social psychology

theory definition

set of statements summarising a set of knowledge about a specific phenomenon and organising it in a form of relationships between variables. 

observation definiton

The researcher observes the behaviour of interest as it occurs naturally

surveys definition

The researcher measures two (or more) variables and explores the relationships between them

experiment definition

The experimenter systematically manipulates one or more independent variables and observes effects on a dependent variable

what observations can and can't tell you

CAN: What people do in real world situations

CANT:What causes peoples behaviour and also about peoples subjective experiences

what correlational research can and can't tell you

CAN: If there is or isn’t an association between two things

CANT: What people may be thinking when they engage in behaviour

what experiments can and can't tell you

CAN: Whether one variable may cause changes in another, while considering possible third variables.

CANT: Whether the observed patterns can be generalised to other contexts. Also if things always happen that way,

Acronym WEIRD

Westernised

Educated

Industrialised

Rich

Democratic