Introduction Flashcards
What is an empirical approach philosophically and scientifically ?
Philosophically: we gain knowledge through senses
Scientifically: evidence based
What is required for a sound psychological experiment?
- Clear definition (concepts/constructs)
- Operational definition (description of procedures used to measure variable) EG. Score on IQ test for intelligence, Heart rate for anxiety etc.
- Sample size (as many as possible)
- control (no extraneous or confounding variables)
Who is Wilhelm Wundt and what was he famous for?
-Introspection (A systematic analysis of your own thoughts and emotions after experiencing a stimulus)
What is psychology?
The systematic examination of mental processes and behaviour.
What is psychologies aim?
-To understand and explain thought, emotion and behaviour.
What is wrong with introspection?
Does not support psychology as a science as it is subjective not objective
What is John B Watson famous for
Founding behaviourism, which is only concerned with observable behaviour as a methodology for scientific valid data to be gathered according to him. (1950’s)
What type of psychology was founded after world war 2?
Cognitive psychology which uses physical behaviour to study internal mental processes in an objective and scientific way.
How does the scientific method work?
- initial observations are made of certain topic.
- theory is developed to explain initial observations and also makes predictions
- Predictions are formulated into hypothesis through research
- The data from research then verifies wether theory needs to be updated or not
Can you ever prove a theory?
No you can only find the best theory at a moment in time.
What is a theory?
-Fact based framework and principles to explain and predict a mental phenomena or behaviour
What should a theory do?
Must clearly define a concept or behaviour
Must provide information about relationship of these concepts
Explain the causes of behaviour
Must be able to predict future behaviours correctly
Must also be falsifiable
What is falsification and who proposed it?
-A good theory cannot be verified or proved by scientific testing, but it can be disproved by a single negative outcome from scientific testing.
Other than falsification what makes a good theory?
It should provide a testable hypothesis
Guide research and organise empirical findings
Be supported or refuted
What is a hypothesis?
Theory based prediction (what you expect to see in an experiment)
What makes a scientifically testable hypothesis?
- Be clearly defined.
- Be non circular
Deal with observable/ measurable phenomena
Why do we conduct research ?
What is the main goal of research?
Gather description (gathered from observation and questionnaires)
Predict (correlations and differences between people)
Establish a causal explanation
Create change
Understand and establish a causal explanation.
What do we need to do to infer causation?
There is a correlation between the two variables
Cause must come before the effect (time order effect)
Eliminate other possible causes and isolate and IV so the DV can only be caused by the IV
What is a between subjects design?
Independent groups design
Groups are made up of different people
They are looking a difference between participants or between groups
What is the advantage of between subjects design?
Free from :
Boredom/fatigue
Practice effects/experience
Carry over effects from previous conditions.
What is a natural group design?
Groups are not created by manipulating an IV.
based on a naturally occurring Participant variable that are already formed.
What is a within subjects design?
Repeatedly measure the same people on the same DV
AKA: repeated measures design
What is the main advantage of a within subjects design?
Controls for individual differences e.g natural memory ability.
What two methods are there for a within subjects design?
Same time : one session - all conditions
Test participants at different times.
Advantages of within subjects design?
Participant characteristics/variables not a problem
More powerful
Requires fewer participants
More convenient to run.
What is power?
The probability that a test will find a statistically significant difference when out actually exists and reject the null hypothesis
What is error variance?
Variation caused by individual differences
What happens when you reduce error variance and how do you do it?
Makes a significant result more likely to occur
use a within subjects design/ repeated measures
What does it mean when you have low error variance ?
More powerful
What different kinds or levels of data do we have ?
Nominal
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio
What is nominal data ?
Categories
What is ordinal data?
Data is ordered but each unit of measurement is not equal and is subjective
What is interval data?
The data is ordered and each unit is of equal size
What is ratio data
Same as interval data but has an absolute zero value
What does SPSS class interval and ratio data?
Scale data
