PS101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Naturalistic Observation, Social Desirability Bias, Descriptive Statistics
Document Summary
The scientific approach to behaviour: goals of the scientific enterprise: three sets of interrelated goals, measurement and description: measure the phenomenon under study. The first goal of psychology is to develop measurement techniques that make it possible to describe behaviour clearly and precisely: understanding and prediction: understand events when they can explain the reasons for the occurrence of the event. Hypothesis: a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables. Variables are any measurable conditions, events, characteristics, or behaviours that are controlled or observed in a study: application and control: design a scientific examination of the intervention"s effectiveness. Construct theory: a system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observation. Theories permit psychologists to make the leap from the description of behaviour to the understanding of behaviour. Confidence in theory increase: steps in a scientific investigation: systematic, formulate a testable hypothesis: translate a theory or an intuitive idea into a testable hypothesis.