network of predictions. Theory incorporates existing facts and observations within a single broad framework. Theory is testable; generates new hypotheses and predictions. Predictions made by the theory are supported by the findings of new research. Conforms to the law of parsimony: if two theories can explain and predict the same phenomena equally well, the simpler one is preferred.