Psychology 1000 Lecture 2: Lecture 2

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: L. Fazakas-Dehoog

Document Summary

Over time more is learned about processes under study. Formal statements that explain how and why certain events are related. Do further research and build a theory (adjust theory on basis of new findings) Sample: a part of a population or group that a researcher wants to study and make inferences about. Random: each person has equal chances of being in the sample. *important for drawing conclusions - can only publish if sample is truly representative* *all descriptive designs have a potential participant response bias* Careful observation and recording of behaviour in real-life settings. Cant establish cause and effect because not controlling variables just observing. Observer interference (presence of adults will interfere with children"s behaviour) Study someone who suffers brain damage --> already happened so can study it. Generalizability of the findings is questionable (sample of one is null) Can measure two variables and then compute a correlation to see if here is a meaningful relationship.