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Lecture Notes
Chapter 2

• Behaviour
  • Describe
  • Causation
• Scientific method
  • Set of rules

• Asking questions
• Methods of acquiring knowledge
  • Tenacity
  • Intuition
  • Authority
  • Rationalism
  • Empiricism
  • Science

1. A true, physical universe exists
2. The universe is primarily an orderly system
3. The principles of the orderly universe can be discovered
4. All knowledge is tentative

1. create and pose a question
   • formulate hypothetical cause-and-effect relations among variables
2. determine how to answer it
   • design experiment
3. make observations
   • perform experiment
4. rationally interpret the observations
   • evaluate hypothesis
5. spread the word
   • communicate results

• Precision vs. flexibility
• How much constraint?

• Naturalistic
  • Naturalistic observation
  • Case study
• Correlational
  • Correlation
  • Matching
• Experimental

• Naturalistic observation
• Case study
• Correlational
• Matching
• Experimental

• "Natural" environment
• Observer not involved
• Flow of behaviour

• One or few subjects
• Some intervention
• Beginning, for familiarity, effectiveness

• Relationship between 2+ variables
• Do not manipulate variables
• Correlation does not equal causation

Matching

• Two or more groups
• Differentiated on pre-existing variables
• Active control over sampling

• Much of the remaining notes deal with studies classed as "experimental"

• A variable is:
  • Any set of events that may have different values

• Behavioural
• Stimulus
• Subject
• Independent
• Dependent
• Constant

• Independent variable
  • Only manipulate this variable
    • See what happens to dependent variable
• Confounding of variables
  • Alteration of more than one variable during an experiment
    • Additional independent variable(s)
  • Permits no valid conclusions about cause and effect
  • Counterbalancing

• Maturation
• History
• Testing
• Instrumentation
• Selection
• Attrition
• Sequencing effects

• Does a measure actually measure what it is supposed to measure?
• Controls
• Only valid if reliable

• Replication
• Inner-rater (inner-observer) reliability

• Random assignment
• Sampling and populations
  • Sampling bias
• Placebo
• Self-report
• Expectations
  • Single-blind
  • Double-blind

• Hypothesis
  • Tentative statement about cause-and-effect relation between two or more events
  • Very specific
  • Falsifiable
• Theories
  • A set of statements designed to explain a set of phenomena; organizes a syestem of related hypotheses
  • More general
  • Predictive

• Initial idea
• Statement of the problem
  • Relationship between variables
  • Form of a question
  • Imply empirical test
• Operational definitions

• Defining variables
  • Precision required
• Setting, independent and dependent variables
• Replication

• Minimize harm
• Maximize benefits of research
• Fully informed
• Deception
• Privacy
• Confidentiality
• Vulnerable populations
• Debriefing

• Canadian Council on Animal Care
• Humane treatment
• Worthwhile research

• Interpreting results
• Descriptive statistics
  • central tendencies: mean, median, mode
  • variability: range, variance, standard deviation
• Inferential
  • statistically significant differences