PSY 105 Lecture Notes - Stanley Milgram, Karl Popper, Sampling Bias

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 105
• Professor: Kristin Vickers

Document Summary

Core beliefs of science: the universe operates according to natural laws, such laws are discoverable and testable. The scientific method uses logical reasoning derived from philosophy. Point out that if left to our own, we aren"t objective. To get out of the opinion and bias realm you must conduct a study. A sound theory must be able to be proven false must be falsifiable (figure 2. 1 in text) Two kinds of variables in a study: independent variable (iv) What researchers change to see what happens: dependent variable (dv) The outcome variable that the researcher measures to see if changes in the iv affect it. Operational definitions: how we (the researcher) decide to measure our variables. There are usually many ways to measure a variable. Focus on 1 aspect of a particular construct. In order to define, you have to fugre out how to measure it. Population: the entire group of interest to researchers (can"t physically study this)