PSYC 1010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Naturalistic Observation, Scientific Progress, Operational Definition
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PSYC 1010 Full Course Notes
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Psychology is a scientific enterprise in which formal research methods are employed in an attempt to answer various questions about human behaviour. Example: bullying is just one type of interpersonal aggression that psychologists have examined in their research. This chapter is about how research in psychology is conducted. Psychology is empirical - a variety of different research methods are used in answering questions about human behaviour. Psychologists and other scientists share these three sets of interrelated goals: measurement and description: science"s commitment to observation requires that an investigator figure out a way to measure the phenomenon under study. For, example if you were interested in the effects of different situations on emotions, you would first have to develop some means of measuring emotions. Thus, the first goal of psychology is to develop measurement techniques that make it possible to describe clearly and precisely: understanding and prediction: understanding is a higher level goal in science.
