PSYC 2000 Chapter : The Scientific Method
Document Summary
How do psychologist ask and answer question: description, naturalistic, laboratory, case study, surveys. Case study: study of one individual in great detail. Ex: famous case studies: phineas gage, genie, the feral child, she didn"t know how to speak to learn. Advantages : data from large numbers of people, study covert behaviors. Disadvantages: researchers have to ensure representative sample or the results are not meaningful, people are not always accurate (courtesy bias) Wording effect : when subtle changes in the order or wording of questions can have major effects, would you sign a petition to ban hydrogen monoxide. Descriptive methods : limitations: descriptive methods can only describe behaviors, but they provide no explanation as to why certain behaviors may occur. Control group: subjects in an experiment who are not subjected to the independent variable and who may receive a placebo treatment (controls for confounding variables)
