Psychology Basics and Empiricism

● Theory - hypothetical result of psychological phenomena - very broad ○ “Self-esteem is influenced by culture”

● Hypothesis - falsifiable prediction based on the theory

○ “Negative representation of women leads to decrease self-esteem in women”

● Measure - collect data - assess behavior of interest

○ Properties: validity, power, reliability

● Validity - does it really measure what it claims to be measuring

○ Extent measure and underlying concept it is supposed to assess

● Power - capacity measurement has to detect variation in behavior of interest

● Reliability - extent does it produce the same measurement whenever it is used

○ How much it produces an accurate measure everytime

○ Is height a reliable measure of extraversion?

■ Yes! Reliable but not valid

Description

● Pattern of variation among participants on behavior

○ How is X(individual) related to Y(dependent)

Correlation

● How related are two sets of data

○ Positive - both variables increases or both variables decrease together

○ Negative - as one variable rises the other decreases - inversely related

● Be able to express in number, words, and graphs

Ethics - balance risk and benefit

● Some psychoanalysts had unethical relationships with patients

● Eg: Tuskegee Syphilis - study the affects of Syphilis on African Americans

○ Didn’t inform them they tested positive for syphilis

○ Didn’t give them the vaccine when it came out

○ They were not able to join the army - get benefits from it

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