What is Psychology Flashcards
What is psychology?
the science of behaviour and experience
What is step one of the process of psychology?
identify a research question or issue
What is step two of the process of psychology?
decide on a topic to study (your aim)
sometimes in some kinds of scientific research a hypothesis is made (formal statement)
What is step three of the process of psychology?
design a study to test the hypothesis
What is step four of the process of psychology?
carry out the study
What is step five of the process of psychology?
analyse the results and draw conclusions
What is step six of the process of psychology?
evaluate and feed back
Where does evidence come from in phsychology?
empirical data (data that is acquired through experimentation and observation)
What are 4 things research methods aim to be?
scientific
objective
controlled
repeatable
What is the main research method psychologists use and why?
experiments
they can draw conclusions about cause and effect
Whats the main issue with experiments?
can be quite trivial
just looking at a few variables doesnt always represent real life
Whats another alternative to experiments? (begining with an o)
observations
observing what people are doing in their everyday life
psychologists watch people behind two way mirrors and behind a bush
What is the problem with the observation method?
there is too much going on to allow us to draw useful conclusions
What are the 4 research methods in psychology (QICC)?
Questionnairs
Interviews
Case studies
Correlational analysis
What is the key in research methods?
using all kinds of different methods to study one aspect of behaviour and concidering how the fidnings from the different kinds of study inform us
