CMN 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Scientific Method, Internal Validity, Hawthorne Effect

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Communication
• Course: CMN 2101
• Professor: Mohammed El Hashash

Document Summary

Everyday thinking/inquiry differ from scientific thinking o o. Everyday thinking involves limited sampling, biased questions, selective attention, inaccurate generalizations and biased questions. Scientific thinking involves empirical observations, replicable procedures and systematic methods which enable us to make accurate conclusions about human behaviour. Scientific knowledge is an ongoing cycle which repeats with every new investigation. Scientific explanations are continually being challenged and altered. Scientific procedures require observation as well as a hypothesis. Systematic and deliberate methods o: objective, intersubjective, replicable procedures o o o. The most common purposes of scientific research on human social behaviour and attitudes are to explore, describe, explain and evaluate to get an in-depth understanding of an issue. Exploratory research: conducted to obtain a rough sense of what is happening on a particular topic if we do not have enough information o: descriptive research: provides basic info describing the topic and respondents o o.