PSYC 2120 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Hindsight Bias, Internal Validity, Random Assignment
6 Feb 2018
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When we study human behaviour, the results may appear to have been predictable. Hindsight bias where people exaggerate how much they could have predicted an outcome after knowing that it occurred: this trick is to predict what will happen in an experiment before you know how it turns out. Theory: organized set of principles that can be used to explain observed phenomena. Hypothesis: a testable statement or idea about the relationship between two or more variables. After reading someone else"s work, a researcher may believe that they have a better way of explaining people"s behaviour. Social psychologists do a continual refinement: develop a theory, test specific hypotheses, and then based on results revise the theory and formulate a new hypothesis. The more people who witness an emergency, the less likely it is that any of them will intervene cause they will assume that someone else will do it. This is known as diffusion of responsibility.
