PSY 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Statistical Inference, Standard Deviation, Confounding
5 Dec 2014
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Psy102: introduction to psychology (2) scientific methods and research methods in psychology. * dependent and independent variables, some basic statistics. The scientific method (1) observe some phenomenon. (2) construct a hypothesis regarding its cause. (3) use the hypothesis to make predictions. (4) test the predictions with further observations and (repeatable) experiments. The test must be potentially able to falsify your hypothesis. (5) modify your hypothesis to account of new facts. (6) repeat steps 3-5 until no discrepancies remain. * a good theory (a parsimonious theory) builds on existing research and invokes as few new concepts as possible. * any theory that you can test runs the risk of being proven wrong. * however, without the capacity to test a theory, you can never know if it is right or wrong! Infants fuss and cry until their urges are met. As children age, the ego develops to find ways to satisfy the id"s desires without relying on others.
