PSYC 2130 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Case Method, Psychometrics, Statistical Hypothesis Testing
18 Feb 2016
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Chapter 3: personality psychology as science: research methods. If data are the ingredients of scientific knowledge, then research methods provide the recipe. Sometimes said that the main thing psychologists know is not content but method. Psychologists do not seem to provide firm answers to questions about the mind and behaviour very often. Sometimes psychologists seem more interested in the research process itself than in the answer their research is supposed to be seeking. Psychologists are sensitive and sometimes even self-conscious about research methodology, the way they use statistics, and even about the basic procedures they use to draw theoretical inferences from empirical data. Sometimes, the emphasis on methods and process is seen as a sign of weakness, even by psychologists themselves. Some people think that psychology is not really scientific because it has so few hard facts, and even the knowledge it has gathered seems always open to question.
