PSYC 2360 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Hindsight Bias, Scientific Method, Falsifiability

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2360
• Professor: Harjinder Gill

Document Summary

Lay people think that a lot of findings in psychology are common sense based. Hindsight bias: the tendency to think we could have predicted something that we pro(cid:271)a(cid:271)ly ne(cid:448)er (cid:272)ould"(cid:448)e predi(cid:272)ted. The scientific method is a set of assumptions, rules and procedures used to conduct research: empirical, objective, replicable, science must be based on what has come before it. We study human behaviour for 2 reasons: want to understand it (basic research, want to contribute to creating solutions to problems that face human beings (applied research) Research design: specific method a researcher uses to collect, analyze and interpret data. Designed to answer a question about the current state of affairs: correlational. Involves the measurement of two or more relevant variables and an assessment of the relationship between/ among those variables (predictor and dependent: experimental. Involves the active creation or manipulation of a given situation or experience for two or more groups.