Psychology 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Doomsday Cult, Kinsey Reports, Scientific Method

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Dr.Mike

Document Summary

Behaviour theory (response to punishment) is a better theory than freudian theory (unconscious conflict) because it is more testable: identify variables. Independent variables are manipulated: dependent variables are measured, change in the independent variable causes a change in the dependent variable, controls: not affected by the independent variables, must have control or experiment is confounded. Effect a on b: experiment errors: preferences, order effect, experimenter expectation, do the results support the hypothesis, observe data in statistics, communicating results, publish report in journal, present description verbally at convention. In summary: psychologists want to explain causes of behaviour, to determine casual relations, they must use the scientific method, all extra variables should be controlled, to avoid a confounded experiment and error causal explanation. Research methods: observational method, collect info about behaviour without manipulating it, non-participant or participant, ex. Festinger"s (cid:498)when prophesy fails(cid:499: observing the beliefs and practices of a doomsday cult, survey method, collect info about behaviour through surveys and questionnaires, ex.