PSYC 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Operational Definition, Personality Test, Dependent And Independent Variables

• School: UBC
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 101
• Professor: Janel Fergusson

Document Summary

Two approaches to understanding behaviour: hindsight (after-the-fact understanding) There can be two reasonable answers to why something happened. High school sweethearts stay together absence makes the heart grow fonder and breaking up out of sight, out of mind . Problem with hindsight is that past events can be explained in many creative, reasonable, and sometimes contradictory ways. There is no sure way to determine which of the alternatives is correct: understanding through prediction, control, and theory building. If we understand the causes of a given behaviour, then we should be able to predict the conditions under which that behaviour will occur in the future. If we can control those conditions, then we should be able to produce that behaviour. Theory development is the strongest test of scientific understanding because good theories generate an integrated network of predictions. It incorporates existing facts and observations within a single broad framework.