PSYC 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Naturalistic Observation, Demand Characteristics, Dependent And Independent Variables

• School: UBC
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 102
• Professor: Darko Odic

Document Summary

Science gathers knowledge through observation, rather than intuition or authority. There are some problems with pure observations: not always reliable, possible or true, disagreements and bias between people. Data can be collected in many different ways, and each method has its own pros and cons. Experimental methods: a set of rules and procedures we should follow in order to gather data: four broad types of methods: Naturalistic observation: observing participants in the wild or natural habitat and noting down their behaviors in response to various everyday situations. Pros: removes demand characteristics, high external validity: observed behaviors are likely real and can be generalized to other people and situations. Case studies: observing and measuring the behavior of a single, usually somehow unique participant over an extended period of time. Pros: can help us detect and work with rare/unique cases, especially useful for behavior.