PSYCH101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Falsifiability, Blind Experiment, Institutional Review Board

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH101
• Professor: Stephanie Denison

Document Summary

Explore particular phenomenon with no predefined theories: case studies, observations; general observation; analyse observation. Test theories about cause-effect relationships among variables. An idea designed to explain existing facts and make predictions about yet to be. An opinion; you can test an opinion to be a theory. Theory tested; a theory must be falsifiable; your theory must be able to be proven false; needs to be designed to have evidence towards or against your theory; finding a way to get something to go either way. Generate hypothesis; a testable prediction about processes that can be observed and measured; must be hypotheses-research hypothesis and null hypo. C helps you recover from colds more quickly. The problem: confirmatory bias; we only think of times it worked. Define problem; observe phenomenon-in research literature and/or nature; form hypotheses; test hypotheses; analyze results; draw conclusions; share results.