PSY 150A1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Naturalistic Observation, Dependent And Independent Variables, Operational Definition
13 Nov 2016
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Sign up for examanity and the experiment page. Identify a problem: form a hypothesis about the relationship between variables, test hypothesis by collecting data using operational definitions of variables. Operational definition definition of a variable that specifies how it is measured/manipulated in a particular experiment: formulate a theory. Theory: set of principles that explain a set of observations: test the theory by generating new hypotheses. 3 major types of research: descriptive research, correlational research, experimental research. Descriptive research: describes characteristics of a phenomenon/ group of people, case study. Used to examine exceptional, rare cases ex. Pros detailed understanding for individuals, suggest ideas for future research. Cons any given person may be atypical, not representative: survey. Draw conclusions about populations based on a sample. Population: group of interest, sample: subset of the population that participates in the research, random sample: sample that is representative of pop because every member had an equal chance of inclusion.
