PSY100H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Goal Setting, Scientific Method, Selection Bias

• School: UTSG
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY100H1
• Professor: Ashley Waggoner Denton

Document Summary

Psy100 participant pool: online questionnaire finish it by friday january 22nd, study participation, www. psynup. psych. utoronto. ca. Psychological theories only make predictions about observable behaviours does not describe psychology. Unscientific ways of forming beliefs: intuition or gut feeling, authority (doctors, teachers, etc), and logic. Scientific method: theory (general, based on observations) Causal relation between two or more variables: hypothesis (predictions based on theories, research (testing the hypothesis, support or refute the theory. A hypothesis is not proven they are confirmed or supported. Determinism: idea that orderly systematic causes exist, forming theories, for a theory to be scientific it must be: Falsifiable: must be possible in principle to make an observation that would show the proposition to be false, even if that observation has not been made (showing that the theory is not true) Example: goal setting theory (locke and latham 1990, clarity, challenge, commitment, feedback, and complexity of the task, variable: anything that can vary between people and individuals, culture, attitude, etc.