PS102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Central Tendency, Naturalistic Observation, Descriptive Statistics
Document Summary
Psychology as a science: chapter 2 and appendix b: precision. Theory: an organized system of assumptions and principles that purports to explain a specified set of phenomena and their interrelationships. Theories are tools that provide organizing frameworks for our observations. Hypothesis: a statement that attempts to predict or account for a set of phenomena. Operational definition: a precise definition of how you will measure the phenomenon being defined: this is important because there are difficult things to measure such as love or happiness. Physical features: skepticism: scientists have to be willing to doubt what everyone else assumes to be true, treat new and old conclusions with caution. Step 1: identify questions of interest and review the literature step 2: formulate a testable hypothesis. Step 3: select the research method and design the study. Step 5: analyze the data and draw conclusions.
