Key Concepts: Observing Phenomenon, Variables, Theories, and Falsifiability

The first step in scientific inquiry is to observe a phenomenon in the world.
The curious, critically thinking psychologist sees something and wants to know why or how it is the way it is.
Inspiration for scientific inquiry can come from contemporary social problems, current events, personal experiences, and more.
The phenomena that scientists study are called variables; a variable is anything that can change. Denote with $V$ .

A theory is a broad idea or set of closely related ideas that attempts to explain observations.
Theories seek to explain why certain things are as they are or why they have happened.
Theories can be used to make predictions about future observations.
For instance, some psychologists theorize that the most important human need is the need to belong to a social group (Allen & others, 2022).
This theory would seek to explain human behaviours through the need to belong, and scientists might expect that when our need to belong is not met we should be especially distressed.
For instance, research has linked low feelings of belongingness to risk for suicide (Skidmore & others, 2023; Vélez-Grau & others, 2023).

A key characteristic of a scientific theory is that it must be falsifiable, meaning that even a scientist who believes that a theory is true must be able to generate ideas about research that would prove the theory wrong and test those ideas.
This is what separates scientific theories from beliefs and opinions.
A scientist must be able to anticipate being wrong and remain open to that possibility.

Open-mindedness and willingness to test ideas are essential for scientific progress.