PSYB10H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Random Assignment, Institutional Review Board, Participant Observation
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Hindsight bias: people"s te(cid:374)de(cid:374)(cid:272)y to (cid:271)e o(cid:448)er(cid:272)o(cid:374)fide(cid:374)t a(cid:271)out (cid:449)hether they (cid:272)ould ha(cid:448)e predicted a given outcome. Hypothesis: a prediction about what will happen under particular circumstances. Theory: a body of relates propositions intended to describe some aspect of the world. Research can be a matter of merely looking at a phenomenon in some reasonably systematic (cid:449)ay, (cid:449)ith a (cid:448)ie(cid:449) to u(cid:374)dersta(cid:374)di(cid:374)g (cid:449)hat"s goi(cid:374)g o(cid:374) a(cid:374)d (cid:272)o(cid:373)i(cid:374)g up (cid:449)ith hypotheses a(cid:271)out (cid:449)hy things are happening as they are. Participant observation: it involves observing some phenomenon at close range. Social psychologists often observe social situations in a semiformal way, taking notes and interviewing participants. However, they typically design additional formal studies to verify the impressions that they get form participant observation. Observations are often misleading, so any tentative conclusions gleaned from observation should ideally be tested using other methods. This type of research can be conducted without ever leaving a library.