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Science is the collecting of observations or data from the real
world and evaluating whether the data support our ideas or not.
Logic can only tell us how the world should work, not how the world
actually works. Science is empirical in that it is based on
observations and experience. Science comes in at least three
distinct flavors: **physical science**, **biological science**, and
- physical science studies the world of things
- biological sciences studies plants and animals in the broadest sense.
- social science studies humans, both as individuals and as groups.
- Common sense: the intuitive ability to understand the world.
- Rationalism: is the view that using logic and reason is the way to understand how the world works.
- Empiricism: is the view that our observations and experience, not pure reason and logic, are another path to knowlege.
- Scientific thinking: involves the reasoning skills required to generate, test, and
revise theories.
- Scientific method: by which scientists conduct research consists
of five processess: Observe, Predict, Test, Interpret and
Communicate. OPTIC.
In the observation and prediction stages of a study researchers
develop expectations about an observed phenomenon. They express
their ideas as a theory.
- Theory: defined as a set of related assumptions from which
testable predictions can be made.
Theories are not facts, they explain facts. Theories organize and
explain what we have observed and guide what we will observe.
Theories must be tied to real evidence.
- Hypothesis: is a specific, informed, and testable prediction of
what kind of outcome should occure under a particular condition.
- Reliability: means the test or measure gives us a consistent
result over time or between different raters.
- Validity: means when a scientist claims to measure a particular
concept, such as sex drive, she really is measuring that concept
and not something else.
- Replication: is the repetition of a study to confirm the results.
- Pseudoscience: refers to practices that appear to be and claim to
be science but, in fact, do not use the scientific method to come
to their conclusions.
- Research designs: Plans of action for how to conduct a scientific
study.
- Variable: is anything that changes, or varies, within or between
individuals.
- Population: The entire group of a research is interested in-for
example, all hummans, adolescents, all boys, all girls, all college
students.
- Samples: subsets of the population studied in a research project.
- Descriptive designs: Study designs in which the researcher
defines a problem and variable of interest but makes no prediction
and does not control or manipulate anything.
Four of the most common types of desriptive methods in psychology
are: case studies, naturalistic observations, qualitative
research/interviews, and surveys.
- case study: a study deisgn in which a psychologist, often a
therapist, observes one person over a long period of time.
Psychobiography combines psychology with history to understand
human behavior through the study of individual lives in historical
context. (Elms, 1993; Runyan, 1982; Schultz, 2005). Case studies
and pscyhobiographie do not test hypotheses but can be a rich
source for them. Case study not always generalizable to other
people.
- naturalistic observation: a study in which the research
unobtrusively observes and records behavior in the real world.
- Qualitative Research: Research that involves data gathered from
open-ended and unstructured answers rather than quantitative or
numeric answers.
- Interviews: one person asking a question while the other person
answers the questions. Answers are usually open-ended. Questions
can be predetermined or spontaneous.
Survey Reseach: surveys are noramlly numerical rating scale for the
answers.
- quantitative research: research that collects information using
any kind of numeric and quantifiable scale and often has limited
reponse options.
- sampling: is the procedure researchers use to obtain participants
from a population.
- representative sample: a research sample that accurately reflects
the population of people one is studying.
- Correlational designs: Studies that measure two or more variables
and their relationship to one another; not designed to show
causation.
- Correlation coefficients: Statistics that range from -1.0 to +1.0
and assess the strength and direction of association between two
variables.
- Experiment: A research design that includes independent and
dependent variables and random assignment of participants to
control and experimental groups or conditions.
- Independent variable: A property that is manipulated by the
experimenter under controlled conditions to determine whether it
causes the predicted outcome of an experiment.
- Dependent variable: In an experiment the outcome or response to
the experimental manipulation.
- Random assignment: is a method used to assign participants to
different research conditions to guarantee that each person has the
same chance of being in one group as another.
- Experimental group: a groups consisting of those participants who
will receive the treatment (ID, independent variable), or whatever
is predicted to change behavior.
- control group: a group of participants who are treated exactly
the same manner as the experimental group but, they do not receive
the ID or treatment.
- placebo: A substance or treatment that appears identical to the
actual treatment but lacks the active substance or ID.
- confounding variable: the variable whos influence on the
dependent variable cannot be seperated from the independent
variable being examined.
- quasi-experimental design: A research method similar to an
experimental design except that it makes use of naturally occuring
groups rather than randomly assigning subjects to groups.
- Single-blind studies: Studies in which participants do not know
the experimental condition (group) to which they have been
assigned.
- double-blind studies: studies in which neither the participants
nor the researchers administering the treatment know who has been
assigned to the experimental or control group.
- experimenter expectancy effects: A result tat occurs when the
behavior of the participants is influenced by the experimenter's
knowledge of who is in the control group and who is in the
experimental group.
- demand characteristics: subtle, often unconscious, cues given by
experimenters to the participants as to how they should behave in
the role of participant.
- longitudinal designs: make observations of the same people over
time, ranging from months to decades.
- twin-adoption studies: research into hereditary influence on
twins, both indentical and fraternal, who were raised apart
(adopted) and who were raised together.
There are three forms of similarity in how twin-adoption research
teases apart nature and nurture effects: genetic (nature),
environmental (nurture), and trait.
- identical twins: twins that develop from a single fertilized egg
that splits into two independent cells.
- fraternal twins: twins that develope from two different eggs
fertilized by two different sperm.
- gene-by-enviroment niteraction research: a method of studying
heritability by comparing genetic markers; allows researchers to
assess how genetic differences interact with the enviroment to
produce certain behaviors in some people but no in others.
- meta-analysis: a research technique for combining all research
results on one question and drawing a conclusion.
- effect size: a measure of the strength of the relationship
between two variables or the extent of an experimental effect.
- big data: extremely large amount of data captured from online
behaviors (especially social media), which are then collected and
analyzed for patterns by sophisticated analytic programs.
- self-fulfilling prophecy: a statement that affect events to cause
the prediction to become true.
- measures: the tools and techniques used to assess thought or
behavior.
Measures in psychology science tend to tall into three categories:
self-report, behavioral, and phssiological.
- self-reports: are written or oral accounts of a person's
thoughts, feelings, or actions.
Self-reports are usually used in serveys, interviews, and
questionnaires.
- social desirability bias: the tendency toward favorable
self-presentation that could lead to inaccurate self-reports.
- behavioral measures: measures based on systematic observation of
people's actions either in their normal environment or in a
laboratory setting.
- physiological measures: measures of bodily responses such as
blood pressure or heart rate used to determine changes in the
psychological state.
- statistics: the collection, analysis, interpretation, and
presentation of numerical data.
There are two classes of statistics: descriptive and inferential.
- descriptive statistics: measures used to describe and summarize
research.
- mean: the arithmetic average of a series of numbers.
- median: the score that separates the lower half of scores from
the upper half.
- mode: a statistic that represents the most commonly occurring
score or value.
- standard deviation: a statistical measure of how much scores in a
sample vary around the mean.
- frequency: the number of times a particular score occurs in a set
of data.
- normal distribution: a bell curve; a plot of how frequent data
are that is perfectly symmetrical, with most scores clustering in
the middle and only a few scores at the extremes.
- Inferential statistics: Analyses of data that allow us to test
hypotheses and make an inference as to how likely a sample score is
to occur in a population.
- t-test: a statistic that compares two means to see whether they
could come from the same population.