PSYO 1011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Scientific Method, Confirmation Bias, Pseudoscience

• School: Dalhousie University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYO 1011
• Professor: Leanne Stevens,Shelley Adamo,Kevin Duffy,Jennifer Stamp

Document Summary

A process more than a product (have to get the info the right way) Intellectual honesty be willing to admit that you are wrong. ~ set of related assumptions from which testable predictions can be made. A scientific theory can be tested using the scientific method. Hypothesis: specific, informed, and testable prediction of the outcome of a particular set of conditions in a research design. Operational definition translates an abstract form into something observable and measurable. Theories disproved not proved (keep trying to prove yourself wrong) James randi offers 1,000,000 to anyone who can demonstrate they have supernatural powers. One of the most common: the confirmation bias (also called experimenter expectancy effect) Based his theories on case studies, not tests of his hypothesis. Freud argues that at the age of 4, every child becomes attracted to their parent of the opposite gender (oedipus complex) A(cid:396)gues that a(cid:374)(cid:455)o(cid:374)e (cid:449)ho de(cid:374)ies it is (cid:858)(cid:396)ep(cid:396)essi(cid:374)g(cid:859) it.