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• Key science skills


  • Develop aims and questions, formulate hypotheses and make predictions
  • Plan and conduct investigations
  • Comply with safety and ethical guidelines
  • Generate, collate and record data
  • Analyse and evaluate data and investigation methods
  • Construct evidence-based arguments and draw conclusions
  • Analyse, evaluate and communicate scientific ideas
• Psychology


  The scientific study of human mental states and behaviour
• Science


  A field and practice that obtains knowledge and generates theories through observation and experiment
• Astrology, phrenology, and palm reading are non-scientific approaches to understanding or making predictions about human behaviour and the mind
• Psychology is the scientific study of human behaviour and mental states
• Scientific ideas


  Aim to be objective, utilise and produce empirical evidence, are formed using the methods of science, use predictions, models, and theories that are provisional and verifiable to explain reality
• Non-scientific ideas


  May be non-objective, unempirical, imprecise or vague, dogmatic (not open to questioning), unverifiable. May be formed on the basis of anecdote, opinion, intuition, or hearsay
• Astrology, numerology, and phrenology are examples of pseudoscientific approaches to explaining human mental processes and behaviours
• Scientific method

  A procedure used to obtain knowledge that involves hypothesis formulation, testing, and retesting through processes of experimentation, observation, measurement, and recording
• The scientific method is often thought of as a cyclical process due to it being ongoing and evolving in response to emerging research
• Model


  A representation of a concept, process, or behaviour, often made to simplify or make something easier to understand
• Theory


  A proposition or set of principles that is used to explain something or make predictions about relationships between concepts
• Aim


  A statement outlining the purpose of an investigation
• Hypothesis


  A testable prediction about the outcome of an investigation
• Variable


  A condition or component of an experiment that can be measured or manipulated
• Population (also known as research population)


  The group of people who are the focus of the research and from which the sample is drawn
• The acronym 'IPAD' can help remember the components which must be included in an experimental hypothesis: Independent variable and dependent variables, Population, and Direction
• Population (research population)


  The group of people who are the focus of the research and from which the sample is drawn
• The acronym 'IPAD' can help you remember all the components which must be included in an experimental hypothesis:
• Controlled experiment


  A type of investigation in which the causal relationship between two variables is tested in a controlled environment; more specifically, the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable is tested while aiming to control all other variables
• Independent variable (IV)


  The variable for which quantities are manipulated (controlled, selected, or changed) by the researcher, and the variable that is assumed to have a direct effect on the dependent variable
• Dependent variable (DV)


  The variable the researcher measures in an experiment for changes it may experience due to the effect of the independent variable
• Controlled variables


  Variables other than the IV that a researcher holds constant (controls) in an investigation, to ensure that changes in the DV are solely due to changes in the IV
• When hypotheses are used for controlled experiments, they predict the effect of the independent variable/s on the dependent variable
• Psychological research begins with a clear aim and at least one hypothesis
• A claim which cannot be tested
• Independent variable


  The variable that is manipulated by the experimenter
• Dependent variable


  The variable that is measured by the experimenter
• Hypothesis


  A prediction about the relationship between variables that can be tested
• Scientific ideas are not testable and verifiable, provisional, empirically backed, or unchanging
• Environment while reading

  The environment in which participants are allowed to read the text
• Ability to recall information


  The dependent variable in Charbel's investigation
• Controlled variable


  A variable that is held constant by the experimenter to avoid its effect on the dependent variable
• Correlation

  A relationship between variables wherein a change in one variable is associated with a change in another, but does not necessarily imply causation
• Causation

  A relationship between variables wherein a change in one variable directly causes a change in another
• Correlation and causation can occur simultaneously


  However, correlation does not always equal causation
• Example of correlation and causation


  • Hot weather directly causes sunburn and an increase in ice cream sales (causation)
  • Ice cream sales and sunburn are only correlated (increase together) and don't directly cause each other
• In controlled experiments, researchers aim to establish a causal relationship
• The experiment has to meet requirements, such as controlling extraneous variables, for causation to be determined
• In controlled experiments, the independent variable is the only variable responsible for changes in the dependent variable