PSYCHOLOGY: The scientific study of why and how people think feel and behave the way they do.

 

 

 

Theology, Philosophy, History, and other humanities…

 

 

 

 

3 ASSUMPTIONS OF SCIENCE…

 

1.  ORDER

 

 

2.  DETERMINISM

 

 

3.  EMPIRICISM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE GOALS OF SCIENCE

 

1.  DESCRIPTION

 

 

 

2.  PREDICTION

 

 

 

3.  UNDERSTANDING

 

 

 

4.  CONTROL

 

 

 

 

BASIC VS. APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE ONGOING PROCESS OF SCIENCE

 

 

Step #1:  GET IDEAS

 

 

 

 

Step #2:  DEVELOP THEORY

 

 

 

 

 

Step #3:  DERIVE HYPOTHESES

 

 

 

 

Step #4:  DESIGN RESEARCH TO TEST HYPOTHESES

 

 

 

 

 

 

RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY

 

 

1.  DESCRIPTIVE METHODS

 

e.g., CASE STUDIES

 

 

 

2.  SURVEYS AND INTERVIEWS

 

limitations…

 

a.  Selection biases------must have Random Sampling

 

 

b.  Wording biases

 

 

c.  Self-report biases

 

Self-presentation

Nisbett & Wilson “Telling more than We Can Know”

 

 

3.  NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION

 

 

4.  CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH

 

 

 

 

 

 

Called   R     ranges from  -1  to  0  to  +1

 

 

 

 POSITIVE CORRELATION

 

                Functional brain cells            Strands of Hair

Moe                      50                                            5000                             

Larry                    25                                            2500         

Curely                  0                                              0                                                             

 

 

 

NEGATIVE CORRELATION

 

                Acting ability                          Salary per film

Arnold S.             0                                              25 million                    

Brad Pitt              5                                              15 million

Johnny Depp       10                                            5 million          

 

 

**Correlation does not mean causation

 

ice cream consumption & drownings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.  EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

 

 

 

depression-----> therapy-----> less depression

 

 

 

 

 

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: The variable you suspect has a causal influence on another variable (the variable you manipulate).

 

 

DEPENDENT VARIABLE:  The measuring stick you use to see if your IV had any effects.

 

 

Hypothesis:  Does watching violent TV increase aggression?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION

 

 

 

 

CONTROLLING OTHER VARIABLES

 

 

Holding [other] factors constant

 

 

 

Counterbalancing

 

 

 

Random assignment to conditions

 

VALIDITY OF EXPERIMENTS

 

 

1.  INTERNAL VALIDITY

 

 

 

 

2. EXTERNAL VALIDITY

 

 

 

 

3. ETHICS

 

deception, cover story, debriefing