PSYC 2600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Ice Cream, Random Assignment, Naturalistic Observation
3 Feb 2016
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Two key requirements: whether one variable causes another, manipulation of one or more variables, ensuring that participants in each experimental condition are equivalent to each other at start of study. We cannot pick and choose which participant goes into each group because if we violate the condition of random assignment, we cannot generalize our data: e. g. , introversion-extraversion and positive affect. People who are extraverted due tend to experience positive emotions at much higher rates. Correlational method: statistical procedure for determining whether there is a relationship between two variables: we cannot draw causality. Designed to identify what goes with what in nature. Major advantage: identify relationship among variables as they occur. Correlation coefficient varies from -1 (perfect negative relationships) Correlation does not indicate causation: two problems. naturally through 0 (no relationship) to +1 (perfect positive relationship) If two things are correlated, we don"t know which one came first.
