Psychology 2134A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Profe, Dependent And Independent Variables, Root Mean Square

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2134A/B
• Professor: Terry Biggs

Document Summary

Section 2. 1: scientific method: a theory provides a conceptual framework for explaining a set of observations; it should make predictions about future observations that can be tested in experiments, a prediction (of future observations) that is derived from a theory is known as a hypothesis; the researcher then collects data to test the hypothesis, a hypothesis derived from a theory must have the possibility of being disconfirmed by data: falsifiability criterion, science has 3 successive goals: Experimental methods seek to explain phenomena by testing hypotheses derived from theories: theories are often expressed as models, which attempt to explain underlying mechanisms, typically in the form of a graph, a set of mathematical equations, or a computer simulation, constructs provide scientists with useful ways of thinking about the world, and operational definitions then define those constructs in terms of how they are to be measured; operational definitions must be both valid and reliable.