Intro to Psychology 2

The Scientific Method

Understanding the world through empirical evidence rather than intuition

(1) Scientists believe that:

The world is intelligible

(2) Scientists believe that:

This process is hard. Our minds are prone to illusions and fallacies

Patterns are examined by studying how ________ are related.

Variables

Variables

Are elements in studies that are manipulated, compared, and/or controlled

(i.e, gender, amount of TV watching, level of depression)

Independent Variable (IV)

Variable systematically altered or manipulated (the predictor variable)

Dependent Variable (DV)

Variable that is affected by the manipulation of the IV (the outcome variable)

How do psychologists develop research questions?

Everyday, all of us ask psychology questions

What are the goals of the scientific method?

Description, Prediction, Explanation, Application

Description (Goal 1)

Attempts to reveal new information about some variable of interest (i.e, better describe it)

(Example: What is hunger// What is love?

Prediction (Goal 2)

What is associated with the variable? Are two things related? One variable that can predict another means that they are correlated

True or false: Correlation doesn’t tell you why the two variables are related

True