PS101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Naturalistic Observation, Scientific Method, Random Assignment
Document Summary
Basic assumption: events governed by some lawful order. Goals: measurement and description, understanding and prediction, application and control. Operational definitions are used to clarify precisely what is meant by each variable. Participants/subjects are the organisms whose behavior is systematically observed in a study. Data collection techniques allow for empirical observation and measurement. Statistics are used to analyze data and decide whether hypotheses were supported. Findings are shared thru reports @ scientific meetings/scientific journals (periodicals that publish technical and scholarly material: advantages of the scientific method: clarity of communication and relative intolerance of error. Research methods: general strategies for conducting scientific studies. Steps in a scientific investigation: formulate a testable hypothesis, select research method and design, collect data, analyze data and draw conclusions, report the findings. Experiment: manipulation of one variable under controlled conditions so that resulting changes in another variable can be observed: detection of cause-and-effect relationships.
