PSY100H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Normal Distribution, Participant Observation, Naturalistic Observation
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Scientific research is based on an integration of rationalism and empiricism. Rationalism is the view that knowledge is produced by reasoning using logical argumentation and debate. Empiricism is the view that knowledge is produced by using the senses to observe and experience the world. The weakness of rationalism is that our best arguments and theories can turn out to be false. The weakness of empiricism is that we have often conflicting experimental results and we can never collect all data. A variable is the object, concept or event being measured. A hypotheses is a testable prediction about the process. Notice that we are making predictions but by saying that they are testable we mean that they can be put into experiment. Your experiment needs to be able to be false. A the number of variables is increased, the experiment becomes more complex.
