Unit 1

• Applied Research


  Research that addresses practical problems and proposes potential solutions
• Authority


  Any source of power or control

  • often we readily accept ideas of people with authority without question
• Basic Research


  Research that attempts to answer fundamental questions about the nature of behaviour
• Covariation of cause and effect


  If the cause is precent then the effect occurs, but when the cause is not precent then the effect does not occur.
• Empiricism


  Gaining knowledge through systematic observations of the world
• Empirical Question


  A question that can be answered through empiricism

  • Ensuring that there is no other explanation that could cause the outcome
• Falsifiable


  Something can be shown as being false
• Goals of Scientific Research

  Four main goals

  • Describe Behaviour
  • Predict Behaviour
  • Determine cause of behaviour
  • Understand or Explain Behaviour
• Intuition


  Relying on experience or judgment to make sense of the world, without questioning or critical thinking.
• Peer Review


  When peers of the researcher go over and critique research
• Program Evaluation


  Research meant to evaluate programs that are meant to make changes for a target population
• Pseudoscience


  Claims that are made with evidence that is meant to look scientific but is not based in science.
• Replicate


  To repeat a study to ensure the results can be duplicated
• Scientific Skepticism


  Not blindly believing something but seeking out relevant evidence to shape our beliefs
• Temporal Precedence


  The cause comes before the effect in time
• Non-Empirical methods

  • Authority
  • Logical conclusion
• Empirical Methods

  • Intuition
  • Science
• Scientific Method Steps

  1. Coming up with an idea
  2. Searching existing research on the topic
  3. Stating problem or hypothesis
  4. Making an ethically approved experiment
  5. Collecting data from experiment and analyzing
  6. Drawing conclusions from the data and writing a report to submit for peer review
• Reliability


  The consistency of a measurement
• Validity


  Measuring what is intended to be measured
• Theories


  Sets of ideas the describe and explain relationships between certain events.
• Hypothesis


  A specific testable prediction about the outcome of an event in a scientific experiment.

  • try to answer 'why' or 'how' things are the way they are
• Nomothetic Approach


  Establishing broad and generalized laws, in psychology this is having a large number of participants and describing the average participant
• Idiographic approach


  Focuses on individuals and not individuals in a group
• Quantitative

  • Findings reported in statistical summaries and analysis

  Qualitative

  • Rely on verbal reports, no statistics or math involved
• Variable


  Something that is precisely described
• The Experimental Design


  Uses a high degree of controlling the research situation by manipulating one factor at a time to determine the effect of that factor.
• Elimination of Alternative Explanations


  All other possible causes of an effect must evaluated and dismissed
• Describing behaviour


  states what will happen
• Predicting behaviour


  States what might happen
• Explaining behaviour 


  States the cause of behaviour