PSYC 110 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Naturalistic Observation, Dependent And Independent Variables, Standard Deviation
14 Jun 2018
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CHAPTER 2
Fact: AKA observation. In psych, a fact is usually a particular behavior, or reliable patterns of
behavior, in humans or animals.
Facts lead psychologists to create conceptual models or theories which make hypotheses.
Skeptics seek to disprove claims. That is the logical foundation of scientific testing.
A theory becomes more believable as repeated, genuine attempts to disprove it fail.
To test hypotheses, scientists control the conditions in which they make observations so as to
rule out alternative explanations.
Science is carried out by people who come to their research with certain expectations.
In psychology, the subjects--the people and animals under study--may perceive the observer’s
expectations and behave accordingly.
Types of Research Strategies
1. The research design
, of which there are three basic types--experiments, correlational studies,
and descriptive studies.
-Researchers design a study to test a hypothesis, choosing the design that best fits the
conditions the researchers wanna control.
2. The setting
in which the study is conducted, of which there are two types: field vs. lab.
3. The data-collection method,
2 types: self-report and observation
Experiments
In psych, dependant variables are usually measures of behavior, and independent variables are
factors that are hypothesized to influence those measures.
Research Designs Review
In an experiment, the researcher can test hypotheses about causation by manipulating the
independent variables and looking for corresponding differences in the dependent variable(s)
while keeping all other variables constant.
In a correlational study, a researcher measures two or more variables to see if there are
systematic relationships among them. Such studies do not tell us about causation.
Descriptive studies are designed only to characterize and record what is observed, not to test
hypotheses about relationships among variables.
Lab settings allow researchers the greatest control over variables, but they may interfere with
the behavior being studied by virtue of being unfamiliar or artificial.
Field studies, done in “real-life” settings, have the opposite advantages and disadvantages,
offering less control but perhaps more natural behavior.
Self-report methods require the people being studied to rate or describe themselves, usually in
questionnaires or interviews.
Observational methods require the researcher to observe and record the subjects’ behavior
through naturalistic observation or some form of test.
Each data-collection method got its ups and downs.
Descriptive stats help to summarize sets of data.
The central tendency of a set of data can be repped w/ the mean or the median.
The standard deviation is a measure of variability, the extent to which scores in a set of data
differ from the mean.
Correlation coefficients represent the strength and direction of a relationship between two
Document Summary
In psych, a fact is usually a particular behavior, or reliable patterns of behavior, in humans or animals. Facts lead psychologists to create conceptual models or theories which make hypotheses. That is the logical foundation of scientific testing. A theory becomes more believable as repeated, genuine attempts to disprove it fail. To test hypotheses, scientists control the conditions in which they make observations so as to rule out alternative explanations. Science is carried out by people who come to their research with certain expectations. In psychology, the subjects--the people and animals under study--may perceive the observer"s expectations and behave accordingly. Types of research strategies: the research design , of which there are three basic types--experiments, correlational studies, and descriptive studies. In psych, dependant variables are usually measures of behavior, and independent variables are factors that are hypothesized to influence those measures.
