PSY 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Hypothalamus, Jargon, Informed Consent
19 Nov 2016
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Sci vs. pseudoscience, opinions and testimonials: questions in daily life. Precise, testable, predictions: if x, then y if 2x, then 3y, vs. vague (astrology) or untestable (dream interp) All else equal, simpler is better: parsimony, occam"s razor. Results should be replicable: repeatable by others using same procedures. E. g. genetics of mental illness: skeptical (but not cynical!) Operational definitions: def, of a var. that specifies how it is measured or manipulated. Reliability and validity: repeatability/consistency of measurement, accuracy; test measures what it says it does, consider self-report, ratings, biases. Correlation: measure of rel. b/w 2 vars; neither ctlled by investigator, correlation coefficient, r. Potential problems: correlation does not imply causation. We do experiments rather than using correlations. Dependent variable (dv: variable on which investigator examines iv effects, effect. The only way to tell that one thing causes another (cause-effect relationships) Random assignment is critical: there is still variability- see spss. Interactions: under what conditions, different for e. g. ,
