Psychology 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: The Strongest, Internal Validity, Operational Definition

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Dr.Mike

Document Summary

Scientific attitudes: curiosity, skepticism and open-mindedness are driving forces behind scientific inquiry, (cid:862) ho(cid:449) (cid:373)e you(cid:396) e(cid:448)ide(cid:374)(cid:272)e(cid:863) Gathering evidence: steps in the scientific process: identify a question of interest: (cid:862)why? (cid:863: gather information and form the hypothesis. More questions are asked in this stage, a new hypothesis is formulated and they are tested by conducting more research. Theory: a set of formal statements that explains how and why certain events are related to one another. * theories are broader then hypothesis and they specify lawful relation between certain behaviours and their causes. Two approaches to understanding behaviour: hindsight (after the fact understanding) Problem with using hindsight, it is related solely on past events and past events can be explained in many different ways. Despite this problem hindsight reasoning can provide valuable insights: understanding through prediction, control, and theory building. The strongest test of scientific understanding because good theories develop an integrated network of predictions.