PSYC 215 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Participant Observation, Prosocial Behavior
6 Nov 2018
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Document Summary
Helps us understand and make sense of the world o. Can shed light on how we can optimally function in daily life o. But social psychology findings are often surprising o. Tendency to be overconfident about whether we could have predicted a given outcome. Leads people to underestimate the importance of social psychology research. Prediction about what will happen under particular circumstances. Example: observe people for shopping for themselves vs. others. Pros: high naturalistic, unobtrusive, and often larger scale and more systematic than observation. Cons: limited to what has been assessed and how it has been assessed, and somewhat imprecise. Cons: does not involve: random assignment to different situations self-selection participants select their level on both variables no researcher control. A variable that exerts a causal influence both variable 1 and 2. Is possible to statistically control for some potential third variables. But may not be able to control for all possible third variables.
